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.^I^'l.'^.^.x
,H35
V. 18
MAr 3 1 192b
THE GREAT T'"^ OF THE BIBLE
EDITED BY THE REV.
JAMES 41ASTINGS, 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 "
THESSALONIANS to HEBREWS
NEW YORK
CHARLES SGRIBNER'S SONS
EDINBURGH : T. & T. CLARK
1914
CONTENTS
TOPICS.
Asleep in Jesus . .
Ceaseless Pkater
Proving and Holding Fast
A Prater for Sanctity
Prayer and Progress .
A Faithful Saying
The Mystery of Godliness
The Value op Godliness
The Love of Money
Life and Immortality ,
The Practice of Assurance
The Use of Scripture .
The Crown op Righteousness
Saving and Instructing Grace
Progressive Revelation
The Crowned Christ
Perfect through Sufferings
The Sabbath Rest
The Throne op Grace .
Salvation to the Uttermost
The Cleansing op the Conscience
The "Way of Access
Faith
The Choice of Moses
Seeing the Invisible
The Race Set before Us
The Unchanging Christ
riam 1
17
29
43
63
77 99 121 139 157 185 203 227 247 271 287 301 317 335 351 369 389 407 423 441 457 477
VI
CONTENTS
IV. 13, 14
V. 17 .
V. 21 .
V. 23 .
III. 1 .
I. 15 .
III. 16 .
IV. 8
VI. 10 .
I. 10 .
I. 12 .
III. 14-17
IV. 6-8 .
II. 11, 12
TEXTS. 1 Thessalonians.
2 Thessalonians.
1 Timothy.
2 Timothy.
Titus
Hebrews.
3 19 31 45
65
79 101 123 141
159
187 205 229
249
I. 1, 2 .
. 273
II. 8, 9 .
. 289
II. 10 .
. 303
IV. 9, 10.
. 319
IV. 16 .
. 337
VII. 25 .
. 353
IX. 13, 14
. 371
X. 19-22
. 391
XI. 1
. 409
XI. 24-26
. 425
XI. 27 .
. 443
XII. 1, 2 .
. 459
XIII. 8 .
. 479
Asleep in Jesus.
1 THESS.-HEB. — I
Literature.
Bell (C. D.), Tlie Name above Every Name, 220.
Brooks (P.), TJie Spiritual Man, 20.
Burrell (D. J.), The Morning Cometh, 277.
Cleife (H. H. T.), Mutual Recognition in the Life Beyond, 22.
Ellicott (C. J.), Sermons at Gloucester, 135.
Gordon (A. J.), In Christ, 185.
Hicks (E.), The Life Hereafter, 1.
Holland (C), Gleanings from a Mimstry of Fifty Years, 293.
Hood (P.), Darli Sayings on a Harp, 369.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., iii. 282.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Philippiaus, etc., 190.
Macnutt (F. B.), The Riches of Christ, 207.
Manning (H. E.), Sermons, i. 308.
Maurice (F. D.), Christmas Day, 392.
Moule (H. C. G.), Thoughts for the Sundays of the Year, 73.
Ogden (S.), Sermons, 126.
Paget (F. E.), The Living and the Dead, 307.
Purves (P. C.), The Divine Cure for Heart Trouble, 295.
Shettle (G. T.), Tliem WJiich Sleep in Jesus, 1.
Spencer (I. S.), Sermons, i. 144.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, liv. (1908), No. 3077.
Symonds (A. R.), Fifty Sermons Preached in Madras, 90.
Tulloch (J.), Some Facts of Religion and Life, 129.
Vaughan (J.), Serm.ons (Brighton Pulpit), iii. (1862), No. 387.
Watson (F.), ITie Christian Life Here and Hereafter, 220.
Wray (J. J.), Honey in the Comb, 91.
Christian World Pulpit, xxxiii. 277 (F. Temple).
Church Pulpit Year Book, 1908, p. 217.
Church Times, Nov. 10, 1911 (J. G. Simpson).
Homiletic Review, Ixiv. 61 (H. D. M. Spence -Jones).
World's Great Sermons^ i. 25 (St. Chrysostom).
Asleep in Jesus.
But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concernhig' them that fall asleep ; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him. — i Thess. iv. 13, 14.
St. Paul, in the early part of his ministry, with all the Christian disciples, was looking for the speedy return of Jesus. And the question was raised, " If it be so, if Jesus is coming to establish His Church, and we shall be with Him in His glory, then what of our brethren who have passed out of the world before us ? " This was the absorbing question. Mothers had lost their children, brothers had lost their brothers. One by one these had passed out of their sight. And those who remained said, " What is to become of those who are taken away from us out of this visible world before Christ comes back here ? " St. Paul's answer was that they who remained and were alive should not " prevent " (go before) those who had passed away. Jesus would bring with Him those who had already died. He would go through the regions of the dead and bring back the souls that had once belonged to this world, and establish their lives. Thus those who had died and those whom Christ should find at His coming would be united and would dwell for ever with God.
^ The Epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians are the epistles of immortality. They have vibrated with rich assurance in multitudes of sorrowing Christian hearts, as men have stood on the borders of life and wondered what is to be their destiny in that state of being towards which their thoughts are so constantly pressing. The idea of immortality has given rise to the greatest emotions which it is possible for men to feel. It has caused the highest hopes and the most terrible fears. The immortal soul has anticipated its own immortality, and refused to believe in any specious argument that tells it life will end here. Pictures of that future life come floating down into this present life. Men