PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 4
James Hastings · 160,549 words · 166 reading sections
Section 61
^ The fables, the philosophy, and the experience of all nations, are crowded with lessons that men are blind,and ignorant,and selfish, and know not what is best for them ; that they cannot enumerate their mercies ; that the overruling of an infinite Mind and Will is the only refuge for their ignorance, the only hope of…
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Then with a ripple and a radiance thro' me, Kise and be manifest, 0 Morning Star ! Flow on my soul, Thou Spirit, and renew me. Fill with Thyself, and let the rest be far. 4. When we delight in the Lord, our desire is not so much to have as to be and do. We cease to crave exclusively for temporal good, for personal a…
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ridges need to be settled down and closed well in upon the precious seed which they have received. The same rain that does the one does the other : fills the furrows and settles the ridges. Divine agriculture is economic of means, various in adaptations. But soon the surface becomes encrusted, and might imprison th…
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i Early Letters of Marcus Dods, 198. 172 THE CROWNING OF THE YEAR which we have earned by strenuous application. God has so made us that we must find our pleasure either in working, or as the reward of working. ^ There are certain countries of such tropical luxuriance and fertility that you have only to tickle the e…
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Through rains and wind and shine of the sun, Of ripe and rich abundance, borne To-day to the sheltering homes of men; For us Thy Spirit among the corn Has moved, and one has grown as ten.^ IV. The crown of harvest is woven in the loom of winter. Out of December comes June. Out of the Cross is fashioned the Crown.…
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^ The story of a night of seemingly fruitless toil, which resulted in great blessing, is retold in the Illustrated Missionary News. Miss Harris, of Medak, in India, utterly tired out, was one even- ing about to return home, when the son of the head-man of an important village, who had been poisoned, was hurriedly broug…
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" Blessed be the Lord, who daily beareth our burden, Even the God who is our salvation." 181 i82 THE BURDEN-BEARING GOD ^ In the Authorized Version this verse reads tlms : " Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits," the last two words being in italics, to show that they are not in the original. In p…
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i84 THE BURDEN-BEARING GOD make a firing party to shoot the mutineer ; and no man knows who fired the shot, but one man did fire it. And although there may have been companions, it was his rifle that carried the bullet, and his finger that pulled the trigger. We say, " The woman Thou gavest me tempted me, and I did ca…
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i86 THE BURDEN-BEARING GOD and the saintliest soul feels the mystery and greatness of human life most of all. To the Greek, life is sunshine and joy ; beauty swims in upon tlie soul ; his spirit is glad and he carries no care; but the Hebrew, with his stern, inexorable rigliteousness, his awful sense of stewardship, h…
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1. God takes our burdens upon Himself. — There are burdens that men can help us with, but the heaviest burdens are those they cannot touch. " The heart knoweth its own bitterness." The burden of a hidden grief, of a besetting sin, of a lifelong trial of disease or of sorrow through the wrong-doing of others — men may n…
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^ If any one still insist that it seems irreverence, if not blasphemy, to speak of a suffering God, or to ascribe in any way pain or unhappiness to the Ever-Blessed, then, let me add, it may in some measure meet his difficulty to reflect that all moral suffering contains or carries with it what may be called an element…
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The bonds that press and fetter, That chafe the soul and fret her, What man can know them better, 0 brother men, than I ? And yet, my burden bearing, The five wounds ever wearing, — I too in my despairing Have seen Him as I say; — Gross darkness all around Him Enwrapt Him and enwound Him, — O late at night I found Hi…
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I heard a Saint cry to the Sun — " Be dim. Why shouldst thou rule on high with boastful ray, Till fools adore thee as the God of Day, Bobbing thy Master's honour due to Him ? " But the sun-spirit, thro' each raaiant limb Translucent as a living ember coal. Glowed. At the anger of the seraph soul His golden orb trembled…
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1 T. C. U])liani, Life of Madame Guyon, 455. ^ W. E. Channing. PSALM Lxxxiv. 1 1 20I that we have obtained an immutability of blessedness, for He is "the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." God is not love to-day and hate to-morrow ; He saith, " I am God, I change not." There ar…
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^ Eichard Jefferies is closely akin to Wordsworth in his over- powering consciousness of the life in nature. This consciousness is the strongest force in him, so that at times he is almost sub- merged by it, and he loses the sense of outward things. In this condition of trance the sense of time vanishes ; there is, he …
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^ The ancient warrior bore strapped on his arm a shield of brass or of wood covered with leather, armed with which he rushed into battle and turned death aside. In modern warfare the shield is quite unserviceable ; it hangs with bows and, arrows in the museum of ancient armour. But, as Parker says, " No word ever becom…
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*[f By the term shield is meant that our salvation, which would otherwise be perilled by countless dangers, is in perfect safety under God's protection. The favour of God in communicating life to us would be far from adequate to the exigencies of our condi- tion, unless at the same time, in the midst of so many dangers…
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2. By whomsoever written, the psalm makes it plain that the writer was thinking and speaking not only for himself, but for all his own people of Israel, if not for the whole race of mankind. These opening words are the Eternal Gospel of the Fatherly Love of God, in which the sons of men can ever find their "home." How …
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* A. Alexander, in The Expository Times, xii. 563. PSALM xc. I 215 Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie. Glad did I live and gladly die, And I laid me down with a will. This be the verse you grave for me ; " Here he lies where he longed to be ; Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunte…
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^ As one contemplates Mr. Gladstone's triumphs, one finds oneself recurring in memory to the beautiful background of domestic quiet and stately dignity in which he was as much or more at home than in the public gaze. 1 can see him now in an old wideawake and cloak — trudging off in the drizzle of an October morning to …
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There is an eye will mark Our coming, and look brighter when we come. And how cheering and comforting it is for us to know that, though now we are wanderers from home, our home in God still awaits us, the door is ever open to receive us, and the kind, compassionate Father watching for us, eager for our return, and rea…
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^ As is a mother to her babe, so is God to us. She makes the children's home — not the two-roomed cottage of the peasant, with the bare walls and scant furniture, nor the many-roomed ducal palace, with its teeming wealth and oppressive luxury ; but the love and light, the warm kisses and tender care, the sweet smile an…
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Trimmer (R.), Thirsting for the Living Waters, 132. Tyng (S. H.), Tlie People's Pulpit, iv. 205. Christian World Pulpit, Iviii. 65 (M. G. Pearse). Guardian, Ixvii. (1912) 418 (J. W. Willink). Homiletic Review, 1. 379 (M. G. Pearse). Literary Churchman, xxiii. (1877) 540. National Preacher, xxxiv. 33 (A. Barnes). …
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2. The uncertainty of human life and the vanity of human wishes have always been the theme of the satirist as well as of the preacher. But satire by itself is no remedy ; it can, at best, only point out the disease. In the very fact that nothing is certain about life except its uncertainty, we have a safeguard. We know…
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^ " What would you wish to be doing," was the question once 1 put to a wise man, " if you knew that you were to die the next minute ? " " Just what I am doing now," was his reply, though he was neither repeating the creed nor telling his religious ex- perience, but, for aught I know, posting his accounts, or talking me…
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* Browning, Pii^pa Passes. ^ R. T. W. Dtike. 234 THE RIGHT USE OF TIME 3. Is it because God gives us time so imperceptibly that none of us estimates the full value of time ? The individual moment is not looked upon as a precious grain of gold. One couM prove this in many ways ; but let us be satisfied with one way. T…
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^ The third chapter of Dr. Hanna's Memoir describes Dr. Chalmers' ordination to his Fifeshire parish of Kilmany, in the May time of 1803 ; but we have to journey on to the eighth chapter and the winter of 1811, before the preacher has any Gospel to pro- claim. Through the intervening years Chalmers was more interested …
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Landels (W.), Until the Day Break, 24. Maclaren (A.), Last Sheaves, 160. Norton (J. N.), Every Sunday, 257. Pearson (A.), The Claims of the Faith, 64. Pierson (A. T.), The Heights of the Gospel, 63. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, iv. 297 ; viii. 73. Raleigh (A.), Rest from Care and Sorrow, 1. Spurgeon (C. H.), Til…
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PSALM xci. 1 243 that our moral nature, even the reh'gious, is too often shallow and poverty-stricken ? It is because we do not pursue the growing knowledge of God on our own account. We are religious, or at least we are always in danger of being religious, without spiritual growth, and spiritual growth surely means s…
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' 27t« Journal of John Woolmamy 29. • Memoir of Robert Herbert Story, 401. PSALM xci. I 245 spiritual view and seek not our own will but the will of God. To seek the face of God in worship is the instinct of the soul which has become aware of itself and its surroundings. Life and death are the great preachers. It is …
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(2) The second thing requisite in the Temple ministry to any one who sought the fellowship of the secret place was the spirit of sacrifice. No man was permitted to come empty-handed in his movements towards the secret place. " Bring an offering, and come into his courts." And in that Temple-ministry the Psalmist would …
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^ This wonderful Psalm has always been a favourite with the Mystic and the Quietist. For it expresses what we may call the Beatitude of the Inner Circle. Most religions have distinguished carefully between the rank and file of the faithful, and that select company of initiates who taste the hidden wisdom and have acces…
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3. God's protection does not mean exemption from outward calamities^ But there is an evil in the calamity that will never come near the man who is sheltered under God's wing. The physical external event may be entirely the same to him as to another who is not covered with His feathers. Here are two partners in a busine…
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And worship Thee.^ » W. L. Watkinson, The Ashes of Roses, 117. ' Frances Bevan, Eymns of Ter Sicegen, 36. Strength and Beauty. «B9 Literature. Goodwin (H.), Parish Sermons, iv. 95. Holden (J. S.), Lif^s Flood-Tide, 172. Kirkpatrick (A. F.), The Boole of Psalms (Cambridge Bible), 577. Machiren (A.), The Book of …
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*[[ In the life of Archbishop Temple we read : " He stands out from amongst the men of his day, a notable figure, unlike others, cast in a larger mould, nobler than most, more self-reliant, more absolutely incapable of doing anything mean or of acting from self-interested motives; he worked harder and longer; he was mo…
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PSALM xcvi. 6 261 Imperial edict for the delivery and burning of Luther's books. This was practically a condemnation in advance, and seemed to render Luther's presence unnecessary; but the Emperor tried to steer between the two parties by saying that Luther was summoned only for the purpose of having him recant. At We…
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III. Strength and Beauty. " Know ye not," says the Apostle, " that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? " The sanctuary of God is a human soul that is governed and moulded by God. Such a soul is His temple. Of this it is true that strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. In other wo…
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^ Florence Nightingale had that " excellent thing in woman " — a gentle voice. Lady Lovelace in her poem spoke of her friend's 266 STRENGTH AND BEAUTY " soft, silvery voice " ; but it could command, as well as charm, unless indeed it were the charm that commanded. " She scolds sergeants and orderlies all day long," w…
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^ Milton, in Paradise Lost, wrote these words about the sun- beams and the dew: "Morn advancing sowed the earth with orient pearl." And when, with this thought in our minds, we 272 LIGHT AND GLADNESS look up on a winter night to the starry sky, does that not seem like an immense concave field sown all over with light…
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Never I miss footing in the maze, No, — I have light nor fear the dark at all.^ 3. This figure of light sown implies something hidden and long waited for, yet certain at last ; even as the seed is buried in the soil, and " the husbandman hath long patience until he receive the early and the latter rain," and finally,…
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II. Sown Gladness. " Light and gladness " ! What a wonderful conception of the future portion of llie righteous does the Psalmist here give us! The two words, as is customary in the parallelism of Hebrew poetry, mean almost the same thing. The one is figurative, the other literal. The word " gladness " itself teaches…
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^ Froude reminds us how bright and happy and even humorous were the great heroes of the Eeforniation — Luther, Calvin, and Knox ; and yet they lived in times when tliere was far more to lament and to be ashamed of even than in ours ; they fought a battle for light and truth and liberty under far heavier discourage- men…
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PSALM xcvii. II 281 we have had to make some daring sacrifice of worldly advantage, some loss of position or friends rather than be false to ourselves and our convictions, and then God has revealed to us the delight that He takes in a brave man and in moral courage, and He puts a joy and liveliness into our whole natu…
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Spurgeou (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xviii. (1872), No. 1078 ; XXV. (1879), No. 1492 ; xlix. (1903), No. 2860. „ „ Evening hy Evening, 152. Voysey (C), Sermons, xviii. (1895), No. 34 ; xxv, (1902), No. 44 ; xxvii. (1904), No. 10. Christian World Pulpit, xxvii. 161 (M. G. Pearse) ; xxxvi. 218 (A. B. Bruc…
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^ If we want to know what it is to praise God, let us re- member such a chapter as the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, where Paul blesses God who has blessed him with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, and where he sees before him the whole counsel and purpose of the Divine election, o…
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290 ALL HIS BENEFITS gardens and fields, became g, widespread heap of sand and a desolation, as it is to this day.^ -' IIL All His Benefits. Of the benefits that David enumerates the first three are all negative: He forgives our sin, He heals the consequences of our sin, our diseases. He delivers us from destructio…
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Note how the Psalmist begins. He begins with iniquity. Where else could a sinful man begin ? The most needful of all things for a sinful man is to get rid of his sirf."! So the Psalmist begins here. This beginning is not peculiar to him, it is the common note of the Bible. In fact, we here come across one of the distin…
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lock told.^.'* 5 / - . <^ —-4^ U^ ,— *..,.-,*-y.«.«-i. ^ I remember one who had been for a long -time drifting towards an evil act which was certain to do more harm to others than to himself, but who had not as yet determined on flinging friends, society, work, good repute, his past and future, and God Himself, to the…
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IV. Crowning. " Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies." So far the Psalmist has been thinking of God's action as it is defined in relation to sin. Now his thoughts take a grander flight, and he thinks of the Divine action when sin is taken out of the way, and no longer presents a barrier to the fe…
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2. Tender mercies. — Mercy in itself is one of the grandest things in human nature. It is not mere feeling, it is feeling in action. It is not mere sympathy or pity, it is sympathy made alive and active. It is not pity, it is pity going forth into action, to bind up the broken-hearted, to comfort the sorrowful, to make…
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> J. B. Atlay, Bishop Enust Wilhcrforce, 162. ' James Iverach, Tli£ Other Side of Greatness, 133. PSALM cm. 1-5 301 and mistakable rapture — it is a very outburst of song — " Bless the Lord, 0 my soul ; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget not all his benefits." And in…
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He reraembereth that we are dust. — Ps. ciii. 13, 14. 1. " Like as a father." The history of religion shows that it has not been easy for men to think of God in that extremely simple and human fashion ; and yet, to Christians, no other way of thinking appears so obvious or so natural. It met us in our childhood, grew …
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^ " Pity lies at the core of all the great religions." The chapters of the Koran, all of them, begin with these words : " In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful." The vast religion of Buddha numbers five hundred million votaries, and pity is the keynote to it all,^ 3. The sense of God's fatherly compassio…
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3IO THE FATHER'S PITY side ; it puts its arms around you, so to speak, and in quivering tones says : " My brother, my sister, my child, this misfortune touches us both, for you are bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. Because you suffer I must suffer. In the name of our common humanity, in the name of God, let us t…
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1 T. G. Selby. 3ii THE FATHER'S PITY ^ Will you say to a mother, Why do you waste such love on t poor cliild ? Do you not see that he is a cripple, has 1 vaturt' of ttie spine, always will be acripi)le? See the little How creeping on his hands and knees ! The doctor says that le can never be strong; always will b…
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8. Who are they that experience this pity of God ? What does the text say ? " Like as a father pitieth his children, so the » T. G. Selby, The Qod of the Frail, 14, PSALM cm. 13, 14 315 Lord pitieth them that fear him." The same expression occurs in the eleventh verse: "As the heaven is high above the eartli, so grea…
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Tupholrae). Church Times, May 6, 1910 (H. S. Holland). Literary Churchman, xxxii. 316 (J. L. Spencer). 9*< The DAY'S Work. Man gfoeth forth unto his work And to his labour until the evening. — Ps. civ. 23. The psalm from which the text is taken is one of the most com- plete and impressive pictures of the universe …
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No early stroller through the streets has failed to observe with interest this awaking of a great city from its slumbers, this re- application of itself to all its manifold tasks and toils. And if he seeks an explanation of it all, the reason at bottom undoubtedly is that in no other way than by arising and working can…
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3. Work, then, is the significance of our manhood. We are those who present themselves to the earth in the eye of God as workers. We create a world of our own — the world of human society. We build a city, we organize a fellowship, we produce a wealth, which were not there until we called them into existence out of the…
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The trivial round, the common task, Would furnish all we ought to ask — Eoom to deny ourselves; a road To bring us daily nearer God. ^ " Ask me," she wrote, " to do something for your sake, something difficult, and you will see that I shall do it regularly, which is for me the most difficult thing of all." Let those w…
963 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.