PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 16
James Hastings · 185,008 words · 189 reading sections
Section 1
.H35 V. 14 ^' THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE ^ ^ MAP 3 1 1926' THE GREAT T OF THE BIBLE EDITED BY THE REV. JAMES 'Hastings, d.d. EDITOR OF "THE EXPOSITORY TIMES" "THE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE* "THE DICTIONARY OF CHRIST AND THE GOSPELS" AND "THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS " II CORINTHIANS and GALATIANS…
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4 COMFORT r 2. He begins with his usual doxology, " Blessed be God." He will have a great deal to say in this Epistle about affliction, but he begins upon another note. He begins with the contemplation of the mercies of God, and from that standpoint he surveys the field of his own trouble. ^ Everything depends upon o…
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^ Can we not learn something from a child's second cry ? A child comes to grief in some way, suffers some blow, and the elder sister or brother manages to quiet the child by appeals to its courage and fortitude ; but soon after the crying is all over the mother enters the room, and the cry breaks out afresh. It is not …
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" Who comforteth us in all our affliction." Let us note the word in which the Apostle describes the condition of the way- faring pilgrims. They are passing through " afflictions " ; that is to say, they are in straits, in tight corners. Their way has become narrowed ; they are hemmed in by cares or sorrows or tempta- t…
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» H. W. Beecher. 2 COR. I. 3, 4 II less to assuage grief. We only know it is there, and either we must have it taken away or must be taught how to bear it ; in other words, we feel the pain, and we long after either happiness or comfort. And of the two it is not happiness but comfort that God has appointed for us. "I…
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Destiny without God is a riddle: history without God is a tragedy. But if God be to you what He was to St. Paul — " the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort " — does not life assume a new complexion ? If you believe — not accept theoretically but believe in your heart o…
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(2) God is also " the Father of mercies," He is the Father of pity, of compassion, the Father of that gracious spirit to which we have given the name " Samaritanism," That is the kind of mercy which streams from the hills. Mercy is the very spirit of Samaritanism. It stops by the wounded wayfarer, it dismounts without …
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^ Dr. Wilson was a physician of souls, because he had, in a very high degree, what physicians call the cor medicum, and the * Phillips Brooks. 2 COR. I. 3, 4 19 mens medica — what one of the most famous of them explains as " that gentle womanliness of heart which the sick in depression and pain often desire, look fo…
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^ My daughter Eppie had an album in which she wrote appropriate mottoes under the various portraits ; under Dr. John Brown's she wrote these lines from one of the elegies on Sir Philip Sidney : — A sweet attractive kind of grace; The full assurance given by looks; Perpetual comfort in a face; The lineaments of Gospel…
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A father tries to teach his little son self-restraint, but it is a long task. One day that father's pride and indignation are touched to the quick, and the boy looks on and sees the inward conflict, and that a strong hand is laid on the rising anger, and the evil conquered. He has learnt the lesson ; the father's sanct…
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Culross). Treasury (New York), xx. 655 (0. Hiickel), Twentieth Century Pastor, xxx. (1912), 132 (F. B. Meyer). ■8 The Yea and the Amen. For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea : where- fore also through him is the Amen, unto the.'glory of God through us. — 2 Cor. i. 20. 1. These words occur in…
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I. Christ's Yea. " In him is the yea." There are two ways in which we may think of Christ as Yea. First He is Himself certain, and next the promises are certain in Him. 1. Christ Himself is certain. — Nothing is more noteworthy, 32 THE YEA AND THE AMEN when our attention is drawn to it, than the confidence of the…
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O, Thou alone canst hope or help afford ; There is no way beside. I look to Thee, my glorious risen Lord, And I am satisfied.^ 2. The promises of God are certain in Christ. — This is the special assertion of St. Paul in the text. And these promises, we may say at once, have their certainty of fulfilment in Christ beca…
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At Derby Haven in the sweet Manx land A little girl had written on the sand This legend — "God is love." But, when I said — " What means this writing ? " thus she answered — "It's father that's at 'say,' And I come here to pray. And . . . God is love." My eyes grew dim — Blest child ! in Heaven above Your angel…
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^ All human religions are founded on the principle that man must do something, or feel something, or believe something, in order to make God love him and forgive him; whereas God's religion just contains a declaration that nothing of the kind is necessary on our part in order to make God forgive us, for that He hath di…
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That one Face, far from vanish, rather grows. Or decomposes but to recompose. Becomes my universe that feels and knows.^ f^.\ill the promises of God, says the Apostle. He thinks of theNmm-total of human blessedness, "all the promises of God." Man has forfeited them ; the conditions have not been kept ; and yet the g…
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(2) Such, perhaps, would hardly be the first thought suggested to one of us by the promises of God ; and, indeed, would not be the last or the crowning thought in the mind of the Apostle of the Gentiles. Far deeper and older than these are the promises which God has written with His own finger, not on tables of stone, …
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2 COR. I. 20 45 life and death, and to answer with a hesitating "Amen," that falters and almost sticks in our throat. Build rock upon rock. Be certain of the certain things. Grasp with a firm hand the firm stay. Immovably cling to the immovable foundation ; and though you be but like the limpet on the rock hold fast b…
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Manning (H. E.), Sermons on Ecclesiastical Subjects, 223. Moinet (C), The Great Alternatvoe, 279. Parker (J.), City Temple Pulpit, ii. 89. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, vii. 249. Spurgeon (C. H.), New Park Street Pulpit, i. (1855), No. 26. Whitworth (W. A.), The Sanctuary of God, 179. Christian World Pulpit, xixvi…
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I. The Conquerok. 1. God Himself is the great Conqueror, It was God who in the Person of Christ had entered into conflict with the enemies of man, and having spoiled principalities and powers, had made a show of them openly. Our triumphs only begin after God has triumphed over us, after He has brought us to follow in…
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2. And why does he rejoice ? Because the captives led by God share in the great triumph. They may be a spectacle to angels or to men. Sometimes in the stocks ; often accounted the 54 THE TRIUMPH OF THE VANQUISHED off-scouring of all things; yet, in the spiritual realm, they are made to triumph always. Conquered, they…
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^ T. H. Green had been a Fellow of Balliol for twenty years or more, and for about twelve years he was Tutor in Philosophy in the College. His lectures on the Ethics of Aristotle were said to be quite the best lectures given in his time. And his personal influence was even greater than his influence as a lecturer. " I …
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^ At the foot of the Capitoline Hill the ancient triumph divided. Some of the captives were led off to the dark precincts of the Tullianum, where they were put to death. Others were reserved to live. The same fragrance was associated with the perishing on the one hand and the saved on the other. Thus it is in all gospe…
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^ As the foul malaria of a swamp tells of the presence of death, and is itself creative of more death, so an un- Christlike man reveals his moral condition as one of death, and, in revealing it, involves others in his fate. This is the law of spiritual influence. No act or thought dies, but is a living force, germinant…
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I. The Nature of Liberty. 1. Liberty is not licence. There are two kinds of freedom: the false, where a man is free to do what he likes ; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought. The lawless man is a bond- slave whether it is primarily against his own inner life and health and growth that he sins, or agains…
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Free thou thy mind in bondage pent ; Depose the fetish, and proclaim The things that are more excellent.^ 2, Genuine liberty, therefore, is found only in surrender to a higher will. All created things, even those we call the most free, are subject to law and rule and order. The sun who rejoices to run his course, yet…
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^ When I am a pupil at school I begin by learning rules, but when I have mastered the science I forget the rules. I forget them in the very act of observing them — keep them most perfectly when I am unconscious of their presence. I no longer think of my scales and exercises, I no longer think of my stops and intervals …
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1. The Spirit of Christ gives liberty in the sphere of thought. The mind is led into the truth. " Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Such is the freedom known and realized when we become spiritually enlightened. It is like the morning dawn — the light breaks into our inner being, and we become…
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Ulysses, sailing by the Sirens' isle, Sealed first his comrades' ears, then bade them fast Bind him with many a fetter to the mast, Lest those sweet voices should their souls beguile, And to their ruin flatter them, the while Their homeward bark was sailing swiftly pastj And thus the peril they behind them cast, …
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^ There is a meadow in a lonely place between high rocks on the banks of Lake Lucerne. In that spot, five hundred years ago, one still, dark evening, three patriot soldiers, with stout blades and sturdy hearts, met to spend the night in long and earnest prayer to God. " Where the Spirit of the Lord was, there was liber…
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In order to understand this simplest mode of sanctification let us look at an incident in the Book of Exodus (xxxiv. 29-35). St. Paul had been reading how, when Moses came down from the mount, where he had been speaking with God, his face shone so as to dazzle and alarm those who were near him. They at once 2 COR. & G…
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^ S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Service, 17. 'J, H. Jowett, in The British Weekly, March 2, 1911. 84 TRANSFORMED BY BEHOLDING L The Beholding. "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass." In the Revised Version of this verse there are four changes, three of which are clear gains : " unveiled " instead of " ope…
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(1) Among the veils that need to be removed is that of ignorance. We do not mean the ignorance of the deeper things of God. Do you remember how the Apostle speaks of the need of the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, that we may know ? There is a veil of ignorance that has to be lifted. (2) There is also a v…
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^ The Rev. Eobert Paterson, who knew Mr. Morison as intimately as most of his friends, often observed a wonderful light in his face when he spoke of Jesus and His saving power. He says : " Speaking of light reminds me that the light, which never was on sea or land, in Morison's face at times, was to me the grandest rev…
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^ A missionary who had returned home after living many years in a heathen land said that what impressed him most when he came back to America was not the stately buildings, the mechanical improvements on every hand, or the handsome girls, but the beautiful old ladies. Heathen women grow ugly as they grow old. This he a…
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(2) The Apostle contemplated the glory of the living of Jesus, the glorious manner of His life, and when the Apostle Paul looked at the manner of the life of Jesus, what was he more especially gazing at ? With what was he concerned ? If we look through the eyes of St. Paul at Jesus at work in His ministry among men, wh…
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III. The Transformation. This is the effect of beholding the glory of the Lord: "We are transformed into the same image from glory to glory." When any man, learned or unlearned, high or low, in sincerity and simplicity, turns his mind and heart to the glory of Jesus, he is transformed, he receives the impress of the …
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We do not always know it when we have The privilege to be God's messengers. Nor who shall be His messengers bo us. Those who always see the King in His beauty of holiness cannot fail to gain some of His radiance, even as Moses came down with shining face from his long communion with God in the Mount.2 1. We are trans…
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It is as the leaven silently and gradually leavens the whole lump that the continual sight of a Saviour affects the entire * Chu and Lo, Two Chinese Pastors. » Edith H. Divall, A Believer's Best, 74. 2 COR. III. 1 8 99 character. Sanctification is a gradual work: it is going on all through life : it is not done, at…
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2 COR. III. i8 loi a picture of Himself, and turn the soul like wax or clay to the seal of His own light and love. He that made our souls in His own image and likeness can easily find a way into them. The Word that God speaks, having found a way into the soul, imprints itself there as with the point of a diamond." " G…
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io6 AN ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY " the things not seen " as " eternal," and, at that high standpoint of illuminated reason, looks resolutely away from the former to the latter. ^ It is no mere poetical hyperbole which finds expression in such words as these : We live in thoughts, not breaths ; In feelings, not in figu…
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The vision of the unseen has this power. It interprets and transforms life. In this way "our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory." We are to get the clue to the mystery of life, we are to cease to be puzzled by the pain and suffering. The meanin…
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^ This valley [the Yosemite] is flanked by towering mountains, cleft for the most part right up in every variety of extraordinary summit. The rock is granite of flashing whiteness, rising into 2 COR. IV. 17 III triangles, squares and domes. The feature of the valley is two gigantic domes, the one split like the half …
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2 COR. IV. 17 113 dence and many a crusliing sorrow ? The afflictions of this present time are preparing us for service here and for glory hereafter.^ Without, as I heard the wild winds roar, And saw the black clouds their floods outpour, As the lightnings flashed, And the thunders crashed, And the hurricane's forc…
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Of fret, of dark, of thorn, of chill. Complain no more; for these, 0 heart, Direct the random of the will As rhymes direct the rage of art. The lute's fixt fret, that runs athwart The strain and purpose of the string, For governance and nice consort Doth bar his wilful wavering. The dark hath many dear avails; T…
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Just on the outside of man's dream, In diapason slow we think. To hear their pinions rise and sink While they float pure beneath His eyes Like swans adown a stream. Things nameless, which in passing so, Do touch us with a subtle grace, We say, Who passes ? They are dumb, We cannot see them go or come ; Their touch…
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2 COR. IV. 1 8 123 These thoughts are presenting themselves only to reverent and loving souls. When love interprets what the eye discerns, When mind discovers what is really meant, When grace improves what man from Nature learns, Each sight and sound becomes a sacrament. ^ There is an experience which I remember we…
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Truth for truth, and good for good ! The Good, the True, the Pure, the Just ; Take the charm "For ever" from them, and they crumble into dust.i 3. Jesus Christ is the clearest evidence as well as the fullest interpretation of the unseen. It was not possible for the Jewish race of that day by any principle of evoluti…
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The statement of the Apostle implies, with reference to " the things which are not seen," much more than a mere conviction of their existence, however lively and sincere. It implies also an earnest and steadfast contemplation of them — a turning of the thoughts to them, a fixing of the affections on them, and a bend- i…
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For, ah ! the Master is so fair His smile so sweet on banished men, That they who meet it unaware Can never turn to earth again; And they who see Him risen afar. At God's right hand to welcome them, Forgetful stand of home and land, Desiring fair Jerusalem. 132 WALKING BY FAITH ^ St, Paul stood between two worlds…
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134 WALKING BY FAITH reduce himself to, and therefore below, the level of the beasts that perish; and long before he reached the practical goal of his theory, he would find himself the inmate of a prison or an asylum, to be a standing witness to the world which looks on, that the gospel has reason on its side, as well…
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136 WALKING BY FAITH contrasts the present condition of the Christian who has to live the daily life by seeing the invisible with two other experiences — one past, one future — each of which may be called walking by sight. The disciples walked by sight during the earthly ministry of the Saviour. They lived the daily l…
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but filling and peopling it with forms and substances having an inherent worth and virtue. Such a man is a living witness to a world out of sight, a world as real and a thousand times as permanent as the visible. So far he is on the side of Christ and the gospel, for he avows the reality of a world unseen. Bring it do…
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III. The Superiority of Faith over Sight. 1. Walking by faith we are better able to appreciate Christ's power. — ^We have a juster conception of Christ's power, its spiritual nature, its universality, its unfailing energy, than His contemporaries could have had. To us He is no mere wonder- working magician, but the w…
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1 J. R. Miller. 2 COR. V. 7 143 •^ That heroic and saintly missionary, James Gilmour of Mongolia, was one of those whose sense of the abiding presence of Christ was always vivid and supporting. " No one," he writes, " who does not go away, leaving all and going alone can feel the force of the promise 'Lo, I am with y…
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Danley) ; li. 451 (J. M. Thoburn) ; liv. 52 (H. G. Weston). 14* The Constraint of Love. For the love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died ; and he died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died an…
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The statute-book does not simply say, like the Decalogue, " Thou shalt not steal " ; it says, " If you do steal, the detective will deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the jailer, and he will cast you into prison, and you shall not get out thence till you have paid the forfeit of your crime." We know that if we …
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II. The Sovereign Motive is Born at the Cross. 1. The Apostle does not mean, as at a first glance we might suppose, his own affection for Christ, his own devotion to Christ. This affection, this devotion, was indeed a constraining power. But it was only second in the chain of causes and consequences. It was not the s…
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^ " Few men in these days," he once said to me, " have done 80 much for the religious life of Scotland as James Morison. The pendulum of human thought is ever swinging to the extreme points : he found it at the extreme point of God's sovereignty, and brought it to the other extreme — man's responsibility; but the truth…
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156 THE CONSTRAINT OF LOVE judging, determining faculty — upon these Calvary -facts, we bring, as it were, fresh supplies of fuel in order that with them we may feed the fire of Christian exercise and action. ^ My apprehension of the love of Christ must come in be- tween its manifestation and its power to grip, to re…
924 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.