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.
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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 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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
"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.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Other Worlds, Other Redemptions
1901
The nature of God never changes, and from all eternity that holy passion glowed in the Infinite, and I think he was throwing out worlds into space and inhabiting them and more worlds for the application of that love. He may not have told the other worlds what he did for this world, as he has not told us what he did for them. I think the love of God was demonstrated in mightier worlds before our little world was fitted up for human residence. Will a man owning 50,000 acres of land put all the cultivation on a half acre? Will God make a million worlds and put his chief affection on one small planet? Are the other worlds and larger worlds standing vacant, uninhabited, while this little world is crowded with inhabitants? No, it takes a universe of worlds to express the love of God. And there are other ransoms and other rescues and other redemptions, as there may be other millenniums and other resurrection mornings and judgment days than those of our world. But in the space of six feet by five was comprised the mightiest evidence of God's love that any world ever saw or ever will see. Compressed on two planks joined together as a cross, there was enough agony there concentered, if distributed, to put whole nations into torture. That God allowed the assassination of his own Son for the rescue of our world is all the evidence needed that he loved the world. — T. DeWitt Talmadge.
—Piqua Daily Call, Piqua, Ohio, June 17, 1901, p. 6.
The nature of God never changes, and from all eternity that holy passion glowed in the Infinite, and I think he was throwing out worlds into space and inhabiting them and more worlds for the application of that love. He may not have told the other worlds what he did for this world, as he has not told us what he did for them. I think the love of God was demonstrated in mightier worlds before our little world was fitted up for human residence. Will a man owning 50,000 acres of land put all the cultivation on a half acre? Will God make a million worlds and put his chief affection on one small planet? Are the other worlds and larger worlds standing vacant, uninhabited, while this little world is crowded with inhabitants? No, it takes a universe of worlds to express the love of God. And there are other ransoms and other rescues and other redemptions, as there may be other millenniums and other resurrection mornings and judgment days than those of our world. But in the space of six feet by five was comprised the mightiest evidence of God's love that any world ever saw or ever will see. Compressed on two planks joined together as a cross, there was enough agony there concentered, if distributed, to put whole nations into torture. That God allowed the assassination of his own Son for the rescue of our world is all the evidence needed that he loved the world. — T. DeWitt Talmadge.
—Piqua Daily Call, Piqua, Ohio, June 17, 1901, p. 6.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Believes In Evolution
1901
Salina, Kan., June 11. — Professor Frank D. Tubbs, recently removed from the chair of natural sciences in the Wesleyan university for alleged heresy, said of his case:
"I knew nothing of the movement to oust me until the thing was actually done. I am not a heretic. I challenge any member of the board of trustees, any preacher in the northwest Kansas conference or any one else to point out a single utterance of mine that he has heard that is in opposition to the doctrine of the Methodist church. I am a consistent believer in evolution as the method which God has employed to bring things about in this world."
Salina, Kan., June 11. — Professor Frank D. Tubbs, recently removed from the chair of natural sciences in the Wesleyan university for alleged heresy, said of his case:
"I knew nothing of the movement to oust me until the thing was actually done. I am not a heretic. I challenge any member of the board of trustees, any preacher in the northwest Kansas conference or any one else to point out a single utterance of mine that he has heard that is in opposition to the doctrine of the Methodist church. I am a consistent believer in evolution as the method which God has employed to bring things about in this world."
Monday, April 7, 2008
Baptist Humor
1901
Here is a story from the Baptist conference at Leicester. It is about a minister. He found himself at chapel one morning without his sermon. "My dear brethren," he exclaimed, "I can only give you now what God will send me, but tonight I will come back better prepared." — Pall Mall Gazette.
Here is a story from the Baptist conference at Leicester. It is about a minister. He found himself at chapel one morning without his sermon. "My dear brethren," he exclaimed, "I can only give you now what God will send me, but tonight I will come back better prepared." — Pall Mall Gazette.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
God Redeems Israel
1900
The New York Observer says: "The need of individual Christians and of the church and nation today is the trust, not simply the variable hope, that God will redeem Israel. There is no doubt that Israel needs to be redeemed. There is enough that is wrong with Israel as it is. Israel cannot have the kingdom unless it be made right with God. And the Israel that needs to be redeemed is not simply the visible church, but the whole range and area of human interests, whether private or public, whether secular or religious."
—The Ram's Horn, Nov. 17, 1900, p. 21.
The New York Observer says: "The need of individual Christians and of the church and nation today is the trust, not simply the variable hope, that God will redeem Israel. There is no doubt that Israel needs to be redeemed. There is enough that is wrong with Israel as it is. Israel cannot have the kingdom unless it be made right with God. And the Israel that needs to be redeemed is not simply the visible church, but the whole range and area of human interests, whether private or public, whether secular or religious."
—The Ram's Horn, Nov. 17, 1900, p. 21.
One Harmonious Plan
1900
The Homiletic Review says: "Science and religion, reason and revelation, Christianity and God, are but parts of one harmonious plan, the elements of which have not been frightened into conflict or out of existence by all the innumerable onsets of infidelity in the past, and will not be by those of the present and the future. Least of all will God, the foundation of all, be bowed out of His universe."
—The Ram's Horn, Nov. 17, 1900, p. 21.
The Homiletic Review says: "Science and religion, reason and revelation, Christianity and God, are but parts of one harmonious plan, the elements of which have not been frightened into conflict or out of existence by all the innumerable onsets of infidelity in the past, and will not be by those of the present and the future. Least of all will God, the foundation of all, be bowed out of His universe."
—The Ram's Horn, Nov. 17, 1900, p. 21.
Influence of God's Love
1900
The Sunday School Times says: "Love ever goes out from God, as light and heat over go out from the shining sun as the great central orb of our planetary universe. We can shut away ourselves from the blessed influence of God's love, but we cannot change, or cause to cease, the blessed and ceaseless love of God."
—The Ram's Horn, Nov. 17, 1900, p. 21.
The Sunday School Times says: "Love ever goes out from God, as light and heat over go out from the shining sun as the great central orb of our planetary universe. We can shut away ourselves from the blessed influence of God's love, but we cannot change, or cause to cease, the blessed and ceaseless love of God."
—The Ram's Horn, Nov. 17, 1900, p. 21.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Why Do Jews Cover Their Heads in the Synagogue?
David Crane, 1959 Newspaper Comic Strip, On Judaism - Why Do Jews Cover Their Heads in the Synagogue? David Crane comic by Winslow Mortimer, Oct. 18, 1959. Learning about the faiths of others. Focuses on Judaism, the respect shown God by covering the head in His presence. Other Jewish symbols are illustrated.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
God's Mercy
1902
The more we fear crosses the more reason we have to think that we need them. Let us not be discouraged when the hand of God layeth heavy woes upon us. We ought to judge of the violence of our disease by the violence of the remedies which our spiritual physician prescribes for us. It is a great argument for our own wretchedness and of God's mercy that, notwithstanding the difficulty of our recovery He vouchsafes to undertake our cure. Let us, then, draw from our afflictions a source of love, of comfort and trust in God, saying with His apostle: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." "Blessed are they that mourn, and sow in tears, because they shall reap with joy the harvest of eternal glory." — Fenelon.
The more we fear crosses the more reason we have to think that we need them. Let us not be discouraged when the hand of God layeth heavy woes upon us. We ought to judge of the violence of our disease by the violence of the remedies which our spiritual physician prescribes for us. It is a great argument for our own wretchedness and of God's mercy that, notwithstanding the difficulty of our recovery He vouchsafes to undertake our cure. Let us, then, draw from our afflictions a source of love, of comfort and trust in God, saying with His apostle: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." "Blessed are they that mourn, and sow in tears, because they shall reap with joy the harvest of eternal glory." — Fenelon.
Friday, March 14, 2008
The Way to the Cross
1902
None of us can tell for what God is educating us. We fret and murmur at the narrow sound and daily task of ordinary life, not realizing that it is only thus that we can be prepared for the high and holy office which awaits us. We must descend before we can ascend. We must take the way of the cross submissively and patiently if we would tread the way of light. We must endure the polishing if we would be shafts in the quiver of Emmanuel. God's will comes to thee and me in daily circumstances, in little things usually as in great; meet them bravely; be at your best always, though the occasion be one of the very least; dignify the smallest summons by the greatness of your response. — F. B. Meyer.
None of us can tell for what God is educating us. We fret and murmur at the narrow sound and daily task of ordinary life, not realizing that it is only thus that we can be prepared for the high and holy office which awaits us. We must descend before we can ascend. We must take the way of the cross submissively and patiently if we would tread the way of light. We must endure the polishing if we would be shafts in the quiver of Emmanuel. God's will comes to thee and me in daily circumstances, in little things usually as in great; meet them bravely; be at your best always, though the occasion be one of the very least; dignify the smallest summons by the greatness of your response. — F. B. Meyer.
Sitting Still
1902
To the best comes the time when their very good is evil spoken of. It takes goodness to understand goodness. The pure in heart see God, and only such can recognize the life of God when manifested in the saints. Few trials are more keen than the misrepresentation of goodness. An evil motive imputed to a saintly deed is as the sting of a serpent. The clouds of defamation lower at some time over every saintly heart. The life of the saint is hidden and cannot be understood by the worldling. "Sitting still" is the only possibility. Time exerts a remedial influence, and such remedy that it cannot exert the One to whom the saints are dead will. He will bring out our goodness as the light and our righteousness as the noonday. — Episcopal Recorder.
To the best comes the time when their very good is evil spoken of. It takes goodness to understand goodness. The pure in heart see God, and only such can recognize the life of God when manifested in the saints. Few trials are more keen than the misrepresentation of goodness. An evil motive imputed to a saintly deed is as the sting of a serpent. The clouds of defamation lower at some time over every saintly heart. The life of the saint is hidden and cannot be understood by the worldling. "Sitting still" is the only possibility. Time exerts a remedial influence, and such remedy that it cannot exert the One to whom the saints are dead will. He will bring out our goodness as the light and our righteousness as the noonday. — Episcopal Recorder.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
God's Opportunity
1903
Someone has said that "each human life is another opportunity for God to display His grace and power." So it is and the thought will grow upon you as you meditate upon it. Just think, "I am God's opportunity!" Isn't it wonderful! Isn't it glorious! When we look at others whom God has richly blessed and honored in service we can see how it is, but do we ever think of ourselves as God's opportunity?
Every one that responds to God's call, "Come!" gives God a large place in the world. Every one who obeys God's command, "Go!" assists God in gaining a larger place in the hearts of men. Every regenerated heart and life is a new garden in which God plants His seeds of love and grace; a fountain out of which flow constant streams of healing power. Take it home and say to yourself, "I am God's opportunity." Be that, and your life will become unutterably grand, and your experience unspeakably sweet. — Presbyterian Journal.
Someone has said that "each human life is another opportunity for God to display His grace and power." So it is and the thought will grow upon you as you meditate upon it. Just think, "I am God's opportunity!" Isn't it wonderful! Isn't it glorious! When we look at others whom God has richly blessed and honored in service we can see how it is, but do we ever think of ourselves as God's opportunity?
Every one that responds to God's call, "Come!" gives God a large place in the world. Every one who obeys God's command, "Go!" assists God in gaining a larger place in the hearts of men. Every regenerated heart and life is a new garden in which God plants His seeds of love and grace; a fountain out of which flow constant streams of healing power. Take it home and say to yourself, "I am God's opportunity." Be that, and your life will become unutterably grand, and your experience unspeakably sweet. — Presbyterian Journal.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Exploring Our Friends
1915
One day I found an exquisite clump of sweet violets hiding in the very heart of a bed of nettles! And I think this discovery gave me more pleasure than those I found in the protective company of the harmless ivy! That is what Froude tells us he found in Thomas Carlyle. That is what we should find in one another, if only we had eager, patient, and love-washed eyes.
Human life is not all nettles; to affirm it is the perverted judgment of the cynic; they who have a passion for God will find the Godlike everywhere; they will find the violets of moral loveliness even in the midst of the noisome waste. And when they have found them their fellow searchers shall hear an exultant shout and they shall come together, and in the gracious discovery there shall be a common rejoicing in the truth. — J. H. Jowett, D. D., in the Christian Herald.
One day I found an exquisite clump of sweet violets hiding in the very heart of a bed of nettles! And I think this discovery gave me more pleasure than those I found in the protective company of the harmless ivy! That is what Froude tells us he found in Thomas Carlyle. That is what we should find in one another, if only we had eager, patient, and love-washed eyes.
Human life is not all nettles; to affirm it is the perverted judgment of the cynic; they who have a passion for God will find the Godlike everywhere; they will find the violets of moral loveliness even in the midst of the noisome waste. And when they have found them their fellow searchers shall hear an exultant shout and they shall come together, and in the gracious discovery there shall be a common rejoicing in the truth. — J. H. Jowett, D. D., in the Christian Herald.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Help Through Hindrance
1910
Out of the thing that is hardest, we often may get the greatest blessings. Out of the thing in your life by which you are nearly crushed, you are to have your grandest victory. Out of the thing that seems ready to conquer and destroy you, God wants to bring to you a faith that you never had before, and a revelation of his love and power that you never dreamed of. That very thing you thought a stumbling-stone, God means to make a pillow for your head, and a ladder of ascension to his very presence. — A. B. Simpson.
Unfailing Trust
What a serene and quiet life you might lead if you would leave providing to the God of providence! With a little oil in the cruse, and a handful of meal in the barrel, Elijah outlived the famine, and you will do the same. If God cares for you, why need you care too? Can you trust him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens, he has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul! have done with fretful care, and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God. — C. H. Spurgeon.
Out of the thing that is hardest, we often may get the greatest blessings. Out of the thing in your life by which you are nearly crushed, you are to have your grandest victory. Out of the thing that seems ready to conquer and destroy you, God wants to bring to you a faith that you never had before, and a revelation of his love and power that you never dreamed of. That very thing you thought a stumbling-stone, God means to make a pillow for your head, and a ladder of ascension to his very presence. — A. B. Simpson.
Unfailing Trust
What a serene and quiet life you might lead if you would leave providing to the God of providence! With a little oil in the cruse, and a handful of meal in the barrel, Elijah outlived the famine, and you will do the same. If God cares for you, why need you care too? Can you trust him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens, he has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul! have done with fretful care, and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God. — C. H. Spurgeon.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
A GOOD MAN'S PERPLEXITIES IN VIEW OF THE MYSTERIES OF LIFE.
(By Benjamin D. Thomas, D. D., Toronto, Canada.)
"I have heard, but understand not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? . . . Go thou this way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot in the end of the days." - Dan. 12:8,13.
We learn from this Scripture:
1. That the history of humanity is full of perplexities even to the good man.
Daniel felt it in this instance. David felt it. Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and all prophets felt it. No thoughtful soul has ever lived but has felt it. We seem to be standing beside this seer of a bygone age, looking into the same darkness, disturbed by the same mysterious, agonized by the same apprehensions. Life is full of anomalies and contradiction.
II. That even the good man must be satisfied to leave many of the problems that fill him with perplexity unsolved.
He cannot successfully grapple with them. They are immeasurably beyond his capacity. His relationship to God will serve to give him a better standard of judgment, will quicken thought, and enlarge the hemisphere of vision, but it will not serve to lift him out of his perplexities. He may be at rest because he knows that God is on the throne, but it will be the rest of faith, not of sight.
III. That the perplexities which present themselves in life must not be allowed to interfere with the good man's fulfillment of his duties and responsibilities.
"Go thou thy way till the end be." Your supreme business is not to know, but to do. It is not for the workmen who are engaged in the construction of a magnificent pile which is to be the wonder and admiration of the age to have a clear knowledge of the architectural ideal. All they need to know is how to use the tools that have been placed in their hands; all they need be anxious about is the particular piece of wall given them to build. They labor necessarily in the dark. All they need be assured of is that they are working under the guidance and inspiration of the great Master-Builder. Be true, be honest, be diligent, be faithful, fill the particular position into which Providence hath introduced you as well as it can be filled by the grace of God and the great Architect under whose superintendence the vast structure is being upreared will take care of the congruities and harmonies. Do not agitate yourself with questions which are beyond your capacity to understand. Do not permit the inexplicable and the perplexing in human phenomena to disquiet you. Do not obtrude into the domain of the Infinite. "Go thou thy way." Do thou thy work. Discharge thou with fidelity thy duty in the sphere into which Providence hath introduced thee. The mysteries and the incongruities, the anomalies and the perplexities, are not for thee to decipher and understand. "Go thou thy way till the end be."
IV. That there will be a period in the future when all that now perplexes the good man will be seen not to have been out of harmony with his best interests.
"For thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." There is a momentous crisis toward which the whole of life is tending. Righteousness must be vindicated. The dark, mysterious, inexplicable, must be seen to have the light of an infinite beneficence flashing through them. If not, what is there to hope for? Then God is not a God of justice. Then the Bible has been luring us with. incentives only to culminate in anarchy and despair. As God liveth there must be a judgment, there must be a period in which wrong shall be righted, in which the false shall be uncovered and the true approved, in which the purpose of God shall shine forth commanding universal admiration, in which infinite love shall be seen to have been ever operant in the affairs of the universe. It must be so, else the whole scheme of life is in explicable and unutterably unjust.
When the great consummation shall come —.
(1.) The good man shall rest — no more shall there be experienced aught to disturb, to agitate, to perplex.
(2.) The good man shall stand in his lot — his character and circumstances will correspond. The good man's "lot and the end of days" will be worthy of the great Lord to whose grace he owes it.
The time is coming when the good man shall be lifted above all his perplexities, when he shall understand why he could not understand, and see why he could not see, and know what was aforetime unknowable.
"I have heard, but understand not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? . . . Go thou this way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot in the end of the days." - Dan. 12:8,13.
We learn from this Scripture:
1. That the history of humanity is full of perplexities even to the good man.
Daniel felt it in this instance. David felt it. Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and all prophets felt it. No thoughtful soul has ever lived but has felt it. We seem to be standing beside this seer of a bygone age, looking into the same darkness, disturbed by the same mysterious, agonized by the same apprehensions. Life is full of anomalies and contradiction.
II. That even the good man must be satisfied to leave many of the problems that fill him with perplexity unsolved.
He cannot successfully grapple with them. They are immeasurably beyond his capacity. His relationship to God will serve to give him a better standard of judgment, will quicken thought, and enlarge the hemisphere of vision, but it will not serve to lift him out of his perplexities. He may be at rest because he knows that God is on the throne, but it will be the rest of faith, not of sight.
III. That the perplexities which present themselves in life must not be allowed to interfere with the good man's fulfillment of his duties and responsibilities.
"Go thou thy way till the end be." Your supreme business is not to know, but to do. It is not for the workmen who are engaged in the construction of a magnificent pile which is to be the wonder and admiration of the age to have a clear knowledge of the architectural ideal. All they need to know is how to use the tools that have been placed in their hands; all they need be anxious about is the particular piece of wall given them to build. They labor necessarily in the dark. All they need be assured of is that they are working under the guidance and inspiration of the great Master-Builder. Be true, be honest, be diligent, be faithful, fill the particular position into which Providence hath introduced you as well as it can be filled by the grace of God and the great Architect under whose superintendence the vast structure is being upreared will take care of the congruities and harmonies. Do not agitate yourself with questions which are beyond your capacity to understand. Do not permit the inexplicable and the perplexing in human phenomena to disquiet you. Do not obtrude into the domain of the Infinite. "Go thou thy way." Do thou thy work. Discharge thou with fidelity thy duty in the sphere into which Providence hath introduced thee. The mysteries and the incongruities, the anomalies and the perplexities, are not for thee to decipher and understand. "Go thou thy way till the end be."
IV. That there will be a period in the future when all that now perplexes the good man will be seen not to have been out of harmony with his best interests.
"For thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." There is a momentous crisis toward which the whole of life is tending. Righteousness must be vindicated. The dark, mysterious, inexplicable, must be seen to have the light of an infinite beneficence flashing through them. If not, what is there to hope for? Then God is not a God of justice. Then the Bible has been luring us with. incentives only to culminate in anarchy and despair. As God liveth there must be a judgment, there must be a period in which wrong shall be righted, in which the false shall be uncovered and the true approved, in which the purpose of God shall shine forth commanding universal admiration, in which infinite love shall be seen to have been ever operant in the affairs of the universe. It must be so, else the whole scheme of life is in explicable and unutterably unjust.
When the great consummation shall come —.
(1.) The good man shall rest — no more shall there be experienced aught to disturb, to agitate, to perplex.
(2.) The good man shall stand in his lot — his character and circumstances will correspond. The good man's "lot and the end of days" will be worthy of the great Lord to whose grace he owes it.
The time is coming when the good man shall be lifted above all his perplexities, when he shall understand why he could not understand, and see why he could not see, and know what was aforetime unknowable.
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