PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 6
James Hastings · 192,063 words · 198 reading sections
Section 1
f '■ -■T-; /-y - 'Vn i^ Nov. 3, 1911* vu... — £54=1 .H3S V, 6 Copy I THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE EDITED BY THE REV. V' 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 " ISAIAH NEW YO…
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The third verse is an illustration. It shows the ignorance of the children in contrast to the knowledge of the domestic animals. L The Knowledge of the Domestic Animals. " The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib." 1. It is knowledge of their 02vner. They both know and acknowledge him. He on his part …
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6 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE thee " (Deut. viii. 5). It was this, above all, that they were ignorant of. They mistook the chastening of a father for the wounds of an enemy. 2. Their ignorance was due also to want of consideration — My people doth not consider." (1) He would have them stop and think. When the rich y…
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The training of the soul is scarcely recognised as any proper part of public education. Nor is the place of the public teacher always efficiently supplied in the home. We seem to expect that our children should do well naturally. 1 We are sometimes greatly pained when we detect in our young children pride, cruelty, fa…
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World — how it walled about Life with disgrace, Till God's own smile came out ; That was thy face ! It is sometimes said that certain men have a natural genius for religion. What they have is natural ability which, when taken possession of by the Spirit of God, makes them eminently successful as witnesses or saints. …
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^ E. H. Griggs, Moral Education, p. 190. ISAIAH 17 2. Take the virtue of sincerity. Some men are naturally theatrical ; they constantly catch themselves making postures ; their life is vitiated and disfigured by endless pretence, affectation, and unreality. Through repeated and bitter castigations of the soul, men ma…
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The mission of the prophet was to sweep out of the life of his people those contradictions between religious profession and habitual practice which in every age are the besetting danger of all those who live in conventional worship, and with what we might call a tame conscience. The Hebrew prophet is, above all things,…
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2. The next " Come " I will call the Gracioics " Come." It is in the 1st chapter of Isaiah, and the 18th verse: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord : though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Perhaps there is a boy or girl…
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IF I was once present with a clergyman who had a very little boy. His name was Georgie. He was playing on the rug. He had a very good father. He said to him, "Papa, I wish Jesus would come ; oh, it would be very nice ! " His father said to him, " What if Jesus were to come and find you in one of your pets — what would …
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ii. An Invitation to Reason. Our text gives us the highest form of appeal — the appeal to reason. In the earlier pages of the Bible, the appeals of God to sinning men are more dramatic, tragic, in form. They are addressed to the imagination, the emotion, as if men were yet only spiritual children. In Genesis, it is th…
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II There are Christians in all parts of the country who are secretly afraid of reason. They do not like to think them- selves, they see no necessity for thinking, they feel that if a man thinks about the doctrines of his faith he is almost certain to become a heretic. The man who thinks is to them what Cassius was to J…
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1 C. E. Jefferson. ISAIAH 33 IF Often the very men who make the loudest profession of acting reasonably have the very least reason in their action. I try to convince a certain man that the sunset is beautiful. I say, "Oh, look at it! Could anything be more glorious!" And he stands with his back to the sunset and will…
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When a responsible being has made a wrong use of his ^ Bishop J. Percival. ISAIAH 35 powers, nothing is more reasonable than that he should call himself to account for this abuse. Nothing, certainly, is more necessary. There can be no amendment for the future until the past has been cared for. But that this examina…
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IF Two anecdotes may be given of the way in which the word " conscience " is understood by children. A Sunday - school teacher asked the question of her class, "What is that within you which makes you uneasy when you have done wrong?" ISAIAH 37 After some hesitation, a small boy with a healthy appetite answered, in a…
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2. God reasons with men on the basis of His ovm Fatherhood, 40 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE You will see how in this chapter He reminds all men of it, gives men proofs of it, tells men He has fulfilled it in relation to them. He says, " You are not simply My creatures. You are more — you are nearer to Me. I have done…
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42 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider " (Isa. i. 2, 3). And of whom speaketh He this ? Not of Israel only. Which of us can recall an hour of life unmarked by some blessing from God ? Mercies have been showered upon us. Blessings have been …
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^ J. Vaughan. 44 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE none left upon you. I will be as sternly just to you as a righteous and holy God must be, yet I shall not smite you, for I see nothing in you, or upon you, which I ought to smite.' 0 wondrous miracle of mercy and grace ! " This sequel to the reasoning is surprising enoug…
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IF All great dramatists and novelists insist upon the fact that sinners cannot cleanse themselves from the inevitable stain which sin always leaves. Shakespeare has painted this truth in its most glaring colours in Macbeth. Macbeth speaks after the murder — " Whence is that knocking ? How is't with me, when every nois…
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(2) Another function of pardon, and perhaps the most important of all in the reformation of character, is that it removes, or rather is itself, as its name implies, the removal of sin. The scarlet shall become as snow, the crimson as wool. The figure is suggestive, being the colour of blood, and blood the emblem of cri…
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68 54 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE a place of worship consecrated to the promulgation of the gospel of peace ; I will support in every pulpit an able teacher of righteousness, so that on every Sabbath morning the chime on one hill should answer the chime on another round the world's wide circumference, and the voice …
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56 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE stun ; where you positively felt the agony of the biting shells as they tore their way into the flesh, the crunching of the bones under the wheels of the artillery, the shrieks and yells of stricken men and terrified horses, the glare of relentless hate in the eyes of those who stabbed …
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ISAIAH 59 become separated from the rest by taking the wrong side of a ravine, which they expected soon to terminate, but which suddenly deepened into an impassable chasm. The officer in command signalled to the party an order to return. They mis- took the signal for a command to charge ; the brave fellows answered wi…
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1[ In the work of covering the waste lands of vast colonies with ordered homes ; in the wards of hospitals, where so much is offered to doctor and nurses that calls out the finest nerve, the steadfast resolution, the clearest self-sacrifice ; in efforts spent in the task of winning to happiness and love the thousands w…
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When the Lord laid hold of Zacchseus, He did not destroy his shrewdness and despoil him of his foresight and enterprise. The redeemed Zacchseus was just as shrewd as the unredeemed Zacchseus, but the shrewdness had been transformed. It was no longer a poisoned sword ; it had become a ploughshare used in the general wel…
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and the preacher. Although it will be taken here as a single great text, there is enough for a sermon in every verse of it, enough sometimes in a part of a verse. It has received many titles. The most popular title is, " The Making of a Prophet." Perhaps that title should be enlarged now into "The Making of a Miss…
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But — ah, there comes this black and dreadful " but " — But when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction. There came a day — probably some day of high festival, when he made a feast to the lords and chief captains ; and the power of the wine, and the power of a yet more intoxicating flattery, prompted …
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We might even fancy, vdthout unduly stretching fancy, that Isaiah, who, though not yet a prophet, appears to have been a citizen of high rank, and perhaps familiar at the court, had this vision presented to him a little after he had come out of the royal chamber where the deceased monarch lay in state. Perhaps he had b…
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• it is God who lives. God has continually to take away our little kings, the weak repositories of our trust, in order to show that we have given a false emphasis to life. He takes away that which we regarded as the keystone, in order to reveal to us the real binding-force in life. I have known Him come to a nation and…
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ii. The Vision. " I saw the Lord." 1. The prophet had lost a hero and found his Lord. "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord." He had anticipated that when the good King Uzziah died the linch-pin would be removed, and the car of the nation's life would topple over into confusion and disaster. All Isaiah's …
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IF It is singular how little place we take in the world, how little we feel it needful to take any place ; how we are like mere grains of sand, the sport of the wind, each one of us without inherent force, not taking a place, but rolled into a place by the forces about us, or by the mere dead weight of gravity — pushed…
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H To see "also the Lord" is alike the secret of steadfastness, and the guarantee of that knowledge in the midst of perplexity which alone liberates from fretful anxiety and unbelief, and leads to right choice and wise action. And to those who seek Him, He is ^ S. Oox, in The Expositor, 2nd Ser., ii. p. 25. ISAIAH 8i …
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^ F. D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings, p. 221. a J. Parker, The People's Bible, xiv. p, 283. ISAIAH 83 There in all shame and agony He hangs stricken and smitten. Surely, " He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are…
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(1) I have frequently heard reference to my own vocation as a " sacred calling," says Mr. Jowett, but I have rarely, if ever, heard the same sober phrase applied to the work of the baker or tent-maker, or even to the work of the city councillor or the members of the House of Commons. But the seamless robe of the Lord i…
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V. The Seraphim. " Above him stood the seraphim." 1. The seraphim are not mentioned elsewhere, and the origin and meaning of the name can only be supplied by conjecture. It must suffice to say that they appear here as the most exalted ministers of the Divine Being, in immediate proximity to Himself, and give expressi…
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IF The eldest daughter of Faith is Eeverence. We remember how Moses acted at the Burning Bush : he went up to it at first merely from curiosity, but as soon as he heard the voice of God • calling to him out of the fire, "Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God." Without reverence of heart there can be no…
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We can have little difficulty in discovering the motive from which the seraphim act. We see at once that it is love — the love of God which ever moves them. They fly away on swift wing to do God's will, but they ever return to the throne. That is the place of their rest ; there they desire to dwell ; and they dwell the…
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» r. B. Meyer. 94 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE prophets saw vindicated in their deliverance from tyranny or oppression : " The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations " ; or, " And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall show myself holy in you before their eyes." And so it is …
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96 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE into the spirit of help ; but the enthusiasm of holiness makes the spirit of help the spirit of redemption. It not only consecrates the old, it creates a new spirit within us. 1[ It has been the song of the Church in hovel and palace, in the leafy groves and in the magnificent cathedra…
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came in to examine our tickets, and I thought to myself, you will never be able to see whether they have been punctured aright. As I watched, curious to notice, he touched a little spring on his 7 98 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THR BIBLE breast, and iu a tiny globe of glass a beautiful glow of electric light shone out. Man…
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IT Smoke is usually associated with God's wrath. But here the smoke that filled the house is hardly to be regarded as a symbol of the dark side of the self-manifesting God coming into view and His anger against sin. Analogies for such an interpretation of smoke in the house seem wanting. The cloud of smoke is rather th…
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2. " I am undone." — What gave Isaiah this feeling ? (l^-^irefe was the conviction of unworthiness. This man, who of all Israel seemed to be the purest and sweetest, is the 1 P. T. Forsyth. ISAIAH 103 man that bows the lowest and is most convinced of sin. God's children need to learn that lesson too. He had done goo…
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ISAIAH 105 than once known this particular form of sin to be killed outright in one day; and whereas there are other besetting sins which, even when a man has been pardoned, cling to him for a lifetime, very often this one is got quit of in one hour, and never comes back again. ^ IT " I am a man of unclean lips." In …
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ISAIAH 107 2r^The immediate effect of the vision on Isaiah was an over- powering consciousness of his sinfulness, and a fear of instant death at the hand of God. It was apparently a universal belief among the ancient Hebrews that the sight of God would be instant death to a man. We see this clearly in the fear of Gide…
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No one of us indeed would question in words our Lord's immutable Deity. No one would question that He came to us 1 W. G. Jordan. ISAIAH 109 1 in the Father's name, to reveal the Father to us. Yet is it not true that, practically, we are all tempted to think of Him as He moved about among men under the limitations of…
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merely shrewd politicians have looked and listened and put all their visible forces into their own measures and methods. The ^ H. C. O. Lanchester, in Hastings' Single- Volume Dictionary of the Bible, p. 55U. ISAIAH III statesmen have looked and listened also, but with the unseen power of truth and right and God ; …
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It is this swift and simple domestic process which Isaiah now sees substituted for the slow and intricate ceremonial of the temple — a seraph with a glowing stone in his hand, vnth tongs had he taken it off the altar. And yet the prophet feels this only as a more direct expression of the very same idea with which the e…
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^ J. Adams, Sermons in Syntax, p, 204. ii6 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE is totally irrelevant to the laying of sacrifices on the altar-fira To lay on the altar is to give up to God — to make wholly His. Here, then, the angel says to Isaiah in substance this : " Thy sin-defiled nature " (" lips ") " I lay on God's alt…
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IF There is a hymn of Newton, eight stanzas, " In Evil long I took Delight," which I call " Two Looks." The stanza, " I saw One hanging on a tree," introduces the first. The other is intro- ' R. C. Trench, Sermons New and Old, p. 106. ri8 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE duced by the words, " A second look He gave," and…
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1 R. F. Coyle. 120 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE This human cry is often a challenge to God. " There is no God, or if there is He does not care." It is really God's challenge to us. " God has been preparing His answer ; just as in the hidden laboratory of nature the coal has been slowly prepared for the world's need o…
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^ Henry Haigh. 122 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE Believe, he says, that life is worth living, and your belief will half create the fact. The "scientific proof" that you are right may not be clear before the day of judgment (or some stage of Being which that expression may serve to symbolise) is reached. But the faithf…
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IT There is a famous physician in London to-day who tells that when he had finished his medical course in Edinburgh he was offered an appointment for which he felt himself unfit. He called on one of the professors. " You feel youi'self unfit for it ? " said the professor ; " then you are the man for it." Paul was unfit…
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The Gift of a Son. Literature. Brooke (S. A.), The Old Testament and Modern Life, 303. Brown (J. Baldwin), Risen Christ the King of Men, 325. Calthrop (G.), The Lost Sheep Found, 295. Carter (T. T.), The Spirit of Watchfulness, 35. Davies (J. A.), Seven Words of Love, 78. Dewhurst (E. M.), The King and His Serva…
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Still, just as Isaiah's prophecy was made to the faithful Eemnant in Israel, so the fulfilment is only to those who receive Him. " He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." IT On the centenary of the birth of George Stephenson the…
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He understood the last line, and he waited for the minister in the vestry. " Sir," he said, " you read from the Psalm Book, ' None ISAIAH 133 perish that Him trust.' Is that true ? " The man's heart was opened. Often afterwards as he pursued his business and passed through the little town he went to see the minister.…
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He came as Prince of Peace to the Eemnant, to His own; not to those who cry " Peace, peace," when there is no peace, but to those only who find peace through the blood of His Cross. In three ways He makes peace : — (1) By making God and man one in His Person — by becoming flesh and dwelling among us ; (2) by making man…
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2. But when the prophet tells us that in the Kingdom of Christ a little child leads the wolf and the leopard and the lion, as well as the lamb and the kid and the calf, he cannot simply mean that an innocent babe may have more power over the brutes than a grown man. He also means, no doubt, that in proportion as Christ…
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Just to be good. This is enough — enough ! Oh, we who find sin's billows wild and rough, Do we not feel how more than any gold Would be the blameless life we led of old ? Ah ! though we miss All else but this. To be good is enough. It is enough — Enough — just to be good ! To lift our hearts where they are understood…
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Bonar (A. A.), Wayside Wells, 97. Brooks (P.), The More Abundant Life, 122. Ingram (W. C), Happiness in the Spiritual Life, 98. Little (J.), The Lay -Spring, 175. Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Isaiah i.-xlviii., 64. „ The Secret of Power, 212. Christian World Pulpit, viii. 408 (Maclaren) ; Ixxvii. 68 (Guttery). Co…
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3. It is Endowment. This is the positive side of salvation. Besides escape from the penalty, besides deliverance from the tyranny of sin, there is the gift of holiness. The love of God is shed abroad in the heart. The sinner walks in newness of life. The endowment is in one word the Holy Spirit. Then the fruit of the S…
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And now I live in Him. III. The Drawing of Water. How are we to draw water from the wells of salvation ? 1. By Prayer. And prayer is asking. To the Samaritan woman Jesus said, " Thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." Prayer is coming. To the crowds in the Temple He said, "Let h…
938 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.