PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 2
James Hastings · 195,735 words · 204 reading sections
Section 181
The teeming air and prodigal. Which droops its azure over all, Is full of immortalities That look on us with unseen eyes.* (1) When we speak of our unseen spiritual helpers we go with timid feet, not sure of the ground we walk on and yet sure that there is ground, and irresistibly impelled to feel for it and find it. …
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^ " Tell me something of your Sunday night's sermon on ' The Angel and the Ass,' " I said to him when we had settled ourselves down in his study on the Thursday before his death. I had heard many references to that sermon, and to the profound impression it had produced. Berry fenced a little, but at last began. I shall…
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Because mine eyes can never have their fill Of looking at my lady's lovely face, I will so fix my gaze That I may become blessed, beholding her. Even as an angel up at his great height Standing amid the light, Becometh blessed by only seeing God.^ IV. The Visible Invisible. 1. " The young man saw : and, behold, t…
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1 L. A. Banks. 2 KINGS VI. 17 491 falls. This is one lesson conveyed in the words of Christ when the Pharisees told Him that Herod desired to kill Him. He knew that Herod could not kill Him till He had done His Father's will and finished His work, " Go ye," He said, " and tell that fox. Behold, I cast out devils, and…
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495 496 KNOWLEDGE AND SERVICE been anointed king in his father's lifetime, to insure his suc- cession to the throne; and, as if by a miracle, his father rises from what had seemed his death-bed, and, endued with almost supernatural strength, commits to his well-beloved son the great work for which he had gone on maki…
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(2) After such knowledge comes an outward life of service. Active obedience is the expression of inward communion, love, and trust. The spring that moves the hands on the dial is love, and, if the hands do not move, there is something wrong with the spring. Morality is the garment of religion ; religion is the animatin…
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\ I have a pile of bills at home, the accumulation of years. Together those accounts would make up such a large amount that if it were called for I should be ruined. But I can look on them without a shade of anxiety, because every one of them is receipted. No creditor has any claim, and if I were sued in court, I shoul…
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^ At the present time the greatest need seems to be that we should return to the fundamentals of spiritual religion. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that both the old seats of authority, the infallible Church and the infallible Book, are fiercely assailed, and that our faith needs reinforcements. These can only com…
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Across whose dusky mounds forlorn Can rise no resurrection morn, The sombre mien, the funeral weed, That darkly match so dark a creed; But be thy brow turned bright on all. Thy voice like some clear clarion call. Pealing o'er life's tumultuous van The keynote of the hopes of man. While o'er thee flames through …
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3. It was well that the Jews should look into the awful teachings of the past, and under the clear, stern condemnation of the eternal words give way to the rush of sorrow. But it was not well that they should sorrow long. They had work to do, de- manding the strength of joy. The scattered tribes were to be gathered int…
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1 Canon Williuk. NEHEMIAH viii. lo 511 elect, his joy is the joy of the Lord Jesus. When a soul is saved, there is a great harmony of joy. Men, angels, and God Himself rejoice together, so that the joy of the Church and the joy of angels may be justly termed the joy of the Lord. On the other hand, when there is no de…
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^ Look through life, and do you not find that the great aim of men is to forget and go out of themselves ? What means the longing to be a child again ? "What means the gloom only deepened by the fiash of pleasure ? Whence so often springs the desire To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ach…
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It is clear from Scripture that a person may lose his joy, though he is not permitted to lose his life. David and Peter both did so ; and what was the reason ? Was it not that they both grieved the Spirit ? They drove the Holy Dove from His resting- place in their hearts; and the true believer may do the same. He may g…
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^ There must be trust before there is joy. This seems so obvious that at first sight we should scarcely consider it worthy of notice ; but yet in practical life it requires to be most carefully observed. I have myself met with numbers of persons who have told me that they cannot trust the Lord Jesus Christ because they…
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I saw him across the dingy street, A little old cobbler, lame, with a hump, Yet his whistle came to me clear and sweet As he stitched away at a dancing-pump. Well, some of us limp while others dance; There's none of life's pleasures without alloy. Let us thank Heaven, then, for the chance To whistle, while mending…
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^ I met an old man a day or two ago who had spent half a century in the secret place with God. And at the end of four- score years his joy is as ripe as autumn fruit. " Why, you are quite a marvel," said one of his friends. " No, no ; it is my Lord who is the marvel," replied the saint, who has dwelt so long in the hol…
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NEHEMIAH viii. lo 525 what to do, that was the rub. Then he smiled and said, "I remembered, and I said, 'Jesus you'll have to come along and help me get by, I never can by myself.'" And then in his simple, illiterate way he said, " and He came — and we went by, and we've been going by ever since." ^ 2. The joy of the…
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Waiting on Him who knows us and our need, Most need have we to dare not, nor desire. But as He giveth, softly to suspire Against His gift, with no inglorious greed, For this is joy, tho' still our joys recede ; And, as in octaves of a noble lyre, To move our minds with His, and clearer, higher, Sound forth our fate; fo…
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We may fail in our Duty by simply being Silent. "If thou altogether boldest thy peace at this time." 1. Esther was very likely tempted to be silent at a time when to speak was necessary to save her countrymen from destruction. We often bite our tongues because we have sinned in speech, but how often have we sinned by …
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^ No one enters into the life of Christ's discipleship who does not seek, not the renunciation only, but the very death of all his old low self and self-life. For life is far more than just ease ' J. I. Yaace, Tendency. 125. ESTHER IV. 14 535 and gentleness, far more than confession and the endurance of the tests tha…
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3. The passage admits of easy application to the Church. One portion of the Church may fail to rise to the height of its duty and, in spite of all the splendid hopes which it enshrines, it may perish. But not so the whole Church, or even the particular purpose which that portion was meant to have fulfilled. Eelief and …
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3. We cannot hold back from Christ's cause with impunity.. It can do without us, but we cannot do without it. " Whosoever will save his life," said our Lord, " shall lose it." If religion is a reality, to live without it is to suppress and ultimately to destroy the most sacred portion of our own being. It is a kind of …
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ij. E. M'Fadyen. 542 OPPORTUNITY ought to be able to discover without any warning voice what God s purpose is, and what our opportunity is worth. ^ There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On…
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' Sara A. Underwood. ' J. Stalker. Printed by Moriitson & Gibb Limited, Edinhtirgh DATE DUE…
16 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.