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THE GREAT TEXTS 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 ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS"
DEUTERONOMY— ESTHER
NEW YORK
CHARLES SGRIBNER'S SONS EDINBURGH : T. & T. CLARK
1911
CONTENTS
TOPICS.
Remember all the Way The Good Will of a Lifetime God Who is our Home . The Death and Burial of Moses The Excellence of Things Ordinary The Choice of a Master As FOR Me and My House The Sin of Meroz Unconscious Loss A Woman's Choice A Greeting in Harvest The Call of Samuel The Stone of Help 'Friendship Thou art the Man Repentance and Retribution . An Exceeding Bitter Cry The Well by the Gate Hewing and Building . Halting between Two Opinions A Still Small Voice Naaman .... The Visible and the Invisible Knowledge and Service The Strength of Joy . Opportunity
PAGB 1
33
57 79 113 133 151 167 193 215 235 249 273 289 309 327 347 361 379 409 429 457 471 493 505 529
VI
CONTENTS
VIII. 2
XXXIII. 16 XXXIII. 27
XXXIV. 5, <
TEXTS.
Deuteronomy.
35
59 81
V. 12 XXIV. 15 XXIV. 15
Joshua.
115 135 153
V. 23 XVI. 20
Judges.
169 195
I. 16, 17 II. 4
Ruth.
217 237
III. 10 VII. 12
1 Samuel.
251 275
2 Samuel.
I. 26.
XII. 7 .
XII. 13, 14 XVIII. 33 . XXIII. 15 .
291 311 329 349 363
VI. 7 . XVIII. 21 . XIX. 11, 12
CONTENTS
1 Kings.
vu
PAGE
. 381 . 411 . 431
V. 13
VI. 17
2 Kings.
459 473
XXVIII. 9
1 Chronicles.
495
VIII. 10
Nehemiah.
507
IV. 14
Esther.
531
Remember all the Way.
DEUT.-ESTH. — 1
Literature.
Austin (G. B.), The Beauty of Goodness, 206.
Binney (T.), King's Weighhouse Sermons, 1st Ser., 362.
Brown (J. B.), The Soul's Exodiis, 306.
Burns (J. D.), Memoir and Remains, 409.
Gibbon (J. M.), The Image of God, 145.
Jones (J. S.), The Invisible Things, 51.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Deuteronomy-1 Samuel, 4. „ A Year's Ministry, 1st Ser., 151.
Morrison (G. H.), Flood-Tide, 179.
Pearse (M. G.), Parables and Pictures, 201.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xl. (1894), No. 2345.
Talmage (T. de W.), Sermons, iv. 312.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xiv. (1876), No. 1029.
Wilson (S. L.), Helpful Words for Daily Life, 385.
Christian World Pulpit, i. 417 (Stoughton) ; iv, 397 (Warmington) ; V. 1 (Brown) ; xxxvii. 88 (Burns) ; xlii. 22 (Hall) ; li. 212 (Home) ; Hi. 91 (Milburn) ; liv. 65 (Watkinson) ; Ivi. 328 (Denney); Ivii. 65 (Rogers); Ixxvi. 401 (Griffith-Jones); Ixxviii. 65 (Cadman).
Churchman's Pulpit, ii. 410 (Jones).
Clergyman's Magazine, New Ser., iv. 38 (Proctor).
Homiletic Review, lix, 299 (Selbie).
Remember all the Way.
Thou shalt remember all the v/ay which the Lord thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his command- ments, or no. — Deut. viii. 2.
The Book of Deuteronomy might very well be called a book of remembrance. It was written much later than the time when the events recorded in it occurred; and it was written to brino- the people to remembrance in a time of calamity and apostasy. The aim of the writer was to show the nation what great things the Lord had done for them in the days gone by, and, by stirring them in this way to gratitude, to stir them to nobler and higher service of the God whom many of them had forsaken. And, of course, the theme of the book is the theme of many of the other books of the Bible. ' God is constantly calling His people to recollection — to think of the past, to realize what has been done, and out of the past to gather lessons of inspiration and hope for the future.
I.
Eemembek.
1. Memory is at once the condition and the proof of our self- identity. We should not know ourselves in any real sense had we not power to recall the past. Apart from memory, our minds would be a blank, except to the sensation of the passing moment. Knowledge, mental growth, even thought itself would be im- possible. But as we are constituted, each experience as it goes leaves its sediment in the mind, and is unified in the process with all that has been and is capable of being revived in the form of an image when the impression itself has ceased. This seems a very simple fact, yet it is one that lies at the root of all our
4 REMEMBER ALL THE WAY
mental and spiritual life. By means of it the past lives on in the present ; by means of it the far-off is brought near, and made a part of our conscious life here and now ; by means of it we can reproduce our former experiences and converse with the ghosts of what we were ten, twenty years ago ; by means of it we can call up the slowly vanishing image of the friends who have long since passed away from the stage of life. More, with- out this faculty we could not come into touch with God Himself — Him in whom are the all-knowing mind and the fadeless memory — and our highest spiritual exercise, next to present fellowship with Him, is to " utter the memory of his great goodness and sing of his righteousness."