PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 18
James Hastings · 181,464 words · 186 reading sections
Section 61
^ Tennyson said once to Bishop Lightfoot — " The cardinal point of Christianity is the life after death." Certainly this is the cardinal point of Tennyson's own faith. He believed no less strongly than Browning in the powerlessness of death to dissolve human personality. " I can hardly understand how any great imaginat…
936 wordsSECTION 62Section 62
I THESS.-HEB. — II i62 LIFE AND IMMORTALITY on the natural world, of that luminary whose power and splendour symbolized His glory in prophetic song. To those who received Him, whose reason and heart He alike illuminated, the outward became clear and the inward calm ; the shadows departed and fear was subdued ; object…
904 wordsSECTION 63Section 63
send. Ah ! there is a life for mortals which knoweth not any pain, Where comes no snow, nor winter, nor down-rush of the rain ; But the Zephyr bloweth gently, where the kindly Ocean rolls, And sends his breath to quicken those happy human souls. {Odyss. iv. 563-568).! 2. In modern speculation. — On the afternoon of O…
995 wordsSECTION 64Section 64
^ " Sheol," in general conception, corresponds to the Greek Hades, and must be carefully distinguished from " the grave." The distinction is rightly preserved in the Eevised Version. It is true there are particular phrases, as " to go down to Sheol," the general sense of which is sufficiently represented by the English…
1,009 wordsSECTION 65Section 65
2 TIMOTHY I. lo 169 pass through moods of fierce depression, but He who holds the keys is in the shadows of the background and the desolation passes as His footsteps are heard moving in the dread silences. So has Jesus changed the outlook for all who accept His message and rest upon His work. He cannot betray our hop…
969 wordsSECTION 66Section 66
2 TIMOTHY I. 10 171 that the resurrection of Jesus took place ! This legend enshriues a precious truth.^ (3) He gave it forth to the world. — So far as the Jewish belief rested upon the Scriptures of the Old Testament, it had some- thing of a local and national aspect; Christ broke the fetters that bound the Book to …
905 wordsSECTION 67Section 67
2 TIMOTHY I. lo 173 ^ Jesus has two ways of teaching. There is His ethical teaching which every man and every woman can take and test for themselves and see if it is true. He has also His speculative teaching, the great beliefs that He has left us and to which He has pledged His word, and He practically says to us : "…
970 wordsSECTION 68Section 68
And, thirdly, there is this conviction, that the life into which 1 M. Dods, The Gospel of St. John. i. 363. 2 TIMOTHY I. lo 175 He is passing will be a life of peace and rest. " Thou shalt be with me in paradise." With Me in paradise ! What paradise means we cannot entirely grasp while we are still here in the body …
901 wordsSECTION 69Section 69
2 TIMOTHY I. lo 177 see in them the seeds of a great tree; and we take courage to believe that, though it be with us still only the day of small things, we are already in certain experiences within the eternal order. In the risen Christ, as the evangelists have drawn the portraiture with the profound unconsciousness …
905 wordsSECTION 70Section 70
* J. Orr, The Sesurrection of Jesus, 271. 2 TIMOTHY I. lo 179 is the shuffling off of the mortal coil of flesh that the life within may have room to expand and may receive from God a "spiritual body" which may be a fit organ for the renewed spirit. •[j Grant that a precious memory may be longer and deeper and strong…
1,064 wordsSECTION 71Section 71
Christ abolished death. It is so that the Apostles always speak concerning death. It is so always that they bear them- selves in the presence of death. They will not crouch before it as a tyrant ; neither are they content to stand erect before it, as in the presence of an equal ; rather do they exult and triumph over i…
998 wordsSECTION 72Section 72
Rogers); Ivi. 171 (J. Stalker); lix. 299 (J. Watson); Ixv. 156 (R. Thomas) ; Ixvi. 193 (J. D. Jones) ; Ixx. 328 (A. W. Button) ; Ixxiii. 394 (E. J. Padfield) ; Ixxv. 371 (A. E. Garvie). Church of England Pulpit, Ixii. 5 (A, W. Hutton). Churchman's Pulpit : General Advent Season, i. 209 (J. Stalker). Examiner, May 18,…
903 wordsSECTION 73Section 73
The beckoniug finger biddiug me forego The fellowship, the converse, and the wine, The songs, the festal glow ! And ah, to know not, while with friends I sit, And while the purple joy is passed about, Whether 'tis ampler day divinelier lit Or homeless night without: And whether, stepping forth, my soul shall see Ne…
973 wordsSECTION 74Section 74
2. "Him whom I have believed," says St. Paul. What is belief ? What is it to believe Him ? Christ Jesus makes certain claims. He claims to bring the secret key to every life. He claims that every life discovers itself in Him, and finds its com- pleteness in Him. He claims that He supplies to every man the requisite lig…
1,116 wordsSECTION 75Section 75
^ C. H. Spurgeon. I THESS.-HEB. — 1 3 194 THE PRACTICE OF ASSURx^NCE Christ and Christianity is really out of court — he has no proper claim to pronounce an opinion as to the facts. In the one case, as in the other, the principle holds good, Experto crede : Listen to the experts ; let those speak who have had the exp…
938 wordsSECTION 76Section 76
^ " I had been thinking," Brownlow North says, " probably for hours, about the plainly revealed but unexplained mysteries of God, and was no wiser ; they still remained unrevealed and still unexplained, and all the fruit of my thinking seemed a head- ache." After a time he began to think again, and said aloud to himsel…
901 wordsSECTION 77Section 77
198 THE PRACTICE OF ASSURANCE ^ Madame Guyon, the author of A Short and Easy Method of Prayer, died in 1717, at the age of sixty-nine. Her long life had been one of unceasing trust and communion with God, through many vicissitudes and persecutions in the dark age of Louis XIV. In one of her poems she wrote — Yield to…
911 wordsSECTION 78Section 78
^ James Whillans. 200 THE PRACTICE OF ASSURANCE the Divine Master wished to put the finishing touches to her purification, and thus enable her not only to walk with rapid steps, but to run in her little way of confidence and abandonment. Her words repeatedly proved this. " I desire neither death, nor life. Were Our L…
900 wordsSECTION 79Section 79
Lock (W.), The Bible and Christian Life, 179. Momerie (A. W.), Inspiration and other Sermons, 1. Moody (A.), The Message of Salvation, 83. Moore (E. W.), The Promised Rest, 203. Paget (F.), The Spirit of Discipline, 174. Palmer (E. R.), The Development of Revelation, 15. Randolph (B. W.), Christ in the Old Testam…
972 wordsSECTION 80Section 80
^ Without pretending to define inspiration, or to determine the mystery of its operation, we may, I suppose, say that what we mean by it is an influence which gave to those who received it a unique and extraordinary spiritual insight, enabling them thereby, without superseding or suppressing the human faculties, but ra…
1,058 wordsSECTION 81Section 81
^ Of his early acquaintance with the Bible, Thompson writes : " The Bible as an influence from the literary standpoint has a late but important date in my life. As a child I read it, but for its historical interest. Nevertheless, even then I was greatly, though vaguely, impressed by the mysterious imagery, the cloudy g…
965 wordsSECTION 82Section 82
^ T. Jones, The Divine Order, 86. 212 THE USE OF SCRIPTURE then speak as the Hebrew seer spoke. Blow the trumpet in Israel, sound the lamentation, walk through the length and breadth of the land, and cry aloud, " Woe, woe unto thee, saith the Lord God " ; but if not, then you had better speak calmly and reason with m…
973 wordsSECTION 83Section 83
214 THE USE OF SCRIPTURE wars, by the restlessness and anxiety of nations and classes ; we ask impatiently if this wild confusion is the adequate result of eighteen centuries of the Gospel of Peace ? We ask impatiently, and the Bible offers us an interpretation of a history and life not unlike our own, and helps us to…
1,151 wordsSECTION 84Section 84
^ The reader will do well to keep in mind what is the one object we set before him in the present inquiry : to enjoy the Bible and to turn it to his benefit. Whatever else he may pro- pose to himself in dealing with the Bible, this remains his one proper object. In another order of interest, the poetry of Homer supplie…
914 wordsSECTION 85Section 85
^ I do not mean to say that the Old Testament has no value apart from the historical Jesus ; and that a Jew may not be warned and corrected, and instructed in righteousness thereby. Far from it. But this is certain, that men fed and nourished on the law and the prophets, and on them only, will remain children of Israel…
1,066 wordsSECTION 86Section 86
2 TIMOTHY III. 14-17 221 hounding Love out of the world. That was indeed a mystery to this lover. When one went to see him towards Good Friday, one would note that his reading was in the story of the Cross as told by the Evangelists. He read it then and always — to use JoJm Bunyan's phrase — " with the water standing …
949 wordsSECTION 87Section 87
^ The Bible is, indeed, simple enough for the simple, but it is also unfathomably deep. No book takes such an entire sweep of all that affects and interests man. No book begins so low or ends so high. The most tainted being, whose face is one plague-spot from brow to chin, gets a new knowledge of himself here, not with…
1,125 wordsSECTION 88Section 88
^ If you put this Book into the hands of your children directly they have left the cradle and are learning to read ; and if you give them a sufficiently good education to enable them to read the Book and to understand it as they understand other books ; and if you should tell them that they should try to use this Book …
1,031 wordsSECTION 89Section 89
^ Perhaps nothing in the memory of this generation has touched the hearts of the English-speaking race, and indeed of the whole world, like the pathos and the courage of those last letters of Captain Scott's, written in the Antarctic solitudes, with Death at his very elbow. The world has been thrilled to see how nobly …
910 wordsSECTION 90Section 90
How strong is the conviction, spoken :'.n this name for death, that the essential life lasts on quite unaltered through it all ! How slight the else formidable thing is made ! We may change climates, and for the stormy bleakness of life may have the long still days of heaven, but we do not change ourselves. We lose not…
1,001 wordsSECTION 91Section 91
(1) Where does the fight begin ? Where did it begin with St. Paul ? Within. Here are his words : " I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind." "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that ye may not do the thing that ye would." Here and there we come upo…
1,087 wordsSECTION 92Section 92
^ It is a poor life that never stands above itself in some supreme moment of aspiration. But to live a life of aspiration — to stay on the lofty level, to breathe the keen air of the upper heights habitually — this is the strain of life. It is learned only by constant etfort, and by many failures. But if we persevere, …
944 wordsSECTION 93Section 93
(1) What is meant by a sincere and loyal keeping of the faith ? It is, for one thing, to hold it in trust for the benefit of others and to always give it out. To keep the faith is to defend it, if we are able, by force of argument against all that assail it. But, above all things, to keep the faith is to live it, to ex…
909 wordsSECTION 94Section 94
^ Love and Life : The Story of J. Denholtn Brash, 174, 2 TIMOTHY IV. 6-8 241 We are children, who do but besin The sweetness of living to win : Because heaven is in us, to bud and unfold, We are younger, for growing old.^ III. St. Paul's Future Certainty. " Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteous…
969 wordsSECTION 95Section 95
2 TIMOTHY IV. 6-8 243 and I hope I shall not give Him much trouble." Long had been a shepherd on the South Downs all his life ; and had had trouble enough in seeking the sheep that wandered and were lost. He then took up the print and said, " I shall be glad to see that Man." That night he died.i 2. Now, the crown be…
969 wordsSECTION 96Section 96
4. The crown is given at a time called by St. Paul " at that day," which is not the near day of his martyrdom, but that of his Lord's appearing. He does not speak of the fulness of the reward as being ready for him at death, but as being henceforth laid up for him in heaven. So he looks forward beyond the grave. The im…
903 wordsSECTION 97Section 97
Saving and Instructing Grace. For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world.— Titus ii. II, 12. 1. To this important statement the Apostle is led up by…
1,042 wordsSECTION 98Section 98
^ Successful resistance of temptation seems to consist of three fairly distinct movements of the mind. The first step is obviously, and always, of the nature of a recoil. The mind starts back from the evil suggestion at least so far as to plant itself more firmly down in the attitude of resistance. The next step in res…
921 wordsSECTION 99Section 99
^ The same word is used in telling of the stormy darkness when " neither sun nor stars " had for many days " a'piKared" and then at last a rift came in the thick cloud, and the blue was seen, and the blessed sunshine poured down on the damp and desolate world. So, by some historical manifestation, this mighty thing, th…
1,061 wordsSECTION 100Section 100
^ Miss Nightingale, on this and her later visits to the Crimea, saw and heard of many deeds of heroism which she loved to tell. " I remember," she wrote, " a sergeant, who was on picket, the rest of the picket killed, and himself battered about the head, stumbled back to camp, and on his way picked up a wounded man, an…
905 wordsSECTION 101Section 101
1 "W. H. M. H. Aitken, The School of Grace, 26. I THESS.-HEB. 17 258 SAVING AND INSTRUCTING GRACE love ; Christ and His life ; Christ and His death ; Christ and His Spirit ; in these are new hopes, motives, powers, which avail to do the thing that no man can do. An infant's finger cannot reverse the motion of some gr…
926 wordsSECTION 102Section 102
^ The form which the infidelity of England, especially, has taken, is one hitherto unheard of in human history. No nation 1 W. H. M. H. Aitken, The School of Grace, 97. 26o SAVING AND INSTRUCTING GRACE ever before declared boldly, by print and word of mouth, that its religion was good for show, but "would not work."…
977 wordsSECTION 103Section 103
262 SAVING AND INSTRUCTING GRACE of the Lord Jesus Christ, grace had drawn aside the curtain of mystery and explained to him the great sight ; and she has a similar lesson for all who learn at her school. .^ Christ came. The soul the most full of love, the most sacredly virtuous, the most deeply inspired by God and t…
929 wordsSECTION 104Section 104
264 SAVING AND INSTRUCTING GRACE faded in the distance. As elevation was the note of his oratory, so was magnanimity the note of his character.^ (2) Righteously. — The idea of righteousness springs from the recognition of right. There are certain rights wliich have their origin in the nature of our relations with oth…
1,044 wordsSECTION 105Section 105
It is not heaven alone, Which godliness attains ; It makes as much its own The best of worldly gains: Since out of all on earth it draws The ore which of its worth is cause. From godliness there flows A current of content : And ill to blessing grows, By thought of blessing meant: Each lot as sent by God it holds ; …
956 wordsSECTION 106Section 106
Live well to-day, to-day is thine alone; To-morrow is not, and may never be ; And yesterday no longer is thine own ; But now belongs to thee. Then take the task that's nearest to thy hand, And do it earnestly with all thy might; Though men may cavil or misunderstand, Heed not their blame or slight. What though the…
910 wordsSECTION 107Section 107
L The One Authentic Voice. 1. The first truth which the author of this Epistle emphasizes is that God has spoken. God has been speaking to our world. Human nature has suffered many degradations, but it has never utterly lost the capacity for seeing the presence and hearing the voice of the Father in heaven. And to th…
1,115 wordsSECTION 108Section 108
3, God's voice is ever the same although it has not always been heard with the same distinctness. The Old Testament is a record of religious evolution — not of the whole of it, but of a particular section of it, a section of it which is of peculiar and exceptional importance to the world for two reasons. It is a histor…
934 wordsSECTION 109Section 109
' L. Abbott, Signs of Promise, 271. HEBREWS I. T, 2 279 1, A contrast is drawn between the fragmentariuess of the Old Testament dispensation, and the full-orbed revelation of the Xew. " By divers portions." The single word that is rendered " at sundry times " properly means " in numerous parts " or " parcels," which,…
903 wordsSECTION 110Section 110
fullest revelation given before ; and the most complete revelation vouchsafed to men, before the Son came to declare the Father, is to be found, not in sacrifices but in the words of promise, not in the institutions but in holy men, who were sent, time after time, to quicken the institutions into new life or to preach …
922 wordsSECTION 111Section 111
Prophets and seers had caught flashes of light that penetrated the darkness. Poets and singers had imprisoned strains of lovely music which had been heard by their souls. Lofty and pure spirits had seen tracings of His thought, suggestions of the work of an unseen Mind. Men had stood in reverent awe before what they fe…
933 wordsSECTION 112Section 112
* Letters of James Smetham, 85. The Crowned Christ. atj Literature. Edwards (T. C), The Epistle to the Hebrews, 21. Griffith-Jones (E.), Faith and Verification, 146. Lewis (F. W.), The Work of Christ, 80. Maclaren (A.), Sermons Preached in Manchester, ii. 170. Norton (J. N.), Short Sermons, 136. Sowter (G. A.)…
901 wordsSECTION 113Section 113
HEBREWS II. 8, 9 291 see the mountains and the woods and the flashing streams, and that I may do the work by which I live. For me the rain falls and the dews silently distil — to cherish the corn which grows for my food, to soften the air I breathe, and to keep the beauty of the world fresh and bright on which I rejoi…
1,276 wordsSECTION 114Section 114
If that psalm be God's thought of man, the plan that He hangs up for us. His workmen, to build by, what a wretched thing my copy of it has turned out to be ! Is this a picture of me ? How seldom I am conscious of the visits of God ; how full I am of weaknesses and imperfections, the solemn voice within 294 THE CROWNED…
902 wordsSECTION 115Section 115
earned for him by the man Christ Jesus who, tasting death for all, delivers us from the fear of death and so from bondage. And this blessing of deliverance from the bondage of the Old Covenant belongs even now to Christians, who have already tasted the powers of the world to come, who are regarded as dissociated from t…
908 wordsSECTION 116Section 116
» F. W. Lewis, The Work of Christ, 86. 298 THE CROWNED CHRIST dewy darkness. We can understand but little of what this majestic promise of sovereign manhood may mean. But the fragrance, if not the sight, of that gorgeous blossom is wafted to us. We know that " the upright shall have dominion in the morning." We know …
911 wordsSECTION 117Section 117
the Divine love which has been poured out upon me. No one ever deserved it less. I am sure if I do not know what free grace means, or use the expression as a mere cant one, I am more to * TJie Lift of Frederick Denison Maurice, L 528. 300 THE CROWNED CHRIST blame than all. It seems to me, from the highest to the l…
1,088 wordsSECTION 118Section 118
Two leading ideas emerge from this text : — I. Suffering as a Means to Perfection. II. The Necessity for the Sufferings of Christ. I. The Discipline of Sufferinq. "Perfect through sufferings." *' Perfect through sufferings " — we have grown accustomed to the phrase, but to any one who heard it for the first time, h…
965 wordsSECTION 119Section 119
* J. G. Binney. HEBREWS II. TO 307 ^ The Chili palm grows to a height of from forty to sixty feet, and bears numerous small edible, thick-shelled nuts, and yields after it is felled a syrup called palm honey. " This honey," Darwin tells us, " is a sort of treacle, and forms really the sap of the tree. A good tree wil…
1,030 wordsSECTION 120Section 120
^ The most useful agents in nature have sometimes the most deadly effects. The atmosphere, which is essential to life, is the chief source of putrefaction and decay. The sea, which bears one mariner safely to the desired haven, buries another in a watery grave. Electricity, which carries a message across the world at t…
927 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.