m^'
THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
MAY 1 f? 1914
ED^D BV THE REV. M?^.,„^ ^^^
JAMES HASTINGS, D.D.
EDITOR OF "THE EXPOSITORY TIMES" "THE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE "THE DICTIONARY OF CHRIST AND THE GOSPELS" AND "THE ENCYCLOPiKDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS"
JAMES to JUDE
NEW YORK
CHARLES SGRIBNER'S SONS EDINBURGH : T. & T. CLARK
1912
CONTENTS
TOPICS.
The Good Gifts of the Father
The Prayer of a Righteous Man
A Living Hope
Love and Joy in Believing
The Temple op Living Stones .
A Propitiation and a Pattern
The Ethics of the Atonement
Depths of Mercy
Human Anxiety and Divine Care
The Unfolding of Character.
Growth ....
Fellowship in the Light
Righteous Forgiveness .
An Advocate with the Father
The Love that Confers Sonship
What We Are and What We Shall
The Power of the Christian Hope
The Bond of Brotherhood
God ...
Love Casting Out Fear
The Ray and the Reflection
Victory over the World
The Peril of Idolatry.
Self-Keeping
Be
PAPR 1
13
31
51
63
79 101 115 133 151 193 215^ 231 ■ 247 263 279 295 311 325 345 367 387 406 419
VI
CONTENTS
I. n
V. 16
TEXTS.
James.
3 16
1 Peter.
I. 3
I. 8 II. 4, 5 II. 21 II. 24 III. 18-22 V. 7
33
53
65
81
103
117
135
I. 5-7 III. 18
2 Peteb.
153 195
1 John.
I. 7
I. 8,9 II. 1, 2
III.
1
III.
2
III.
3
IV.
7
IV.
8
IV.
18
IV.
19
V.
4
V.
21
217 233 249 265 281 297 313 327 347 369 389 407
JUDB.
20, 21
421
The Good Gifts of the Father.
JAS.-JUDE — I
Literature.
Archer-Hind (T. H.), Some Scripture Problems, 22.
Carpenter (W. B.), The Wisdom of James the Just, 119.
Darlow (T. H.), The Upward Calling, 182.
Flint (R.), Sermons and Addresses, 28.
Gibbons (J. C), Discourses and Sermons, 241.
Grimley (H. N.), The Temple of Humanity, 91,
Hickey (F. P.), Short Sermons, ii. 102.
How (W. W.), Plain Words, ii. 128.
Ingram (A. F. W.), Into the Fighting Line, 217.
Kingsley (C), Village, Town and Country Sermons, 25.
Little (W. J. K.), Labour and Sorrow, 184.
Macmillan (H.), The Gate Beautiful, 222.
Momerie (A. W.), The Origin of Evil, 259.
Peabody (F. G.), Mornings in the College Chapel, i. 217.
Pigou (F.), Faith and Practice, 203.
Sauter (B.), The Sunday Epistles, 261.
Scott (M.), The Harmony of the Collects, Epistles and Gospels, 123.
Trench (R. C.), Sermons New and Old, 163.
„ „ „ in Ireland, 269.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xxii. (1883) No. 1226. Wilkinson (G. H.), The Heavenly Vision, 110, 153, 165. Wilson (S. L.), Helpful Words for Daily Life, 165. Zahn (T.), Bread and Salt from the Word of God, 167. Christian World Pulpit, xiii. 337 (Farrar); xli. 164 (Turberville) ;
Ix. 372 (Harrison). Church of England Pulpit, xxx. 148 (Kaye) ; xxxvii. 77 (Silvester). Church Pulpit Year Book, ix. (1912) 121. Church Times, Aug. 16, 1912 (Newbolt). Churchman's Pulpit : Fourth Sunday after Easter : viii. 182 (Mitchinson),
185 (Farquhar). Examiner, June 7, 1906, p. 558 (Jowett). Expositor, 2nd Ser., iii. 221 (Lumby).
The Good Gifts of the Father.
Evety good gift and every perfect boon is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.— Jas. i. 17.
The Bible is full of truths which from their very obviousness are never realized : truths which to a religious mind are self-evident, incontrovertible, not susceptible of proof, lying so deep at the root of all our religious convictions that we never think of pausing to examine them ; we take them for granted ; they are our axioms of religion. But in taking them for granted, we also lose much ; when they meet us in our reading or hearing of Scripture, they are apt to fall dead on our ear ; we attach but a vague meaning to them ; we never perhaps interpret them to ourselves. Our text is just such an axiom of religion. It is the case with this, as with all very comprehensive truths, that it is accepted readily enough as a general principle ; but when it steps down from the region of general law to the sphere of particular application, we are startled to find how little we have hitherto understood, and how little we have really believed it.
I.
The Gifts.
" Every good gift and every perfect boon."
1. Every good gift and every perfect boon. Some commenta- tors draw a distinction between gift or giving and loon, as if the former referred to temporal gifts and the latter to spiritual gifts, but this is unnecessary. Such a distinction was probably not in the mind of the writer. He probably did not draw a hard and fast line between a good gift and a perfect boon, but meant the second term to continue and supplement the first. We may
4 THE GOOD GIFTS OF THE FATHER
consider the gifts of God under the two headings " temporal " and " spiritual " gifts, but only because they form convenient divisions, not because we would make an arbitrary distinction between good gifts and perfect boons.
(1) Every temporal blessing, then, comes from God. All the good that comes to us in this life is a gift from above, and we may not consider any of God's gifts as insignificant, whether our daily bread, or our rest at night, any hour of well-being, or week of blessed work, or enjoyment of all that is beautiful in nature and art, or the joys of home, the love of our family and the faithfulness of friends; in short, anything that is treasured by man as a happiness or a blessing.