PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Great Texts of the Bible — Volume 7
James Hastings · 189,784 words · 195 reading sections
Section 1
THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE EDITED BY THE REV. JAMES HASTINGS, D.D. EDITOR OP "THE EXPOSITORY TIMES" "THE DICTIONARY OP THE BIBLE' "THE DICTIONARY OP CHRIST AND THE GOSPELS" AND "THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS" JEREMIAH— MALACHI NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS EDINBURG…
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3. But to forsake the law of God is to forsake God. And here it is stated most emphatically that the people had forsaken God : " They have forsaken me." And in forsaking God they had forsaken the source of all good. They had turned their backs upon the Fountain of God's holiness and grace. Every road was well trodden e…
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T[ Although in his public life the Viceroy was of stern and unrelenting character and apparently indifferent to human life, the diary reveals in many places a tender heart and sympathetic nature. His devotion to his mother was most touching. Her last illness and death occurred in a distant province while he was immerse…
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II. Hewing out Bkoken Cisterns. 1. If the Fountain is forsaken we must have something to make up for God. We cannot turn our cravings away from the Father, and by the very turning find these cravings appeased. The delicate tendrils which have clung to the Almighty must seek their support elsewhere. Our spiritual inst…
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(2) We find in another part of the valley another earnest worker, who is hewing out a cistern of wealth. Now what shall we say to this man ? It will not serve any good purpose to call him hard names. You cannot scold a man out of any sin, still 1 R. H. Hodgson, Glad Tidings' 15. JEREMIAH ii. 13 11 less out of the si…
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JEREMIAH ii. 13 13 True rest consists not in the oft revying Of worldly dross; Earth's miry purchase is not worth the buying; Her gain is loss; Her rest but giddy toil, if not relying Upon her cross. How worldlings droyl for trouble ! That fond breast That is possessed Of earth without a cross has earth without a …
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JEREMIAH vi. 16 19 her outward and sensuous life. He was severely practical. It was not doctrine he was concerned for so much as life. He knew perfectly well that if you cross-questioned this people, you would find them orthodox. Indeed, he himself says as much. He says : " Though they say, the Lord liveth ; surely th…
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1 A. Chandler, Faith and Experience, 102. JEREMIAH vi. 16 21 the Father we are coming to know Him more and more intimately and fully. We cannot stand in the old paths in that sense. T[ There is no saint in the Congregational denomination held — and deservedly held — in higher honour than Richard Baxter, who suffered…
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1 A. C. Benson, The Silent Isle, 381. JEREMIAH vi. 16 23 God. It made it possible for men to find the old paths, the good way, and to walk therein. And so Jeremiah is at one with Jesus in offering rest of soul to those who find the old paths and walk in them. Only Jesus had the power, which Jeremiah had not, of givi…
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28 THE CALL OF LIFE solely and wholly by the sense that God had called him and predestined him. And that sense was so generally one of unmixed labour and pain that he is almost constantly found praying to be released from it. If Isaiah's watchword was: " Here am I — send me," Jeremiah's might have been, " I would be a…
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^| When a preacher has to say, " Who hath received our re- port ? " a true man's heart knows its own bitterness. The hopes of his day of ordination and the meagre results attained by all his labours go not well together. In the glory of youth the young man went, His heart with pride was stirred. They should yield, he…
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(3) There are hours when we wish to escape from ourselves. We begin by thinking that if we could change our lot we should be very happy and contented. We imagine that if we could only JEREMIAH ix. 2 33 get away into new scenes, it would be infinitely restful. But as we grow older, and perhaps wiser, we discover that,…
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The fierce confederate storm Of sorrow, barricaded evermore Within the walls of cities. Tf There is a little children's hymn which goes like this — Had I the wings of a dove I would fly, Far, far away, far away. If that is the use to which we would put our wings, it is an infinite mercy that they have never grown. W…
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It is quite true that religion gives a man something he cannot sacrifice to what some call patriotism — meaning by patriotism national pride or material advantage. But this is not patriotism. Unless a man loves something higher than these he cannot love his country wisely and worthily. He must do for his country what h…
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42 THE PRIDE OF JORDAN remonstrance and appeal. Conscious of his own rectitude and of the rectitude of God, he was for a moment caught in the outer circles of the whirlpool of questioning which has ever agitated the minds of God's oppressed ones, concerning the unequal distribution of earthly lots. Now, God answers s…
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From the beginning this has been the crux of the problem of suffering. It was not hard to understand suffering where there was sin. The mystery was rather on the other side, that so often the wicked seemed to escape their just punishment. But that the righteous should suffer while the wicked went scot-free, this seemed…
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T[ Drummond's exposition of revelation, as also of evolution, needs to be supplemented by only one remark which, when he wrote his articles [on science and religion in the Expositor and the Nineteenth Century], it was not possible to make with confidence. Eecent researches into the origins of the Old Testa- ment have p…
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JEREMIAH xii. 5 49 then how canst thou contend with horses ? and though in a land of peace thou art secure, yet how wilt thou do in the pride of Jordan ? " The phrase "the pride," or "the swelling of Jordan" may mean either of two things, perhaps both. It may refer to the floods which follow the rainy season, when th…
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JEREMIAH xii. 5 51 God's grace I will contend even with horses ; and I will go to the pride of Jordan though the jungle growl and snarl." This was the result on Jeremiah, and it was the result required. Only a heroic soul could do the heroic work needed by Israel and by God, and it was the greatest heroism of all that…
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1 J. R. Illingworth, Christian Character (ed. 1904), 37. JEREMIAH xii. 5 53 heroism ; they lose all dignity and peace of mind in dealing with the peddling mishaps of routine life, yet cherish the belief that they are prepared to take arms against a sea of troubles whenever it happens to break forth. It is a flatterin…
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JEREMIAH xii. 5 55 being wise, you have, of course, reckoned for the time when the golden bowl is broken, when no more life is to be drawn from the blood ? " Yes, I have insured my life ; they will be all right." They ! — yes, but you ? TJ The river " Jordan " had no bridges, and, as far as we read, very few boats. I…
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It appears to be an involuntary principle of our nature that we should acquire a tendency to repeat whatever we do often. This disposition or tendency we call habit. It is the effect of custom influencing all we do ; according to the old adage, " Use is second nature." And this tendency to repeat an action until it bec…
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II. The Power of Habit. 1. Habit gains power by every repetition of an act. Human gifts and faculties have a power of expansion. They increase and multiply. For example, money attracts money, learning increases learning, joy brings joy. It is so with goodness : good habits lead us to acquire still better habits, whil…
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Tj I have seen a photograph of a group of undergraduates, among whom was the late Bishop Creighton, and next to whom stood a man of brilliant gifts, of great scholastic attainments, one who was thought to be about to take a great part in the world, and yet who died a billiard-marker in a low public-house near Wapping, …
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T[ As you pass along the spacious nave of some ancient cathedral, and your eye rests upon the exquisite carving which adorns each arch and mullion and corbel, you might be disposed to think that so much art was no part of the original design, that what you saw and admired was the effect of skilful ornamentation, laid o…
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JEREMIAH xiii. 23 69 purity-habit, the truth-habit, the habits of faith, and hope, and love. Our receptive and expansive nature waits ready to incorporate all such pieties and virtues in its fibre and spontaneous movement. It is specially at the early stage that we have to bend our wills and drill our natural proclivi…
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(1) When once we are linked to Christ, that union breaks the terrible chain that binds us to the past. " All died." The past is broken as much as if we were dead. It is broken by the great act of forgiveness. Sin holds men by making them feel as if what has been must be — an awful entail of evil. In Christ we die to fo…
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And this was the way in which God endeavoured to cure the evil habits of His own people. All reforms had been on the surface only ; the evil was too deep-seated to be removed by temporary repentance. So long as they remained in the place where they were accustomed to do evil they could not learn to do well. But away fr…
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Let us note — I. The Original Design of the Potter. II. The Marring of the Vessel. III. The Final Result. I. The Original Design. 1. The text clearly teaches that God has a plan for every life, a pattern for every character, an ideal for every soul. God is the Almighty Potter ; and, in one sense, we are but clay in…
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1 J. A. Froude, Short Studies, ii. 8. JEREMIAH xvm. 4 81 charms and blessedness, yet it first distinctly reveals itself and its authority when it resists and condemns our personal desires and aims. Now it is this aspect of the Ideal as opposing us, commanding us, obliging us, which is the characteristic feature of ou…
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" Now what dost Thou fashion ? " Thy hand would not stay Untiring, resistless, without any sound, True, true to its Master, the wheel would go round. How plastic are we as we live in Thy hands ! Who, who as the Potter the Clay understands? Thy ways are a wonder, but oft, as a spark, Some hint of Thy meaning shines o…
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3. This clay failed to answer to the potter's design. " The vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter." Why was it marred ? There was no lack of skill ; no, but there was some gritty substance there, some stubborn resisting quality that would not yield to the deftness of the potter's hand. Hu…
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88 THE MARRED VESSEL haven't got a single good vase." The master's reply was, " Well, you have had your wages, haven't you ? Go on" They did go on, and shortly after they succeeded, and the celebrated vase was produced. So God persists till His purpose is achieved.1 2. " He made it again another vessel." The potter c…
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Then come to the dear Bedeemer, He'll cleanse you from every stain; By His wonderful love and mercy You shall surely rise again.1 3. When the clay has received its final shape from the potter's hands, it must be baked in the kiln, to keep it; and even then its discipline is not complete, for whatever colours are laid…
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Why hast Thou made me so, My Maker ? I would know Wherefore Thou gav'st me such a mournful dower; — Toil that is oft in vain, Knowledge that deepens pain, And longing to be pure, without the power? "Shall the thing formed aspire The purpose to require Of him who formed it ? " Make not answer thus ! Beyond the Pot…
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The prophet sees — I. An Ideal King — a Righteous Branch, having this title, " The Lord is our righteousness." II. National deliverance, when the fruits of righteousness shall be reaped in security and peace. "In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely." I. Righteousness Enthroned. " Behold, the…
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■fl The " name " is a brief and pointed censure upon a king whose character was the opposite of that described in these verses, yet who bore a name of almost identical meaning — Zedekiah, " Jehovah is my righteousness." The name of the last reigning JEREMIAH xxiii. 5, 6 101 Prince of the House of David had been a sta…
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JEREMIAH xxiii. 5, 6 103 stream cannot rise above its own source ; with all my trying I cannot rise above my own standard for myself, and that standard is marred by my sins, is limited by the fact that after all it is only part of me. It is just that that I want to get away from. I want to be lifted above myself. In m…
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^j A girl of twelve lay dying, and her mother said, " Are you afraid, my darling, to go and meet God ? " " Oh no," she replied, " I am not afraid ; I look to the justice of God to take me to heaven." The mother thought her child must be wandering, so she said, " My darling, you mean His pity, His love." " No, mother," …
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2. The greatness and prosperity of any people rest ultimately on character. " Thy people shall be all righteous " was Isaiah's great dream. The deep secret of their victories was that of the enthronement of Jehovah ; and resulting from it the people were seen as all righteous, and consequently the nation was seen as an…
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T| The remotest fibre of human action, from the policy of empires to the most insignificant trifle over which we waste an idle hour or moment, either moves in harmony with the true law of our being, or is else at discord with it. A king or a parliament enacts a law, and we imagine we are creating some new regulation, t…
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1 Ruskin, Stones of Venice, vol. ii chap. ii. § 87 ( Works, xi. 116). Everlasting Love. \ JER.-MAL. — 8 Literature. Armitage (W. J.), The Fruit of the Spirit, 11. Curling (E.), The Transfiguration, 102. Davies (T.), Sermons, ii. 53. Hutton (R. E.), The Crown of Christ, ii. 253. Landels (W.), Until the Day Brea…
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Then Jehovah makes answer : Again will I build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel : Again shalt thou take thy tabrets and go forth in the dances of them that make merry; Again shalt thou plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; while they that plant shall enjoy the fruit.1 2. But in a still de…
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4. There is nothing that so challenges the attention of the non- Christian peoples as the statement that God is love and that He loves them and desires their redemption and their present and eternal well-being. There is nothing that impresses them as this does. Missionaries say that people who were disposed to shut the…
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1. Love is everlasting. — It is from the first to the last. Love was, before love was expressed, as design is in the mind of the architect before he produces his drawings, and as harmony in the 1 Walter C. Smith. 122 EVERLASTING LOVE soul of the composer of music before he has written a musical passage. From everlas…
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I cannot go Where Universal Love smiles not around, Sustaining all yon orbs and all their suns; From seeming evil still educing good, And better thence again, and better still, In infinite progression.1 1 James Thomson. 124 EVERLASTING LOVE 3. To the Divine love there is absolutely no end. — Never having begun, it w…
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1 T. Davies. i26 EVERLASTING LOVE 2. Nothing but lovingkindness can draw men to goodness. No coercive force — only the force of love — can bring the sinner into repentance and faith — the repentance that shall not be repented of, and the faith that will secure the favour of God. It would be an easy matter for God to …
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1 E. Curling, The Transfiguration, 103. 8 M. G. Pearse, Parables and Pictures, 52. 128 EVERLASTING LOVE Tj Let me link together detached sentences from the Word, that in their associations we may discern what is meant by the depth of the love of God. " The high and lofty One whose name is holy." . . . "He is gone to …
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TJ If we are to get at the heart of Jeremiah's meaning we had ' better change this word " covenant " into the word " religion," and • the full significance of the prophet's startling teaching will begin to dawn upon us. That is a fair enough equivalent. The word " religion " does not occur in the Old Testament, but the…
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1 Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, ii. 37}. i34 THE NEW COVENANT many centuries afterwards would be drawn out into the light under Apostolic direction ; but the solemn character of the trans- action was there and then profoundly felt. And at later periods of Israel's history this covenant was again and again…
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1 Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, v. 151. 136 THE NEW COVENANT She feels the Sun is hid but for a night, She spies the summer thro' the winter bud, She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls, She hears the lark within the songless egg, She finds the fountain where they wail'd "Mirage"! These …
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One cannot read the words, " I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts," without thinking of the tables of stone which occupy so prominent a place in the history of the Sinaitic covenant. And the writing on the heart suggests very forcibly the defects of the ancient covenant, in so far as it…
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JEREMIAH xxxi. 31-34 141 could domesticate itself in the West. But the law of Truth is nowhere from home; the thirst for God is part of the heritage of the race ; and it is to these that the gospel makes its appeal. As a revelation of God to the soul of man, Christianity is the absolute Truth, the universal Faith. Th…
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. 1 Phillips Brooks, Essays and Addresses, 226. JEREMIAH xxxi. 31-34 143 is it that is central in the New Testament ? It is the cross of Jesus Christ. And why does that stand in the midst ? It is because we have here the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. That death of the Son of God in our room and stead …
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changed." 147 148 THE DISCIPLINE OF CHANGE T[ Jeremiah applies to nations the dictum of Polonius — Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits, and apparently suggests that ruin and captivity were necessary elements in the national discipline of Moab — " Moab hath been undisturbed from his youth ; He hath settled o…
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Tf Similar contrasts might be instanced among the states and nations of our own time ; in China, for example, and England ; one standing motionless for long ages, and becoming an effete civilization, absolutely hopeless as regards the promise of a regenerated future ; the other emptied from vessel to vessel, four times…
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T| As the wine standing on its dregs or lees contracts a taste from the lees, and must therefore be decanted or drawn off, so as to have no contact longer with their vile sedimentary matter, so we, in like manner, need to be separated from everything pertaining to the former life, to be broken up in our expectations, a…
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1 A Living Witness : The Life of Adele Kamm (1914), 115. 2 W. M. Taylor, The Limitations of Life, 367. JEREMIAH xlviii. n 155 I would not ask Thee that my days Should flow quite smoothly on and on : Lest I should learn to love the world Too well, ere all my time was done. I would not ask Thee that my work Should n…
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Tf When I tell you that war is the foundation of all the arts, I mean also that it is the foundation of all the high virtues and faculties of men. It is very strange to me to discover this ; and very dreadful — but I saw it to be quite an undeniable fact. The common notion that peace and the virtues of civil life flou…
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Light human nature is too lightly tost And ruffled without cause, — complaining on, Restless with rest — until, being overthrown, It learneth to lie quiet. Let a frost Or a small wasp have crept to the innermost Of our ripe peach, or let the wilful sun Shine westward of our window, — straight we run A furlong's …
916 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.