PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 15
James Hastings · 196,620 words · 202 reading sections
Section 121
TJ Have you not seen the way in which men construct arches ? A number of beams, wooden uprights, and cross-pieces are con- structed into the form of the arch which is to be. The structure looks very confused and flimsy, it is difficult to trace the design, and one spark of flame would consume the whole ; but upon its s…
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Church (R. W.), Village Sermons, iii. 101. Clementson (C), These Holy Mysteries, 107. Cunningham (W.), Sermons, 335. Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Cliildren, ii. 52. „ (T.), Philippians, 350. Jerdan (C), For the Lord's Table, 306, 379. Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year : Advent to Christmas, 469.…
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Let us see, then, what this proclamation consists of, and (in 1 F. D. Maurice, Lincoln's Inn Sermon*, iv. 99. i CORINTHIANS xi. 26 323 conclusion) how it may be made. It will be found on considera- tion to consist of three things : — I. A Eemembrance of the Past. II. A Recognition of the Present. III. A Regard to t…
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which He gives to their accusation is, " Can a woman forget her Bucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." Thus, in God's relationship with His people, all is made to hinge upon this one word " forget." " Blot me not out of the book of …
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^ St. Paul says, " the Lord's death." If he had not said so, if this expression, "the Lord," did not stand written in his Epistle, there are many who would have called it hard and cold. "The Saviour," they would have said; "the Divine Bridegroom, the ineffable Sacrifice that is offered to us in this feast. How can you …
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II. A PRECOGNITION OF THE PRESENT. "As often as." 1. It is manifest from the solemnity of its inauguration, and from the singular reverence with which it was regarded by the early Christians, that the Lord's Supper was not intended to be a thing of one generation, but to be a precious and hallowed memorial to the en…
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4. The past, however sweet and precious, is not enough for any soul to live upon. And so this memorial rite, just because 1 Canon Furse. PROCLAIMING THE LORD'S DEATH it is memorial, is a symbol for the present. That is taught us in that great chapter — the sixth of St. John's Gospel — which was spoken long before th…
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1 H. C. G. Moule, Thoughts for the Sundays of the Year, 173. 8 D. Smith, Christian Counsel, 39. 334 PROCLAIMING THE LORD'S DEATH perienced which is the fullest blessedness of earth, and anticipates the glory of heaven.1 III. A Eegard to the Future. "Till he come." 1. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper not only pro…
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H 336 PROCLAIMING THE LORD'S DEATH it occurred to either that these are twin sisters, who cannot live j apart? When hope dies, memory cries out to be killed; she M cannot abide alone. When memory goes with her flowers to 1 the grave, hope calls from the shadowy land, " Occupy till 1 / come." If she did not hear t…
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1 F. D. Maurice. I COR. — 22 338 PROCLAIMING THE LORD'S DEATH The definition of a Sacrament seems to lack completeness, unless it be regarded not only as a sign but as a seal — a solemn federal act which involves mutual pledges, of fidelity on the one hand and of blessing on the other. The expression of the inner dis…
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340 PROCLAIMING THE LORD'S DEATH Until He cometh, rest, Nor grudge the hours that roll; The feet that wait for God Are soonest at the goal; Are soonest at the goal That is not gained by speed; Then hold thee still, my heart, For I shall wait His lead.1 TI And the coming of the Bridegroom is so swift that He is a…
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We gather to the sacred board Perchance a scanty band; But with us in sublime accord What mighty armies stand! In creed and rite howe'er apart, One Saviour still we own, And pour the worship of the heart Before the Father's throne. A thousand spires o'er hill and vale Point to the same blue heaven; A thousand vo…
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2. Let us examine the important word by which he designates this more excellent way. There is hardly a more difficult one to render exactly, in the whole compass of the New Testament. Our language has not a term which will exactly convey to an English reader the full idea. It is the word, indeed, by which at the same t…
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i CORINTHIANS xm. i 351 feels, but a longing for their true happiness, for their attainment of that which is highest and best and most lasting, for those who are well-off as well as for those who are unfortunate, irrespective of condition. It is this realized identity of interests resting on the invisible union of so…
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1 W. E. Chadwick, The Pastoral Teaching of St. Paul, 247. 2 Quintin Hogg, 303. i CORINTHIANS xm. i 353 else besides, it needs our love. True, even love may sometimes err; but the cure for love's mistakes is just more love. We never blunder because we love ; we often blunder because we do not love enough. God help us…
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^ Occasionally I preached a sermon at home over the red sofa cushions ; — this performance being always called for by my mother's dearest friends, as the great accomplishment of my childhood. The sermon was, I believe, some eleven words long ; — very exemplary, it seems to me, in that respect — and I still think must h…
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TJ In 1876 Leslie Stephen and his sister-in-law, Lady Eitchie (Miss Thackeray), were staying at a neighbouring farmhouse, and Euskin saw a good deal of them. He liked Stephen, in spite of differences of opinion and temperament, and mentions talk with him as one of the agreeable things at Brantwood ; but Stephen on his …
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1 Macaulay, Life and Letters, 175. 36o THE ONE THING NEEDFUL Eemain side by side with Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us, and you too will become a permanent magnet, a permanent attractive force ; and like Him you will draw all men — be they white men or black men — unto you. That is the inevitable effect of l…
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K Henry Drummond has told us how in the heart of Africa, among the great lakes, he came across black men and women who remembered the only white man they ever saw before — David Livingstone ; " and as you cross his footsteps in that dark con- tinent, men's faces light up as they speak of the kind doctor who passed ther…
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He goes on to describe, in words worthy of what he praises, the beauty and blessedness of love. The ultimate distinction that he ascribes to it is that it lasts ; it does not fail, or undergo changes, it abides. Herein especially was it contrasted with prophesying and tongues and knowledge. Prophecies will be done away…
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For St. Paul's now is balanced by a then. " When that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away." Beyond this life of mediate and imperfect knowledge expressed in the language of riddles lies the promise of a life where know- 1 cor. — 24 370 THE PARTIAL AND THE PERFECT ledge will be immed…
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i. Now. "Now we see in (by means of) a mirror, darkly." St. Paul's meaning is explained in an illustration. "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child ; but when I became a man I put away childish things." With the humility of true wisdom and the sweetness of a large unders…
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It is in relation to the highest truths that it is most important constantly to recognize the limitation of our knowledge and the imperfection of our expression of it. It is these truths of which it is most necessary to remember that we apprehend them only as " through a mirror," express them only as " in a riddle " ; …
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Higher, higher, Purified by suffering's fire, Eise, my soul, until thy flight Pierce its way to heaven's light. Clearer, clearer, Until, ever drawing nearer, There shall burst upon thy sight, Through the darkness of earth's night, All the eye of faith may see, Set in God's eternity.1 II. Knowing. In the lan…
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U Speaking of God as being infinite in His nature and attributes, he said: "I cannot grasp this infinity: I am not able to com- prehend God ; I know but in part. If I knew Him I would cease to worship Him" 2 U If I knew that I had fathomed all the love or all the wisdom of God, how faith and reverence and trust would …
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"Oh that I knew where I might find him, That I might come even to his seat! Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; 1 J. Parker. i CORINTHIANS xm. 12 381 And backward, but I cannot perceive him; On the left hand, when he doth work, but I cannot behold him: He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see …
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1 J. Drinkwater, Poems of Men and Hours, 5. 384 THE PARTIAL AND THE PERFECT A myriad worlds encompass ours; A myriad souls our souls enclose; And each, its sins and woes and powers, The Lord He sees, the Lord He knows, And from the Infinite Knowledge flowers The Infinite Pity's fadeless rose. Lighten our darkness…
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(2) What will that first apprehension of God, under the new conditions of the other life, be ? There are trustworthy accounts of men who have been utterly overcome at the first sight of a fellow-creature with whose name and work they had for long years associated great wisdom, or goodness, or ability; the first sight o…
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^ " It is not easy, at the best, for two persons talking together to make the most of each other's thoughts, there are so many of them." This was a remark made by the Autocrat of the Breakfast- Table to the assembled guests. And the company looked as if they wanted an explanation. So the Autocrat went on. " When John…
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1 C. F. Aked. These Three. v Literature. Abbott (E. A.), Oxford Sermons, 86. Alexander (S. A.), The Christianity of St. Paul, 50. Bevan (LI. D.), in Welshmen in English Pulpits, 266. Bigg (C), The Spirit of Christ in Common Life, 260. Bryant (S.), The Teaching of Christ, 98. Campbell (L.), The Christian Ideal,…
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i CORINTHIANS xm. 13 395 Propylsea at Athens before the Acropolis, and giving entrance to the temple not only of love, but also of wisdom. St. Paul went so far as to say that any moral activity into which this quality did not enter was vitiated and unworthy. In one of his letters he describes faith as the light by whi…
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1 Letter from Ruskin to his father in E. T. Cook's Life of Ruskin, i. 271. i CORINTHIANS xm. 13 397 If Faith is that strong buoyant confidence in God and in His love which gives energy and spirit to do right without doubt or despondency. Where God sees that, He sees the spring and fountain out of which all good sprin…
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And find new birth in death. He will not leave my soul forlorn ; I still must find Him true, Whose mercies have been new each morn And every evening new. Upon His providence I lean, As lean in faith I must: The lesson of my life hath been A heart of grateful trust. And so my onward way I fare With happy heart a…
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1 Una, In Life's Garden, 93. I COR. — 26 4o2 THESE THREE security and self-deceit ; it tempts us to dreams which cannot be realized, which divert us from the necessary and wholesome realities which do concern us : it is the mother of half the mis- takes, half the fruitless wanderings, half the unhappiness of the worl…
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3. Even the common sense of mankind tells us that life would be but a poor shrunken thing without hope ; and even the poet who reviles its " chymick gold," marvels at the fascina- tion which it still imparts to the future in spite of our monotonous and oft-repeated experience of the flat unprofitable past — Strange co…
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What gives its moral value to hope, what makes it a virtue and a duty, is that in its higher forms it is a real act and striving of the will and the moral nature; and if any one thinks that this is an easy process he has yet much to learn of the secrets of his own heart. It is an act, often a difficult act, of choice a…
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Tf The characteristic of waning life is said to be disenchantment. Old men in general are inclined to check the zeal and damp the ardour of their younger followers. A shrewd observer of life has said that youth is an illusion, manhood a struggle, old age a regret. " How many young men," says a great idealist, " have I …
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1 A. Rowland. i CORINTHIANS xm. 13 411 What shall save us now, in the second critical period of life, but the grace of Christian hope, which is not temperament, is not human quality at all, but a blessed boon from God? By that gladdening spirit alone shall despair be quelled, demons exorcized, the old energy of youth…
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If It is to be regretted that Edna Lyall's religious stories are being neglected. They are full, not only of artistic power, but likewise of rich Christian instruction. In one she describes one of her characters in this significant fashion : " Carlo had the rare and enviable gift of seeing people as they might have bee…
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(2) Love is the highest relation which one personal being can assume towards another. — It seems necessary to insist upon this characteristic in it, because its true nature is often obscured by its association with mere abstractions. It is not with humanity but with human beings that love is concerned; and such mere in…
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Gather us in, Thou Love that fillest all, Gather our rival faiths within Thy fold, Eend each man's temple veil and bid it fall, That we may know that Thou hast been of old; Gather us in. Gather us in : we worship only Thee ; In varied names we stretch a common hand In diverse forms a common soul we see; In many ships…
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K I read the other day of a girl, a convert from heathenism in the Sandwich Islands, where Father Damien lived. She had a class of little children, and she wished to know which of them continued heathen and which had accepted Christianity. In her simplicity, uncontaminated by conventionalities and traditions which misl…
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prayers, partaking? Are your pure souls — your tender hearts — with love and longing breaking For God, and your neighbour and your enemy?" Our souls are filled with heavenly peace — our hearts with love untiring, And Jesus with His radiant love our feeble love is firing, Till nought we crave but love for all, in thi…
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424 THESE THREE So tender was His love to us, (We had not learned to love before), That we grew like to Him, and thus Men sought His grace in us once more.1 f When the Jubilee Singers first visited our shores in 1873, an old believer used to repeat constantly the refrain of one of their songs, " Free grace and dyin…
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U By faith Jacob, when a-dying, leaves his children a legacy of hope in God. He looks upward in faith and forward in expectancy. His religion makes him sanguine and prophetic. "Behold," he said, "I die: but God shall be with you" (Gen. xlviii. 21). The words are suggestive of infinite possibilities. The One remains whi…
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T[ Do you not think that the ordinary standpoint of so-called Christian teaching is undergoing a destruction, and that the 1 George John Romanes, Life and Letters, 267. 8 J. A. Clapperton, Culture of the Christian Heart, 68. i CORINTHIANS xm. 13 429 devil's travesty is waning? Terrorism is no real factor in Christi…
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TJ That the whole substance of religion was faith, hope, and love ; by the practice of which we became united to the will of God; that all beside is indifferent, and to be used only as a means, that we may arrive at our end, and be swallowed up therein, by faith and love. That all things are possible to him who believ…
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3. The chief point, then, to be noticed in this statement, is the permanence it ascribes to those graces of which it speaks. It represents " faith, hope, and love, these three," as all alike abiding. Formerly the Apostle had said this of love in particular, declaring in the 8th verse that " love never faileth." But now…
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436 THESE THREE does it follow that, after this life is ended, the Christian will have absolutely nothing whatever to hope for? Will it be nothing for the departed spirits of the faithful to anticipate the resurrection of their bodies, and to look forward to the triumphant issues of the coming judgment ? And even when…
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1 Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies ( Works, xviii. 186). 438 THESE THREE There we shall see face to face. So it is clear that faith cannot be altogether the same as here. But in every essential point, it will be the same. For what is the ground of faith ? What leads me to act on God's word, though I have never seen God, hav…
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3. What is hope ? The expectation of things to come — good things ; brighter, better, fuller life. And the surer the expecta- tion, the truer the hope. In the first dawn of the world's history, was not this hope an inspiration? Indeed it is the very per- version of hope that we see exemplified so strikingly in the desi…
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In Heaven ambition cannot dwell, Nor avarice in the vaults of Hell. Of earth, these passions of the earth, They perish where they have their birth, But love is indestructible: Its holy flame for ever burneth. From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth, Full oft on earth, a troubled guest, At times deceived, at ti…
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i CORINTHIANS xm. 13 445 abideth faith, hope, conscience, these three; and the greatest of these is conscience." I suppose there are not fewer than twenty- five people here this morning who would have seconded the suggestion. There are others who would have substituted for this word love the word zeal : " And now abid…
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]f True religion is a radical thing, that is, it goes to the root of matters. Paul tells us that great and needful for a complete life as faith and hope may be, it is Love — supreme, absolute Love, which is the one essential. Love is the only religion ; there is no true religion which is loveless. You may have everythi…
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Love found upon the battle's edge A coward fleeing from the strife; And sent him forth his heart in pledge, Valiant thro' life. 1 G. C. Lorimer, I COR. — 29 450 THESE THREE Love touched dumb lips that could not pray, And lo, they uttered prayer and song; Love hath so subtle sweet a way, Love is so strong. It is be…
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Shore (T. T.), Saint George for England, 104. Simpson (W.), in The World's Great Sermons, v. 121. Smyth (N.), The Reality of Faith, 244. Steel (T. H.), Sermons in Harrow Chapel, 171. Thome (H.), Foreshadowings of the Gospel, 205. Varley (H.), Some Main Questions of the Christian Faith, 78. Wheeler (W. C), Sermons…
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The earth was dead, so they tell us, ages ago. But now how this earth lives ! There is hardly a cliff too barren for nature not to hang some blooming thing upon it ; and the old earth teems with life. Furthermore, even here, where death reigns, life has been growing higher, more complex, more capable of larger correspo…
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And in the New Testament the chief use made of the fact of death is as a metaphor. Jesus makes a metaphor of what we call death. To Him sin is death ; the maid whom the people thought dead, He said, was asleep. The crisis of a soul's history is not, in the Bible, the death of the body. The fact of physical death and re…
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6. This, then, is clearly and unmistakably the Biblical teaching of the resurrection. It is in accordance with law. It is in the Divine order of the creation. Why should it seem otherwise to us ? Why should we regard it as a thing incredible that God should raise the dead ? Partly because in our pagan philosophies we h…
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If For the Apostles, the resurrection of Jesus meant that He who had claimed to be the destined Son of Man had been ap- proved, justified, and glorified by the Father, according to the rule by which resurrection is the established and almost natural consequence and proof of justice. What they had doubted was His claim …
953 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1910); OCR text from Internet Archive. OCR may contain scanning/transcription errors. Verify quotations against page images when precision matters.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.