PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 3
James Hastings · 189,259 words · 196 reading sections
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JUN 2« 1913 Division IdS4"S , H 35 Copy I THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE EDITED BV THE REV. JAMES llASTINGS, D.D. EDITOR OF "THE EXPOSITORY TIMES" "THE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE "THE DICTIONARY OF CHRIST AND THE GOSPELS" AND "THE ENCYCLOP/F.DIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS" JOB to PSALM XX…
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^ We must be careful not to impose upon the Book of Job or this prophet conceptions belonging to a more advanced period. The Satan of these books is no mere " evil spirit," the real enemy of God though His unwilling subject. There is no antagonism between God and the Satan. The idea that the " attacks of Satan are aime…
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^ The place both of the past and future is too much usurped in our minds by the restless and discontented present. The very quietness of nature is gradually withdrawn from us ; thousands who once in their necessarily prolonged travel were subjected to an influence from the silent sky and slumbering fields, more effectu…
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Job was a typical saint. According to Divine testimony there was " none like him on the earth." If Job's piety had turned out to be selfish and self-seeking, what hope could there be of others ? So much hinged upon this. The vindication of Job would also be a vindication of human piety at its best. It was well worth Jo…
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III. The Answer. Job's life, as it is traced in the glowing, indignant, faith- inspired words of his complaint, is the triumphant answer. Job 1 A. R. Gordon, The Poets of the Old Testament, 204. JOB I. 9 II does fear God for nought : that is, his integrity is no vulgar barter for wages, as Satan supposes, but deepl…
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^ C. Simeon, Works, iv. 317. JOB I. 9 13 indicate a place of torture — there is sin, the most awful thing in the universe of God. It is to save us from sin that Christ died. Sin and Self, these are the tyrants we are groaning under ; it was to deliver us from these that Christ came. ^ Salvation is not putting a man …
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(3) And, after all, character is the essential reward and true ambition of a noble life. For then we pass beyond all of what ^ Phillips Brooks, New Starts in Life, 39. 2 Mrs. Brookficld and her Circle, ii. 435. * R. L. Stevenson, A Christmas Sermon. JOB I. 9 15 are commonly meant by consequences, and our thought is …
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^ Phillips Brooks, Addresses, 10. JOB I. 9 i7 And lit up all her life with radiance new, — The happy service of a yielded heart. With comfort that He never ceased to give, Because her need could never cease, she filled The empty chalices of other lives. And time and thought were thenceforth spent for Him Who lo…
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JOB XI. 7 23 We long for Canaan when we stand in Canaan. We cry for love when we have learned love. We pray for purity when we have tasted purity. We feel our distance from God when God is at the door.^ L The Deeps of God. Literally the verse reads: Canst thou find the deeps of (or, that which has to be searched ou…
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The splendours of the Summer sunset-glow Shot blood-red through the intercepting trees: And, fretful that my vision could not seize Unblurred, the hues beyond, or fully know The gorgeous scene that was obstructed so, In haste my discontentment to appease I climbed my tower, when lo ! I missed the trees ! Too dazzlin…
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^ Maeterlinck's cardinal doctrine will, I conjecture, prove to be something like this. What should be of most account for us all is not external fact, but the supra-sensuous world. " What we know is not interesting"; the really interesting things are those which we can only divine — the veiled life of the soul, the cre…
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' E. H. Divall, A Believer's Songs, 94. 30 THE DEEPS OF GOD it is an "arm made bare" — an omnipotent arm, bared for a mighty task. God's love finds its supreme expression in His grace as manifest on Calvary. It is His power to save. Here is the solution of the problem, " How can God be just and yet the justifier of t…
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Lord, in this dust Thy sovereign voice First quicken'd love divine ; I am all Thine, — Thy care and choice, My very praise is Thine. I praise Thee, while Thy providence In childhood frail I trace. For blessings given, ere dawning sense Could seek or scan Thy grace; Blessings in boyhood's marvelling hour, Bright d…
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Caird (E.), Lay Sermons and Addresses, 285. Dawson (G.), The Aiothentic Gospel, 264. Donne (J.), Works, iv. 637. HallXN.), Gethsemane, 237. Halsey (J.), The Spirit of Truth, 79. Newman (J. H.), Parochial and Plain Sermons, iv. 117. Pusey (E. B.), Sermons from Advent to Whitsuntide, 91. „ „ Selected Occasional Se…
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Job, in saying " Though he slay me, yet will I wait for him," practically says, " Though He slay me, yet will I not try to escape from Him, or evade Him, I will wait for Him. If I am to be slain, it shall be with my face, and not my back, toward Him ; and if I am to fall, I will fall at His feet ! " Was there ever a mo…
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Job had to answer to himself, Which of these two Gods is the true one? The God of my contemporaries, who is ever on the watch for a slip or an offence that He may punish it, and who seems often to punish when there is no offence ; or the God of whom my own heart speaks to me, who doth not afflict willingly, and whose c…
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Couldst thou love Me when suns are setting, Their glow forgetting In thought of Me; Couldst thou refrain thy soul from fretting For days that used to be ? Couldst thou love Me when creeds are breaking. Old landmarks shaking With wind and sea ; Couldst thou restrain the earth from quaking, And rest thy heart in Me …
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^ It is not the mere existence of evil, but the amount of evil in the world that really depresses us and seems like a load too heavy to be lifted up. And if we could realize to ourselves that the purposes of God are known to us in part only, not merely as regards another life, but also as regards this ; if we could ima…
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^ The Electoress Louise Henriette von Oranien (died 1667), the authoress of the immortal hymn, " Jesus meine Zuversicht " [the English translation begins, "Jesus Christ, my sure defence"], chose these words, " Though the Lord should slay me, yet will I hope in him," for the text of her funeral oration. And many in the …
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Not in the hour of peril, thronged with foes, Panting to set their heel upon my head, Or when alone from many wounds I bled Unflinching beneath Fortune's random blows ; Not when my shuddering hands were doomed to close The unshrinking eyelids of the stony dead ; — Not then I missed my God, not then — but said: " Let…
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For us, as for Job, it is the greatest of all the supports of spiritual life to believe in the rational character of the system of things in which we are placed, or, in other words, in the wisdom and goodness of the power which manifests itself in our own life and in the life of the world. For us, as for him, the essen…
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^ In a sad poem, entitled " The Great Misgiving," William Watson voices modern unsettlement and belief on this question. Writing there of our life as a feast at which we have banqueted, he asks why the worms should not have their feast too upon us, once we are done with it all. In soul-withering doubt, he estimates tha…
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2. The instinct of immortality is reinforced by man's innate sense of justice. He feels that something is needed to complete this life elsewhere. Immortality has been named "the great prophecy of reason " — a phrase which is in itself an argument. We cannot look into ourselves without finding it. The belief is a part o…
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1. In the Old Testament a great forward step is taken. We feel that we have left the twilight for the dawn. Among heathen races faith in immortality rested on conceptions of man's nature, ^ Henry AVhite. * Shelley. ^ Tennyson, "Two Voices." JOB XIV. 14 63 in the Old Testament it rests on God's character. He is the Et…
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^ A little child whose angel still beholds the face of the Father, does not repine over the past, or sigh for the future. The very law of innocence and perfection, whether in child or angel or God or perfect man, tends to exclude the sense of time. Continuance becomes a mere incident ; the main and absorbing thought is…
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^ In some of the cathedrals of Europe, on Christmas Eve, two small lights, typifying the Divine and the human nature, are gradually made to approach one another until they meet and blend, forming a bright flame. Thus, in Christ, we have the light of two worlds thrown upon human destiny. Death, as the extinction of bein…
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^ Memoir oj Norman Macleod, ii. 321 . ' "W. L. Watkinson, The Education of the Heart 26. I Know that my Redeemer Liveth. n Literature. Clifford (J.), Daily Strength for Daily Living, 305. Davidson (A. B.), Waiting upon God, 79. Da vies (T.), Sermons and Homiletical Expositions, 30. Lockyer (T. F.), Seeking a Co…
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But I know that my Goel liveth, And as Afterman on my dust He will stand as Witness before me, And lift up His voice in my cause. Then God shall I see in spirit, Mine own eyes will look on His face ; No more estranged shall I see Him. My reins are consumed at the thought.^ \ It has been wisely said that " there …
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Could I but see His face, And hear His voice, Oh! then I think My heart would well forth love. As from a fountain full, And service would be my delight ! Yet if He showed His face And spake to me, Should I in truth Arise to love and serve Him as I ween? Alas! I trust not my deceitful heart. 78 I KNOW THAT MY REDE…
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0 Lord of Light, steep Thou our souls in Thee! That when the daylight trembles into shade, And falls the silence of mortality, And all is done, we shall not be afraid, But pass from light to light; from earth's dull gleam Into the very heart and heaven of our dream.^ 3. Job looks for a vindication of his characte…
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signed by God's name, ., . i And I leave them where they are, for I know that where- soe'er I go, Others will punctually come for ever and ever. 4 In spite of death Job holds that in some way he will witness his own vindication. By the phrase, " mine own eyes shall behold, not those of another," he does not, of cour…
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The flame, the storm, the quaking ground, Earth's joy, earth's terror, nought is thine, Thou must but hear the sound Of the still voice divine. 0 priceless art ! 0 princely state ! E'en while by sense of change opprest, Within to antedate Heaven's Age of fearless rest.^ (2) The life of humanity on earth is exactly …
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^ Just as science tells us that each order in creation — each successive type in the long evolution of living creatures — gives, in some rudimentary organ or function, its mute mysterious prophecy of the higher type that is to follow it, so that each type is at once a prophecy and a fulfilment of a prophecy, an accompl…
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I dare to say unto Thee, my God, Who hast made me to climb so high. That I shall not crumble away with the clod ; -i I am Thine, and I cannot die ! ^ There have been four typical notes of despair in the region of literature. The first and most intense is the voice of Omar Khayyam. It is despair absolute, despair of l…
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JOB XIX. 25-27 91 and complete declaration in eveiy moral subject, we shall instantly fall into misery of unbelief. Our whole happiness and power of energetic action depend upon our being able to breathe and live in the cloud ; content to see it opening here and closing there ; rejoicing to catch, through the thinnest…
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^ You cannot miss the ring of conviction in the man's speech. It resounds in every line, and fills the air with its thrilling music. He says what he knows. He believes, and therefore speaks. It is the grand outleap of his whole soul in emphatic declaration, defiant faith, and fearless appeal, " rising with the aspirati…
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The metaphor, you will answer, is put into our mouths, and felt to be a beautiful and necessary one. But why is the metaphor so necessary, or, rather, how far is it a metaphor at all ? Do you think the words " Light of the World " mean only " Teacher or Guide of the World " ? When the Sun of Justice is said to rise wi…
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99 loo ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD Acquaintance with God. 1. The knowledge of God which the Bible insists upon as essential to peace and salvation, consists in personal or heart acquaintance with Him — such acquaintance as involves trans- formation of character and radical change of spiritual environ- ment, as well as cha…
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^ I dare say that you remember the often quoted saying of Lessing, that " the Christian religion had been tried for eighteen centuries, and that the religion of Christ remained to be tried." It seems rather boastful and extravagant, but it expresses the spirit in which any new movement for the improvement of theology m…
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To snatch a glimpse of heaven. When the river from the garden can refresh the heated way ? Let but Thy stillness stealing Impart its sweet revealing, And through the fire I'll walk with Thee in coolness of the day.i 4. If you would know God, you must study Him in the person, x'^nd the character, and the life, and th…
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(2) A man without the knowledge of God is simply so far an imperfect man. He is only partially educated, only partially developed. He is like a person who has not the colour sense and cannot see the beauty of the autumn leaves ; or like a person who has a defect of the brain and cannot put two ideas together; or ^ Andr…
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The sweetness of His grace. Acquaint thyself with God ! In Jesus and His cross Read there that love which makes all loss But gain, all gain but loss. Acquaint thyself with God In childhood's joyous prime ; So shall thy life a foretaste prove Of heaven's long summer-time.^ III. The True Good which comes from Acqu…
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^ Here are two men, who both seem to have deserved success ; both have worked hard, and one to-day is rich and the other is poor. All the chances came to the one, and all the hindrances to the other. There is something obviously unfair and unjust in all this. So the world thinks. 0 world, so swift to judge, so slow to …
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1 Lady Dilke, The Book of the Spiritual Life, 180. ^ Tennyson, The Ancient Sage. 0 ii6 SONGS IN THE NIGHT I. The Song. 1. Shakespeare says that music is "the concord of sweet sounds." But it is more, just as poetry consists of something more than harmonious words. Music is the language of the unseen and eternal; a…
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^ Buskin. ii8 SONGS IN THE NIGHT thou dost is as a song of praise, and the common business of thy life is a conforming to God's will on earth as angels do in heaven.^ ^ I never awake in the middle of the night without feeling induced to commune with God. One feels brought more into contact with Him. The whole world …
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^ Cardinal Newman, in Life by W. Ward, ii. 76. ^ J. A. Clapperton, Culture of the Christian Heart, 142. 120 SONGS IN THE NIGHT Why should I always pray, Although I always lack ? It were a .better way Some praise to render back: The earth that drinks the plenteous rain Eeturns the grateful cloud again. "We should n…
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I know Thee who hast kept my path, and made Light for me in the darkness, tempering sorrow, So that it reached me like a solemn joy. ^ A picture of deep pathos, carrying its own tender suggestion to the heart, appeared in the Academy of 1897. It was painted by Byam Shaw, and entitled " The Comforter." In the interior …
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2. The singing of the song has a quick effect upon the listener. When the prisoners heard Paul and Silas sing in the prison at midnight, they hearkened, they sat up on the pallets, and tried to catch the strange sounds. They rose and crept to the door of the inner dungeon and bent their heads towards it, eager to catch…
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^ In the Psalms there is an exquisite hint of a snowfall through the perfect stillness, and a magnificent storm-piece into which the snow comes with other elements. In the Proverbs, again, there is a passage, where the writer says, " As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so a faithful servant refreshes the soul o…
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^ Descartes announced that he had discovered ninety- three various forms or patterns of snowflakes. The words had scarcely fallen from his lips before another declared that he had found nine hundred. Indeed there is no limit to their diversity ; it is fair to say that no two of them are precisely alike, just as no two …
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Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear, Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Yes! These flowers of the snow, these gems of the winter storm, God has wrought out with as careful touch as the Victoria Regia or the twinkling lustre …
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Hark ! the rushing snow ! The sun-awakened avalanche ! whose mass. Thrice sifted by the storm, had gathered there Flake after flake, in heaven-defying minds As thought by thought is piled, till some great truth Is loosened, and the nations echo round, Shaken to their roots, as do the mountains now.^ 1 H. C. McCook, Th…
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■[[ In the Lake Superior region, much colder than our own, — where the snow falls with the first frosts, and stays to the edge of summer, — many of the plants we dig up, and put into our cellars, are left in the ground with perfect safety, because " He giveth snow like wool " to preserve them under its warm fleece. In …
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^ R. Collyer, Nature and Life, 56. * Uucjh StoweU Brown, in Life by W. S. Caine, 140. 144 THE TREASURIES OF THE SNOW ^ Surely it is not true blessedness to be free from sorrow, while there is sorrow and sin in the world ; sorrow is then a part of love, and love does not seek to throw it off.^ A cold wind stirs the …
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^ I call the Book of Job, apart from all theories about it, one of the grandest things ever written with pen. One feels, indeed, as if it were not Hebrew ; such a noble universality, different from noble patriotism or sectarianism, reigns in it. A noble Book ; all men's Book ! It is our first, oldest statement of the n…
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effectual way of teaching very little children, so as to give them accurate knowledge, is to present objects to the eye. ^ Kuskin believed the secret of life as well as of art to lie in a sort of heavenly obedience, a triumphant energy, a fiery contemplation. The reason why he clothed his message at first in terms of …
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1. It miglifc be supposed at first that the simplest way of re- storing Job to peace would have been to reveal to him that his afflictions were not due to his sin, but were the trial of his righteousness, and in this way solve the problem that perplexed him. But the elements of blameworthiness in Job's conduct forbade …
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^ Are there not far worse things in the world than outward misery such as ill-health and suffering, even than bereavement and loss of those we love ? Is not a heart full of selfishness a worse misery than a body full of pain ? And may not the patience and power of endurance, and of forgetting self, that sorrow and tria…
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^ It was the consciousness of something eternal, within and without him, that made Green what he was. His wife once told him that he was like Sir Bors in the " Holy Grail," and the likeness holds in more senses than one. A " knight of the spirit " he assuredly was ; not Galahad, " crowned king far in the spiritual city…
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^ All torn asunder, all annihilated, Francis cast himself on his face before God, the God who had made heaven and earth, the God who is all truth and all holiness, and before whose omnipotence nothing can stand without complete truth, complete holiness. Francis looked into the depths of his being, and he saw that on th…
1,000 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.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.