V. ^
Copy i
THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
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 ENCYCLOPiGDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS"
ST. MARK
NEW YORK
CHARLES SGRIBNER'S SONS EDINBURGH : T. & T. CLARK
1910
CONTENTS
TOPICS.
The Beginning of the Gospel
The Temptation .
A Model Sermon
The Gift of the Sabbath
An Eternal Sin .
Desire and Duty
The Carpenter .
Retirement for Rest .
Admiration or Adoration
A World for a Life .
Faith and Doubt
The Little Children .
One Thing Thou Lackest
Believe and Receive
The Two Commandments
Not Far from the Kingdom
All that She Had
A Ministering Woman and a Grateful Saviour
When they had Sung a Hymn
The Prayer in Gethsemane .
Watch and Pray
Bearing Christ's Cross.
Christ's Commission to His Church
The Crowned Saviour .
1 19 67 91 115 133 147 163 185 197 209 227 257 277 295 333 351 369 389 409 433 453 477 495
Vlll
CONTENTS
TEXTS.
St. Mark.
I.
I. I.
11.
III.
V.
VI.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
X.
XI.
XII.
XII.
XII.
XIV.
XIV.
XIV.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
XVI.
1 .
12, 13
14, 15
27 .
28-30
18-20
3
31 .
37 . 36,37 24 .
14 . 21 . 24 . 29-31 34 . 41-44 8 . 26 . 36 .
38 . 21 .
15 . 19 .
The Beginning of tue Gospel.
ST. MARK — I
Literature.
Alexander (J. A.), The Gospel of Jesus Christ, 7.
Alexander (W.), The Leading Ideas oj the Gospels, 51.
Bernard (T. D.), The Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament, 30
Ilort (F. J. A.), Sermons on the Books of the Bible, 95.
„ Village Sermons, 1st Ser., 221.
Lewis (E. W.), The Unescapeahle Christ, 110. Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Mark i.-viii., 1. Selbie (W. B.), Aspects of Christ, 39. Simon (D. W.), Twice Born, 232. Thompson (H.), Concionalia, 80. Christian World Pulpit, Ixv. 371 (Morgan) ; Ixxvii. 17 (Scott
Holland). Church Times for January 7, 1910 (Scott Holland)
The beginning of the gospel.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. — i. i.
I.
The Beginning.
1. The Gospel had a beginning. With reverent and / affectionate .interest we look back to the beginnings of those things which possess our allegiance as established powers, or are daily enjoyed as familiar blessings. The thought that they had a beginning, that there was once a time when they were not, gives a freshness to the feelings with which we regard them ; while the comparison of the state of commence- ment with the state of perfection brings with it a natural pleasure, in marking the tendencies and the tokens of all that has happened since. No words can open the heart to these impressions so powerfully as those which have just been uttered. "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God," places us at the opening of the mystery of godli- ness, of the salvation of the world, of the glory which fills the heavens, and of the Kingdom which endures for ever.
2. What does St. Mark mean by the beginning of the 2- ' Gospel ?^~^Professor Menzies thinks that he regards the whole
) earthly life of Jesus as the beginning of the Gospel. For, he I says, "to the Apostles the earthly life of Jesus was not the^^JS^ I main part of the Gospel. His life" in heaven at God's right hand, His presence with His people through His Spirit, and His second coming to judgment, these bulked much more largely in the preaching, not only of Paul, but of all the Apostles, than His ministry on earth." ^ If this opinion is correct, the opening
1 The Earliest Gospel, 57.
3
-/
4 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
words of St. Mark would correspond with St. Luke's opening words in the Acts : " The former treatise I made, 0 Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was received up." / I But it is more natural to take the preaching of the Baptist las the beginning. This is the beginning of the Gospel accord- ing to St^ Peter, " The word," says St. Peter, " which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, — that word began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached" (Acts x. 36, 37); and St. Paul in presenting to the Jews " the word of this salvation," dates its proclamation from the time " when John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel " (Acts xiii. 24). Thus each of the Evangelists has a different " beginning." St. Matthew sees it in the ancestry and birth of the Messiah ; St. Luke, in the birth of the Baptist ; St. John
^.
looks back to the " beginning " m which the Word was with God. , ^^ •
^ 3. What is to be regarded as the bediming of the Gospel
^' » idepends, however, on what_iB_me_ant by the Gospel. The Gospel, considered as fact, began from the Incarnation, and was completed at the Eesurrection ; but the Gospel, considered as doctrine, began from the first preaching of Jesus, and was completed in the dispensation of the Spirit. And we may go yet further back. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was not in the New Testament, but in the Old ; it began in the simple first promise to our fallen parents ; in their sacrificial offerings ; in the bleeding lambs of Abel's altar ; in the simple faith and worship of the patriarchs. Once more, it may be said to have begun in the predictions of the prophets, who declared in words, as the legal service did in acts, the coming Saviour, and not only fore- told, but exhibited to all believers, " the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." And we may go further back still, and say that the Gospel, as a message of salvation, began in the eternal counsel of the Divine will ; in the eternal purpose of the God who sent it. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. The Gospel of Christ could never terminate in our salvation, if it had not first begun in God's decre&