Gold Nugget 224 - A Heart Past Feeling

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      When a man’s heart gets so hardened as to be “past feeling,” he becomes utterly incapable of taking right views of spiritual things.  The impure atmosphere of a corrupt and hardened heart will obscure the vision of the intellect.  When the heart is “past feeling,” man becomes so stupid in intellect as to be utterly incapable of seeing the beauty or feeling the force of spiritual truth.

      To be “past feeling” is to be past the power of true improvement.  Where there is no feeling there is no pain, and where there is no pain there will be no impulse for the search of a remedy.  A bodily disease without pain is the most hopeless, and a moral disease without pain must prove fatal.

The Pulpit Commentary, Ephesians p. 197, Ephesians 4:17-19, (D. Thomas)

Gold Nugget 224 – A Heart Past Feeling

     

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Gold Nugget 223 - The Thousand Rivulets

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      Who is the most useful Christian?  Not a rule he who has the most transcendent genius, brilliant talents, and commanding eloquence, but he who has the most of this quiet, loving, forbearing spirit. 

      The world may do without its Niagaras, whose thundering roar and majestic rush excite the highest amazement of mankind, but it cannot spare the thousand rivulets that glide unseen and unheard every moment through the earth, imparting life and verdure and beauty wherever thy go.  And so the Church may do without its men of splendid abilities, but it cannot do without its men of tender, loving forbearing souls.

The Pulpit Commentary, Ephesians p. 192, Ephesians 4:1-3, (D. Thomas)

Gold Nugget 223

The Thousand Rivulets

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Gold Nugget 222 - Parental Goodness

Parental goodness gives children a chance.  Think how many children are born into the world over-weighted with disabilities.  For extreme cases, take the vicious and criminal classes.  But the fact is for us more effectively illustrated by cases of self-indulgence in youth, which involve weakened healthy and lowered moral tone.  Good parents give their children a fair chance in the struggle of life.  The children are not burdened with low vitality, self-indulgent appetite, or inability to find pleasure in pure things.  Sometimes good people’s children fail, but reasons for the exceptional cases can usually be found.

      Parental goodness if recognized by blessing s on their children.  And this is the form of reward that parents best appreciate.  They live over again in houourable, successful, and pious children. … No nobler ambition possesses humanity than the passion to make the coming generation wiser, stronger, and better than the passing one.

      Parental goodness is the one ground of hope for the race.  Napoleon was asked what one thing France supremely needed.  His reply was almost an inspiration.  He said, “Better mothers.”

The Pulpit Commentary, Psalms III p.47, Psalms 112:2, (R. Tuck)

Gold Nugget 222 – Parental Goodness

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Gold Nugget 221 - The Origin of Doubt

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      The getting at the real truth of things, especially in the matter of religious faith, is not easy.  And if doubt be the prompting only of a sincere love of truth, then it is right, and will be dispersed ere long.  But then it often is not so prompted, but springs from quite other motives.  The liking to be thought intellectual and mentally capable is often the pure origin of so-called doubt.  If a man owns himself a believer, he incurs the risk, in many circles, of being regarded as weak, credulous, and more or less foolish and ridiculous. 

      Yet more, the plea of doubt absolves a man from taking a decisive stand for God.  He knows he ought to, but he gets out of the obligation, or thinks he does, by pleading his doubts.  And doubt condones sin.  Hearty belief brings obligation to self-restraint along with it, but doubt is free from such incumbrance, and is therefore welcomed by the sinful heart as a friend.

      Light will not arise to such, but the darkness will deepen more and more,  But to the upright, the sincere seeker for truth, and who is not doubting because of any lurking liking for what is evil and self-pleasing to him, in due time the light will arise. …

      As the earth would ever be in the dark if it did not turn round to the light, so will men be unless they turn to the light.

The Pulpit Commentary, Psalms III p. 45-46, Psalms 112: 4, (S. Conway)

Gold Nugget 221 – The Origin of Doubt

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Gold Nugget 220 - Asceticism: A Monstrous Failure

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      It is remarkable to observe how readily the severest devotees of asceticism have found followers when the performance of the simpler duties of Christian charity has been left neglected.  A St. Simeon, scorched by the blazing sun of noonday and chilled by the cruel frost of night on his pillar in the desert, finds enthusiastic imitators who would be slow in following Christ’s lowly work of going about to do good to his brethren.

      Asceticism follows the notion that since indulgence of the lower nature is sinful, that nature itself must be evil. … Asceticism appears to be the readiest way of preventing sins of the flesh.  It seems as though the flesh could not be tamed; therefore it is caged, chained, crushed, slain.

      Asceticism aspires to the rare holiness of excessive purity.  Thus, while professing humility, it is often guilty of great pride.  Asceticism is within our own power and is dependent on our own will.  It is will-worship.  It is not the submission of our will to the will of God, but the assertion of our will though in self-restraint.  This is much easier and requires less humility and faith than spiritual obedience. … It would be unjust to accuse all ascetics of playing for the admiration of the world.  But it is impossible to doubt that the Church has had her hypocrites, who “disfigure their faces, that they may be seen to men to fast.” …

      Even from its own point of view it (asceticism) must be regarded as a monstrous failure.  It is “not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.”  History gives horrible proofs of this fearful fact.  The monasteries of the Middle Ages were hotbeds of vice.  No more immoral men could be found among the libertines of gay society than the celibate priests, bishops, and popes of the great age of professed asceticism.  Literature confirms the testimony of history.  The writings of ascetics are too commonly tainted with an unwholesome flavour.  Subjects which to ordinary men would call up no impure associations are suggestive of corrupt ideas to these saints.

      The most sacred relations of life are degraded by the ascetic handling of them.  Marriage is regarded only in its lowest character, and is lowered by being so treated.  The finger of the monk leaves an unclean mark on the purest page of domestic life. …

      Asceticism is unnatural.  Outraged nature avenges herself on the insult that is put upon her in the distortion of her life.  Asceticism if opposed to the sympathies of Christ.  He sanctioned the ties of domestic life and sanctioned its joys.  Asceticism does not touch the seat of sin.  This is not in the body.  It is in the soul.  So long as the heart is corrupt, no bodily restraints will make the life holy.

      The ascetic, like the Pharisee, cleanses only the outside of the cup.  The stream must be cleansed at the fountain.  The heart must be renewed.  Then it will be found that “to the pure all things are pure.” 

The Pulpit Commentary, Colossians p. 146-147, Colossians 2:23, (W. F. Adeney)

Gold Nugget 220

Asceticism:  A Monstrous Failure

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Gold Nugget 219 - The Real Cost of Cruel Greed

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      “Just dealing and fairness” must rule in the relations of master and man, if they are to be on a moral and righteous footing.  He will not take a hard advantage of his servant’s necessity; or allow, if he can help it, his dealings with him to degenerate into a mere struggle between capital and labour for every inch of vantage.

      The cruel greed that grasps at immediate gain at whatever cost of toil and poverty to others, and that “grinds the faces of the poor”, may enrich the individual, but in the long run is fatal to the class or the trade which practices it.  And the rich oppressor will have to appear at a tribunal where “there is no respect of persons”.  Political economy itself teaches that ill-paid lobour is the most expensive and wasteful.  The man who has want and fear gnawing at his heart cannot be a good workman, even if, in spite of extreme temptation, he be an honest one.

      Injustice and over-reaching on the part of the rich and governing classes, political and social institutions that favour “the fat and the strong” at the expense of the weak and poor, are sure of God’s heavy judgment.  They generate in the hatred excited in those subject to them an explosive force which, with a suitable train of circumstances, will burst forth, as in the French Revolution, in some volcanic upheaval that the strongest social fabric will be unable to resist.

      Christ’s golden rule of equity is the only safe, as it is the only righteous, basis for the dealings of man with man, of class with class, or of nation with nation in the world’s great polity.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Colossians p. 168-169, Colossians 3:24-25, (G. G. Findlay)

See also Colossians 4:1; Isaiah 3:15; Ezekiel 34:16-27; Luke 6:31)

 

Gold Nugget 219

The Real Cost of Cruel Greed

 

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Gold Nugget 218 - Wisdom of Sympathetic Parenting

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      From children, obedience to their parents in all things is required, and therefore in many things contrary to their inclination and opinions.  Childhood means dependence and ignorance.  It is only under the shelter of parental oversight that the incipient faculties and plastic nature of the child can be formed to the strength of judgment and firmness of character which will enable him to meet the tasks and the perils of adult life.  And for this discipline to be effective, the submission of the child must be absolute.  Only when a parental command plainly contradicts the Law of God and violates the child’s conscience, can any kind of disobedience be justified. …

      If the child be allowed, through passion or persistence, once successfully to rebel, a mischief is done not easily to be repaired.  His own self-mastery, and the sense of law and of duty which are to attend him through the whole of life, largely rest on this basis of ingrained obedience.  For this purpose, children should be in their earliest years as much as possible under the direct influence of their parents’ presence and authority.  The parental office cannot be discharged by proxy.  And there must be unity of parental administration, as well as harmony between precept and practice, if a true and reverent obedience is to be possible.

      In no State was the authority of the father (patria potestas) so strict and absolute as in ancient Rome.  And there can be little doubt that this stern maintenance of family discipline largely helped to form the Roman character with its extraordinary vigour and tenacity, and to preserve that rigid, firmly knit order and devoted loyalty which were the secret of Rome’s invincible strength.

      On the other hand, the father must beware lest his authority should wear a needless aspect of severity.  His righteous desire to “command his children and his household after him”, and his anxious sense of responsibility, may occasion this, if not relieved by more genial influences.  The innocent liveliness and the many unintended offences of childhood must not provoke him to ill temper.  He must learn by patience and tenderness to win the child’s affection and open-hearted trust, without impairing its submissive reverence.  A mechanical, unsympathetic strictness, or an angry and unequal discipline, will fatally alienate the sensitive heart of the child, which in that case either sinks down into a dull, spiritless apathy, or prepares for a passionate revolt when the hour of its strength shall come. 

      Too often those most anxious to comment religion to their children have made it odious by presenting it in forms unintelligible to the young mind, and associating it with tasks unsuited to its powers, and burdens that it found “grievous to be borne.”  As the child should find in the child Jesus its pattern and model, so the parent should seek to be to his children an image of “our Father in heaven.”

The Pulpit Commentary, Colossians p. 167-168, Colossians 3:18-22, (G. G. Findlay)

See also:  Genesis 18:19, Luke 2:40-52

Gold Nugget 218

Wisdom of Sympathetic Parenting

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Gold Nugget 217 - The Unlocking Power of Love

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      It is by love that we gain spiritual discernment, and are thus enabled to explore the hidden treasures of grace.  The intellect is affected by the heart.  Love to a godly father may be our safeguard against skepticism; how much more may love to Christ be!  Like a rocking store, our soul may be somewhat swayed, but not “greatly moved”.  Like a magnet, our hearts may be liable to partial deflections, but still point towards the pole. 

      Moreover, love will unlock many a truth.  Pascal has said, “In order to love human things, it is necessary to know them; in order to know things that are Divine, it is necessary to love them.” …

      Love as a mere sentiment may degenerate into a weak toleration of any error that disguises itself in the garb of love.  Or, under the plea of jealousy for truth and love for souls, it may be depraved into an intolerant bigotry. 

      Love must be a means to an end.  There are hidden treasures of truth in Christ “the Truth”, which need manly intelligence inspired by childlike love and trust. … He is the Key to history.  Its treasures are not unlocked until God’s education of the world in its history is connected with the advent of Christ.  He is the Interpreter of science, which may reveal many of its secrets to a godless investigator, but reserves its choicest treasures for those who can see in them his handywork.

      The philosophy of mind and of morals is best understood if Christ be known.  We see in him ideal human nature and the power which can recover men from that injury to human nature which philosophy no less than theology must recognize.  We learn the supremacy of conscience, the dignity and value of the soul, and the fact of a life beyond death. … He alone can satisfy the hunger of the soul, and thus fortify it against the errors of those who would beguile with “enticing words” which are “not after Christ.”

The Pulpit Commentary, Colossians p. 135-136, Colossians 2:1-3, (E. S. Prout)

See also:  Psalms 14:1; Psalms 62:2; John 8:31-32; Psalms 25:9; Matthew 11:25; John 1:3,4,9,10; Galatians 4:4

God Nugget 217

The Unlocking Power of Love

Gold Nugget 216 - The Great Thinker

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      God is the great Thinker.  All our philosophy is the attempt of man to spell out some of the ideas of God.  What wisdom was requisite for the creation of the world and the ordering of all things, from the movements of a star down to the life of a cell!  What wisdom is involved in the government of the world, maintaining life and gladness, developing the latent resources of the universe, making all things work together for good, ruling great kingdoms and individual lives in justice and mercy!

      But a higher wisdom is required for redemption.  It is more difficult to regenerate than to create, to regain Paradise than to form it at the first. …

      Many purposes may be aimed at in redemption beyond what we can see, and thus many processes which to us look meaningless find their end.  The water is not taken over the mill-wheel simply that it may find its nearest course to the river, nor is the Christian led over a broken path because that is the nearest way to heaven. …

      Our lives … are linked to other worlds.  What happens to us has bearings elsewhere.  This thought may help us to face some mystery of life.  As in the case of Job, what is humanly unintelligible may be explained when it is seen that the beings of another sphere are being instructed through our experience.

      If the highest intelligences “desire to look into” these things, and see the manifold wisdom of God in them, surely we men should treat the works of redemption with profound reverence, and regard the study of them as worthy of hour highest thought. 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ephesians p. 142-143, Ephesians 3:10, (W. F. Adeney)

Gold Nugget 216

The Great Thinker

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Gold Nugget 215 - Intercessory Prayer

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      “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the fiches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” …

      Intercessory prayer is the rarest and highest type of prayer.  In answer to objections that are raised against it, four facts are ever to be kept in view.

      It is an instinct of social love.  Self-love urges a man to pray for himself, social love prompts the soul to address Heaven on behalf of others.  What more natural than for a loving mother to pray for a suffering child, a loving pastor for his people, a loving citizen for his country?  What is natural is Divine.

      It is a soul discipline.  Nothing exerts a higher influence upon the soul than the realization of the Divine presence in prayer; this quickens and hallows it.  In intercessory prayer, however, there is this, and something more; there is the taking of the soul out of the circle of itself, and expanding it with earnest, loving sympathies for others.  Intercession lifts the spirit into fellowship with that God who careth for all.

      It is a manifest Christian duty.  We are not only commanded in Scripture to pray for others, but we have the highest examples …

      It has been crowned with wonderful success. … 

            “For what are men better than sheep or goats,

              That nourish a blind life within the brain,

              If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer,

              Both for themselves and those who call them friend?”

The Pulpit Commentary, Ephesians p. 137, Ephesians 3:14-19, (D. Thomas)

Gold Nugget 215

Intercessory Prayer

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