Gold Nugget 137 - Seeking Happiness

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He who seeks happiness from his senses rather than from his soul is a beast; he who seeks it from without rather than from within is not better than a beast.  The happiness of a true man cannot stream into him from without; it must well up from the depths of his own high thinkings and pure affections.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Titus p.21-21, Titus 1:15-16, (D. Thomas)

 

Gold Nugget 137

Seeking Happiness

Gold Nugget 138 - The Wonderful Endowment

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      Defilement of … mind (nous) means that the thoughts, wishes, purposes, activities, are all stained and debased. … The conscience (suneidesis), is the moral consciousness within, and that which is ever bringing up the memory of the past, with its omissions and commissions, its errors, its cruel, heartless unkindness, its selfish disregard of others.  When this is defiled, then this last safeguard of the soul is broken down.  The man and woman of the defiled conscience is self-satisfied, hard, impenitent to the last.  Every part and faculty of the soul is stained with sin. …

      We are not necessarily the creatures of the outward; we have within the power to bend circumstances to our will, to get good out of evil, to turn outward dissonance into music, deformity into beauty, poison into nourishment.  Let us adore our Maker for this wonderful endowment – an endowment which guards us from the coercion of outward forces, secures to us an inward freedom of action, and enables us to put all outward things in subjection to our own spiritual selves.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Titus p.23, Titus 1:15-16, (D. Thomas)

 

Gold Nugget 138

This Wonderful Endowment

(The Final) Gold Nugget 382 - "It Is Finished!"

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      It was about the sixth hour.  The noonday sun should have been pouring its full light upon Jerusalem.  But there was a horror of great darkness – a darkness that could be felt.  It might well be so.  He was hanging on the cross by whom all things were made.  He was dying who upholdeth all things by the word of his power.  So stupendous an event, the death of him who is the Life of the world, must be attended by wonders, by strange and awful signs. 

      That fearful darkness was a stern rebuke to the cruel brutal mockers.  Nature was mourning for the Lord of nature, whom man, his noblest creature, was thus maltreating.  The supernatural blackness of the sky figured the black wickedness of that fearful crime.  The great darkness wrapt the dying Lord like a funeral pall, hiding from unsympathizing eyes that most awful spiritual conflict by which the loving Saviour wrought out our salvation.  It seems to warn us that we may not pry too curiously into the mysterious secrets of his atoning work.  It is his work; he alone can accomplish it. “I have trodden the winepress alone: and of the people there was none with me”.  We stand afar off, and beat our breasts in the consciousness of great sin and utter unworthiness, and adore the most gracious Redeemer, who loved us with that exceeding love which passeth knowledge. …

      The ninth hour was almost come.  The Lord’s last moments were now very near, when an exceeding loud cry pealed through the encompassing darkness.  The Lord’s holy human soul was emerging from the awful struggle.  He had been bearing, we may reverently and sorrowfully believe the extreme burden of the sins of the whole world.  They had been pressed upon him, in all their horror and loathsomeness, in that hour when he was made “to be sin for us, who knew no sin.”  The Lord looked back in clear consciousness upon the fearful strife.  “My God”, he said.  He quoted that wonderful twenty-second psalm, in which, ages before, he had by his Spirit depicted his own future sufferings.  He teaches us by his own example to use the blessed words of Holy Scripture in our distress, in our death-agony.

      “My God.”  The Son of God never lost his trustfulness in his heavenly Father.  Never for one moment could there be a darkening of the perfect love, of the ineffable communion, of the Father and the only begotten Son; and then came those mysterious words, “Why didst thou forsake me?”

      Did these words relate to some strange awful experience of the Lord’s human soul?  Was that soul left as it were alone for a while in the presence of sin – the sin of the whole world?  Had that blessed soul to bear … the guilt of my sin, and to feel that horror of great darkness when the face of God is hidden from the sinner?

      We cannot but ask ourselves these and such-like questions.  We cannot answer them.  It is a subject less suitable for words than for prayer and solemn meditation.  But if it is most awful, it is also full of precious comfort.  In the extreme anguish of spiritual depression the Christian soul is not cut off from Christ.  There is no sorrow so great as this; and sometimes God’s holiest children seem very severely tried by it.  Yes, in those saddest hours when we seem well-nigh hopeless, when we have lost heart, and there is no joy, but only darkness all around, even then let us draw closer to the cross, and strain our eyes to see the Crucified One, and think of the great darkness that hung around his cross, and listen to his dying words.  Let us say, “My God, mine ever in gloom and spiritual dryness and chill joyless depression – my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  Only let us trust him, and we shall know at last, even in that bitterest of sorrows, that “whom he loveth he chasteneth.”  We shall hear at last in our inmost hearts the words of comfort, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” …

      A strange dread came upon the souls of the surrounding multitude; there was no mockery now, but awful expectation.  They thought that the Lord had called for the great prophet Elijah, the prophet who was to appear before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.  Would he come? They said to one another, in excited whispers.  And now there was some sympathy, perhaps springing from fear, for the dying Lord.  One of them gave him to drink.  The Lord did not refuse the vinegar as he had refused the medicated potion.  He received it in gracious condescension.  He had nothing of that haughtiness which prompts men to reject acts of kindness from those who have wronged them.  There was a solemn hush among the crowd, a stillness of awe, such as we fell sometimes when a great darkness comes over the heavens at the approach of some tremendous storm.  Would Elijah come? They whispered one to another.  He came not.  The Lord needed him not; he was giving his life for the love of souls. …

      The Lord cried again with a great voice.  Perhaps that cry was the word of triumph recorded by St. John, “It is finished!”  He had finished the work which the Father had given him to do; he looked back upon his finished work, and summed it up in that one loud cry of victory.  That loud cry from the cross peals through the world; still its echoes fall upon our ears.  It calls for our devout contemplation of that finished life of holiness and beauty.  It call upon each Christian so to live, in the imitation of that perfect life, that he too may, through the grace of the Holy Spirit and the cleansing power of the precious blood, look back in some poor measure on a work in some sense finished, when his last hour is come.

      That loud cry spoke not of exhaustion; but at once, when his work was finished, the Lord bowed his head, and yielded up the ghost.  The physical antecedent of his death was probably a broken heart; the true cause was his own sovereign will.  He yielded up the ghost; he let his human soul pass from the body.  It was his act, his will; none took his life from him; none could take it from him; he laid it down of himself.  The holy body hung lifeless on the cross; the holy soul passed into Paradise. …

      The cross is the central fact in the world’s history.  Let it be the central motive in our hearts.  The Lord suffered cruel pain.  Let us lift up our hearts to him in our anguish.  He is King of the Jews.  Let us take him for the King of our hearts.  He was cruelly derided.  Let us take insults patiently.  He died.  Let us learn of him how to die.

 

****************

 

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin.  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.  For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. … For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  (Romans 6: 1-9, 23)

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Matthew II p. 310-312, Matthew 27: 35-50, (B. C. Caffin)

See also:  Isaiah 63:3

 

Gold Nugget 382

“It Is Finished!”

Gold Nugget 381 - A Great Treasure

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      In a world like ours, where appearance goes so far and counts for so much, there is much in form.  There is much in machinery, in organization; when this is perfected, power is powerful indeed.  There is much in original capacity – in that invisible, immeasurable germ out of which may grow great things in the future.  But it is hardly too much to say that everything is in life.  When that is absent, nothing of any kind will avail; where that is present, all things are possible.  It is better to have life even in the humblest form than to have the most perfect apparatus or the most exquisite form without it. …

      A man whose mind is nothing more than a storehouse of learning, who does not communicate anything to his fellows, who does not act upon them, who is no source of wisdom or of worth, is of very little account indeed; he has not what he has.  But the earnest student, though he be but a youth or even a child, who is bent on acquiring in order that he may impart, in whom are the living springs of an honourable aspiration, is a great treasure, from whom society may look for many things. …

      Unconsecrated power may be enlisted on the side of peace and virtue.  But it is a mere accident if it be so.  It is quite as likely that it will be devoted to strife, and will espouse the cause of moral wrong; the history of our race has had too many painful proofs of this likelihood.  But where there is an awakened conscience, and, consequently, a devotion to duty, there is ensured the faithful service of God, and an endeavour, more or less successful, to do good to the world. …

      A Christian Church may be formed after the apostolic model, and its constitution may be irreproachably scriptural, but it may fall into spiritual apathy, and care for nothing but its on edification.  A single human soul, with an ear sensitive to “the still sad music of humanity,” with a heart to feel the weight of “the burden of the Lord,” with courage to attempt great things for Christ and for men, with the faith that “removes mountains,” may be of far more value to the world than such an apathetic and inactive Church.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ecclesiastes p. 241, Ecclesiastes 9:4, (J. R. Thomson)

See also:  Matthew 25:29

 

Gold Nugget 381

A Great Treasure

 

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Gold Nugget 380 - A Mother's Hope

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      Upon all that motherhood means to us; upon the fact that the mother has borne her child, has cherished him at he own breast, has watched over his infancy and childhood with sedulous care, has shielded and succoured him, has fed and clothed him; as we say in one word – has “mothered” him. …

      The early experiences of the mother include much beyond the physical realm; they include the education of the intellect, the training of the will, the first imparting of religious instruction, the solemn dedication of her child to the service of God, repeated and earnest prayer on his behalf.  Her child is not only her offspring; his is “the son of her vows,” the one on whom she has expended her most fervent piety. …

      The words of Lemuel’s mother are charged with deep affection and profound solicitude.  And it is those who truly love us, and who are unselfishly devoted to our interest, that have the strongest claim upon us.  A claim which is only that of natural relationship, and is not crowned and completed by affection, falls very short indeed of that which is strengthened and sanctified by sacrificial love. … The mother hopes for good and even great things for and from her child; he is to stand among the strong, the wise, the honoured, the useful. …

      When the son of much sorrow and prayer, of much patient training and earnest entreaty, who had a noble opportunity before him – when he virtually signs away his inheritance, “gives his strength” to the destroyer, takes the path which leads to entire dethronement and ruin, then is there such a bitter and such a cruel disappointment as only a mother’s heart can feel and know.  Then perishes a fond and proud and precious hope; then enters and takes possession a saddening, a crushing sorrow. …

      “What, my son?  This of thee? – of whom I have loved and taught and trained? of thee for whom I have yearned and prayed? of thee from whom I have had a right to hope for such better things? oh, lose not thy fair heritage! take the portion, live the life, wear the crown, still within thy reach!?  A true and faithful mother has a right which is wholly indisputable, and strong with surpassing strength, to speak thus in affectionate expostulation to one who owes so much to her, and has returned her nothing.  And what is –

      The filial duty?  Surely it is to receive such remonstrance with deep respect; to give to it a patient and dutiful attention; to take it into long and earnest consideration; to resolve that, cost what it may, the path of penitence and renewal shall be trodden; that anything shall be endured rather than a mother’s heart be pierced by the hand of her own child!

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs p. 607-608, Proverbs 31:1-3, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 380

A Mother’s Hope

 

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Gold Nugget 379 - Woman's Work

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      The Oriental notion, that women are but idle ornaments of the harem, finds no place in the Bible.  Here they appear freely in the world, and, though their first duties are in the home, they are not idle, nor are they wanting in enterprise. …

      Woman’s work cannot be wholly the same as a man’s, because nature has placed limitations upon her physical energies.  But she has spheres for work, and it is cruel, unjust, and selfish to keep her out of any region of activity where she can do good service, by law or by social displeasure.  Two wrongs in particular need to be swept away.

      The notion that work is degrading to a woman.  Surely idleness is more degrading.  It is rightly said that woman’s sphere is the home.  But it is not every woman who has a home.  Surely it is a degrading and insulting idea that the main business of a young woman is to secure a husband, and so obtain a home.  There are women who are manifestly cut out for other positions; many women never have an opportunity of obtaining a home of their own except by sacrificing themselves to men whom they do not love.  In early life young girls are not the better for being kept in idleness, waiting for the chance that may turn up.  It needs to be known and recognized that it is a right and honourable thing for a woman to be engaged in any ordinary occupation that is suitable to her powers.   

      The fear of rivalry with men.  There have been professions the members of which have bitterly resented the invasion of their ranks by women.  Such trade-unionism is more ungenerous.  It is a humiliation to have to confess that men could not hold their own unless under a system of protection against the competition of women.  Certainly no Christian principle can justify such selfishness. …

      The wife who earns wages has a right to her purse as much as the husband to his.  Where there is a true marriage, no thought of separate interest will rouse any jealousy as to the several possessions of the two.  But true marriage is not always realized.  We see brutal husbands living idly on the earnings of their wives. …

      Women who contribute to the service of society are deserving of double honour, because they have had to work under exceptional disadvantages.  Women who have proved themselves wise, industrious, and generous in the home-life do not receive their meed of praise.  Too much is taken for granted, and accepted without thanks, because the service is constant and the sacrifice habitual.  In after years, when it is too late to give the due acknowledgment, many a man has had to feel sharp pangs of regret at his heedless treatment of a wife’s patient toil or a mother’s yearning love.

      Opportunity should be proportionate to capacity.  If women can work, they should have scope for work.  It is the duty of Christian society to give to woman her true position.  If she be “the weaker vessel,” she needs more consideration, not less justice.  Christ gave high honours to women, accepted their devoted service, and laid the foundation of Christian justice in regard to them. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs p. 605, Proverbs 31:31, (W. F. Adeney)

 

Gold Nugget 379

Woman’s Work

 

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Gold Nugget 378 - Prudence

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      The need for prudence. 

      Prudent conduct reflects credit upon ones parents.  The graceless children of gracious parents are a special reproach, bringing dishonour even upon the Name of God.  The world will generally lay blame at the parents’ door.   

      The need and advantage of forethought.  Prudence has been described at “the virtue of the senses.”  It is the science of appearances.  It is the outward action of the inward life.  It is content to seek health of body by complying with physical conditions, and health of mind by complying with the laws of intellect.

      It is possible to give a base and cowardly interpretation of the duty of prudence; that “which makes the senses final is the divinity of sots and cowards, and is the subject of all comedy.  The true prudence admits the knowledge of an outward and real world.”  This true prudence is only that which foresees, detects, and guards against the ills which menace the life of the soul.  Those are “simple” who, often with the utmost regard for their material interest, go on heedless of the moral perils which their habits incur.

      The folly of thoughtless suretyship.  This, as we have seen, is often dwelt on in this book.  It refers to a different condition of society from our own.  We may generalize the warning. 

      Prudence includes a proper self-regard, a virtuous egotism, so to speak.  When good-natured people complain that they have been deceived, taken in, and turn sourly against human nature, do they not reproach themselves for having lacked this primary virtue of prudence?  The highest virtues can grow only out of the root of independence.   

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs p. 526, Proverbs 27:11-13, (E. Johnson)

See also:  Genesis 34:30, I Samuel 2:17,

 

Gold Nugget 378

Prudence

 

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Gold Nugget 377 - Length of Life

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      Length of life is but a weariness under some conditions.  In itself there is no special good in long life.  When a man has done his work, he is ready for his work under the next set of conditions.  Bunyan may picture a “Land of Beulah,” but the years of retirement, after business life is over, are seldom an unmixed and unqualified joy.

      The “Preacher’s” description of painful, wearing old age is often realized.  Godless old age, with its crushing burden of youthful sins, is a miserable business; and even the godly man finds the waiting years wearily weighed with pain and suffering.  And prolonged life is especially weary when a man outlives all his family and friends; and, after having been wrapped about, all his life, with family love, is dependent on strangers.  It is one joy of family life that this seldom happens when a man has his quiver full of children.

      Length of life is but a blessing under some conditions.  There is nothing more beautiful in social life than reverent, honoured, upright old age.  The value of old men’s influence on us is suggested by that pathetic interest we have in their lovely white hair.  Let a man but keep healthy, and quick-minded to the changing interest of the passing age, and prolonged life can be nothing but a joy to him.  Under the same conditions, his continuance is nothing but a joy and blessing to his family, who make him the centre which holds them all in a loving and mutually helpful unity.  And under the same conditions, old men are nothing but a blessing to the state, which is kept steady by the conservative goodness of its aged members. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Psalms III p. 239-240, Psalms 129:6, (R. Tuck)

 

Gold Nugget 377

Length of Life

Gold Nugget 376 - Spheres of Present Recompense

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      It is quite certain that the true and loyal servant of God will be abundantly rewarded; it is not certain when or how he will receive his recompense.  There are three spheres in which that reward may lie.  It may be largely, almost wholly, in the future.  Bitter and protracted persecution may make the present life nearly worthless, so far as happiness is concerned.  Or it may be largely in the sphere of the spiritual – in the cleansed and pure heart; in elevation of character; in fellowship with God.  Or it may be partly in the present and the temporal. … Our text deals with the last of these. …

      The reaping of the fruit of his labour.  The builder rejoices in the house which he has erected, the farmer in the fields he has made productive, the florist in the garden he has planted, the author in the book he has written, the statesman in the measures he has passed into law, etc.  Apart from the physical comfort it may bring us, we have a pleasure in the effect of honest and faithful work.  And if a man cherishes a humble and grateful spirit, it is permissible that he enjoys the success which he has achieved, and the honour or the pleasure he has earned by patient industry. 

      Domestic delights.  The wife to her husband, the husband to his wife, is a “goodly heritage” – a joy and a treasure which no prince can confer, no money will buy.  True conjugal affection, the outgrowth of mutual esteem, is a source of lasting and elevating gladness of heart, for which all who have possessed it should give heartiest thanks to the Giver of all good.  And with a sense of recipiency should be associated a sense of duty; it becomes husband and wife to maintain through life the sweetness and excellency of this attachment; to do this by mutual courtesy, self-sacrifice, concession, tender ministry in health and in sickness, united effort on behalf of others.

      Parental.  Children should be welcomed as precious gifts from the kind hand of God.  They “bring love with them,” but they do more than that – they open our nature and call forth its best affections; they unseal fountains of purest feeling which otherwise would not have flowed forth; they immeasurably enrich our souls and our lives by the love they evoke and by the love they return.  They to whom children are not given will render themselves a most valuable service and give themselves the best opportunity of doing good, by adopting the fatherless and the motherless, and making them their own.  Children, if ordinarily affectionate, will soon excite tender feeling in the breast; and many are they who have learnt to love the child of their adoption with a warmth and with a depth of love that went far beyond their anticipation, and that greatly enlarged their heart and enhanced the value of their life.

      Children should be treated as the most sacred charge placed in the hand of man by the hand of God.  No one can tell the capacities and possibilities that are folded in the form and hidden in the heart of a little child.

      Children should realize how much they owe to those who have expended on them the wealth of a parent’s love.  It becomes them to be a constant source of joy at home, and to be a defense and protection against all that would invade its peace.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Psalms III p. 235-236, Psalms 128:1-6, (E. R Conder, W. Clarkson)

 

See also:  1 Corinthians 15:19, Psalms 127:3-5, Genesis 33:5

 

Gold Nugget 376

Spheres of Present Recompense

 

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Gold Nugget 375 - Children - A Divine Reward

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      The reward of a whole life’s goodness cannot come until the life is completed.  Signs of Divine favour cheer and encourage as life progresses.  Some married people do not have families, but we have no right to regard the withholding as a judgment.  We need only say that, when children are sent, they are a sign of Divine favour.  And this is not saying that all children who come into the world come as a Divine reward.  We are exclusively dealing with the families of God’s people, and all we have said is strictly true of them.  There is a great compensation for persons who have no children, in the fact that they often have an unusual love for other people’s children, and skill in ministering to them. …

      Children reward a man in what they themselves are.  A man has no pleasure in life that can equal his joy in his children, who bear his image, and in miniature reproduce himself.  Their ways, their talk, their crudities, their innocence, their unfolding, their very frailties, are a perpetual interest, relief, and pleasure.  The child-ministry of childhood is seldom sufficiently estimated. …

      Children reward a man in what they become.  For a man lives over again in the success of his children.  He is proud of their well-grown healthy bodies; of their developed and cultured minds; of their honourable and useful positions.  A man never feels to have lived in vain when he leaves a respectable and well-ordered family behind him.

      Children reward a man in what they do for him. … The good man who has good children has a fortune laid up against old age and infirmity safer far than shares in join-stock companies.  His every need will be safely met by the response child-love will make to all his sacrifices in days gone by. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Psalms III p. 233, Psalms 127:3, (R. Tuck)

 

Gold Nugget 375

Children – A Divine Reward

 

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