1920
FLESHERTON, Ontario, Canada. — "Arise and confess your sins," shouted the Rev. G. N. Sharp, evangelist, in appealing to a revival meeting at Salem, Grey County.
Arnold Love, 21, an industrious and respected farmer, arose and confessed to murdering his mother seven years ago. His father was hanged for the crime on circumstantial evidence. Arnold, 14 years old at the time, never was suspected.
"I was eating my breakfast," Love said, in describing the murder, "when my mother warned me to avoid keeping bad company.
"I grabbed a stick of wood and hit her on the head. I dragged the body to the cellar and covered it with earth and then went to school."
Love was held by authorities of Owen Sound.
—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 1.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
A New Book – The Bible
There are dark and mysterious things in the Bible now, but when you begin to trust Christ your eyes will be opened, and the Bible will be a new book to you. It will become the Book of books to you. — MOODY.
While the works of once famous skeptics are left to rot on book shelves, every year sees the Bible translated into some new tongue, acquire a greater influence, and receive a wider circulation. — GUTHRIE.
I haven't found the first man who ever read the Bible from back to back carefully who remained an infidel. My friends, the Bible of our mothers and fathers is true. — MOODY.
In the waters of life, the Divine Scriptures, there are shallows and there are deeps; shallows where the lamb may wade, and deeps where the elephant may swim. — HALL.
Peruse the works of our philosophers with all their pomp of diction; how contemptible they are, compared with the Scriptures! — J. J. ROUSSEAU.
If God is a reality, and the soul is a reality, and you are an immortal being, what are you doing with your Bible shut? — HERRICK JOHNSON.
There are over two hundred passages in the Old Testament which prophesied about Christ, and every one of them has come true. — MOODY.
Time can take nothing from the Bible. Like the sun, it is the same in its light and influence to man this day which it was ages ago. — CECIL.
The Bible is the most thought-suggesting book in the world. No other deals with such grand themes. — HERRICK JOHNSON.
No crisis has ever yet appeared when Christ's Word was not ready to take the van of human movement. — KER.
The Bible is a window in this prison-world through which we may look into eternity. — TIMOTHY DWIGHT.
One gem from that ocean is worth all the pebbles from earthly streams. — ROBERT McCHEYNE.
We count the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy. — SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
Liberty without the Bible is either dead or delirious. — GUTHRIE.
While the works of once famous skeptics are left to rot on book shelves, every year sees the Bible translated into some new tongue, acquire a greater influence, and receive a wider circulation. — GUTHRIE.
I haven't found the first man who ever read the Bible from back to back carefully who remained an infidel. My friends, the Bible of our mothers and fathers is true. — MOODY.
In the waters of life, the Divine Scriptures, there are shallows and there are deeps; shallows where the lamb may wade, and deeps where the elephant may swim. — HALL.
Peruse the works of our philosophers with all their pomp of diction; how contemptible they are, compared with the Scriptures! — J. J. ROUSSEAU.
If God is a reality, and the soul is a reality, and you are an immortal being, what are you doing with your Bible shut? — HERRICK JOHNSON.
There are over two hundred passages in the Old Testament which prophesied about Christ, and every one of them has come true. — MOODY.
Time can take nothing from the Bible. Like the sun, it is the same in its light and influence to man this day which it was ages ago. — CECIL.
The Bible is the most thought-suggesting book in the world. No other deals with such grand themes. — HERRICK JOHNSON.
No crisis has ever yet appeared when Christ's Word was not ready to take the van of human movement. — KER.
The Bible is a window in this prison-world through which we may look into eternity. — TIMOTHY DWIGHT.
One gem from that ocean is worth all the pebbles from earthly streams. — ROBERT McCHEYNE.
We count the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy. — SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
Liberty without the Bible is either dead or delirious. — GUTHRIE.
The Bible
What can botanists tell you of the Lily of the Valley? You must study this book for that. What can geologists tell you of the Rock of Ages, or mere astronomers about the Bright Morning Star? In those pages we find all knowledge unto salvation; here we read of the ruin of man by nature, redemption by the blood, and regeneration by the Holy Ghost. These three things run all through and through them. — MOODY.
Now, I am no prophet nor the son of a prophet, but one thing I can predict: That every one of our new converts who goes to studying his Bible, and loves this book above every other book, is sure to hold out. The world will have no charm for him; he will get the world under his feet, because in this book he will find something better than the world can give him. — MOODY.
Give the Bible the place in your families to which it is entitled; and then, through the unsearchable riches of Christ, many a household among you may hereafter realize that most blessed consummation, and appear a whole family in Heaven. — H. A. BOARDMAN.
Few books can stand three readings. But the word of God is solid; it will stand a thousand readings, and the man who has gone over it the most frequently and the most carefully is the surest of finding new wonders there. — HAMILTON.
It is the wonderful property of the Bible, though the authorship is spread over a long list of centuries, that it never withdraws any truth once advanced, and never adds new without giving fresh force to the old. — MELVILL.
The answer to the Shastas is India; the answer to Confucianism is China; the answer to the Koran is Turkey; the answer to the Bible is the Christian civilization of Protestant Europe and America. — WENDELL PHILLIPS.
Do you know a book that you are willing to put under your head for a pillow when you lie dying? Very well; that is the book you want to study while you are living. There is but one such book in the world. — JOSEPH COOK.
Now, I am no prophet nor the son of a prophet, but one thing I can predict: That every one of our new converts who goes to studying his Bible, and loves this book above every other book, is sure to hold out. The world will have no charm for him; he will get the world under his feet, because in this book he will find something better than the world can give him. — MOODY.
Give the Bible the place in your families to which it is entitled; and then, through the unsearchable riches of Christ, many a household among you may hereafter realize that most blessed consummation, and appear a whole family in Heaven. — H. A. BOARDMAN.
Few books can stand three readings. But the word of God is solid; it will stand a thousand readings, and the man who has gone over it the most frequently and the most carefully is the surest of finding new wonders there. — HAMILTON.
It is the wonderful property of the Bible, though the authorship is spread over a long list of centuries, that it never withdraws any truth once advanced, and never adds new without giving fresh force to the old. — MELVILL.
The answer to the Shastas is India; the answer to Confucianism is China; the answer to the Koran is Turkey; the answer to the Bible is the Christian civilization of Protestant Europe and America. — WENDELL PHILLIPS.
Do you know a book that you are willing to put under your head for a pillow when you lie dying? Very well; that is the book you want to study while you are living. There is but one such book in the world. — JOSEPH COOK.
Scholars and the Bible
The new movement for the study of the Bible, as the finest of English classics, introducing it into colleges and seminaries of the highest grade, is full of possibilities for Christian progress and development. The marvel is that Christian scholars should ever have permitted the heathen classics to outrank the psalms of David, the visions of Isaiah and the wonderful philosophy of the four Gospels. — FRANCES E. WILLARD.
Something That Was Not a Mistake
When the modern critics, in the church and out of it, are enlarging upon the "Mistakes of Moses" and upon the historical childishness of the Bible, they should not forget to tell us that there ran through the whole Bible period a something that was no mistake, a something whose history rises up before us as real as the earth itself and as beautiful as its four seasons, as magnificent as its June. That something was worship!
Theology came and went; the laws of Moses were passed and obeyed and repealed; fables were told and forgotten; Paul and Apollos differed; James and John were unlike but in worship all seemed to meet, and the Jacob who saw angels on the night-ladder is beautifully akin to St. John and Paul. All are wonderfully akin to our age, which sings the one hymn of the whole race, "Nearer, My God, to Thee." — SWING.
Theology came and went; the laws of Moses were passed and obeyed and repealed; fables were told and forgotten; Paul and Apollos differed; James and John were unlike but in worship all seemed to meet, and the Jacob who saw angels on the night-ladder is beautifully akin to St. John and Paul. All are wonderfully akin to our age, which sings the one hymn of the whole race, "Nearer, My God, to Thee." — SWING.
New Testament Better Than the Old
"Well, after all, is the New Testament brighter than the Old? Had not the Old Testament saints a grip of something tangible and real? Had not they an advantage that we have not? Oh, if there were only an Elijah living! If there were only an Elisha living today!"
Ah, my friends, we are living, after all, under a greater dispensation. Elisha was compelled to say: "The Lord hath hid it from me." He had to confess limitation; and, says the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, these great prophets, these great priests, these great mediators of a by-gone age, were not suffered to continue by reason of death. Out of that he works the argument which I am seeking to apply now to you — the greater blessing that has come to us in our heavenly, although invisible, Prophet and Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.
When I read this about Elisha — "the Lord hath not told it me" — I feel inclined to say to him: "Good-bye, Elisha. Great and all as you are, you will not serve my turn. Great and all as you are, I need one, after all, from whom nothing is hid — from whom nothing can be hid. Goodbye, Elisha. You are a wonderful man. You could do wonderful things; but I can bid you good-bye without a tear. I can bear to see you disappear from the stage of time, because He has come from whom nothing is hid; who is mightier than all Elijahs and Elishas and prophets put together." "Consider the Apostle and Priest of our profession."
Think of Him who stands, it may be, unknown, unperceived today in the midst of this assembly; for mole-eyed men and women, groping down in the earth, do not see Him and do not know Him. The Lord of Life and Glory, Jesus Christ, stands with us; and When we see Him, even Elisha's glory begins to dim and fade away. — McNEILL.
Ah, my friends, we are living, after all, under a greater dispensation. Elisha was compelled to say: "The Lord hath hid it from me." He had to confess limitation; and, says the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, these great prophets, these great priests, these great mediators of a by-gone age, were not suffered to continue by reason of death. Out of that he works the argument which I am seeking to apply now to you — the greater blessing that has come to us in our heavenly, although invisible, Prophet and Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.
When I read this about Elisha — "the Lord hath not told it me" — I feel inclined to say to him: "Good-bye, Elisha. Great and all as you are, you will not serve my turn. Great and all as you are, I need one, after all, from whom nothing is hid — from whom nothing can be hid. Goodbye, Elisha. You are a wonderful man. You could do wonderful things; but I can bid you good-bye without a tear. I can bear to see you disappear from the stage of time, because He has come from whom nothing is hid; who is mightier than all Elijahs and Elishas and prophets put together." "Consider the Apostle and Priest of our profession."
Think of Him who stands, it may be, unknown, unperceived today in the midst of this assembly; for mole-eyed men and women, groping down in the earth, do not see Him and do not know Him. The Lord of Life and Glory, Jesus Christ, stands with us; and When we see Him, even Elisha's glory begins to dim and fade away. — McNEILL.
The Bible a Westminster Abbey
Heroism is indeed the beautiful in the soul. It is the old image of God coming to the surface again, as when, in scraping off a dingy wall in Florence, the workmen came upon the portrait of Dante. Often there come men who throw aside the rags of self, the tattered vestments of beggars, and let out the image of God within.
Into no institution of man, into no philosophy, into no school of art, has there entered such a band of heroes as is seen filing down into this book of God. It seems perfectly wonderful that each page of the Christian's book should have been composed by one of these children of heroism. The Bible is a Westminster Abbey, where none but the great sleep. — SWING.
Into no institution of man, into no philosophy, into no school of art, has there entered such a band of heroes as is seen filing down into this book of God. It seems perfectly wonderful that each page of the Christian's book should have been composed by one of these children of heroism. The Bible is a Westminster Abbey, where none but the great sleep. — SWING.
The Four Gospels
Why was this Gospel told four times over? A good story is none the worse, perhaps, for being twice told; but it is a great deal the worse for being three times told, while it is often utterly mangled and murdered the fourth time. You know what a risk is run by this repetition. Have not critics in all ages said: "Yet that is what spoils it; that is where we get hold of it and tear it to pieces? If it had only been told once, a very large amount of critical strife and contention would have been removed; but in telling it four times, a great many discrepancies arise, and so we are able to cast doubt upon the whole thing."
Now, I think it was told four times because it was told every time by the best story-teller that ever tried it. John wanted to write a composition upon this key-note — the essential Godhead and Divinity of that Man from Nazareth. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made ..... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory." Not that John believed this more, and others less, but that was a side of Jesus that fascinated John. "I handled God; here is the head that leaned upon the bosom of Omnipotence." And like every true musician, he ends on the key-note with which he started: "These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through His name." — McNEILL.
Now, I think it was told four times because it was told every time by the best story-teller that ever tried it. John wanted to write a composition upon this key-note — the essential Godhead and Divinity of that Man from Nazareth. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made ..... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory." Not that John believed this more, and others less, but that was a side of Jesus that fascinated John. "I handled God; here is the head that leaned upon the bosom of Omnipotence." And like every true musician, he ends on the key-note with which he started: "These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through His name." — McNEILL.
The Book of Job
I propose to say something of the nature of this extraordinary book — a book of which it is to say little to call it unequaled of its kind, and which will one day, perhaps, when it is allowed to stand on its own merits, be seen towering up alone, far away above all the poetry of the world. How it found its way into the canon, smiting as it does through and through the most deeply seated Jewish prejudices, is the chief difficulty about it now; to be explained only by a traditional acceptance among the sacred books, dating back from the old times of the national greatness, when the minds of the people were hewn in a larger type than was to be found among the Pharisees of the great synagogue. But its authorship, its date, and its history are alike a mystery to us. It existed at the time when the canon was composed, and this is all that we know beyond what we can gather out of the language and contents of the poem itself. — FROUDE.
The Bible a Chart
We sail upon an ocean whose farther bounds are far beyond our sight. The Bible gives every soul a course to sail by.
Follow this course, it says, and you will reach harbor; follow any other, and you will come to shipwreck. But what that harbor is, and what possibilities of rescue at the last from shipwreck there may be, it tells not. The wise father neither promises nor threatens. He leaves His children to understand that obedience brings happiness; disobedience, suffering. God governs His children as a wise father, and to all our questionings — "What pay for doing right?" "What penalty for doing wrong?" — keeps a silence that is more eloquent than speech.
The Bible contains no clear revelation respecting the nature of either eternal life or eternal death. It discloses nothing to curiosity. We can gather from its intimations some probable conclusions; but every kind of dogmatism respecting the eternal future is unscriptural. — LYMAN ABBOTT.
Follow this course, it says, and you will reach harbor; follow any other, and you will come to shipwreck. But what that harbor is, and what possibilities of rescue at the last from shipwreck there may be, it tells not. The wise father neither promises nor threatens. He leaves His children to understand that obedience brings happiness; disobedience, suffering. God governs His children as a wise father, and to all our questionings — "What pay for doing right?" "What penalty for doing wrong?" — keeps a silence that is more eloquent than speech.
The Bible contains no clear revelation respecting the nature of either eternal life or eternal death. It discloses nothing to curiosity. We can gather from its intimations some probable conclusions; but every kind of dogmatism respecting the eternal future is unscriptural. — LYMAN ABBOTT.
Importance of Studying the Bible
One thing I have noticed in studying the Word of God, and that is, when a man is filled with the Spirit he deals largely with the Word of God; whereas, the man who is filled with his own ideas refers rarely to the Word of God.
He gets along without it, and you seldom see it mentioned in his discourses. A great many use it only as a text-book. They get their text from the Bible, and go on without any further allusion to it; they ignore it. But when a man is filled with the Word, as Stephen was, he can not help speaking Scripture. You will find that Moses was constantly repeating the commandments. You will find, too, that Joshua, when he came across the Jordan with his people, stood with them while the law of the Lord was read to them; and you will find all through Scripture the men of God dealing much with His Word. Why, you will find Christ constantly referring to them, and saying: "Thus saith the Scriptures."
Now, as old Dr. Bonar of Glasgow said: "The Lord didn't tell Joshua how to use the sword, but He told him how he should meditate on the Lord day and night, and then he would have good success." When we find a man meditating on the words of God, my friends, that man is full of boldness and is successful. And the reason why we have so little success in our teaching is because we know so little of the Word of God. You must know it and have it in your heart. — MOODY.
He gets along without it, and you seldom see it mentioned in his discourses. A great many use it only as a text-book. They get their text from the Bible, and go on without any further allusion to it; they ignore it. But when a man is filled with the Word, as Stephen was, he can not help speaking Scripture. You will find that Moses was constantly repeating the commandments. You will find, too, that Joshua, when he came across the Jordan with his people, stood with them while the law of the Lord was read to them; and you will find all through Scripture the men of God dealing much with His Word. Why, you will find Christ constantly referring to them, and saying: "Thus saith the Scriptures."
Now, as old Dr. Bonar of Glasgow said: "The Lord didn't tell Joshua how to use the sword, but He told him how he should meditate on the Lord day and night, and then he would have good success." When we find a man meditating on the words of God, my friends, that man is full of boldness and is successful. And the reason why we have so little success in our teaching is because we know so little of the Word of God. You must know it and have it in your heart. — MOODY.
Morality of the Bible
The morality of the Bible goes down to every root and fiber of life. In offering a salutation, in opening a door, in uttering a wish, in writing a letter, in using titles of deference, in every possible exercise of human thought and power, the moral element is present.
Phebe was to be received by the Christians at Rome "as becometh saints." A New Testament injunction is: "Be courteous." Charity itself is courteous, graceful, savored with the highest degree of refinement, and expressive of the completest reach of dignity. We have passed from the letter to the spirit; God has put within us a clean heart, so that we are no longer true, or kind, or noble, merely because of a literal direction which is guarded by solemn penalties, but because the Holy Ghost has sanctified us, made our hearts his dwelling place. Our prayer should continually be: "Create in me a clean heart, O God." — JOSEPH PARKER.
Phebe was to be received by the Christians at Rome "as becometh saints." A New Testament injunction is: "Be courteous." Charity itself is courteous, graceful, savored with the highest degree of refinement, and expressive of the completest reach of dignity. We have passed from the letter to the spirit; God has put within us a clean heart, so that we are no longer true, or kind, or noble, merely because of a literal direction which is guarded by solemn penalties, but because the Holy Ghost has sanctified us, made our hearts his dwelling place. Our prayer should continually be: "Create in me a clean heart, O God." — JOSEPH PARKER.
Humaneness of the Bible
Who can undervalue a Bible which speaks in a tone like this? The proverb, "Every man must take care of himself," has no place in the Book of God.
We must take care of one another. "Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" We hold our knowledge for the benefit of the ignorant; we are trustees of our strength that we may save the weak from oppression.
It is a coward's trick to close the eyes whilst wrong is being done, in order that we may not see it.
Christianity means nothing if it does not mean the unity of the human race, the common rights of humanity. — JOSEPH PARKER.
We must take care of one another. "Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" We hold our knowledge for the benefit of the ignorant; we are trustees of our strength that we may save the weak from oppression.
It is a coward's trick to close the eyes whilst wrong is being done, in order that we may not see it.
Christianity means nothing if it does not mean the unity of the human race, the common rights of humanity. — JOSEPH PARKER.
One Way to Study the Bible
A favorite way to study the Bible with me is, first, to take up one expression, and run through the different places where they are found. Take the "I ams" of John: "I am the bread of life"; "I am the water of life"; "I am the way, the truth and the life"; "I am the resurrection"; "I am all, and in all."
God gives to His children a blank, and on it they can write whatever they most want, and He will fill the bill. And then the promises. A Scotchman found out thirty-one thousand distinct promises in the Word of God. There is not a despondent soul but God has a promise just to suit him. — MOODY.
God gives to His children a blank, and on it they can write whatever they most want, and He will fill the bill. And then the promises. A Scotchman found out thirty-one thousand distinct promises in the Word of God. There is not a despondent soul but God has a promise just to suit him. — MOODY.
Heroes of the Bible
The heroes of the Bible make up such a group of pearls as never before in history were strung upon one string. Christianity is the only queen that ever wore such a collection of gems. But she wears them right along, and has thus been unapproachable for thousands of years. And she will remain matchless in the quality of soul that lay beneath her thought.
It does not seem possible that earth can ever reproduce a St. Paul or a St. John. And now, when to these beings you have added just one more, whom I need not so much as name, a being who emptied an ocean of love and hope upon the world, and who has transformed the earth, making it roll out of darkness into light, you will conclude that here in the Christian records mighty souls have passed in a strange vision before us. Here are tremendous foundations — broad, deep, vast.
And as though man might come some day in the vanity of the subsequent centuries and mock at the impulse or character of these men, they all died heroic deaths, that the feeble critics of the nineteenth century might feel their own littleness when they should behold the thrilling ending of these lives. Paul was put to death in Rome. John was tortured and sent to die an exile. James was hurled from a battlement in Jerusalem and crushed to death. Simon Zelotes was put to death in Persia, where also Jude was tortured to the death. Matthew was slain by a mob in Abyssinia. Thomas was killed in Coromandel. Philip was hanged upon a pillar in Hierapolis. Andrew was crucified at Patraca, and James the Less in Asia.
As for the one Name towering above all, He was crucified on Mount Calvary between two thieves. Into such holy hearts did God pour the truths, the hopes, the joys and sorrows of our religion. — SWING.
It does not seem possible that earth can ever reproduce a St. Paul or a St. John. And now, when to these beings you have added just one more, whom I need not so much as name, a being who emptied an ocean of love and hope upon the world, and who has transformed the earth, making it roll out of darkness into light, you will conclude that here in the Christian records mighty souls have passed in a strange vision before us. Here are tremendous foundations — broad, deep, vast.
And as though man might come some day in the vanity of the subsequent centuries and mock at the impulse or character of these men, they all died heroic deaths, that the feeble critics of the nineteenth century might feel their own littleness when they should behold the thrilling ending of these lives. Paul was put to death in Rome. John was tortured and sent to die an exile. James was hurled from a battlement in Jerusalem and crushed to death. Simon Zelotes was put to death in Persia, where also Jude was tortured to the death. Matthew was slain by a mob in Abyssinia. Thomas was killed in Coromandel. Philip was hanged upon a pillar in Hierapolis. Andrew was crucified at Patraca, and James the Less in Asia.
As for the one Name towering above all, He was crucified on Mount Calvary between two thieves. Into such holy hearts did God pour the truths, the hopes, the joys and sorrows of our religion. — SWING.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Where Women May Not Pray
1916
In some parts of the world the women are not even allowed to pray. Certain Hindoo congregations deny their women this privilege, and among the Ainus women can pray only in very rare cases as the deputies of their husbands. The natives of Madagascar, however, stretch a point and permit their women to intercede with the powers of evil, but prayer to their supreme being is strictly a masculine prerogative.
In some parts of the world the women are not even allowed to pray. Certain Hindoo congregations deny their women this privilege, and among the Ainus women can pray only in very rare cases as the deputies of their husbands. The natives of Madagascar, however, stretch a point and permit their women to intercede with the powers of evil, but prayer to their supreme being is strictly a masculine prerogative.
Prisoner in the Castle
1916
LESSON TEXT — Acts 22.
GOLDEN TEXT — He is my refuge and my fortress. — Ps. 91:2.
Paul was rescued from the mob by the prompt action of Lysias, and was saved from scourging by revealing his Roman citizenship (21:27-22:29). Every true life, real social service, patriotism and national righteousness rest upon the value of conversion to Christ. The fundamental message of the Christian church must always be regeneration. With this message Billy Sunday is gripping the large cities, and Dr. John R. Mott is reaching the student life of the world.
I. Paul's Account of His Early Life (v. 1-5).
By his use of the Greek tongue he obtained permission to deliver this address, and by his wise use of the Jewish language he gained the attention of the excited crowd. Paul asserted his Jewish origin (Acts 21:39). Tarsus, where he was born, had a university which rivaled those of Athens and Alexandria, and Paul had probably heard its great philosophers. Paul was an educated man; he was brought up in Jerusalem from his early boyhood at the feet of Gamaliel its greatest teacher. Thus his religious training was according to the law of the fathers, and as "touching the righteousness which is of the law," he was blameless (Phil. 3:6). He was zealous for God, doing what he thought he would have him do even, when "persecuted this way," the way of forgiveness, salvation and righteousness. Jesus said, "I am the way." Paul was at this time an instrument in the hands of the rulers, carrying out their plans, but he exceeded them in his zeal for "the traditions of our fathers (Gal. 1:14). He was not at all like these Pharisees whom Christ condemned as "white sepulchers." He was not what we would term today, "a bad man."
II. Paul's Turning Point (vv. 6-21).
Paul seems to pick out three different crises in this rehearsal. (1) His interview with Christ, when he saw Jesus as he really was in his glory, a living risen Savior (1 Cor. 9:1; 15.8). He had positive proof of the resurrection from the dead. This proof convicted him of sin. He had heard Jesus call. He had asked Jesus what he would have him to do. He was ready to obey, and something was given him to do. The light which he met on that journey arrested him in his mad course. The voice gave him his directions. In obedience to the command, "Arise and go," he gained knowledge and skill. (2) He lights upon his interview with Ananias (v. 14) where he received personal help from an experienced Christian. In the darkness and conflict of those three days of loneliness the questions must have been: Could he leave rank, honor, friends? Could he enter the service of the despised one and suffer reproach, danger and death? During this conflict he must have had before him the vision of what God would have him do, and the work for which he chose him (vv. 16-18). His vision and commission constituted a strong motive for right decision. During the vision he came into the light, and confessed his faith by his baptism. As a result of those three days and his interview with Ananias he came to know God's will more fully. The next step was of course (3) his public avowal (See Acts 2:38; Heb. 10:22; Rom. 10:13; 1 Cor. 6:11). The purpose of Paul's whole life and mission was changed.
III. Paul's Dangerous Position (vv. 20-30).
The mob gave him audience until his words about the Gentiles. His declaration that God had commanded him to go upon a mission to the Gentiles was an offense to the Jews, and his words fell like a "spark upon an inflammable mass of fanaticism." They broke out into a frenzy of excitement, and made preparations to stone him. An Oriental mob is hideous beyond degree, howling, yelling, cursing, gnashing their teeth, flinging their arms, casting off their garments (v. 23), throwing dust into the air to relieve their excitement and to express their execration. It was a manifestation of their uncontrollable rage. The opposition of a mob is no proof that the person it curses is wrong.
Immediately preparations stopped. The commander was called, and, learning that Paul was a free-born Roman citizen, he had cause to be afraid that he had gone too far.
To assert Roman citizenship falsely was punishable with death.
The chief captain told Paul that with a great sum he had obtained his Roman citizenship, but Paul's reply was, "But I am Roman born."
Paul was well cared for after this, and, in order to find out why the Jews were so opposed to him, the captain summoned the Sanhedrin to meet the following day, thus unconsciously giving Paul another opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul indeed was ready to be bound, and also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
He knew how his Lord had been bound (John 18:12), and he rejoiced in the fellowship of his sufferings (Phil. 3:10) yet he claims his right as a citizen for there is no need of morbidly seeking unnecessary disgrace or pain.
LESSON TEXT — Acts 22.
GOLDEN TEXT — He is my refuge and my fortress. — Ps. 91:2.
Paul was rescued from the mob by the prompt action of Lysias, and was saved from scourging by revealing his Roman citizenship (21:27-22:29). Every true life, real social service, patriotism and national righteousness rest upon the value of conversion to Christ. The fundamental message of the Christian church must always be regeneration. With this message Billy Sunday is gripping the large cities, and Dr. John R. Mott is reaching the student life of the world.
I. Paul's Account of His Early Life (v. 1-5).
By his use of the Greek tongue he obtained permission to deliver this address, and by his wise use of the Jewish language he gained the attention of the excited crowd. Paul asserted his Jewish origin (Acts 21:39). Tarsus, where he was born, had a university which rivaled those of Athens and Alexandria, and Paul had probably heard its great philosophers. Paul was an educated man; he was brought up in Jerusalem from his early boyhood at the feet of Gamaliel its greatest teacher. Thus his religious training was according to the law of the fathers, and as "touching the righteousness which is of the law," he was blameless (Phil. 3:6). He was zealous for God, doing what he thought he would have him do even, when "persecuted this way," the way of forgiveness, salvation and righteousness. Jesus said, "I am the way." Paul was at this time an instrument in the hands of the rulers, carrying out their plans, but he exceeded them in his zeal for "the traditions of our fathers (Gal. 1:14). He was not at all like these Pharisees whom Christ condemned as "white sepulchers." He was not what we would term today, "a bad man."
II. Paul's Turning Point (vv. 6-21).
Paul seems to pick out three different crises in this rehearsal. (1) His interview with Christ, when he saw Jesus as he really was in his glory, a living risen Savior (1 Cor. 9:1; 15.8). He had positive proof of the resurrection from the dead. This proof convicted him of sin. He had heard Jesus call. He had asked Jesus what he would have him to do. He was ready to obey, and something was given him to do. The light which he met on that journey arrested him in his mad course. The voice gave him his directions. In obedience to the command, "Arise and go," he gained knowledge and skill. (2) He lights upon his interview with Ananias (v. 14) where he received personal help from an experienced Christian. In the darkness and conflict of those three days of loneliness the questions must have been: Could he leave rank, honor, friends? Could he enter the service of the despised one and suffer reproach, danger and death? During this conflict he must have had before him the vision of what God would have him do, and the work for which he chose him (vv. 16-18). His vision and commission constituted a strong motive for right decision. During the vision he came into the light, and confessed his faith by his baptism. As a result of those three days and his interview with Ananias he came to know God's will more fully. The next step was of course (3) his public avowal (See Acts 2:38; Heb. 10:22; Rom. 10:13; 1 Cor. 6:11). The purpose of Paul's whole life and mission was changed.
III. Paul's Dangerous Position (vv. 20-30).
The mob gave him audience until his words about the Gentiles. His declaration that God had commanded him to go upon a mission to the Gentiles was an offense to the Jews, and his words fell like a "spark upon an inflammable mass of fanaticism." They broke out into a frenzy of excitement, and made preparations to stone him. An Oriental mob is hideous beyond degree, howling, yelling, cursing, gnashing their teeth, flinging their arms, casting off their garments (v. 23), throwing dust into the air to relieve their excitement and to express their execration. It was a manifestation of their uncontrollable rage. The opposition of a mob is no proof that the person it curses is wrong.
Immediately preparations stopped. The commander was called, and, learning that Paul was a free-born Roman citizen, he had cause to be afraid that he had gone too far.
To assert Roman citizenship falsely was punishable with death.
The chief captain told Paul that with a great sum he had obtained his Roman citizenship, but Paul's reply was, "But I am Roman born."
Paul was well cared for after this, and, in order to find out why the Jews were so opposed to him, the captain summoned the Sanhedrin to meet the following day, thus unconsciously giving Paul another opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul indeed was ready to be bound, and also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
He knew how his Lord had been bound (John 18:12), and he rejoiced in the fellowship of his sufferings (Phil. 3:10) yet he claims his right as a citizen for there is no need of morbidly seeking unnecessary disgrace or pain.
The Future of Religion
1916
By H. Symonds, D. D.
God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. — John iv. 4.
I. If we should ask this question "What is the most characteristic and significant difference between the modern and the old way of looking at religion and Christ in particular in its varied manifestations?" I think the answer would be something like this: In the past men thought of religion as some kind of completed system and order of things. A scheme or plan completely fashioned and framed, perfect from the start, handed to men, and by one generation to be transmitted to another unchanged, unimpaired, complete.
It was of course admitted that this ideal had never been realized. From the beginning there were disputes, controversies, heresies, schisms. Nevertheless the conception of religion as a completed scheme was adhered to. The watchword was this: That is true, and that is to be regarded as orthodox and Christian which has been held "everywhere, at all times, and by every one." This conception, mark, was not only the conception of the Catholic, but also of the Protestant. The Protestant thought the Catholic had been false to the principle; that he had introduced many new things. Hence he said we must go back to the New Testament and begin all over again. The fundamental error of the reformers — an error, however, which in their time was unavoidable — was the supposition that the New Testament must contain a complete system of belief of organization of worship. Only find that, they said (and they believed with enthusiasm that it could be found), and all Christians will unite. But alas! — we know how false were these hopes. It might have been supposed that if the New Testament did contain such a scheme, then at all events the true Scriptural organization of the church would have been discoverable.
But it was not. As you know, three different forms of ministry were discovered, each defended as divine and necessary, and with equal learning and logic — the Episcopal theory, the Presbyterian theory, and the Congregational theory.
That was the old way of looking at Christ — a way which has not yet died out, although it is so perfectly clear that something is wrong with it.
The new way of looking at Christianity is to regard it, not as a completed system of belief, worship, or organization, but rather as in the beginning the revelation of a life — the life of Christ in whom was gathered up all that was truest and best in the long preparation of the Old Testament. Behind the actual visible life of Christ was the Spirit and mind of Christ, by which one means the desires, the mo[tives of Christ; it] is this Spirit of Christ that is important. We can not imitate Him in His daily life of act, but we can seek after the motive or the Spirit in which He lived and worked. So, then, to-day we think of Christ not as having given a creed, or a government, or a system of worship, but as having lived in the world His life, and as having bequeathed to the world His Spirit.
But this Spirit comes into conflict with the spirit of the world, the spirit of what we call the natural man. It is not realized all at once; it is not even understood all at once. And so we think of Christianity as something progressively realized as the ages roll on. And as we look at so-called Christian nations, as we contemplate the selfishness, the corruption, the inequalities, the oppressions that still exist, we awake to the fact that even yet Christianity is not perfectly understood, that, e. g., what Christ meant by loving our neighbor as ourselves is not comprehended as yet by any class of society.
Again, although Christianity is primarily and fundamentally a spirit, the Spirit of Christ, yet we know that pure Spirit does not and can not be in this world. We ourselves are body and spirit. We can not express ourselves except by means of our bodies. So the Spirit of Christianity took to itself a body, and that body we call the church. Naturally those who became Christians asked many questions about Christianity. Out of those questions of necessity there came a creed. Naturally those who became Christians sought to give outward expression of their devotion to and adoration of Christ. Hence sprang up, and was gradually systematized, Christian worship. Naturally those who were Christian brethren gave outward expression to their fellowship and unity, and out of that desire sprang the organization of the church. Thus the church did not begin — no society ever did — with a system imposed upon men from without, but it began with the Spirit of Christ, and out of that Spirit came the church with its creed, worship, organization.
And these, too, developed, grew, changed with changing times and circumstances. Let me give one example, taken from that department of Christianity supposed to be least variable — the department of creed. If you asked of a young student of divinity this question, "When was the Nicene Creed composed?" he would probably say: "In the year 325, at the Council of Nicea, from which it takes its name." And yet that would be about as misleading an answer as could be given. The Nicene Creed was never composed; it grew. And it was more than three hundred years in the growing. The Council of Nicea had something to do with it, but very much less than is generally supposed. It existed almost in the form in which it left the council, before the council met, and it was further developed during fifty years subsequent to the meeting of that council.
Let me then sum up this part of our subject by saying that the old thought and conception of the New Testament was that it came into the world as completed creed, worship, and organization. The new thought of it is that it is first a spirit, but a spirit which takes to itself by degrees an outward form. It develops, it grows, it is modified here and there by changing circumstance. And is not this new conception of a development more in accord with our Savior's own teaching? The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which indeed is less than all seeds, but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becometh a tree.
II If these things are so, then you perceive at once that the subject we are considering is of very practical importance, for we may expect still further modification, growth, development. Only dead things never change. Living things are subject to continual change, the constant adaptation to an ever-changing environment. And so there is nothing we should dread as much as standing still, nothing so fatal as changelessness. The institution which can not adapt itself to new environment is doomed.
In the future, then, we may expect that less stress will be placed upon creed and upon the particular forms of worship, and a great deal more stress will be placed upon life, and especially the spirit of a man's life. In other words, religion will become more spiritual and less formal. Right opinion will count less than unselfishness. To give $100,000 for foreign missions will count less than justice and righteousness. The lust of money will be accounted a worse thing than staying away from church. And in in all respects religion will be getting back to Christ, — to that Christ who said God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth; to that Christ who said that to love our fellow man — not to exploit him — was a commandment that ranked with the love of God; to that Christ who said, "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, but do not the things that I say?"
Are we then — some of you may be asking yourselves — are we then to suppose that church worship and doctrine are going to disappear altogether? Some there are who think so. But these we may safely say are wrong. They have reacted too violently against the excessive value placed in the past upon church-going and orthodoxy. I think this point is of sufficient importance to dwell upon for a moment or two.
Did it ever occur to you that in the Old Testament church creed was almost non-existent? "Hear, O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord" sums up the Hebrew creed. But worship or ritual was everything. The details of worship were laid down with the utmost rigor. Every sacrifice had to be offered in exactly the right way, the ritual was carefully prescribed, and to vary from it was an offense scarcely thinkable. In other words, religion was cultus or ritual.
Christianity began without ritual or definite creed. But when it spread among a highly intellectual and philosophical people like the Greeks, it naturally developed doctrine or theory, and doctrine and theory hardened into dogma. In other words, religion ceased to be primarily right cultus or right ritual and became right doctrine. And we may freely admit that this was a step in advance.
But what I want you to notice is that because the religion of doctrine replaced the religion of ritual, it did not follow that ritual disappeared altogether. It still remained, and occupied a very important tho not the first place. And just so, altho I can not conceive it possible that right thinking or doctrine will ever again occupy the place it has in the past, yet it seems certain from many considerations that both doctrine and worship must have a permanent place in the Christian church. Only just as to-day we do not stigmatize because he offers extemporaneous prayer, or preaches in a black gown or a black coat, or per contra prefers a surplice and the Book of Common Prayer, so neither shall we in the future inquire too particularly into the exact opinions of any one upon predestination or original sin, or the relations of the divine and human in Christ, or the double procession of the Holy Ghost. All of them are for some of us important as well as interesting questions; but because men differ from one another about them, they will no longer stigmatize each other as heretics. We shall rather judge of soundness by Christ's test: "He that heareth these saying of mine and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man that built his house upon a rock." In one word we say this: "The religion of the spirit is the religion of liberty."
III. Our next point is this: The religion of the future, because it will be the religion of the Spirit, will seek more earnestly and more thoroughly than has ever been done before to embody itself in act and deed. They that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in reality; must translate spirit into visible good, just as you translate thought into spoken or written word. Neither the religion of cultus nor the religion of dogma is of necessity moral. Morality may be and, we may most thankfully admit, has been superadded to them, but morality is not of this essence. But morality, being conformity to the laws of man's relationship to God, his fellow man, and himself, must be of the very essence of the religion of the Spirit.
The religion of the Spirit will seek most earnestly to establish right relations between men. It will not rest satisfied with merely negatively morality, "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not commit adultery." But it will seek after positive justice, positive mercy. It will be altruistic. It will refuse to be happy while any part of the social organism is compelled to live in unsanitary conditions, is condemned to a life of ceaseless grinding toil, has no vocations that are wholesome and elevating.
The prime virtue of the religion of dogma is assent.
But the prime virtue of the religion of the Spirit is love.
We shall call no man atheist who loves his fellow man. But no matter what he professes to be, we shall regard him as atheist who does not love his fellow man. "For he that loveth not his brother man whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" The religion of the Spirit will greatly prefer a Charles Darwin to a Charles II.
The religion of the Spirit will bring to an end the long conflict between science and theology. Theology will frankly admit that science has earnestly and purely sought after truth, and endeavored to translate truth into action. But all truth is of God. Science in its reverence for law, in its faith that this is an intelligible universe, is truly and deeply religious. It is the ally, not the enemy, of the religion in spirit and truth.
The religion of the Spirit will bring to an end divisions of Christendom. We shall see that variety of worship and thought is consistent with the Unity of the Spirit. Truly it will perceive that all variety that springs out of an honest and sincere mind and heart enriches religion, adds to its strength and its beauty, just as the one energy of the universe unfolds and manifests itself in endless forms of entrancing beauty.
Two principles will underlie this new unity, this transformed catholic church. The principle of liberty, which will give variety, richness, and beauty — the centrifugal force of the spiritual world; and the spirit of love, which will bind together into one communion and fellowship all the varieties of worships and believers. Love is the centripetal force of the spiritual world.
IV. And in this religion of the Spirit, what is to be the place of worship and doctrine?
Worship! What is it? Is it the groveling of man before a Deity who longs for flattery? Is it the attempt to bribe a Deity with forms and ceremonies? The prophets Isaiah and Micah answered that question long since.
Shall we not say that it is the going out of the infinite part of ourselves in adoration and love to the infinite source of all things? Shall we not seek by worship to be purified from low thinking, and to be inspired to high thinking? Shall we not hope to gain from it an infinite desire to be holy, desires and longings which shall he translated into deeds on every day of the week? Perchance to those worshiping thus in spirit there shall be revealed, as once many hundred of years ago there was revealed to a youth, a student, the Lord, high and mighty sitting upon His throne, and they shall hear, as He heard, the seraphim crying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the fulness of the whole earth is the glory of Jehovah! And out of that vision may there come, as there came to Isaiah, the call to live for infinite ends — to do the will of God among men on earth. Worship is no worship that does not lead to action.
And doctrine? Doctrine will continue just as worship will continue; only it will not be dogma, opinions to which men are compelled to assent, whether they understand them or not. Doctrine is the presentation of what the thinker, the student, the teacher, believes to be true; and believing it to be true and beautiful, will yet only ask men to accept so far as they themselves perceive it to be true and beautiful. We shall no more seek to compel men to be orthodox than we now compel them to worship in this way or that way, or than we seek to compel a man to love his neighbor as himself.
Christianity may have long to live in human society before it attains to its ideal; but we are not therefore of despair. This religion of Spirit and of truth, which I have so inadequately sought to set forth, is already in the world. There is no reason why we should be despond or pessimistic. Optimism is to some extent, no doubt, a matter of temperament. Yet I think the optimist can give good reason for the hope and faith that are in him — the faith that we are living in a truth-loving and liberty-loving age. And truth and liberty are of the essence of that God who is a Spirit. Looking back twenty-five years it is not difficult to detect a growing reverence for the religious side of human experience, so that the beautiful aspiration of one of the poet prophets of the nineteenth century is even now being fulfilled.
"Let knowledge grow more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell,
That mind and heart, according
May make one music as before."
—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 5.
Note: The phrase in brackets I supplied, since a few words were missing in the original newspaper.
By H. Symonds, D. D.
God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. — John iv. 4.
I. If we should ask this question "What is the most characteristic and significant difference between the modern and the old way of looking at religion and Christ in particular in its varied manifestations?" I think the answer would be something like this: In the past men thought of religion as some kind of completed system and order of things. A scheme or plan completely fashioned and framed, perfect from the start, handed to men, and by one generation to be transmitted to another unchanged, unimpaired, complete.
It was of course admitted that this ideal had never been realized. From the beginning there were disputes, controversies, heresies, schisms. Nevertheless the conception of religion as a completed scheme was adhered to. The watchword was this: That is true, and that is to be regarded as orthodox and Christian which has been held "everywhere, at all times, and by every one." This conception, mark, was not only the conception of the Catholic, but also of the Protestant. The Protestant thought the Catholic had been false to the principle; that he had introduced many new things. Hence he said we must go back to the New Testament and begin all over again. The fundamental error of the reformers — an error, however, which in their time was unavoidable — was the supposition that the New Testament must contain a complete system of belief of organization of worship. Only find that, they said (and they believed with enthusiasm that it could be found), and all Christians will unite. But alas! — we know how false were these hopes. It might have been supposed that if the New Testament did contain such a scheme, then at all events the true Scriptural organization of the church would have been discoverable.
But it was not. As you know, three different forms of ministry were discovered, each defended as divine and necessary, and with equal learning and logic — the Episcopal theory, the Presbyterian theory, and the Congregational theory.
That was the old way of looking at Christ — a way which has not yet died out, although it is so perfectly clear that something is wrong with it.
The new way of looking at Christianity is to regard it, not as a completed system of belief, worship, or organization, but rather as in the beginning the revelation of a life — the life of Christ in whom was gathered up all that was truest and best in the long preparation of the Old Testament. Behind the actual visible life of Christ was the Spirit and mind of Christ, by which one means the desires, the mo[tives of Christ; it] is this Spirit of Christ that is important. We can not imitate Him in His daily life of act, but we can seek after the motive or the Spirit in which He lived and worked. So, then, to-day we think of Christ not as having given a creed, or a government, or a system of worship, but as having lived in the world His life, and as having bequeathed to the world His Spirit.
But this Spirit comes into conflict with the spirit of the world, the spirit of what we call the natural man. It is not realized all at once; it is not even understood all at once. And so we think of Christianity as something progressively realized as the ages roll on. And as we look at so-called Christian nations, as we contemplate the selfishness, the corruption, the inequalities, the oppressions that still exist, we awake to the fact that even yet Christianity is not perfectly understood, that, e. g., what Christ meant by loving our neighbor as ourselves is not comprehended as yet by any class of society.
Again, although Christianity is primarily and fundamentally a spirit, the Spirit of Christ, yet we know that pure Spirit does not and can not be in this world. We ourselves are body and spirit. We can not express ourselves except by means of our bodies. So the Spirit of Christianity took to itself a body, and that body we call the church. Naturally those who became Christians asked many questions about Christianity. Out of those questions of necessity there came a creed. Naturally those who became Christians sought to give outward expression of their devotion to and adoration of Christ. Hence sprang up, and was gradually systematized, Christian worship. Naturally those who were Christian brethren gave outward expression to their fellowship and unity, and out of that desire sprang the organization of the church. Thus the church did not begin — no society ever did — with a system imposed upon men from without, but it began with the Spirit of Christ, and out of that Spirit came the church with its creed, worship, organization.
And these, too, developed, grew, changed with changing times and circumstances. Let me give one example, taken from that department of Christianity supposed to be least variable — the department of creed. If you asked of a young student of divinity this question, "When was the Nicene Creed composed?" he would probably say: "In the year 325, at the Council of Nicea, from which it takes its name." And yet that would be about as misleading an answer as could be given. The Nicene Creed was never composed; it grew. And it was more than three hundred years in the growing. The Council of Nicea had something to do with it, but very much less than is generally supposed. It existed almost in the form in which it left the council, before the council met, and it was further developed during fifty years subsequent to the meeting of that council.
Let me then sum up this part of our subject by saying that the old thought and conception of the New Testament was that it came into the world as completed creed, worship, and organization. The new thought of it is that it is first a spirit, but a spirit which takes to itself by degrees an outward form. It develops, it grows, it is modified here and there by changing circumstance. And is not this new conception of a development more in accord with our Savior's own teaching? The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which indeed is less than all seeds, but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becometh a tree.
II If these things are so, then you perceive at once that the subject we are considering is of very practical importance, for we may expect still further modification, growth, development. Only dead things never change. Living things are subject to continual change, the constant adaptation to an ever-changing environment. And so there is nothing we should dread as much as standing still, nothing so fatal as changelessness. The institution which can not adapt itself to new environment is doomed.
In the future, then, we may expect that less stress will be placed upon creed and upon the particular forms of worship, and a great deal more stress will be placed upon life, and especially the spirit of a man's life. In other words, religion will become more spiritual and less formal. Right opinion will count less than unselfishness. To give $100,000 for foreign missions will count less than justice and righteousness. The lust of money will be accounted a worse thing than staying away from church. And in in all respects religion will be getting back to Christ, — to that Christ who said God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth; to that Christ who said that to love our fellow man — not to exploit him — was a commandment that ranked with the love of God; to that Christ who said, "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, but do not the things that I say?"
Are we then — some of you may be asking yourselves — are we then to suppose that church worship and doctrine are going to disappear altogether? Some there are who think so. But these we may safely say are wrong. They have reacted too violently against the excessive value placed in the past upon church-going and orthodoxy. I think this point is of sufficient importance to dwell upon for a moment or two.
Did it ever occur to you that in the Old Testament church creed was almost non-existent? "Hear, O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord" sums up the Hebrew creed. But worship or ritual was everything. The details of worship were laid down with the utmost rigor. Every sacrifice had to be offered in exactly the right way, the ritual was carefully prescribed, and to vary from it was an offense scarcely thinkable. In other words, religion was cultus or ritual.
Christianity began without ritual or definite creed. But when it spread among a highly intellectual and philosophical people like the Greeks, it naturally developed doctrine or theory, and doctrine and theory hardened into dogma. In other words, religion ceased to be primarily right cultus or right ritual and became right doctrine. And we may freely admit that this was a step in advance.
But what I want you to notice is that because the religion of doctrine replaced the religion of ritual, it did not follow that ritual disappeared altogether. It still remained, and occupied a very important tho not the first place. And just so, altho I can not conceive it possible that right thinking or doctrine will ever again occupy the place it has in the past, yet it seems certain from many considerations that both doctrine and worship must have a permanent place in the Christian church. Only just as to-day we do not stigmatize because he offers extemporaneous prayer, or preaches in a black gown or a black coat, or per contra prefers a surplice and the Book of Common Prayer, so neither shall we in the future inquire too particularly into the exact opinions of any one upon predestination or original sin, or the relations of the divine and human in Christ, or the double procession of the Holy Ghost. All of them are for some of us important as well as interesting questions; but because men differ from one another about them, they will no longer stigmatize each other as heretics. We shall rather judge of soundness by Christ's test: "He that heareth these saying of mine and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man that built his house upon a rock." In one word we say this: "The religion of the spirit is the religion of liberty."
III. Our next point is this: The religion of the future, because it will be the religion of the Spirit, will seek more earnestly and more thoroughly than has ever been done before to embody itself in act and deed. They that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in reality; must translate spirit into visible good, just as you translate thought into spoken or written word. Neither the religion of cultus nor the religion of dogma is of necessity moral. Morality may be and, we may most thankfully admit, has been superadded to them, but morality is not of this essence. But morality, being conformity to the laws of man's relationship to God, his fellow man, and himself, must be of the very essence of the religion of the Spirit.
The religion of the Spirit will seek most earnestly to establish right relations between men. It will not rest satisfied with merely negatively morality, "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not commit adultery." But it will seek after positive justice, positive mercy. It will be altruistic. It will refuse to be happy while any part of the social organism is compelled to live in unsanitary conditions, is condemned to a life of ceaseless grinding toil, has no vocations that are wholesome and elevating.
The prime virtue of the religion of dogma is assent.
But the prime virtue of the religion of the Spirit is love.
We shall call no man atheist who loves his fellow man. But no matter what he professes to be, we shall regard him as atheist who does not love his fellow man. "For he that loveth not his brother man whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" The religion of the Spirit will greatly prefer a Charles Darwin to a Charles II.
The religion of the Spirit will bring to an end the long conflict between science and theology. Theology will frankly admit that science has earnestly and purely sought after truth, and endeavored to translate truth into action. But all truth is of God. Science in its reverence for law, in its faith that this is an intelligible universe, is truly and deeply religious. It is the ally, not the enemy, of the religion in spirit and truth.
The religion of the Spirit will bring to an end divisions of Christendom. We shall see that variety of worship and thought is consistent with the Unity of the Spirit. Truly it will perceive that all variety that springs out of an honest and sincere mind and heart enriches religion, adds to its strength and its beauty, just as the one energy of the universe unfolds and manifests itself in endless forms of entrancing beauty.
Two principles will underlie this new unity, this transformed catholic church. The principle of liberty, which will give variety, richness, and beauty — the centrifugal force of the spiritual world; and the spirit of love, which will bind together into one communion and fellowship all the varieties of worships and believers. Love is the centripetal force of the spiritual world.
IV. And in this religion of the Spirit, what is to be the place of worship and doctrine?
Worship! What is it? Is it the groveling of man before a Deity who longs for flattery? Is it the attempt to bribe a Deity with forms and ceremonies? The prophets Isaiah and Micah answered that question long since.
Shall we not say that it is the going out of the infinite part of ourselves in adoration and love to the infinite source of all things? Shall we not seek by worship to be purified from low thinking, and to be inspired to high thinking? Shall we not hope to gain from it an infinite desire to be holy, desires and longings which shall he translated into deeds on every day of the week? Perchance to those worshiping thus in spirit there shall be revealed, as once many hundred of years ago there was revealed to a youth, a student, the Lord, high and mighty sitting upon His throne, and they shall hear, as He heard, the seraphim crying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the fulness of the whole earth is the glory of Jehovah! And out of that vision may there come, as there came to Isaiah, the call to live for infinite ends — to do the will of God among men on earth. Worship is no worship that does not lead to action.
And doctrine? Doctrine will continue just as worship will continue; only it will not be dogma, opinions to which men are compelled to assent, whether they understand them or not. Doctrine is the presentation of what the thinker, the student, the teacher, believes to be true; and believing it to be true and beautiful, will yet only ask men to accept so far as they themselves perceive it to be true and beautiful. We shall no more seek to compel men to be orthodox than we now compel them to worship in this way or that way, or than we seek to compel a man to love his neighbor as himself.
Christianity may have long to live in human society before it attains to its ideal; but we are not therefore of despair. This religion of Spirit and of truth, which I have so inadequately sought to set forth, is already in the world. There is no reason why we should be despond or pessimistic. Optimism is to some extent, no doubt, a matter of temperament. Yet I think the optimist can give good reason for the hope and faith that are in him — the faith that we are living in a truth-loving and liberty-loving age. And truth and liberty are of the essence of that God who is a Spirit. Looking back twenty-five years it is not difficult to detect a growing reverence for the religious side of human experience, so that the beautiful aspiration of one of the poet prophets of the nineteenth century is even now being fulfilled.
"Let knowledge grow more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell,
That mind and heart, according
May make one music as before."
—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 5.
Note: The phrase in brackets I supplied, since a few words were missing in the original newspaper.
Advice In His Answers
1901
The Rev. John McNeill was holding a revival service at Cardiff, Wales, and announced that he would answer any question about the Bible. At once a note was sent up to him reading as follows:
"Dear Mr. McNeill — If you are seeking to help young men, kindly tell me who was Cain's wife."
That seemed a poser, and the audience waited with intense interest, tempered with amusement, to see how the good man would extricate himself. After a pause he said:
"I love young men, especially young inquirers for light, and I would give this young man a word of advice. It is this: Don't lose your soul's salvation looking after other people's wives."
The Rev. John McNeill was holding a revival service at Cardiff, Wales, and announced that he would answer any question about the Bible. At once a note was sent up to him reading as follows:
"Dear Mr. McNeill — If you are seeking to help young men, kindly tell me who was Cain's wife."
That seemed a poser, and the audience waited with intense interest, tempered with amusement, to see how the good man would extricate himself. After a pause he said:
"I love young men, especially young inquirers for light, and I would give this young man a word of advice. It is this: Don't lose your soul's salvation looking after other people's wives."
The Grand Medicine Man
1901
The ceremony of the Grand Medicine is an elaborate ritual, covering several days, the endless number of gods and spirits being called upon to minister to the sick man and to lengthen his life. The several degrees of the Grand Medicine teach the use of incantations, of medicines and poisons, and the requirements necessary to constitute a brave.
"When a young man seeks admission to the Grand Medicine lodge, he first fasts until he sees in his dream some animal, the mink, beaver, otter and fisher being most common, which he hunts and kills. The skin is then ornamented with beads or porcupine quills, and the spirit of the animal becomes the friend and companion of the man.
The medicine men have only a limited knowledge of herbs, but they are expert in dressing wounds, and the art of extracting barbed arrows from the flesh can be learned from them.
In olden times — yes, to within the memory of living Ojibways — the medicine man at the funeral ceremony thus addressed the departed: "Dear friend, you will not feel lonely while pursuing your journey toward the setting sun. I have killed for you a Sioux, [hated enemy of the Ojibways], and I have scalped him. He will accompany you and provide for you, hunting your food as you need it. The scalp I have taken — use it for your moccasins." — Open Court.
The ceremony of the Grand Medicine is an elaborate ritual, covering several days, the endless number of gods and spirits being called upon to minister to the sick man and to lengthen his life. The several degrees of the Grand Medicine teach the use of incantations, of medicines and poisons, and the requirements necessary to constitute a brave.
"When a young man seeks admission to the Grand Medicine lodge, he first fasts until he sees in his dream some animal, the mink, beaver, otter and fisher being most common, which he hunts and kills. The skin is then ornamented with beads or porcupine quills, and the spirit of the animal becomes the friend and companion of the man.
The medicine men have only a limited knowledge of herbs, but they are expert in dressing wounds, and the art of extracting barbed arrows from the flesh can be learned from them.
In olden times — yes, to within the memory of living Ojibways — the medicine man at the funeral ceremony thus addressed the departed: "Dear friend, you will not feel lonely while pursuing your journey toward the setting sun. I have killed for you a Sioux, [hated enemy of the Ojibways], and I have scalped him. He will accompany you and provide for you, hunting your food as you need it. The scalp I have taken — use it for your moccasins." — Open Court.
A Curious Error
1901
The Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale told how a curious error crept into the translation of the Lord's Prayer into the Delaware Indian tongue. The English translator had as an assistant an Indian who knew English. "What is 'hallow' in Delaware?" asked the translator. The Indian thought he said "halloo" and gave him the equivalent. Therefore the Delaware version of the Lord's Prayer reads to this day, "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallooed be thy name."
The Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale told how a curious error crept into the translation of the Lord's Prayer into the Delaware Indian tongue. The English translator had as an assistant an Indian who knew English. "What is 'hallow' in Delaware?" asked the translator. The Indian thought he said "halloo" and gave him the equivalent. Therefore the Delaware version of the Lord's Prayer reads to this day, "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallooed be thy name."
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Go-to-Sunday-School-Day
1916
To the People of the State of Maine:
Whereas, the Maine State Sunday School Association has called my attention to a general movement having for its object the arousing of interest in Sunday School work and increasing of Sunday School attendance, and has requested me to issue a proclamation for the purpose of advancing this movement in the State of Maine, and
Whereas, the Maine State Sunday School Association has appointed Sunday, October eighth, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, as "Go to Sunday School Day," to be observed with appropriate exercises by Sunday schools of all denominations represented in the association:
Therefore, I, Oakley C. Curtis, Governor of Maine, do hereby proclaim Sunday, October eight, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, as "Go to Sunday School Day," and commend to the people the observance of this day by attending Sunday School in the church of their choice.
Given under my hand and the great seal of the State of Maine, in the executive chamber at Augusta, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, and of the State of Maine the ninety-seventh.
(L. S.) OAKLEY C. CURTIS,
By the Governor.
JOHN E. BUNKER,
Secretary of State.
To the People of the State of Maine:
Whereas, the Maine State Sunday School Association has called my attention to a general movement having for its object the arousing of interest in Sunday School work and increasing of Sunday School attendance, and has requested me to issue a proclamation for the purpose of advancing this movement in the State of Maine, and
Whereas, the Maine State Sunday School Association has appointed Sunday, October eighth, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, as "Go to Sunday School Day," to be observed with appropriate exercises by Sunday schools of all denominations represented in the association:
Therefore, I, Oakley C. Curtis, Governor of Maine, do hereby proclaim Sunday, October eight, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, as "Go to Sunday School Day," and commend to the people the observance of this day by attending Sunday School in the church of their choice.
Given under my hand and the great seal of the State of Maine, in the executive chamber at Augusta, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, and of the State of Maine the ninety-seventh.
(L. S.) OAKLEY C. CURTIS,
By the Governor.
JOHN E. BUNKER,
Secretary of State.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Christ in the Souls of Men
1916
By A. B. Beresford in the Universalist Leader
Christ is in the souls of men — his ideas, motives, hopes, principles, actual spirit — is daily present, and really at work in the multifarious deeds of the world. There are hosts of business men who are transacting business just as Christ would do — honor and humanity being their watchword. Millions of fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers are making "home" and "heaven" synonymous — Christ would have done just this!
Men of the professions are doing likewise. Said a great surgeon to a colleague: "Remember that there is a man at the other end of that foot. Anyone can amputate a foot — to save one is our business as surgeons" — were not these words Christlike?
A patient recently spoke of a surgeon who operated in the spirit of Christ: "Never before have I seen so Christ-like a look upon any human countenance; he touches the scalpel as he would a sacrament; to him the human body is the temple of the living God, and his work is worship therein." Christ is present at the operating table — thus in the deeds of humans — obscure, unknown save to few — is Christ present.
By A. B. Beresford in the Universalist Leader
Christ is in the souls of men — his ideas, motives, hopes, principles, actual spirit — is daily present, and really at work in the multifarious deeds of the world. There are hosts of business men who are transacting business just as Christ would do — honor and humanity being their watchword. Millions of fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers are making "home" and "heaven" synonymous — Christ would have done just this!
Men of the professions are doing likewise. Said a great surgeon to a colleague: "Remember that there is a man at the other end of that foot. Anyone can amputate a foot — to save one is our business as surgeons" — were not these words Christlike?
A patient recently spoke of a surgeon who operated in the spirit of Christ: "Never before have I seen so Christ-like a look upon any human countenance; he touches the scalpel as he would a sacrament; to him the human body is the temple of the living God, and his work is worship therein." Christ is present at the operating table — thus in the deeds of humans — obscure, unknown save to few — is Christ present.
Lesson for October 1
1916
Plot that Failed.
LESSON TEXT — Acts 23.
GOLDEN TEXT — They shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to deliver thee. — Jer. 1:19.
The stirring events of this lesson occurred in the Castle Antonia and the Sanhedrin hall, near the temple court of Jerusalem; also in Caesarea, the Roman capital of Judea, on the Mediterranean coast, in the year A. D. 57, just at the close of Paul's third missionary journey. The lesson pictures two successive days of strange adventures in which Paul was concerned, a narrow escape and the unexpected providences used in his deliverance. The day was inaugurated by Paul's magic words "I am a Roman citizen," which caused the commander, Lysias, to release him from the threatened scourging, and made him more than ordinarily careful in his treatment of Paul.
I. Before the Elders (vv. 1-12). By referring back to chapter 21, v. 13, we find the charge which really underlay all of Paul's trouble, his preaching, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul's defense is interesting. He gives us a rehearsal of his Christian life, laying emphasis upon its blamelessness and the fact that he is not an apostate Jew. The high priest speaks to silence him, but not gently. Although Paul for a moment seems to give way to his justifiable indignation, he quickly reveals his reverence for the rulers of the people. He then divides the Sanhedrin. Read carefully chapter 22:6-7, and compare with verses 17 and 18. The Sanhedrin could not explain this testimony of Paul, and were seeking to put aside the whole question. An interesting discussion would be to consider the insult to Paul. Was his indignation right and rightly expressed? Another question, the matter of Paul's apology. Just for what did he apologize? Is it ever wrong to speak evil of rulers? These were indeed days of stress and storm. Was Paul justified in dividing the Sanhedrin in order to conquer their opposition to him? Again, how God used these incidents in the furtherance of the gospel is a suggestive lesson for us all. It has been hinted that Ananias was not in his priestly garments, and therefore perhaps not readily recognized by Paul. Paul may never have seen him, as he was elected high priest after Paul had left the council. It is interesting to note that it is not said that anyone struck Paul or that Paul did not apologize for his words or deny them to be true, but only for their being spoken to the high priest. Read in this connection what Christ said to the Pharisees (Matt. 23:27). Paul apologized because he had broken the law found in Exodus 22:28. In the trial of Christ one of the officers struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, whereupon Jesus answered him, saying: "If I have spoken evil,. bear witness of the evil, but if well, why smitest thou me?" On the other hand, when Jesus was ill-treated by the common soldiers, he opened not his mouth.
II. The Plot and Deliverance (vv. 12-35). Paul's prospect was not a pleasant one. In his darkness God appeared to his faithful servant to cheer him (v. 11). Perhaps Paul was tempted to think he had made a mistake in coming to Jerusalem over the protests of his friends, but evidently the Lord heartily approved of his testimony there. A dangerous conspiracy was forming against him, but God was, as he always is, beforehand with his comfort and preparation for the crisis. We have often speculated as to what became of the forty men who entered into it (see v. 12) — whether they actually lived up to their oath. If they did, they must have died of starvation. They were determined men, willing to go any length, and fancied they were doing the will of God. There is no more dangerous man than he who fancies that he must be the judge as to who are God's friends and who are his foes, and that he is the appointed executioner of God's judgment. The plot was well laid, and seemed certain of success, but it failed miserably. (See Psalm 2:1-4; 64:1-10; Isaiah 41:10). The wicked, who leave God out of their plans, no matter how cunningly they plot, are doomed to failure (Rom. 8:31). These plotters co-operated with the priest. Ecclesiastics have often descended to the lowest villainy. Men are not murdered today, though their reputations are often blasted by unprincipled and hellishly impelled professed followers of the lowly Nazarene. Paul had friends in this city. His nephew's discovery and revelation, and the Gentile soldier, a colonel, effected his deliverance. In the boy's heart there must have been great admiration for the uncle. It would be well for teachers of boys to have them repeat in their own language this boy's story. Paul was not safe in Jerusalem. The Roman governor recognized the nature of the conspiracy, and the desperate character of the Jewish fanatics. and therefore sent him under a strong guard to Caesarea, which was reached after a journey on horseback, lasting through the night and the following day.
Plot that Failed.
LESSON TEXT — Acts 23.
GOLDEN TEXT — They shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to deliver thee. — Jer. 1:19.
The stirring events of this lesson occurred in the Castle Antonia and the Sanhedrin hall, near the temple court of Jerusalem; also in Caesarea, the Roman capital of Judea, on the Mediterranean coast, in the year A. D. 57, just at the close of Paul's third missionary journey. The lesson pictures two successive days of strange adventures in which Paul was concerned, a narrow escape and the unexpected providences used in his deliverance. The day was inaugurated by Paul's magic words "I am a Roman citizen," which caused the commander, Lysias, to release him from the threatened scourging, and made him more than ordinarily careful in his treatment of Paul.
I. Before the Elders (vv. 1-12). By referring back to chapter 21, v. 13, we find the charge which really underlay all of Paul's trouble, his preaching, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul's defense is interesting. He gives us a rehearsal of his Christian life, laying emphasis upon its blamelessness and the fact that he is not an apostate Jew. The high priest speaks to silence him, but not gently. Although Paul for a moment seems to give way to his justifiable indignation, he quickly reveals his reverence for the rulers of the people. He then divides the Sanhedrin. Read carefully chapter 22:6-7, and compare with verses 17 and 18. The Sanhedrin could not explain this testimony of Paul, and were seeking to put aside the whole question. An interesting discussion would be to consider the insult to Paul. Was his indignation right and rightly expressed? Another question, the matter of Paul's apology. Just for what did he apologize? Is it ever wrong to speak evil of rulers? These were indeed days of stress and storm. Was Paul justified in dividing the Sanhedrin in order to conquer their opposition to him? Again, how God used these incidents in the furtherance of the gospel is a suggestive lesson for us all. It has been hinted that Ananias was not in his priestly garments, and therefore perhaps not readily recognized by Paul. Paul may never have seen him, as he was elected high priest after Paul had left the council. It is interesting to note that it is not said that anyone struck Paul or that Paul did not apologize for his words or deny them to be true, but only for their being spoken to the high priest. Read in this connection what Christ said to the Pharisees (Matt. 23:27). Paul apologized because he had broken the law found in Exodus 22:28. In the trial of Christ one of the officers struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, whereupon Jesus answered him, saying: "If I have spoken evil,. bear witness of the evil, but if well, why smitest thou me?" On the other hand, when Jesus was ill-treated by the common soldiers, he opened not his mouth.
II. The Plot and Deliverance (vv. 12-35). Paul's prospect was not a pleasant one. In his darkness God appeared to his faithful servant to cheer him (v. 11). Perhaps Paul was tempted to think he had made a mistake in coming to Jerusalem over the protests of his friends, but evidently the Lord heartily approved of his testimony there. A dangerous conspiracy was forming against him, but God was, as he always is, beforehand with his comfort and preparation for the crisis. We have often speculated as to what became of the forty men who entered into it (see v. 12) — whether they actually lived up to their oath. If they did, they must have died of starvation. They were determined men, willing to go any length, and fancied they were doing the will of God. There is no more dangerous man than he who fancies that he must be the judge as to who are God's friends and who are his foes, and that he is the appointed executioner of God's judgment. The plot was well laid, and seemed certain of success, but it failed miserably. (See Psalm 2:1-4; 64:1-10; Isaiah 41:10). The wicked, who leave God out of their plans, no matter how cunningly they plot, are doomed to failure (Rom. 8:31). These plotters co-operated with the priest. Ecclesiastics have often descended to the lowest villainy. Men are not murdered today, though their reputations are often blasted by unprincipled and hellishly impelled professed followers of the lowly Nazarene. Paul had friends in this city. His nephew's discovery and revelation, and the Gentile soldier, a colonel, effected his deliverance. In the boy's heart there must have been great admiration for the uncle. It would be well for teachers of boys to have them repeat in their own language this boy's story. Paul was not safe in Jerusalem. The Roman governor recognized the nature of the conspiracy, and the desperate character of the Jewish fanatics. and therefore sent him under a strong guard to Caesarea, which was reached after a journey on horseback, lasting through the night and the following day.
Three Pictures From God's Album
1916
By Rev. B. B. Sutchiffe.
TEXT — Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent towards Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. — Gen. 13:12, 13.
Someone has said that the Old Testament is God's picture gallery where he has given us in picture form the doctrines and truths he develops in the New Testament. Our text has three of these pictures, in which three classes of persons are described — Abram, Lot and the men of Sodom.
Living for Self.
Taking these in reverse order, we can see how the men of Sodom illustrate a large number of people today. They are those whose underlying principle might be termed living for self alone. They do not care for real religion, but are occupied entirely with the things of time and sense. What they will eat today or what they will wear tomorrow is to them vastly more important than how they will stand before God in the future. Their effort is concerned with this life alone, and they live and work and play as though there were no such thing as eternity and no such person as God. They come to the end like the man who told himself he could retire from business because he had much goods laid up for many years and he could now afford to enjoy the fruits of his toil and eat, drink and be merry. But he had laid up all his goods on the earth; they were not taken from him, but he was taken from them, and it is no wonder the Lord says he was a fool. The class under consideration are not necessarily bad people, for usually they are tolerant of religion, as the people of Sodom did not mind having Lot in their midst. But the religion that Lot had was not very insistent. When it would threaten to interfere with business or with pleasure it must not be heard. It was time then to laugh it out of court as a sort of fable, and when it became personal Lot was to [*]
Living for Self and God.
The second picture is that of Lot, in whom the half-and-half Christian is easily seen. This man illustrates those who seem to have, as the underlying principle of life, the idea of living for self and for God too. They attempt to serve two masters, and, failing to serve either, come to the end with nothing to show for their labor. They trust their own vision and live by sight and not by faith. Lot looked on the well-watered plain and, as far as he could see, it was the very thing he ought to have, the very thing that was best for him. But, as God saw, it was the very thing he ought not to have, the thing that was worst for him. He hazarded everything he had or hoped to have — himself, his family, his property — on what he could see with his own eyes, when he might have chosen what God could see. He trusted himself rather than God and the results were inevitable. He lost what God would have given him and he lost the enjoyment the men of Sodom had; for all the time he was there his righteous soul was vexed. He was neither out and out for self nor out and out for God. He had tried to live for God and self, he had tried to serve two masters and to get both the wealth of Sodom and the wealth of God. But he ended with awful disaster, losing his property, his testimony, his family — all that he had.
Living for God.
The last picture is that in which the "out-and-out" Christian is seen in Abram. The underlying principle of his life seems to be that he had made up his mind to serve God alone. He was far from being a perfect man. He made many mistakes and even committed some sins. But underneath he was living for God. He had learned "thou shalt have no other God before me" and his life was governed by this principle. He recognized that he could serve only one master with any hope of success and he chose to have the Lord as that one Master. What he was and had and hoped to be belonged to that Master to do with as the Master desired. Where he was to be and go depended on that Master's direction. He would not lean to his own understanding nor judge by the sight of his eyes nor walk by his own wisdom. He would gladly take the seeming second best from God, believing that whatever appearances might say, they could not tell the whole truth.
The men of Sodom lived for self alone and lost themselves and all they had; Lot lived for self and God and lost all he had of peace or power or property; Abram lived for God alone and, while he was not a perfect man, there was given to him the peace of God and power for God and possessions from God. "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve."
Note: [*] Unfortuately, missing at least one line of type here. The sense seems to be "when it became personal Lot was to" a) be ignored; or, b) keep his religion to himself.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Cheerfulness
1916
Cheerfulness is a great asset. A smile and a song are worth a great deal to a person in any calling in life. Carlyle says, "Give me the man who sings at his work." It was a thousand pities that he did not practice what he preached. The sage of Chelsea only growled at his work, and made the lives of all about him miserable. Of all the men we meet on the street, there is no face we welcome as that of the one who greets us with a smile. We cross the street to meet him and exchange greetings, while we turn the corner to avoid the man with the harsh voice and the frown.
The soldier with a buoyant spirit, who sings as he marches, is a better campaigner, and will stand more hardship, than the one who is dour and silent. Soldiers march better to the sound of martial music than they do when they have no band. The inspiring strains enable them to perform prodigies of valor. It is said the French revolution was won by a song. Some time ago, a brave Gordon Highlander played his bagpipes to encourage his comrades, when his leg was shot away.
The work we do with a song is likely to be well done. The man who enjoys preaching will be a good preacher, and the man who enjoys writing will be a successful author. We should think of this in choosing our life work. If a man is not happy in his work, he should give it up at once, and find something congenial; for the greatest excellence can only be obtained when the spirit is in accord with the labor engaged in.
In our daily battle, we need a song as much as a soldier ever did. Many a man goes to his work feeling that life is a tremendous fight, and that he is scarcely holding his own in the contest. On his way he is joined by a friend, who is full of hope and cheerfulness. The bright look, the cheery tone, and encouraging words are like wine to his jaded spirit, and cheer him as nothing else would.
Cheerfulness should mark the life of the Christian. Nothing commends Christ as readily as a happy Christian, and nothing disgraces Him as readily as a morose and a sour one. If we would have others believe in our religion, and be attracted to it, we must show that we enjoy it ourselves. — Onward.
Cheerfulness is a great asset. A smile and a song are worth a great deal to a person in any calling in life. Carlyle says, "Give me the man who sings at his work." It was a thousand pities that he did not practice what he preached. The sage of Chelsea only growled at his work, and made the lives of all about him miserable. Of all the men we meet on the street, there is no face we welcome as that of the one who greets us with a smile. We cross the street to meet him and exchange greetings, while we turn the corner to avoid the man with the harsh voice and the frown.
The soldier with a buoyant spirit, who sings as he marches, is a better campaigner, and will stand more hardship, than the one who is dour and silent. Soldiers march better to the sound of martial music than they do when they have no band. The inspiring strains enable them to perform prodigies of valor. It is said the French revolution was won by a song. Some time ago, a brave Gordon Highlander played his bagpipes to encourage his comrades, when his leg was shot away.
The work we do with a song is likely to be well done. The man who enjoys preaching will be a good preacher, and the man who enjoys writing will be a successful author. We should think of this in choosing our life work. If a man is not happy in his work, he should give it up at once, and find something congenial; for the greatest excellence can only be obtained when the spirit is in accord with the labor engaged in.
In our daily battle, we need a song as much as a soldier ever did. Many a man goes to his work feeling that life is a tremendous fight, and that he is scarcely holding his own in the contest. On his way he is joined by a friend, who is full of hope and cheerfulness. The bright look, the cheery tone, and encouraging words are like wine to his jaded spirit, and cheer him as nothing else would.
Cheerfulness should mark the life of the Christian. Nothing commends Christ as readily as a happy Christian, and nothing disgraces Him as readily as a morose and a sour one. If we would have others believe in our religion, and be attracted to it, we must show that we enjoy it ourselves. — Onward.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Benevolence Versus Extravagance
The greatest obstacle to charity in the Christian church today is the fact that men expend so much on their table and women so much on their dress, they have got nothing left for the work of God and the world's betterment. — TALMAGE.
Condensed Comments
He that bath a bountiful eye shall be blessed;
For he giveth of his bread to the poor. — SOLOMON.
We only begin to realize the value of our possessions when we commence to do good to others with them. No earthly investment pays so large an interest as charity. — JOSEPH COOK.
Condensed Comments
He that bath a bountiful eye shall be blessed;
For he giveth of his bread to the poor. — SOLOMON.
We only begin to realize the value of our possessions when we commence to do good to others with them. No earthly investment pays so large an interest as charity. — JOSEPH COOK.
"She Did Her Best"
If I can live
To make some pale face brighter, and to give
A second luster to some tear-dimmed eye,
Or e'en impart
One throb of comfort to an aching heart,
Or cheer some way-worn soul in passing by —
If I can lend
A strong hand to the fallen, or defend
The right against a single envious stain,
My life, though bare,
Perhaps, of much that seemeth dear and fair
To us of earth, will not have been in vain.
The purest joy —
Most near to Heaven — far from earth's alloy,
Is bidding cloud to give way to sun and shine;
And 'twill be well
If on that day of days the angels tell
Of me: "She did her best for one of Thine."
— MILDRED McNEAL.
To make some pale face brighter, and to give
A second luster to some tear-dimmed eye,
Or e'en impart
One throb of comfort to an aching heart,
Or cheer some way-worn soul in passing by —
If I can lend
A strong hand to the fallen, or defend
The right against a single envious stain,
My life, though bare,
Perhaps, of much that seemeth dear and fair
To us of earth, will not have been in vain.
The purest joy —
Most near to Heaven — far from earth's alloy,
Is bidding cloud to give way to sun and shine;
And 'twill be well
If on that day of days the angels tell
Of me: "She did her best for one of Thine."
— MILDRED McNEAL.
Doing Good a Blessing to Ourselves
If we view this microcosm, the human body, we shall find that the heart does not receive the blood to store it up; but while it pumps it in at one valve, it sends it forth at another. The blood is always circulating everywhere, and is stagnant nowhere. The same is true of all the fluids in a healthy body; they are in a constant state of expenditure. If one cell stores for a few moments its peculiar secretion, it only retains it till it is perfectly fitted for its appointed use in the body; for if any cell in the body should begin to store up its secretion, its store would soon become the cause of inveterate disease. Nay, the organ would soon lose the power to secrete at all, if it did not give forth its products.
The whole of the human system lives by giving. The eye can not say to the foot: "I have no need of thee, and will not guide thee." For if it does not perform its watchful office, the whole man will be in the ditch, and the eye will be covered with mire. If the members refuse to contribute to the general stock, the whole body will become poverty-stricken, and be given up to the bankruptcy of death. Let us learn, then, from the analogy of nature, the great lesson that, to get, we must give; that, to accumulate, we must scatter; that, to make ourselves happy, we must make others happy; and that, to get good and become spiritually vigorous, we must do good and seek the spiritual good of others. — SPURGEON.
The whole of the human system lives by giving. The eye can not say to the foot: "I have no need of thee, and will not guide thee." For if it does not perform its watchful office, the whole man will be in the ditch, and the eye will be covered with mire. If the members refuse to contribute to the general stock, the whole body will become poverty-stricken, and be given up to the bankruptcy of death. Let us learn, then, from the analogy of nature, the great lesson that, to get, we must give; that, to accumulate, we must scatter; that, to make ourselves happy, we must make others happy; and that, to get good and become spiritually vigorous, we must do good and seek the spiritual good of others. — SPURGEON.
I Shall Not Pass Again This Way.
The bread that bringeth strength I want to give;
The water pure that bids the thirsty live.
I want to help the fainting, day by day.
I'm sure I shall not pass again this way.
I want to give the oil of joy for tears,
The faith to conquer crowding doubts and fears;
Beauty for ashes may I give alway.
I'm sure I shall not pass again this way.
I want to give good measure running o'er,
And into angry hearts I want to pour
The answer soft that turneth wrath away.
I'm sure I shall not pass again this way.
I want to give to others hope and faith;
I want to do all that the Master saith;
I want to do aright from day to day.
I'm sure I shall not pass again this way.
— ANONYMOUS.
The water pure that bids the thirsty live.
I want to help the fainting, day by day.
I'm sure I shall not pass again this way.
I want to give the oil of joy for tears,
The faith to conquer crowding doubts and fears;
Beauty for ashes may I give alway.
I'm sure I shall not pass again this way.
I want to give good measure running o'er,
And into angry hearts I want to pour
The answer soft that turneth wrath away.
I'm sure I shall not pass again this way.
I want to give to others hope and faith;
I want to do all that the Master saith;
I want to do aright from day to day.
I'm sure I shall not pass again this way.
— ANONYMOUS.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Believing Confidence in God's Word
Believing does not come by trying. If a person were to make a statement of something that happened this day I should not tell him that I would try to believe him. If I believed in the truthfulness of the man who told the incident to me, and who said he saw it, I should accept the statement at once. If I did not think him a true man I should, of course, disbelieve him; but there would be no trying in the matter. Now, when God declares there is salvation in Christ Jesus I must either believe Him at once or make Him a liar. – SPURGEON.
The Peace of the Believer
The believer's peace is like a river for continuance. Look at it, rising as a little brook among the mosses of the lone green hill; by and by it leaps as a rugged cataract; anon it flows along that fair valley where the red deer wanders, and the child loves to play. With hum of pleasant music the brook turns the village mill. Hearken to its changeful tune as it ripples over its pebbly bed, or leaps adown the wheel, or sports in eddies where the trees bend down their branches to kiss the current. Anon the streamlet has become a river, and bears upon its flood full many a craft. Then its bosom swells, bridges with noble arches span it, and, grown vaster still, it becomes an estuary, broad enough to be an arm of old Father Ocean, pouring its water-floods into the mighty main. The river abides the lapse of ages; it is no evanescent morning cloud or transient rain-flood, but in all its stages it is permanent.
"Men may come, and men may go,
But I flow on for ever."
Evermore, throughout all generations, the river speedeth to its destined place. Such is the peace of the Christian. He has always reason for comfort. He has not a consolation like a swollen torrent which is dried up under the hot sun of adversity, but peace is his rightful possession at all times. Do you inquire for the Thames? You shall find it flowing in its own bed in the thick black night, as well as in the clear bright day. — SPURGEON.
"Men may come, and men may go,
But I flow on for ever."
Evermore, throughout all generations, the river speedeth to its destined place. Such is the peace of the Christian. He has always reason for comfort. He has not a consolation like a swollen torrent which is dried up under the hot sun of adversity, but peace is his rightful possession at all times. Do you inquire for the Thames? You shall find it flowing in its own bed in the thick black night, as well as in the clear bright day. — SPURGEON.
The Assurance of God's Word
Now, I find a great many people who want some evidence that they have accepted the Son of God. My friends, if you want any evidence, take God's word for it. You can't find better evidence than that. You know that when the Angel Gabriel came down and told Zachariah he should have a son he wanted a further token than the angel's word. He asked Gabriel for it, and he answered: "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Lord." He had never been doubted, and he thundered out this to Zachariah. But he wanted a further token, and Gabriel said: "You shall have a token; you shall be dumb till your son shall be given you."—MOODY.
The Assurance of Christ
"But," a man said to me, " no one has come back, and we don't know what is in the future. It is all dark, and how can we be sure?" Thank God, Christ came down from Heaven; and I would rather have Him, coming as He does right from the bosom of the Father, than any one else. We can rely on what Christ says, and He says: "He that believeth on Me shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Not that we are going to have it when we die, but right here today. — MOODY.
The Superiority of Christian Faith
With the results of Christianity before him and in him, the Christian may confidently say to all his foes: "If a lie can do all this, then a lie is better than all your truth; for your truth does not pretend to do it. And if our lie is better in every possible legitimate result than your truth, then your truth is proven to be a lie, and our lie is the truth." Of all short methods with infidelity, this is the shortest. — J. G. HOLLAND.
Music the Child of Christianity
There is an art which Christianity created almost wholly, asking little of outside aid. Music is that peculiar child. The long-continued vision of Heaven, the struggle of the tones of voice and of instrument to find something worthy of the deep feelings of religion, resulted at last in those mighty chants which formed the mountain springs of our musical Nile. There could have been no music had not depth of feeling come to man. The men who went up to the pagan temples went with no such love, with no sorrow of penitence, with no exultant joy. It was necessary for Jesus Christ to come along and transfer religion from the form to the spirit, and from an "airy nothingness" to a love stronger than life, before hymns like those of Luther and Wesley and Watts could break from the heart. The doctrine of repentance must live in the world awhile before we can have a "Miserere," and the exultant hope of the Christian must come before the mind can invent a "Gloria." — SWING.
Angelo and Raphael
Christianity helped to make Angelo and Raphael by furnishing them with grand themes. As no lips can be eloquent unless they are speaking in the name of a great truth, so no painter can paint unless some one brings him a great subject. Heaven and hell made the poet, Dante. Christianity made Beatrice. Paradise made John Milton. The mother of our Lord and the last judgment made Angelo. It is the great theme that makes the orator, the painter, the poet. The great theme lifts up the soul and makes it the revealer of a new world. — SWING.
The Rose of Art
Following the sun, westward the march of power!
The Rose of Might blooms in our new-world mart;
But see, just bursting forth from bud to flower,
A late, slow growth — the fairer Rose of Art.
— R. W. GILDER.
Ideals in Art
Our age is moved deeply by the study of ideals in art. Each generation is amazed at its own progress. In the great Field Columbian Museum one can see the history of many an idea: The boat idea, beginning at three logs bound together with a piece of bark and passing on toward the ocean palace; the transportation idea, beginning with a strap on a man's forehead, passing on through the panniers on a goat or a donkey and reaching to the modern express train; the sculpture idea, moving from some stone or earthen or wooden outlines onward toward the angelic forms that seem about to live and speak. There you will see the wooden eagle which marked the grave of some Indian. And what a creature it is! Nothing but the infinite kindness of civilization could persuade us to call it a bird of any known species. And yet, perhaps, the Indian when dying was happy that such a wooden bird was to stand on his grave and keep his memory green. Into our age, so full of new and grand conceptions in art, there must come the marching ideals of human life. Man is moving through a redemptive world. All lips should sing each day the song of the old harpist: "Who Redeemeth Thy Life from Destruction." What our age needs is a rapid advance of the ideals of life. A Catholic priest who has spent thirty years in the temperance cause has said: "The saloon is the greatest enemy that Rome has left in the world. The criticisms which the Protestants make of Rome's dogmas are harmless compared with the ruin of mind and soul wrought by the saloon and its defenders." No one will deny the truth of the priest's complaint, and all are glad to mark the new effort of the Romanists to set up new ideas. Protestants should not, can not, hate a Catholic; but all good citizens must cherish little regard for any one who has not gotten beyond the saloon idea. — SWING.
The Rose of Might blooms in our new-world mart;
But see, just bursting forth from bud to flower,
A late, slow growth — the fairer Rose of Art.
— R. W. GILDER.
Ideals in Art
Our age is moved deeply by the study of ideals in art. Each generation is amazed at its own progress. In the great Field Columbian Museum one can see the history of many an idea: The boat idea, beginning at three logs bound together with a piece of bark and passing on toward the ocean palace; the transportation idea, beginning with a strap on a man's forehead, passing on through the panniers on a goat or a donkey and reaching to the modern express train; the sculpture idea, moving from some stone or earthen or wooden outlines onward toward the angelic forms that seem about to live and speak. There you will see the wooden eagle which marked the grave of some Indian. And what a creature it is! Nothing but the infinite kindness of civilization could persuade us to call it a bird of any known species. And yet, perhaps, the Indian when dying was happy that such a wooden bird was to stand on his grave and keep his memory green. Into our age, so full of new and grand conceptions in art, there must come the marching ideals of human life. Man is moving through a redemptive world. All lips should sing each day the song of the old harpist: "Who Redeemeth Thy Life from Destruction." What our age needs is a rapid advance of the ideals of life. A Catholic priest who has spent thirty years in the temperance cause has said: "The saloon is the greatest enemy that Rome has left in the world. The criticisms which the Protestants make of Rome's dogmas are harmless compared with the ruin of mind and soul wrought by the saloon and its defenders." No one will deny the truth of the priest's complaint, and all are glad to mark the new effort of the Romanists to set up new ideas. Protestants should not, can not, hate a Catholic; but all good citizens must cherish little regard for any one who has not gotten beyond the saloon idea. — SWING.
"Be Angry and Sin Not"
Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry and sin not. — LYMAN ABBOTT.
Anger and Rage
Nothing is improved by anger, unless it be the arch of a cat's back. A man with his back up is spoiling his figure! People look none the handsomer for being red in the face. It takes a great deal out of a man to get into a towering rage; it is almost as unhealthy as having a fit, and time has been when men have actually choked themselves with passion, and died on the spot. Whatever wrong I suffer, it can not do me half so much hurt as being angry about it; for passion shortens life and poisons peace. — SPURGEON.
Anger and Rage
Nothing is improved by anger, unless it be the arch of a cat's back. A man with his back up is spoiling his figure! People look none the handsomer for being red in the face. It takes a great deal out of a man to get into a towering rage; it is almost as unhealthy as having a fit, and time has been when men have actually choked themselves with passion, and died on the spot. Whatever wrong I suffer, it can not do me half so much hurt as being angry about it; for passion shortens life and poisons peace. — SPURGEON.
Capacity for Anger Desirable
The child should be taught to restrain his anger; but he can not restrain it if he has not got it. Anger is like fire — a good servant and a terrible master. Without capacity for anger Luther could not have fought the battle of the Reformation; nor our fathers the war of the Revolution; nor our reformers the war of Emancipation. — LYMAN ABBOTT.
Righteous Anger
The spirit which flushes with resentment at an oath is infinitely better than the spirit which listens with indifference, or which laughs with pleasure.
"Abhor that which is evil," says the Divine command; no man is safe unless he does. — LYMAN ABBOTT.
Anger at Sin a Duty
Every great sin ought to arouse a great anger. Mob law is better than no law at all. A community which rises in its wrath to punish with misdirected anger a great wrong is in a healthier moral condition than a community Which looks upon its perpetration with apathy and unconcern. — LYMAN ABBOTT.
Righteous Anger
The spirit which flushes with resentment at an oath is infinitely better than the spirit which listens with indifference, or which laughs with pleasure.
"Abhor that which is evil," says the Divine command; no man is safe unless he does. — LYMAN ABBOTT.
Anger at Sin a Duty
Every great sin ought to arouse a great anger. Mob law is better than no law at all. A community which rises in its wrath to punish with misdirected anger a great wrong is in a healthier moral condition than a community Which looks upon its perpetration with apathy and unconcern. — LYMAN ABBOTT.
Providence in the Discovery of America
It would seem to have been especially ordered by Providence, that the discovery of the two great divisions of the American hemisphere should fall to the two races best fitted to conquer and colonize them. Thus the northern section was consigned to the Anglo-Saxon race, whose orderly, industrious habits found an ample field for development under its colder skies and on its more rugged soil; while the southern portion, with its rich tropical products and treasures of mineral wealth, held out the most attractive bait to invite the enterprise of the Spaniard. How different might have been the result, if the bark of Columbus had taken a more northerly direction, as he at one time meditated, and landed its band of adventurers on the shores of what is now Free America! — PRESCOTT.
An Indestructible Union of Indestructible States
It may be not unreasonably said that the preservation of the States and the maintenance of their governments are as much within the design and care of the Constitution as the preservation of the Union or the maintenance of the National Government. The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union of indestructible States. — CHIEF JUSTICE CHASE.
Another Name
America is only another name for opportunity. — EMERSON.
An Indestructible Union of Indestructible States
It may be not unreasonably said that the preservation of the States and the maintenance of their governments are as much within the design and care of the Constitution as the preservation of the Union or the maintenance of the National Government. The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union of indestructible States. — CHIEF JUSTICE CHASE.
Another Name
America is only another name for opportunity. — EMERSON.
My Sorrow's Sign
O murmurous Spirit of the Pine!
Thou seem'st to droop and nestle nigh.
Hast thou, then, read my sorrow's sign?
What grief of thine dost thou resign
To echo here my soul's low cry,
O murmurous Spirit of the Pine?
What need for me to build a shrine
To stay the people passing by,
If thou hast read my sorrow's sign?
Thou hast no marble mark to thine;
Like mine, thy grief is always shy,
O murmurous Spirit of the Pine!
No shaft shall rise to measure mine,
Nor need the cold world marvel why,
Since thou hast read my sorrow's sign.
For mine, the stars shall rise and shine
Until the constellations die;
For thou hast read my sorrow's sign,
O murmurous Spirit of the Pine!
— JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS.
Learn Affliction's Lesson
If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once to what it teaches. — JAMES BURGH.
Thou seem'st to droop and nestle nigh.
Hast thou, then, read my sorrow's sign?
What grief of thine dost thou resign
To echo here my soul's low cry,
O murmurous Spirit of the Pine?
What need for me to build a shrine
To stay the people passing by,
If thou hast read my sorrow's sign?
Thou hast no marble mark to thine;
Like mine, thy grief is always shy,
O murmurous Spirit of the Pine!
No shaft shall rise to measure mine,
Nor need the cold world marvel why,
Since thou hast read my sorrow's sign.
For mine, the stars shall rise and shine
Until the constellations die;
For thou hast read my sorrow's sign,
O murmurous Spirit of the Pine!
— JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS.
Learn Affliction's Lesson
If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once to what it teaches. — JAMES BURGH.
Affliction Endears the Promises
We never prize the precious words of promise till we are placed in conditions in which their suitability and sweetness are manifested. We all of us value those golden words: "When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." But few if any of us have read them with the delight of the martyr, Bilney, to whom this passage was a stay while he was in prison, awaiting his execution at the stake. His Bible, still preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, has the passage marked with a pen in the margin. Perhaps, if all were known, every promise in the Bible has borne a special message to some one saint; and so the whole volume might be scored in the margin with mementos of Christian experience, every one appropriate to the very letter. — SPURGEON.
All Things To All Men
The power of adaptation to high and low, learned and ignorant, sad and frivolous, is no mean gift. If, like Nelson, we can lay our vessel side by side with the enemy, and come to close quarters without delay, we shall do considerable execution. Commend me to the man who can avail himself of any conversation and any topic, to drive home saving truth upon the conscience and heart. He who can ride a well-trained horse, properly saddled, does well; but the fellow who can leap upon the wild horse of the prairie, and ride him bare-backed, is a genius indeed. "All things to all men," rightly interpreted, is a motto worthy of the great apostle of the Gentiles, and of all who, like him, would win souls for Jesus. — SPURGEON.
Small Courtesies
In all the affairs of life, social as well as political, courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest to the grateful and appreciating heart. — HENRY CLAY.
Small Courtesies
In all the affairs of life, social as well as political, courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest to the grateful and appreciating heart. — HENRY CLAY.
Spiritual Affability
Let us be approachable in reference to spiritual things, and we shall soon have the joy of seeing others taking a light from us. We know people to whom no one would ever speak in the hour of trial; as well might they make a pillow of a thorn-bush. If people to whom they have never been introduced were to intrude their personal sorrows, they would be looked at with one of those searchers which read you from top to toe, and at the same time wither you up. On the other hand, there are faces which are a living advertisement running thus: "Good Accommodation for Man and Grief." You are sure of a friend here. —SPURGEON.
Take A Light
Certain persons are like harbors of refuge, to which every vessel will run in distress. When you want to ask your way in the street, you instinctively shun the stuck-up gentleman of importance; and you most readily put the question to the man with the smiling face and the open countenance. In our church we have friends who seem to say to everybody: "Take a light." May their number be greatly multiplied!
It should be a joy to hold a candle to another. It will not waste our own light to impart it. — SPURGEON.
Take A Light
Certain persons are like harbors of refuge, to which every vessel will run in distress. When you want to ask your way in the street, you instinctively shun the stuck-up gentleman of importance; and you most readily put the question to the man with the smiling face and the open countenance. In our church we have friends who seem to say to everybody: "Take a light." May their number be greatly multiplied!
It should be a joy to hold a candle to another. It will not waste our own light to impart it. — SPURGEON.
Affability at Home
Audubon, the great ornithologist, with gun and pencil, went through the forests of America to bring down and to sketch the beautiful birds, and after years of toil and exposure completed his manuscript, and put it in a trunk in Philadelphia for a few days of recreation and rest, and came back and found that the rats had utterly destroyed the manuscript; but without any discomposure and without any fret or bad temper, he again, picked up his gun and pencil, and visited again all the great forests of America, and reproduced his immortal work. And yet there are people with the ten-thousandth part of that loss who are utterly unreconcilable, who at the loss of a pencil or an article of raiment will blow as long and sharp as a northeast storm.
Now, that man who is affable in public and who is irritable in private is making a fraudulent over-issue of stock, and he is as bad as a bank that might have four or five hundred thousand dollars of bills in circulation with no specie in the vault. Let us learn to show piety at home. If we have it not there, we have it not anywhere. If we have not genuine grace in the family circle, all our outward and public plausibility merely springs from a fear of the world or from the slimy, putrid pool of our own selfishness. I tell you the home is a mighty test of character. What you are at home you are everywhere, whether you demonstrate it or not. — TALMAGE.
Now, that man who is affable in public and who is irritable in private is making a fraudulent over-issue of stock, and he is as bad as a bank that might have four or five hundred thousand dollars of bills in circulation with no specie in the vault. Let us learn to show piety at home. If we have it not there, we have it not anywhere. If we have not genuine grace in the family circle, all our outward and public plausibility merely springs from a fear of the world or from the slimy, putrid pool of our own selfishness. I tell you the home is a mighty test of character. What you are at home you are everywhere, whether you demonstrate it or not. — TALMAGE.
The Reward of Labor
You never will be saved by works; but let us tell you most solemnly that you never will be saved without works. — T. L. CUYLER.
Nothing is denied to well-directed labor; nothing is ever to be attained without it. — SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
God does not give excellence to men but as the reward of labor. — SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
Earnestness is the devotion of all the faculties. — C. N. BOVEE.
Nothing is denied to well-directed labor; nothing is ever to be attained without it. — SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
God does not give excellence to men but as the reward of labor. — SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
Earnestness is the devotion of all the faculties. — C. N. BOVEE.
The Life of Man
The worst days of darkness through which I have ever passed have been greatly alleviated by throwing myself with all my energy into some work relating to others. — GARFIELD.
The life of man is made up of action and endurance; and life is fruitful in the ratio in which it is laid out in noble action or in patient perseverance. — H. P. LIDDON.
This world is given as a prize for the men in earnest; and that which is true of this world is truer still of the world to come. — F. W. ROBERTSON.
A man's labors must pass like the sunrises and sunsets of the world. The next thing, not the last, must be his care. — GEORGE MACDONALD.
The life of man is made up of action and endurance; and life is fruitful in the ratio in which it is laid out in noble action or in patient perseverance. — H. P. LIDDON.
This world is given as a prize for the men in earnest; and that which is true of this world is truer still of the world to come. — F. W. ROBERTSON.
A man's labors must pass like the sunrises and sunsets of the world. The next thing, not the last, must be his care. — GEORGE MACDONALD.
Know Your Work and Do It
Blessed is the man who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. Know thy work, and do it; and work at it like Hercules. One monster there is in the work — the idle man. — CARLYLE.
Lord Jesus, I am weary in Thy work, but not of it. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for Thee once more in the field, seal Thy truth, and come home to die. — WHITEFIELD.
God's very service is wages; His ways are strewed with roses, and paved with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, and with peace that passeth understanding. — THOMAS BROOKS.
We are not to wait to be in preparing to be. We are not to wait to do in preparing to do, but to find in being and doing preparation for higher being and doing. — HENRY GILES.
Lord Jesus, I am weary in Thy work, but not of it. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for Thee once more in the field, seal Thy truth, and come home to die. — WHITEFIELD.
God's very service is wages; His ways are strewed with roses, and paved with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, and with peace that passeth understanding. — THOMAS BROOKS.
We are not to wait to be in preparing to be. We are not to wait to do in preparing to do, but to find in being and doing preparation for higher being and doing. — HENRY GILES.
Diligent and Courageous Activity
Learn these two things: Never be discouraged because good things get on so slowly here, and never fail daily to do that good which lies next to your hand. Do not be in a hurry, but be diligent. Enter into the sublime patience of the Lord. Be charitable in view of it. God can afford to wait; why can not we — since we have Him to fall back upon? Let patience have her perfect work and bring forth her celestial fruits. Trust to God to weave your little thread into a web, though the patterns show it not yet. — GEORGE MACDONALD.
His Doing and Ours
And yet the doing is ours — not His. He inspired it; we wrought it out. He quickened, but we brought forth; His the heart-beat, but ours the hand-stroke; His the influence, ours the effluence. — GEORGE C. LORIMER.
His Doing and Ours
And yet the doing is ours — not His. He inspired it; we wrought it out. He quickened, but we brought forth; His the heart-beat, but ours the hand-stroke; His the influence, ours the effluence. — GEORGE C. LORIMER.
Working In Joy
Man must work. That is certain as the sun. But he may work grudgingly, or he may work gratefully; he may work as a man, or he may work as a machine. He can not always choose his work, but he can do it in a generous temper, and with an up-looking heart. There is no work so rude that he may not exalt it; there is no work so impassive that he may not breathe a soul into it; there is no work so dull that he may not enliven it. — HENRY GILES.
Idleness Condemned
I am not the only one that condemns the idle; for once when I was going to give our minister a pretty long list of the sins of one of our people whom he was asking after, I began with: "He's dreadfully lazy." That's enough," said the old gentleman; "all sorts of sins are in that one." — SPURGEON.
Idleness Condemned
I am not the only one that condemns the idle; for once when I was going to give our minister a pretty long list of the sins of one of our people whom he was asking after, I began with: "He's dreadfully lazy." That's enough," said the old gentleman; "all sorts of sins are in that one." — SPURGEON.
Readiness in Activity
"The work of men" — and what is that? Well, we may any of us know very quickly, on the condition of being wholly ready to do it. But many of us are for the most part thinking, not of what we are to do, but of what we are to get; and the best of us are sunk into the sin of Ananias, and it is a mortal one. We want to keep back part of the price; and we continually talk of taking up our cross, as if the only harm in a cross was the weight of it — as if it was only a thing to be carried, instead of to be crucified upon. "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts." — RUSKIN.
Holy Duties
The question is not merely what we can feel, but what we can do, for Christ; not how many tears we can shed, but how many sins we can mortify; not what rapture we can experience, but what self-denial we can practice; not what happy frames we can enjoy, but what holy duties we can perform. — JOHN ANGELL JAMES.
Holy Duties
The question is not merely what we can feel, but what we can do, for Christ; not how many tears we can shed, but how many sins we can mortify; not what rapture we can experience, but what self-denial we can practice; not what happy frames we can enjoy, but what holy duties we can perform. — JOHN ANGELL JAMES.
True Activity Never Fails
No true work since the world began was ever wasted; no true life since the world began has ever failed. Oh, understand those two perverted words, "failure" and "success," and measure them by the eternal, not the earthly, standard. When after thirty obscure, toilsome, unrecorded years in the shop of the village carpenter, one came forth to be pre-eminently the man of sorrows, to wander from city to city in homeless labors, and to expire in lonely agony upon the shameful cross — was that a failure? Nay, my brethren, it was the death of Him who lived that we might follow His footsteps; it was the life, it was the death, of the Son of God. — F. W. FARRAR.
Christian Life
Christian life is action; not a speculation, not a debating, but a doing. One thing, and only one, in this world has eternity stamped upon it. Feelings pass; resolves and thoughts pass; opinions change. What you have done lasts — lasts in you. Through ages, through eternity, what you have done for Christ — that, and only that, you are. — F. W. ROBERTSON.
Christian Life
Christian life is action; not a speculation, not a debating, but a doing. One thing, and only one, in this world has eternity stamped upon it. Feelings pass; resolves and thoughts pass; opinions change. What you have done lasts — lasts in you. Through ages, through eternity, what you have done for Christ — that, and only that, you are. — F. W. ROBERTSON.
Changes Wedding Ceremony
1916
Episcopal Bride to "Keep," Not "Obey," Husband.
NEW YORK — Brides married under the new form of ceremony proposed in the Episcopal Church substituting the word "keep" for "obey" will not pledge themselves to support their husbands, the Rev. John A. Maynard of the "Little Church Around the Corner" explained.
Under the new ritual marriage becomes a 50-50, according to the Rev. Mr. Maynard. The bride's pledge to "keep" her husband, which it is proposed to substitute for the word "obey," doesn't mean that at all, said the rector.
"It means simply that she promises to keep herself for him alone," he said. "As far as the promise 'obey' goes, that has been a dead letter for a long time. Our wives do not obey their husbands. Very frequently, indeed, the husbands obey their wives."
—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 5.
Episcopal Bride to "Keep," Not "Obey," Husband.
NEW YORK — Brides married under the new form of ceremony proposed in the Episcopal Church substituting the word "keep" for "obey" will not pledge themselves to support their husbands, the Rev. John A. Maynard of the "Little Church Around the Corner" explained.
Under the new ritual marriage becomes a 50-50, according to the Rev. Mr. Maynard. The bride's pledge to "keep" her husband, which it is proposed to substitute for the word "obey," doesn't mean that at all, said the rector.
"It means simply that she promises to keep herself for him alone," he said. "As far as the promise 'obey' goes, that has been a dead letter for a long time. Our wives do not obey their husbands. Very frequently, indeed, the husbands obey their wives."
—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 5.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Great Issues
1925
Judging from programs and notices of summer conferences and conventions, world problems were squarely faced and frankly discussed before many gatherings during July and August. Chautauquas and summer conferences, especially those under religious auspices, are doing much to direct public opinion in America. Many of the great questions which were discussed before the early conferences, twenty years ago, such as temperance, woman's suffrage, and child welfare, have since become national issues, or national policies. The issues presented to the gatherings during the past summer will help to shape the policies of our day and of the future.
Among the questions discussed was that of World Peace. A certain class of politician, demagogues, and those who would profit out of the war business, have obstructed all movements toward permanent peace thus far. Sane, constructive programs kept before the intelligent people who attend summer conferences will eventually overcome the retarding efforts of these obstructionists. The dominant note on this question seems to have been: The will to peace. All methods thus far have failed, and other methods may perhaps fail; but if we can get the nations of the world to will peace, we will have peace; because peace is possible of attainment by human effort when that effort is rightly directed by human will.
Other questions of national or world-wide importance were discussed by able speakers before summer gatherings. The race problem came in for its share of treatment. The housing conditions of the negro in the large cities received much attention. This is a situation which is becoming more and more acute, and calls for Christian thought and prayer. It is not a one-sided problem. When a negro family moves into a new neighborhood it means that the property of the white people living in that neighborhood immediately depreciates. The negro in most instances has no desire to either push himself in among the whites, or to injure property values. He simply wants to better his living conditions, and to get into a community where his family may escape the evils surrounding many of the neighborhoods where negroes are compelled to live.
Another problem which is usually linked with the negro — lynching — received consideration. This shameful crime, which has for so long blackened pages of American history, is gradually being controlled, but there is much work yet to be done by Christians. We who shudder at the bloodthirsty cruelty of the mob which crucified our Saviour must not permit ourselves to look with complacency upon the blood-lust of our fellow-citizens.
Another angle of the race question discussed during the summer was the relations between Christians and Jews. Jewish rabbis lectured before Christian audiences, and Christian professors lectured before Jewish audiences upon this question.
The Federal Council of Churches has a committee on race relations. Dr. Alfred Williams Anthony, chairman of this committee, says: "Ideas of neighborliness, and the exchange of courtesy and hospitality through groups of various races and classes have made progress."
When we approach the problems of life in the spirit of Christ we will find a solution.
—The Sunday School World, Oct. 1925, p. 470.
Judging from programs and notices of summer conferences and conventions, world problems were squarely faced and frankly discussed before many gatherings during July and August. Chautauquas and summer conferences, especially those under religious auspices, are doing much to direct public opinion in America. Many of the great questions which were discussed before the early conferences, twenty years ago, such as temperance, woman's suffrage, and child welfare, have since become national issues, or national policies. The issues presented to the gatherings during the past summer will help to shape the policies of our day and of the future.
Among the questions discussed was that of World Peace. A certain class of politician, demagogues, and those who would profit out of the war business, have obstructed all movements toward permanent peace thus far. Sane, constructive programs kept before the intelligent people who attend summer conferences will eventually overcome the retarding efforts of these obstructionists. The dominant note on this question seems to have been: The will to peace. All methods thus far have failed, and other methods may perhaps fail; but if we can get the nations of the world to will peace, we will have peace; because peace is possible of attainment by human effort when that effort is rightly directed by human will.
Other questions of national or world-wide importance were discussed by able speakers before summer gatherings. The race problem came in for its share of treatment. The housing conditions of the negro in the large cities received much attention. This is a situation which is becoming more and more acute, and calls for Christian thought and prayer. It is not a one-sided problem. When a negro family moves into a new neighborhood it means that the property of the white people living in that neighborhood immediately depreciates. The negro in most instances has no desire to either push himself in among the whites, or to injure property values. He simply wants to better his living conditions, and to get into a community where his family may escape the evils surrounding many of the neighborhoods where negroes are compelled to live.
Another problem which is usually linked with the negro — lynching — received consideration. This shameful crime, which has for so long blackened pages of American history, is gradually being controlled, but there is much work yet to be done by Christians. We who shudder at the bloodthirsty cruelty of the mob which crucified our Saviour must not permit ourselves to look with complacency upon the blood-lust of our fellow-citizens.
Another angle of the race question discussed during the summer was the relations between Christians and Jews. Jewish rabbis lectured before Christian audiences, and Christian professors lectured before Jewish audiences upon this question.
The Federal Council of Churches has a committee on race relations. Dr. Alfred Williams Anthony, chairman of this committee, says: "Ideas of neighborliness, and the exchange of courtesy and hospitality through groups of various races and classes have made progress."
When we approach the problems of life in the spirit of Christ we will find a solution.
—The Sunday School World, Oct. 1925, p. 470.
"I Will"
1925
Among all of earth's creation man alone is able to will. Two of the mightiest words that he can utter are: "I Will." Man is never really and truly man until he uses his right and power to will.
But man's power to will is limited. By the use of his will he may lengthen his life span, but he cannot will not to die physically. Some have tried it, but in due time they went the way of all the earth. Others may try it, but none will succeed in overcoming this "last enemy of man" by defying him. Death has been overcome, and may be overcome by all, but victory lies in surrendering our wills to Him who alone was able to conquer death and the grave.
We can only will what we have power to accomplish. We might wish that each day had sixty hours, so that we could do all that we so much desire to do, but we cannot will these extra hours to our days. Most parents wish that their children would follow safe paths, but no parent can will his child's life.
In point of time our wills are even more limited. Jesus showed the inability of man to will the future when he spoke of the man who was in trouble because his fields brought forth so much. The man said that he knew what he would do. He would pull down his barns and build bigger ones. But Jesus said: "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be?" James spoke of the foolishness of the man who planned on the morrow to go into the city and trade and get gain when he could not know what the morrow would bring forth. And James' conclusion was that all men ought to say: "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."
We can say, as did the Prodigal, "I will arise, and go to my father." This is an act which can be performed this present moment. We can say, "I will not commit this sin"; or "I will begin this service for the Master now." In such matters our will is supreme, but it is only supreme if we will to do it now. No one can will to become a Christian at some future date. The young man who says, "I will accept Christ when I am ready to settle down," is not willing to become a Christian. By his decision he wills to reject Christ.
Christ's servants are those who will to serve Him: He has no other kind. We may feel that He it was Who chose us, and not we who chose Him; yet, until we will to belong to Him we will never know of His having chosen us. He calls for laborers for His vineyard, and He commands us to go and preach the gospel to all nations, but no one is laboring for Him in any field except those who will to do His will. Christ has no conscript laborers; He has no hirelings, working merely for the pay; He has no geniuses or master minds, working in His cause because of the glory such work will bring to them. All His laborers belong to one and the same class, and all are on an absolute equality. They are those who will to do the Master's will.
Our wills are limited, but in all that is of vital worth to us they are supreme. We need to strengthen them by exercising them Within the sphere allotted to us for their exercise. When we stand at the end of life's day we cannot make excuses for unperformed tasks by saying that we meant to do them. Meaning to do them sometime is willing not to do them in the only time that God has given us.
We think and speak of the neglected fields in rural America. But God has not neglected them. He called, but those whom He called willed not to go. He is calling still. We can serve Him in these fields now. It is all a matter of will. In this, as in all other matters, the mightiest use that we can make of our wills is to say, "Lord, not my will, but Thine."
—The Sunday School World, Oct. 1925, p. 470.
Among all of earth's creation man alone is able to will. Two of the mightiest words that he can utter are: "I Will." Man is never really and truly man until he uses his right and power to will.
But man's power to will is limited. By the use of his will he may lengthen his life span, but he cannot will not to die physically. Some have tried it, but in due time they went the way of all the earth. Others may try it, but none will succeed in overcoming this "last enemy of man" by defying him. Death has been overcome, and may be overcome by all, but victory lies in surrendering our wills to Him who alone was able to conquer death and the grave.
We can only will what we have power to accomplish. We might wish that each day had sixty hours, so that we could do all that we so much desire to do, but we cannot will these extra hours to our days. Most parents wish that their children would follow safe paths, but no parent can will his child's life.
In point of time our wills are even more limited. Jesus showed the inability of man to will the future when he spoke of the man who was in trouble because his fields brought forth so much. The man said that he knew what he would do. He would pull down his barns and build bigger ones. But Jesus said: "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be?" James spoke of the foolishness of the man who planned on the morrow to go into the city and trade and get gain when he could not know what the morrow would bring forth. And James' conclusion was that all men ought to say: "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."
We can say, as did the Prodigal, "I will arise, and go to my father." This is an act which can be performed this present moment. We can say, "I will not commit this sin"; or "I will begin this service for the Master now." In such matters our will is supreme, but it is only supreme if we will to do it now. No one can will to become a Christian at some future date. The young man who says, "I will accept Christ when I am ready to settle down," is not willing to become a Christian. By his decision he wills to reject Christ.
Christ's servants are those who will to serve Him: He has no other kind. We may feel that He it was Who chose us, and not we who chose Him; yet, until we will to belong to Him we will never know of His having chosen us. He calls for laborers for His vineyard, and He commands us to go and preach the gospel to all nations, but no one is laboring for Him in any field except those who will to do His will. Christ has no conscript laborers; He has no hirelings, working merely for the pay; He has no geniuses or master minds, working in His cause because of the glory such work will bring to them. All His laborers belong to one and the same class, and all are on an absolute equality. They are those who will to do the Master's will.
Our wills are limited, but in all that is of vital worth to us they are supreme. We need to strengthen them by exercising them Within the sphere allotted to us for their exercise. When we stand at the end of life's day we cannot make excuses for unperformed tasks by saying that we meant to do them. Meaning to do them sometime is willing not to do them in the only time that God has given us.
We think and speak of the neglected fields in rural America. But God has not neglected them. He called, but those whom He called willed not to go. He is calling still. We can serve Him in these fields now. It is all a matter of will. In this, as in all other matters, the mightiest use that we can make of our wills is to say, "Lord, not my will, but Thine."
—The Sunday School World, Oct. 1925, p. 470.
Too Much Ragtime In Church
1917
Sing Good Gospel Songs, Bishop Tells M. E. Preachers.
LIMA, Ohio — At the opening of the second day's session of the West Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Thirkield spoke on "Hymnology" to 500 preachers, urging them to use the Methodist Hymnal more, with its splendid gospel songs. He said too many flippant, ragtime tunes, with frivolous wording, have crept into the church today.
—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 4.
Sing Good Gospel Songs, Bishop Tells M. E. Preachers.
LIMA, Ohio — At the opening of the second day's session of the West Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Thirkield spoke on "Hymnology" to 500 preachers, urging them to use the Methodist Hymnal more, with its splendid gospel songs. He said too many flippant, ragtime tunes, with frivolous wording, have crept into the church today.
—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 4.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Shoots An Accused Minister
1916
Slayer Is Man Whose Wife's Name Is Involved.
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — William Trotter, under arrest at Shady Grove, Ala., charged with killing the Rev. J. E. C. Harrison, according to Shady Grove police, has admitted that he shot Harrison.
According to reports the minister had been suspended by church officials on charges of misconduct with Mrs. Trotter, who is organist at the church.
—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 3.
Slayer Is Man Whose Wife's Name Is Involved.
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — William Trotter, under arrest at Shady Grove, Ala., charged with killing the Rev. J. E. C. Harrison, according to Shady Grove police, has admitted that he shot Harrison.
According to reports the minister had been suspended by church officials on charges of misconduct with Mrs. Trotter, who is organist at the church.
—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 3.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Mission Notes
1900
Statistics declare that in the entire kingdom of Spain there are only 3,230 children in attendance upon Sunday Schools.
Fifty years ago there were not fifty medical missionaries in the world. Fifteen years since there were but 250; while today there are over 600.
China, the greatest mission field in all the world, with at least 386,000,000 people, has a total of only 2,500 Protestant missionaries. Nearly one-fifth of these are ordained ministers.
The Zulu Bible, published by the American Bible Society, is an influential factor in South African affairs. "Whatever happens in the Transvaal," says the secretary, "the Bible will not cease to do its silent work."
It has been proposed by many who have been touched by the manner in which the six children of the Rev. D. H. and Mrs. Lee met their death in the recent disaster at Darjeeling, to perpetuate their memory by erecting a permanent institution, known as "The Dennett Training School and Home for Bengali Girls" in Calcutta. Mrs. F. L. Sperry, of Mt. Lake Park, Md., will give further information.
A Christian Endeavor meeting is held every Monday evening among the five troops of the United States cavalry stationed at Puerto Principe, Cuba. Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, has a Christian Endeavor Society, organized in December, 1899. One active member is a native, a clerk, that has learned to speak English well. There are four Puerto Rican associate members.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 18.
Statistics declare that in the entire kingdom of Spain there are only 3,230 children in attendance upon Sunday Schools.
Fifty years ago there were not fifty medical missionaries in the world. Fifteen years since there were but 250; while today there are over 600.
China, the greatest mission field in all the world, with at least 386,000,000 people, has a total of only 2,500 Protestant missionaries. Nearly one-fifth of these are ordained ministers.
The Zulu Bible, published by the American Bible Society, is an influential factor in South African affairs. "Whatever happens in the Transvaal," says the secretary, "the Bible will not cease to do its silent work."
It has been proposed by many who have been touched by the manner in which the six children of the Rev. D. H. and Mrs. Lee met their death in the recent disaster at Darjeeling, to perpetuate their memory by erecting a permanent institution, known as "The Dennett Training School and Home for Bengali Girls" in Calcutta. Mrs. F. L. Sperry, of Mt. Lake Park, Md., will give further information.
A Christian Endeavor meeting is held every Monday evening among the five troops of the United States cavalry stationed at Puerto Principe, Cuba. Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, has a Christian Endeavor Society, organized in December, 1899. One active member is a native, a clerk, that has learned to speak English well. There are four Puerto Rican associate members.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 18.
Sow Your Wild Oats, You'll Regret It
1900
Edward Bok said in the Sunday School Times, relative to a young man "sowing his wild oats:" "No man has ever passed through a period of indiscreet living during his early manhood without regretting the memory of it in after years. Nor has any man, by reason of 'sowing his wild oats,' known one iota more of 'life,' except that particular phase of it, which, if it had a glitter for him in youth, became a repellent remembrance to him in his more mature years. The reputation that comes of right living and good character is what the man of forty to seventy desires, and nothing but the well-spent years of early life can secure this."
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 17
Edward Bok said in the Sunday School Times, relative to a young man "sowing his wild oats:" "No man has ever passed through a period of indiscreet living during his early manhood without regretting the memory of it in after years. Nor has any man, by reason of 'sowing his wild oats,' known one iota more of 'life,' except that particular phase of it, which, if it had a glitter for him in youth, became a repellent remembrance to him in his more mature years. The reputation that comes of right living and good character is what the man of forty to seventy desires, and nothing but the well-spent years of early life can secure this."
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 17
The Church Too Conventional
1900
Rev. Dr. John Balcom Shaw considering the conditions of a revival and its power in the Homiletic Review, adds these suggestive words: "The curse of the church today, particularly in this city, is respectability and exclusiveness. We are dying of dignity. Conventionality is crushing out our very life. How the free, glad, uplifting influence of Him who 'worketh when, and where, and how he will,' would change all this! It would take all the ministers of our churches, if working unitedly, a century to overtake this tendency and another century to overcome it. The Holy Ghost could do it in a week."
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 17
Rev. Dr. John Balcom Shaw considering the conditions of a revival and its power in the Homiletic Review, adds these suggestive words: "The curse of the church today, particularly in this city, is respectability and exclusiveness. We are dying of dignity. Conventionality is crushing out our very life. How the free, glad, uplifting influence of Him who 'worketh when, and where, and how he will,' would change all this! It would take all the ministers of our churches, if working unitedly, a century to overtake this tendency and another century to overcome it. The Holy Ghost could do it in a week."
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 17
Christians Sound Asleep
1900
Dr. A. C. Dixon says: "Prove to me that the atmosphere of the theatre, and the ball room and the club is as good as a prayer meeting; that first-class people go to these places; the fact remains that these good people are, as Christians, sound asleep. They are not awake to winning souls, converting the heathen, building up the church. A church full of such excellent people would be a dormitory, and, for all practical purposes, is about as good as a cemetery."
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 17
Dr. A. C. Dixon says: "Prove to me that the atmosphere of the theatre, and the ball room and the club is as good as a prayer meeting; that first-class people go to these places; the fact remains that these good people are, as Christians, sound asleep. They are not awake to winning souls, converting the heathen, building up the church. A church full of such excellent people would be a dormitory, and, for all practical purposes, is about as good as a cemetery."
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 17
Saved By A Kind Providence
1900
A good story which has been translated from the German language, tells how Frank, a boy from the city, had been picking raspberries in the woods. As he was on his way home a violent storm arose. It began raining and lightning, and to thunder fearfully. Frank was very much frightened, and crept into a hole in an old oak tree not far from the roadside. He did not know that lightning is very apt to strike a hollow tree. But all at once he heard a voice that called, "Frank! Frank! come quickly."
Frank jumped instantly from the tree, but he had gone scarcely a hundred feet when the lightning struck the tree. The ground quaked beneath the terrified boy, and it seemed as if he was standing in the midst of fire. But he was not hurt at all, and exclaimed, with raised hand: "That voice came from heaven! Thou, O dear Lord, hast saved me!"
But once more the voice was heard, "Frank! Frank! do you not hear?"
He looked around, and saw a peasant woman who was calling. Frank ran to her and said: "Here I am. What do you want of me?"
"I did not mean you, but my own little Frank," the woman replied. "He was watching the geese by the brook. See! there he comes at last out from the bushes."
Frank, the boy from the city, related how he had taken her voice as a voice from heaven. Then the peasant folded her arms devoutly, and said: "Oh, my child, do not thank God any the less that the voice came from the mouth of a poor peasant woman. It was He who willed that I should call your name, although I knew nothing about you."
"Yes, yes," said Frank; "God served Himself by your voice, but my escape came from heaven."
Always remember that safety depends not on accident or chance, but on your heavenly Father.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 16.
A good story which has been translated from the German language, tells how Frank, a boy from the city, had been picking raspberries in the woods. As he was on his way home a violent storm arose. It began raining and lightning, and to thunder fearfully. Frank was very much frightened, and crept into a hole in an old oak tree not far from the roadside. He did not know that lightning is very apt to strike a hollow tree. But all at once he heard a voice that called, "Frank! Frank! come quickly."
Frank jumped instantly from the tree, but he had gone scarcely a hundred feet when the lightning struck the tree. The ground quaked beneath the terrified boy, and it seemed as if he was standing in the midst of fire. But he was not hurt at all, and exclaimed, with raised hand: "That voice came from heaven! Thou, O dear Lord, hast saved me!"
But once more the voice was heard, "Frank! Frank! do you not hear?"
He looked around, and saw a peasant woman who was calling. Frank ran to her and said: "Here I am. What do you want of me?"
"I did not mean you, but my own little Frank," the woman replied. "He was watching the geese by the brook. See! there he comes at last out from the bushes."
Frank, the boy from the city, related how he had taken her voice as a voice from heaven. Then the peasant folded her arms devoutly, and said: "Oh, my child, do not thank God any the less that the voice came from the mouth of a poor peasant woman. It was He who willed that I should call your name, although I knew nothing about you."
"Yes, yes," said Frank; "God served Himself by your voice, but my escape came from heaven."
Always remember that safety depends not on accident or chance, but on your heavenly Father.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 16.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Her Affection Came Too Late
1900
One of the papers tells of a woman at an old man's coffin. She kissed him and wept over him. She told the people how good he was. But he took it all very coolly. He was dead. He was old and poor and she was young and rich. She had ten rooms, but no room for her father. Yet he made room for her when he had only two. He was not educated. She was, at his expense. He had fed and clothed her and sent her to seminary and college, until she grew refined and married a rich man. Now she kissed him and cried by his coffin and buried him handsomely. But everybody said this did not make up for her want of kindness in the years of his old age.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 14.
One of the papers tells of a woman at an old man's coffin. She kissed him and wept over him. She told the people how good he was. But he took it all very coolly. He was dead. He was old and poor and she was young and rich. She had ten rooms, but no room for her father. Yet he made room for her when he had only two. He was not educated. She was, at his expense. He had fed and clothed her and sent her to seminary and college, until she grew refined and married a rich man. Now she kissed him and cried by his coffin and buried him handsomely. But everybody said this did not make up for her want of kindness in the years of his old age.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 14.
The Soldier and The Czar
1900
When a Russian soldier, heavily in debt, wrote out a list of his many obligations and exhibited it in a public place, adding in large letters the question: "Who will pay these debts?" the Czar happened to see the whimsical notice, and quietly wrote his name after the question: "Nicholas."
The soldier knew that he was free from his creditors. As simple as this, absolutely as simple, is the soul's way to get rid of its sins.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 14.
When a Russian soldier, heavily in debt, wrote out a list of his many obligations and exhibited it in a public place, adding in large letters the question: "Who will pay these debts?" the Czar happened to see the whimsical notice, and quietly wrote his name after the question: "Nicholas."
The soldier knew that he was free from his creditors. As simple as this, absolutely as simple, is the soul's way to get rid of its sins.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 14.
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