Gold Nugget 164 - The Way of Darkness

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      The way of sin is in all respects one of darkness.  It is dark in its origin, dark in its course, and dark in its end. …

      Most criminals are deplorably ignorant.  Vicious men are generally men whose mental cultivation has been neglected by others or by themselves.  Ignorance of Divine truth leads the way to wickedness.  The first preventative of evil is the religious teaching of children. …

      When a man gives way to sin he sacrifices his higher to his lower self.  He sinks from the sunlit mountain heights of purity to gloomy depths of baser living. …

      Sin distorts a man’s thoughts, blinds his eyes to the highest truth, raises a mist about the old landmarks of right and wrong, and plunges the soul into a stupor of moral indifference.  From neglecting to follow the light of God, the sinner comes at last to be incapable of beholding it. …

      God’s Spirit will not always strive with the sons of men.  There comes a time when God leaves the self-abandoned soul to its own devices.  Then, indeed, a darkness as of winter midnight sinks upon the lost being. …                        

      The one way of escape is backwards – to retrace his steps in humble penitence.  Then, indeed, he may see the welcome light of his Father’s home, and even earlier the Light of the world, the Saviour who has come out into the darkness to lead him back to God.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs p. 97, Proverbs 4:19, (W. F. Adeney)

See also Genesis 6:3

 

Gold Nugget 164

The Way of Darkness

 

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Gold Nugget 163 - Some Master-Passion

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      There lies … at the spring of every man’s conduct, be he a public character or only a private individual, some master-passion to which all other feelings and aims are subordinate, and it is good for each one, and necessary to the true interpreter of life, to find out what it is. 

      In public affairs there can be no question that in very many instances it is not fear of God, not pure patriotism, not regard for human interest as such, but open or disguised love of pre-eminence which furnishes the main incentive to conduct.  The form of conduct may be such as would result from the action of higher and better feelings, but that is simply the result of policy. 

      This feeling, which finds its scope in the rivalry and struggle of individuals, is but the social form of the generic feeling known as selfishness, or, as modern theologians term it, selfism, which in its essence is sin and probably the metaphysical explanation of sin itself, and which, prefer to belong to an inferior order of things.  To please self, men will even consent to lose moral rank, and become foes rather than friends of the Righteous One. …

      It becomes us now and then to search into the mainsprings of life, to ascertain what really are the principles or feelings which dominate our conduct. … The secret of every life is to be found in the heart, and hence the need constantly of the prayer that God would create within us a clean heart.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, II Samuel p.75-77, II Samuel 3:12-21, (C. Chapman)

 

Gold Nugget 163

Some Master-Passion

 

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Gold Nugget 162 - The Right Thing To Do

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      In morals, prompt action is homage to righteousness.  A known duty and scope for its performance should never be deferred.  As air, in obedience to the law of its action, rushes in to fill a vacuum, so does a just mind at once seize opportunity for doing what is clearly know to be right.  If men linger and hesitate to do specific acts discerned to be just, it is clear evidence that they are defective in righteousness of principle.  Their inner life of pro tanto alien to that of God.  This explains, in one way at least, how it is that some men do not at once turn from positive sins and surrender themselves to Christ.  They see what is the right thing to do, but defer it till some great scheme of their life is completed. …

      A good conscience is a moral tonic. … Evil men are awed by pronounced goodness, and the halting are won to allegiance.  History presents many instances of influence augmented by conscientious attention to duties in private and domestic life.  The habit formed by such carefulness to do the right thing in minor matters gives momentum to the action of the will when it is called to act in reference to great questions in the face of strong opposition.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, II Samuel p.74, II Samuel 3:12-21, (C. Chapman)

 

Gold Nugget 162

The Right Thing To Do

 

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Gold Nugget 161 - Ungodly Sons

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      Many a good man is bowed down even to the grave by the irreligion of sons of whom better things had been expected.  No more painful condition can a father be in than when he scarcely dare name his children to those who ask after their welfare.  The world and the Church look on with wonder and pain at the spectacle of vile children issuing from a pious home. … Such an event is contrary to all just expectations. …

      The power of early habit, which plays so important a part in the formation of character, is likely to be on the side of godliness where religious influences early operate.  The causes which account for the ungodliness of the children of the pious are diverse, intricate, and partly inscrutable.  A broad margin must be left for the mysterious action of a free being, even under the most favourable conditions.  It is not possible to trace the lines and say where parental responsibility ends and the responsibility of the child begin. …

      Children learn more of religion from what they observe in parents than by any other means.  The life they see lived is their daily book of lessons.  If it is selfish, hard, formal, worldly, no amount of verbal teaching or professed interest will avail.  There is no surer encouragement for a child to despise all religion than a discovery of insincerity in the professions of a parent.  Real character comes into clear view in the home, and those who, under influence of public considerations, restrain themselves in the world, but give freedom to unhallowed feelings in private, cannot wonder if children do not covet the piety they witness. …

      Associations out of the home circle, both in youth and early manhood, exercise much influence over character. … Most young people receive more from companions than they impart.  The good of home may be largely neutralized by the tone of society outside the home. … If, in any instance, there are in operation causes, either singly or combined, of the nature referred to, it is inevitable that a home, though in some degree pious, should be distressed by the presence of ungodly sons.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, I Samuel p.41-43, I Samuel 2:11-19, (C. Chapman)

 

Gold Nugget 161

Ungodly Sons

 

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Gold Nugget 160 - A Mother's Teachings

“A mother’s teachings have a marvelous vitality in them; there is a strange living power in that good seed which is sown by a mother’s hand in her child’s heart in the early dawn of the child’s being, when a mother’s hand in her child’s heart in the early dawn of the child’s being, when they two are alone together, and the mother’s soul gushes forth on her child, and the child listens to his mother as a God; and there is a deathless potency in a mother’s prayers and tears for those whom she had borne which only God can estimate” (W. L. Alexander).

 

The Pulpit Commentary, I Samuel p.24, I Samuel 1:19-28, (B. Dale)

 

Gold Nugget 160

A Mother’s Teachings

 

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Gold Nugget 159 - Nature - A Mirror

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      Nature is a mirror of which God is seen, and all the processes of nature are samples of God’s works in us.  Such analogies we ought to expect, because all the forces in nature are the projections of God’s thoughts and purposes.  The same God who works so mightily in the material world works with mighty grace in us.  If, in the visible creation, he gives life to dead matter, so does he likewise give life to dead souls. 

      The sun which rides in royal majesty across the heavens is a picture of the great Sun of Righteousness, who arises on the soul “with healing in his beams.”  As the coming of spring makes a new epoch in the material world, so the coming of Immanuel is the opening of a new era to the soul.  It is nothing short of a spiritual evolution.  We pass out of winter into spring; out of death into life.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, The Song of Solomon p. 65, The Song of Solomon 1:8-13, (J. D. Davies)

 

Gold Nugget 159

Nature – A Mirror

Gold Nugget 158 - Utter Oblivion?

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      In the first eleven verses of this chapter we have revealed to us the despair and weariness which fell upon the soul of him whose splendour and wisdom raised him above all the men of his time, and made him wonder of all succeeding ages.  Life seemed to him the emptiest and poorest thing possible “a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanished away.”

      He might have used the words of the modern philosopher Amiel, “To appear and to vanish, - there is the biography of all individuals, whatever may be the length of the cycle of existence which they describe; and the drama of the universe is nothing more.  All life is the shadow of a smoke-wreath, a gesture in the empty air, a hieroglyphic traced for an instant in the sand and effaced a moment afterwards by a breath of wind, an air-bubble expanding and vanishing on the surface of the great river of being – an appearance, a vanity, a nothing. But this nothing is, however, the symbol of universal being, and this passing bubble is the epitome of the history of the world.”          It seemed to him that life yielded no permanent results, that it was insufferably monotonous, and that it was destined to end in utter oblivion.

      His melancholy is not a form of mental disease, but the result of the exhaustion of his energies and powers in the attempt to find satisfaction for the soul’s cravings.  And in melancholy of this kind philosophers have found a proof of the dignity of human nature.  “Man’s unhappiness,” says one of them “comes of his greatness:  it is because there is an infinite in him, which, with all his cunning, he cannot quite bury under the finite …

      The idea of the unprofitableness of human labor expressed by Solomon is calculated, if carried to far, to put an end to all healthy and strenuous effort to use the powers and gifts God has bestowed upon us, and lead to indifference and despair.  If no adequate result can be secured, if all that remains after prolonged exertion is only a sense of weariness and disappointment, why should we labour at all?

      But such thoughts are dishonoring to God and degrading to ourselves.  He has not sent us into the world to spend our labour in vain, to be overcome with the consciousness of our poverty and weakness.  There are ways in which we can glorify him and serve our generation; and he has promised to bless our endeavours, and supply that wherein we come short.  Every sincere and unselfish effort we make to help the weak, to relieve the suffering, to teach the ignorant, to diminish the misery that meets us on every hand, and to advance the happiness of our fellows, is made fruitful by his blessing.  Something positive and of enduring value may be secured in this way … We may so use the goods, the talents, now committed to our charge, as to create for ourselves friends, who will receive us into everlasting habitations when the days of our stewardship are over, and this visible, tangible world fades away from us. …

      In contrast with the Preacher’s desponding, despairing words about the fruitlessness of life, its monotony and its brevity, we may set the hopeful, triumphant utterance of Christ’s apostle:  “The time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith;  henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day;  and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ecclesiastes p. 24-28, Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, (J. Willcock)

 

Gold Nugget 158

Utter Oblivion?

Gold Nugget 157 - The Deathless Influence

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      We do not like to think that the time is coming when we shall be wholly forgotten; we should like to live on in the memory of men, especially in the memory of the wise and good.  We shrink from the idea of being entirely forgotten; we do not care to think that the hour will come when the mention of our name will not awaken the slightest interest in any human circle.  There is something exceeding attractive in the thought of fame, and repelling in that of oblivion. …

      It is indeed true that “the memory of the just is blessed,” and that they who have lived well, loved faithfully, wrought nobly, suffered meekly, striven bravely, will be remembered and honoured after death; they may be long, even very long, remembered and revered.

      There are just a few men whose names and histories will go down the long stream of time, of whom the very last generation will speak and learn.  But the vast majority of men will soon be forgotten.  Their names may be inscribed on memorial-stones, but in a very few years none will care to read them; the eye that lights upon them will glance from them with indifference; there will be “no remembrance” of them.  The world will take its way, will do its work and find its pleasure, regardless altogether of the fact that these men once trod its surface and now lie beneath it. …

      We may be always living in the deathless influence our faithful lives exerted and handed down.  For good influences do never die; they are scattered and lost sight of, but they are not extinguished; they live on in human hearts and lives from generation to generation.

      We shall be loved and honoured otherwhere.  What if we be forgotten here upon the earth?  Are there not other parts of the kingdom of God?  And is there not one where God will have found for us a sphere, and in the minds and hearts of those who will be our friends and fellow-labourers there we shall hold our place, honouring and honoured, loving and beloved?

 

Gold Nugget 157

The Deathless Influence

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ecclesiastes p.23, Ecclesiastes 1: 11, (W. Clarkson)

 

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Gold Nugget 156 - Satisfaction

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      There are many obvious sources of satisfaction.  Life has many pleasures, and many happy activities, and much coveted treasure.  Human affection, congenial employment, the pursuit of knowledge, “the joys of contest,” the excitements of the field of sport, the attainment of ambition, etc.

      All of them together fail to satisfy the heart.  The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing, nor the tongue with tasting, nor the hand with handling, nor the mind with investigating and discovering.  All the streams of temporal and worldly pleasure run into the sea of the human soul, but they do no fill it.  The heart, on whatsoever it feeds, is still a-hungered, is still athirst.  It may seem surprising that when so much that was craved has been possessed and enjoyed, that when so many things have ministered to the mind, there should still be heart-ache, unrest, spiritual disquietude, the painful …

      The profundity, the commonness and constancy of this complaint, is a very baffling and perplexing problem.  We surely ought to be satisfied, but we are not.  The unillumined mind cannot explain it, the uninspired tongue “cannot utter it.”  What is the solution? …

      Its solution is not far to see; it is found in the truth so finely uttered by Augustine, “O God, thou hast made us for thyself, and our heart findeth no rest until it resteth in thee.”  The human spirit, created in God’s image, constituted to possess his own spiritual likeness, formed for truth and righteousness, intended to spend its noble and ever-unfolding powers in the high service of the Divine, - is it likely that such a one as this, that can be so much, that can know so much, that can love the best and highest, that can aspire to the loftiest and the purest well-being, can be satisfied with the love that is human, with the knowledge that is earthly, with the treasure that is material and transient?

      The marvel is, and the pity is, that man, with such powers within him and with such a destiny before him, can sometimes sink so low as to be filled and satisfied with the husks of earth, unfilled with the bread of heaven.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ecclesiastes p.22, Ecclesiastes 1:7-8, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 156

Satisfaction

 

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Gold Nugget 155 - The Wise Man

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      The wise man may not always come to a just conclusion as to belief and practice, but the fool will usually be misled by his folly. …

      The wise man is gradually disillusioned regarding himself.  He may start in life with the persuasion of his power commanding superiority; but his confidence is perhaps by slow degrees undermined, and he may end by forming a habit of self-distrust.

      At the same time, the wise man becomes painfully conscious that he does not deserve the reputation which he enjoys among his fellow-men.  But, above all, he feels that his wisdom is folly in the presence of the all-wise God, to whose omniscience all things are clear, and from whose judgment there is no appeal.

      Hence the wise man acquires the most valuable lesson of modesty and humility – qualities which give a crowning grace to true wisdom.  The wise man assuredly would not exchange with the fool, but he would fain be wiser than he is; and he cherishes the conviction that whatever light illumines him is but a ray from the central and eternal Sun.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ecclesiastes p.20, Ecclesiastes 1:12-18, (J. R. Thomson)

 

Gold Nugget 155

The Wise Man

 

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