Gold Nugget 184 - Spiritual Capacity

Click here to download:
Psalms I 121-122.doc (26 KB)
(download)

      We see what we have eyes to see; hear what we have ears to hear; feel what we have capacity to feel.  Suppose four listeners to the same piece of music.  To one, with a critical ear, it is a rendering, good or ill, of the musician’s composition; to a second, a strain of national music; to a third, full of memories of childhood; to a fourth, who has no ear for music, a tedious noise.

      Suppose a group watching a lamb skipping in a field.  One is a painter; another, a naturalist; another a shepherd; another a butcher.  Each sees something the rest cannot see.  Perhaps a simple Christian coming by sees what none of them perceives – a reminder of the good Shepherd, who gathers the lambs in his arms.

      As in outward things, so in spiritual.  As with bodily sight, hearing, feeling, so with spiritual perception. … God’s revelation of himself is suited to men’s spiritual capacity.  Different souls get different views of God. …

      Visit two homes, perhaps in the same street, in which there is similar trouble – sickness, or bereavement, or failure in business, or sore poverty.  In one, all is gloom, repining, comfortless perplexity.  In the other, there is light in the darkness, a rainbow on the storm. …

      Come to the Scriptures in a caviling, critical, hostile spirit, and they will teem with difficulties.  Read them carelessly, scornfully; they will be dull and lifeless.  Search them, with an earnest desire to know the truth … with candour and humility; they will “talk with thee”, and unfold their secrets. …

      Scrupulously religious persons, but blinded by self-righteousness, could no more see his glory than skeptics, hypocrites, or scoffing triflers.  But his disciples – those who first believed on him, and then lived in close converse with him – could say, “We beheld his glory”. …

      So it is to-day.  This is a universal law – What God is to you – what Christ is to you, shows what you are, and determines what you shall be.  The gospel is an open secret, but still a secret, from proud, worldly hearts.  The physician is for those who are sick and know it.  The Saviour is for sinners who feel themselves sinners.  The living water will not flow into a vessel turned upside down.  Heaven itself would be no heaven to a heart full of love of the world, of self, of sin, and void of love to God. 

The Pulpit Commentary, Psalms I p. 121- 22, Psalms 18:25-26, (E. R. Conder, W. Clarkson)

See also:  Hebrews 12:6ff, I Thessalonians 2:13, Isaiah 53:2, Matthew 13:14-15, John 1:14

Gold Nugget 184

Spiritual Capacity

http://www.goldnugget.posterous.com

Gold Nugget 183 - Death of the Spiritual Eye

Click here to download:
Isaiah II 122.doc (24 KB)
(download)

      It is a law of nature that every disused part of an organism shall dwindle away and decay. 

      “There are certain burrowing animals – the mole, for instance – which have taken to spending their lives beneath the surface of the ground.  And Nature has taken her revenge upon them in a thoroughly natural way – she has closed up their eyes.  If they mean to live in darkness, she argues, eyes are obviously a superfluous function.  By neglecting them, these animals made it clear that they did not want them.  And as one of Nature’s fixed principles is that nothing shall exist in vain, the eyes are presently taken away, or reduced to a rudimentary state.

      There are fishes which have had to pay the same terrible forfeit for having made their abode in dark caverns, where eyes can never be required.  And in exactly the same way the spiritual eye must die and lose its power by purely natural law, if the soul choose to walk in darkness rather than light” (see Mr. Henry Drummond’s Natural Law in the Spiritual World’ pp. 110, 111).

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Isaiah II p. 122, Isaiah 42: 18-25, (G. Rawlinson)

 

Gold Nugget 183

Death of the Spiritual Eye

 

http://www.goldnugget.posterous.com

 

Gold Nugget 182 - Suppositions of the Universe

* The following “Pulpit” discourse may be better appreciated with these thoughts in mind: 

 

Christianity does not deny evolution within the universe - as to the changes of living things in accordance with their environment, good or bad, in which they live.  We have seen changes in men, the hue of their skin, their height and weight, and other physical, and even mental, characteristics that have evolved over the centuries because of environmental changes.  That physical characteristics of man and beast have changed, no reasonable person would deny.  We have evidences of all manner of changes within species of plant and animals that have occurred over the centuries.

 

 The evolution that is denied is:  that by evolutionary force, dead matter became living matter; that plant life evolved into animal life; or that animal life evolved into human life.  There is no non-disputable evidence that any of these things have ever occurred in nature or within the laboratory.  The theories are speculative, varied and many, and are ever changing and that is a good thing, not necessarily for the scientist of the present age, but for all men in the ages to come.

 

A curious fact in my own mind, as simple as it may be, has always been the fact that man, in all parts of the world, are, in essence, the same.  There are minor differences, but no degrees of evolutionary advancement within the human species.  Is this not a curious phenomenon?  What would be the evolutionary cause or explanation of why man has evolved so evenly throughout the ages, and over the entire surface of the world, at the same level given the variety of differing climates, topographies, circumstances and societies?  Why are there not lower and higher levels of human beings so far as the physical and mental dimensions?  Would it not make more sense, from an evolutionary standpoint, that this be the case?

 

 Or will we buy into the theory that after so many generations, every race of man has now reached the limit of human evolution?  This is a serious matter to contemplate for a trans-species evolutionist.  What species of life will man next evolve into now that we have all reached the human limit of evolution? Are we now on the evolutionary-edge of becoming a new species?  Has it already begun?  Are there now, within our very midst, “persons” who are actually between human and the next post-human species?  How would we tell?  What would the measurement be?  Could it be measured, and if not, why not? --- Perchance, were humans, at their inception, then and for all time, the highest order of being in the world?  What a radical proposal!

 

The Christian, with proper understanding of both spiritual and physical “science” may, perhaps, have a better “theory”.  That evolution is true, it is real, it is a fact.  But, we intuitively, and from a belief in the revelations from the Divine, have substantial reason to believe that not only is the spiritual world ordered according to the universal Mind and from the universal Energy, but that the physical universe, of which the earth is no more than a sub-particle of dust, was thus formed, ordered and established, and now operates according to the Eternal and fixed “laws” that now govern it.

 

As great a mind as even Einstein possessed could not fathom that the universe, so complex, so ordered and so magnificent, could be so without a “God” who would leave nothing to chance.  Although he did not believe in a God who was active in the daily affairs of man, he, nevertheless, could never achieve a belief in the God-less theories that are so prevalent among those who deem themselves too intelligent to believe in intelligent design and purpose of our universe.  An interesting and quixotic state of mind indeed!  Maybe Einstein was a dummy after all.                                                    -- (C. A. Hatcher)  

      

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

 

      To suppose the universe nothing but a congeries of minute atoms, existing from all eternity, and moving as chance directs, combining accidentally into forms more or less permanent and after a while falling apart, ungoverned by any mind, without object, intention, or cause; and to suppose life, intelligence, thought, the accidental results of certain positions or combinations of the atoms; - is a theory so intrinsically absurd and ridiculous, that it might have seemed impossible for the wildest fancy to have conceived it, much more of any man of sane mind to have persuaded himself of its truth.

      Yet this theory, elaborated by Democritus and Leucipus about B.C. 430 – 400, embraced by Epicurus about B.C. 300 – 270, and recommended by the genius of Lucretius about B.C. 75, became the favourite creed of educated Greeks and Romans. … Among the adversaries which Christianity had to meet and subdue … Epicurian philosophy was one of the most formidable. …

      That God exist and nothing else; that he is “the One without a second;” that individual men are God, duplications of him, imagining themselves separate; that the material world is absolutely non-existent; and that all sights and sounds and actions are “illusions,” cheats, nonentities with a semblance of being; - this, which is the creed of the educated Hindoo, is another belief so contradictory to common sense, that it might have been supposed impossible of acceptance by any considerable number of men.  It is held, however, by thousands, who see no absurdity in it, and are convinced that it is the only rational theory of existence; and, so far as present appearances go, there seems to be no probability that either Christianity or modern science will succeed in shaking the belief, however absurd it may be and however mischievous. …

      The spontaneous origin of life from inorganic matter, the development of protoplasm from molecules, of vegetable life from protoplasm, of animal life from vegetable life, and of humanity from advanced animals, which, though a pure hypothesis, has been accepted almost universally by physicist in the present day, is intrinsically as absurd and unthinkable a theory as either Epicureanism or Hindoo pantheism.  But its absurdity is not seen by those who have been taught it from the time that they first turned their attention to physical science, who find it accepted by all their teachers, and assumed as a basis by every book that is put into their hands, who live as it were in an atmosphere saturated with evolutionism, and absorb it with every breath that they inhale.

      The time will probably come, perhaps after no great delay, when a reaction will set in, and the ability of unintelligent matter to improve itself and advance to perfection will be seen to be as absurd and as self-contradictory as the ability or images carved out of wood and stone to affect the course of events …

      Meanwhile, however, the existing false system is almost as impervious to argument and criticism as was the system of heathen idolatry.  It has possession of the field (the so-called scientific field), as that had on the general field of human society; it supports itself by a number of interconnected propositions, no one of which rests upon any sure basis; and it does not even perceive the force of the arguments which are brought against it.  This it may keep its hold upon for some considerable time, before it takes its final place as “a chapter in the history of human error.”       

 

Pulpit Commentary, Isaiah II p. 101-102, Isaiah 41:21-29, (G. Rawlinson)

 

Gold Nugget 182

Suppositions of the Universe

 

http://www.goldnugget.posterous.com

 

 

 

 

 

Gold Nugget 181 - The Temporary and The Eternal

Click here to download:
Isaiah II 92.doc (26 KB)
(download)

      All nature echoes the message of the grass.  The winter snow falls lightly, and lies in its white purity – mystic, wonderful – over all the land; but too soon it soils, and browns, and sinks, and passes all away.

      The spring flowers that come, responsive to the low sunshine and the gentle breath, are so fragile, they stay with us only such a little while, and then they pass away.

      The summer blossoms multiply and stand thick over the ground, and they seem strong, with their deep rich colouring; and yet they too wither and droop and pass away.

      The autumn fruits cluster on the tree branches, and grow big, and win their soft rich bloom of ripeness; but they too are plucked in due season, and pass away.

      The gay dress of varied leafage is soon stripped off with the wild winds; one or two trembling leaves cling long to the outmost boughs; but, by-and-by, even they fall and pass away.  Down every channel of the hillsides are borne the crumblings washed from the everlasting hills, as we call them, that yet are passing away.

      And man – does he differ from the things in the midst of which he is set?  Nay; he is but flesh. … It is even true of the very forms and modes in which one man strives to bless and help another.  The forms are not the principal things; they are but the temporary human stamp; and God may remove or change them to make us feel our entire dependence on him. …

      Everything that speaks to our souls of God is a revelation to us.  It may be a touch of nature.  It may be only a pure white flower.  It may be the pale gold and green of a late sunset.  It may be the snowy crest of an Alpine mountain, lying soft and pure against the summer’s deep blue sky.  It may be the weird mist of the gloaming creeping over the landscape.  It may be the glimpse “down some woodland vale, of the many twinkling sea.”  It may be the thunder-voice of God echoing among the hills, or it may be the voice of some fellow-man, translating into human words for us the mysteries of Divine truth and love revealed to him for our sakes.

      Howsoever the Word of God may come into our souls, it is true for ever.  All things that our souls hear and feel and know are Divine, are permanent, eternal things.  When God speaks to our souls by his providence, the message is permanent.  The revelation of redemption is permanent.  Everything that pleads in us for duty is eternal, because it bears on the culture of character. …

      In Dr. Bushnell’s life is the following passage, found penciled by him on a stray sheet of paper.  Referring to the time of his infancy, when he “came out of this rough battle with winds, winters, and wickedness,” he says, “My God and my good mother both heard the cry, and went to the task of strengthening me, and comforting me together, and were able ere long to get a smile upon my face. … Long years ago she vanished; but God stays by me still, embraces me in my grey hairs as tenderly and carefully as she did in my infancy, and gives to me, as my joy and the principal glory of my life, that he lets me know him, and helps me with real confidence to call him my Father.”

 

The Pulpit Commentary Isaiah II p. 92, Isaiah 40:6-8, (R. Tuck)

 

Gold Nugget 181

The Temporary and The Eternal

 

http://www.goldnugget.posterous.com

Gold Nugget 180 - A Man in His Resolve

Click here to download:
Malachi 31.doc (24 KB)
(download)

      The imitative faculty of man is more influential than we are wont to think.  Everybody is disposed to make models.  And all persons are materially helped by having high models of virtue in their spheres.  Every individual has a sphere of influence.  Within that sphere his example is an active power.  We are all ideals to some one.  Then “what manner of persons ought we to be?” …

      To see a man who can stand fast to righteousness actually strengthens the decision and resolve of others.  In it is the mastery of the tempter’s lie that we cannot hope to be good.  Our wills are weakened by the fear that goodness is unattainable, and it is of no use to try to be good.  Every steadfast man proves that man can will the good and do it, and that God stands by such a man in his resolve.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Malachi p. 31, Malachi 1:6, (R. Tuck)

 

Gold Nugget 180

A Man in His Resolve

 

http://www.goldnugget.posterous.com

Gold Nugget 179 - Better Than Our Fathers?

Click here to download:
Zephaniah 10-11.doc (25 KB)
(download)

      There is a close relationship between fathers and children.  Physically, mentally, and even morally, we are to a large degree what others have made us. … And as we have been influenced by the past, so we shall influence the future.  Our children not only receive a certain impress from their birth, but are moulded for good or evil by the teaching and example of their parents, and by the environment of their daily life. …

      Suppose you take the young.  They side with the present.  The world is all before them.  They are eager for the strife.  “Yearning for the large excitement that the coming years would yield.”  But in any case, our judgment is liable to be affected by circumstances.  Our own state, the love of society, the spirit of the age, influence us largely.

      Are we better than our fathers?  There is no question but we ought to be.  Progress is the law.  We have the higher advantages.  The great thoughts and the great deeds of others should inspire us.  We are the “heirs of all the ages.”  In some respects we are certainly better.  As to food, clothing, habitations, means of education, political and social rights, intercourse with other nations, and so forth, there has been an immense advance.  But what availeth this, if morally and spiritually we stand, not higher, but lower than our fathers? …

      Individually we are bound to strive after a better life, and thus we can best influence society.  There may be much in our past that is bad; but it is past; and let us take hope.  If there are sins, they are forgiven.  If there are bad habits, they have been broken off.  If there are failures, they have been retrieved.  We can look on.  Stirred with a holy ambition, sustained by precious promises, animated by noble examples, we can press on to the brighter and better days to come.  Our standard should be, not the conventional standard of the Church or the day, but the perfect law of Christ.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Zechariah p. 10-11, Zechariah 1:1-6, (W. Forsyth)

See also:  Elijah, I Kings 19:4, Matthew 5:20-48

 

Gold Nugget 179

Better Than Our Fathers?

 

http://www.goldnugget.posterous.com

Gold Nugget 178 - Prevailing Indifference

Click here to download:
Zephaniah 8-9.doc (25 KB)
(download)

      The backslider may remember the joys he has forfeited, and, by the sacred memories of the past, which even his estrangement cannot obliterate, may be constrained to return unto the Lord.  But in proportion as a man is callous and indifferent to the claims of God, he places himself outside the circle within which holy and gracious influences operate.  Less fear need be cherished of the pernicious influence of the skepticism of the age than of the fatality attendant upon the spirit of indifferentism to God and his claims which so widely prevails. …

      Is it not so that our very familiarity with anything is likely to lead us in a sense to be somewhat indifferent to it?  A walk may appear long, and may be long; but take it frequently, and the distance will appear to lessen, and in time it will cease to affect you.  View constantly the scenery of some charming dale, and however much of quiet enjoyment you will get out of it perpetually if you are a lover of natural beauty, yet you will no be so enthusiastic as a stranger who gazes upon it for the first time.  And much of the prevailing indifference concerning God and his truth may be traced to this cause. …

      You neglect to insure your property, and perchance a fire breaks out and destroys it, and you find yourself thrown back for years to come; or you neglect your health and fail to heed the first symptoms of disease, and it may end in the disease gaining too firm a hold for it ever to be eradicated; and so spiritual and eternal honour may be forfeited, not willfully, but through indifference and unconcern. …

 

                        “There is a tide in the affairs of men,

                          Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune

                          Omitted, all the voyage of their life

                          Is bound in shallows and in miseries.”

      And it is so that there is a tide in the spiritual affairs of men.  Human feelings, sentiments, desires, ebb and flow like the sea; and there are seasons in which this tide sets towards piety; and such a season, if only improved, “is the accepted time,” “the day of salvation.”

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Zephaniah p. 8-9, Zephaniah 1:6, (S. D. Hillman)

 

Gold Nugget 178

Prevailing Indifference

 

http://www.goldnugget.posterous.com

Gold Nugget 177 - The Heart of Stone

Click here to download:
Habakkuk 22.doc (24 KB)
(download)

      All unregenerate men are selfish.  Men are everywhere preying on men; and, alas! often those who most lament the universal selfishness are the most selfish.  Like the ravenous birds which seem to bewail the sheep when dying, they are ready to pick out their eyes when their opportunity comes.  “Where every man is for himself,” says an old author, “the devil will have all.”

      This selfishness is the heart of stone in humanity, which must be exchanged for a heart of flesh, or the man will be damned.  What but the gospel can effect this change?  Oh that those who call themselves Christians would cherish and exemplify that disinterestedness which alone gives title to the name!

      “I would so live,” said Seneca, “as if I knew I had received my being only for the benefit of others.” 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Habakkuk p. 22, Habakkuk 1:14-17, (D. Thomas)

 

Gold Nugget 177

The Heart of Stone

 

http://www.goldnugget.posterous.com

 

Gold Nugget 176 - Seeking Higher Ground

Click here to download:
Johah 43.doc (25 KB)
(download)

      The following fact, recorded in the “Biblical Treasury,’ is worthy of note as an illustration:

      “A traveler who was pursuing his journey on the Scotch coast, was thoughtlessly induced to take the road by the sands as the most agreeable.  This road, which was safe only at low tides, lay on the beach, between the sea and the lofty cliffs which bound the coast.  Pleased with the view of the inrolling waves on the one hand and the abrupt and precipitous rocks on the other, he loitered on the way, unmindful of the sea which was gradually encroaching upon the intervening sands.

      A man, observing from the lofty cliffs the danger he was incurring, benevolently descended, and arresting his attention by a loud halloa, warned him not to proceed. ‘If you pass this spot, you will lose you last chance of escape.  The tides are rising.  They have already covered the road you have passed, and they are near the foot of the cliffs before you; and by this ascent alone you can escape.’

      The traveler disregarded the warning.  He felt sure he could make the turn in the coast in good time; and, leaving his volunteer guide, he went more rapidly on his way.  Soon, however, he discovered the real danger of his position.  His onward journey was arrested by the sea; he turned in haste, but to his amazement he found that the rising waters had cut off his retreat.  He looked up to the cliffs; but they were inaccessible.  The waters were already at his feet.  He sought higher ground, but was soon driven off.  His last refuge was a projecting rock; but the relentless waters rose higher and higher; they reached him; they rose to his neck; he uttered a despairing shriek for help, but no help was near, as he had neglected his last opportunity for escape.  The sea closed over.  It was the closing in upon him of the night of death.”

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Jonah p. 43, Jonah 1:6, (D. Thomas)

 

Gold Nugget 176

Seeking Higher Ground

 

http://www.goldnugget.posterous.com

Gold Nugget 175 - The Principle of the Cross

Click here to download:
Johah 17-18.doc (27 KB)
(download)

      The world is sometimes surprised and puzzled by a voluntary confession of murder.  The self-accused criminal has been hitherto undetected and secure.  People may have had their suspicions, and drawn their inferences, but it was impossible to trace the crime home.  Yet at last, when investigation had been given up, and the very memory of the crime died out, the murderer comes of his own accord, confesses his crime, and delivers himself up to justice.  And, the wonder and puzzlement of shallow people not-withstanding, that act is perfectly logical.  The anomaly is not that he has delivered himself up at last, but that he did not do it at the first.

      There is an instinctive sense of justice in a man, that recognizes the unfitness of a sinner going scot-free.  He feels that sin produces a moral derangement which cannot continue, and which it takes punishment to readjust.  He feels at war with the nature of things until this has been done.  He thinks if he had once endured the penalty the balance of things would be restored, and a foundation for future peace be laid.   And he actually finds it so.  The very fact of telling out his guilt has already lightened the load, and there is a new restfulness in the thought that now he is going to make some amends.  It is to this principle that the doctrine of the cross appeals.

      In Christ crucified the demand of our nature for punishment proportioned to our sin is met.  We see our transgressions avenged on him, in him our penal responsibilities met, and our full amends made.  Our faith in Christ is, in one aspect, our instinctive clutching at the peace of the punished minus the preliminary pain.  The same principle disarms and softens chastisement.  Humility feels it is deserved.  Intelligence sees it is necessary.  And godly sorrow for sin welcomes it as a key to the dwelling of peace from which transgression had strayed. …

      A man sins in his youth against God, and others, and his own body.  By the grace of the Spirit he is brought in a little to repentance and the higher life.  Is, therefore, his wrong-doing undone?  By no means.  In some physical ailment, in some raked-up imputation, in some injured fellow-creature, it rises before him when his hair is white.  And he is surprised at this.  He thought that, after repentance and pardon, his sin was done with for ever.  But it is not so.  Sin once done cannot be undone.  It leaves its mark on the sinner – in mind, or body, or estate, or social relations, but leaves it inevitably somewhere.  The wood from which a nail has been drawn can never be as if the nail had not been driven.  The nail-hole is there, and there remains, do what we will. … Not till law natural and moral has had its amends, and all injured interest been recouped, can escape for the law-breaker come. …

      Mercy touches a bad heart and breaks it, a cold heart and warms it, a closed mouth and opens it.  That is its normal, and ought to be its actual, effect on you.  Your mercies have been neither few nor small.  They supply a basis for the inspired appeal, “We beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God,” … They supply an impulse more than adequate to bring you to the kingdom.  If you have resisted them, what will persuade you?  The resources of grace have been well-nigh expended.  God’s time off striving has almost run out.  Strive to enter while you see the gate ajar, or the clang of its closing bolts may be the knell of you immortal soul.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Jonah p.17-18, Jonah 1:11-12, (J. E. Henry)

See also:  Psalms 89:30-33)

 

Gold Nugget 175

The Principle of the Cross

 

http://www.goldnugget.posterous.com