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THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
We must preach more upon the great texts
of the Scriptures, the tremendous passages
whose vastnesses almost terrify us as we
approach them.
J. H. JOWETT.
THE GREAT T®|gl> OF THE BIBLE
EDITED BY THE REV.
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"
GENESIS to NUMBERS
NEW YORK
CHARLES SGRIBNER'S SONS
EDINBURGH : T. & T. CLARK
1911
/
CONTENTS
TOPICS.
rAGB
The Creation and the Creator ..... 1
Let There be Light
. 25
In the Image op God .
. 43
Fellowship .
. 69
The Conflict of the Ages
. 89
The Tree of Life
111
Am I MY Brother's Keeper?
129
Walking with God
149
The Kainbow
. 165
The Proving of Abraham
. 181
The Bartered Birthright
. 201
Jacob's Vision
217
Spiritual Wrestling
. 229
Shiloh
. 245
The Burning Bush
259
The Eternal Name
275
Forward !
. 289
Life in God's Presence
301
Unconscious Glory
319
The Continual Fire
. 331
The Scapegoat .
351
Come with Us
367
Look and Live .
387
The Death to Die
. 409
Sin the Detective
429
vi
CONTENTS
L 1
I. 2, 3
I. 26, 27 III. 8, 9 m. 15
III. 24
IV. 9 V. 24
IX. 13
XXII. 1, 2
XXV. 34
XXVIII. 16, 17
XXXII. 24
XLIX. 10
TEXTS.
Genesis.
PAGII
3
27
45
71
91
113
131
151
167
183
203
219
231
247
VI. 18
XVI. 22
Exodus.
III. 2
• . - • .
. 261
III. 13, 14 .
• •
. 277
XIV. 15
.
. 291
XXXIII. 14
. .
. 303
XXXIV. 29
Leviticus.
. 321
333 353
Numbers.
X. 29-31 .... XXI. 8, 9 (St. John's Gospel iii. 14, 15) XXIII. 10 ....
XXXII. 23 ....
369 S89 411 431
The Creation and the Creator.
GKN.-NUM. — I
Literature.
Alford (H.), Qtubee Ghapel Sermons, iv. 1 .
Bacon (L. W.), The Simplicity that is in Ghritt, 196.
Brandt (J. L.), Soul Sa/uing, 41.
Brooke (S. A.), Sermons, i. 222.
Flint (R.), Sermxma and Addresses, 56.
Forbes (A. P.), Sermons on the Grace of God, 183.
Fotheringliani (D. R.), The Writing on the Sky, 1.
Gibson (E. C. S.), Messages from the Old Testament, 1.
Hiley (R. W.), A Year's Sermons, i. 85.
Kingsley (C), The Gospel of the Pentateucht 1.
Liddon (H. P.), University Sermon*, ii. 38.
„ Sermons at St. Paul's, 1.
Lockyer (T. F.), The Inspirations of the Christian Life, 1. Middleton (W.), Alpha and Omega, 15. Parker (J.), City Temple Pulpit, vii. 3, 128.
„ The City Temple, i. (1872) 56.
Pattison (T. H.), The South Wind, 275. Pearse (M. Q.), Some Aspects of the Blessed Life, 17. Reicbel (C. P.), Sermons, 143. Selby (T. Q.), The God of the Patriarchs, 23. Shore (T. T.), Som^ Difficulties of Belief, 103. Terry (G. F.), The Old Theology in the New Age, 43. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xv. (1877) No. 1034. Waller (C. B.), Two Sermons, 1. Wilberforce (B.), The Hope that is in Me, 193. Wilson (J. M.), Rochdale Sermons, 79. Christian Age, xxxv. 306 (Growden). Christian World Pulpit, xii. 333 (Peabody) ; xvii. 249 (Gibberd) ; xxvii.
123(Taft); xlv. 108 (Law); 1. 211 (Ryle) ; Ixi. 212 (Jones); Ixix.
92 (M'Cleery) ; Ixxii. 307 (Shelford) ; Ixxiii. 133 (Fotheringham). Church of England Pulpit, Ix. 142 (Lightfoot) ; Ixi. 223 (Jackson) ; Ixiii.
118 (Shelford), 130 (Fotheringham). Churchman's Pulpit (Trinity Sunday), ix. 270 (Shelford) ; (Sermons to
the Young) xvi. 100 (Vaughan). Preacher's Magaaine, ii. (1891) 120 (Watson).
The Creation and the Creator.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.— Gen. i. i.
This is a sublime sentence with which the Bible opens. Will the sentences that follow be in keeping with the musical throb and stately massiveness of these opening words ? Even when we regard the book simply as a monument of literature we find it impossible to conceive a more appropiiate introduction than this : " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Yet the end is not less majestic than the beginning: " And I saw a new heaven and a new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away."
^ How should we approach the study of a book which opens and closes with words of such sublimity? There is a sentence or two in the preface to John Wesley's first volume of sermons, in which the great evangelist gives us the secret of his method of Bible-study. " Here am I," he says, " far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone ; only God is here. In His presence I open, I read His Book ; for this end — to find the way to heaven. Does anything appear dark or intricate ? I lift my heart to the Father of Lights. I then search after and consider parallel passages of Scripture, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. I meditate thereon with aU the attention and earnestness of which my mind is capable. And what I thus learn, that I teach." To Wesley, then, there were two great realities — the visible Book, and its invisible but ever-present Author ; and to a man of his training and susceptibilities the one would have been an enigma without the other. He saw God at the beginning of every section of Holy Scripture.