Gold Nugget 154 - Newness

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      When we examine human nature, we find there a deep-seated interest in change.  What is called “relativity,” the passage from one experience to another, is indeed an essential condition of mental life.  And transition from one mode of excitement to another is a constituent of a pleasurable life.  Thus, in the case of the intellectual man, the aim is to know and to study ever new things; whilst in the case of the man of energy and activity, the impulse is to view new scenes, to undertake new enterprises.  It is this principle in our nature which accounts for the efforts men put forth, and for the sacrifices to which men willingly submit. …

      A little reflection will convince us that continuous novelty is unattainable.  The laws of nature remain the same, and their sameness produces effects which with familiarity produce the effect of monotony.  The conditions of human life do not materially vary from year to year, from age to age.  And human nature posses certain constant factors, in virtue of which men’s employments and pleasures, hopes, sufferings, and fears remain substantially as they were in former times.  The chief exception to this rule arises from the fact that what is old to one generation is for a while new to its successor.

      But it must not be forgotten that the individual, if favourably circumstanced, soon exhaust the variety of human experience.  The voluptuary offers a reward to him who can invent a new pleasure.  The hero weeps for want of a new world to conquer.  The child of fortune experiences in the satisfaction of his wants, and even his caprices, the ennui which is a proof that he has followed the round of occupations and pleasures until all have been exhausted.  Thus the most favoured are in some cases the least happy, and the most ready to join the complaint, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!” …

      If it is impossible that the Book of Ecclesiastes should be written over again in the Christian ages, the reason is that the fuller and sublime revelations made by the Son of God incarnate have enriched human thought and life beyond all calculation. … None can exhaust the treasures of knowledge and wisdom, the possibilities of consecrated service and spiritual progress, distinctive of the Christian dispensation.

      Christianity is emphatically a religion of newness.  It is itself the new covenant; its choicest gift to man is the new heart; it summons the disciples of the Redeemer to newness of life; it puts in their mouth a new song; whilst it opens up the future the glorious prospect of new heavens and a new earth.  God comes in the Person of his Son to this sin-stricken humanity, and his assurance and promise is this:  “Behold, I make all things new.”  And in fulfillment of this assurance, the Church of Christ rejoices in the experience expressed in the declaration, “Old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ecclesiastes p.19, Ecclesiastes 1:9-10, (J. R. Thomson)

 

Gold Nugget 154

Newness

 

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Gold Nugget 153 - Not Bounded by Time or Space

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      The sun runs his daily course through the heavens, to return on the next morning to fulfill the same circuit.  The wind veers about from one quarter to another, and quits one direction only in a few hours, or a few days, or at most a few weeks, to resume it.  The rivers flow on in an unceasing current, and find their way into the sea, which … yields in evaporation its tribute to the clouds, whence the water-springs are in due time replenished.  Modern science has vastly enlarged our view of similar processes throughout all of the universe which is accessible to our observation. … There is in the world nothing immovable and unchangeable.  It is believed that not an atom is at rest. …

      Not only is there a want, an absence, of stability, of rest; there is no apparent advance and improvement.  Things move from their places only to return to them; their motion is rather in a circle than in a straight line. … And modern science does not in this matter effect a radical change in our beliefs.  Evolutionists teach us that rhythm is the ultimate law of the universe.  Evolution is followed by involution, or dissipation.  A planet or system evolves until it reaches its climax, and thenceforward its course is reversed, until it is resolved into the elements of which it was primevally composed.  In the presence of such speculation the intellect reels, dizzy and powerless. …

      If there be evidence of reason in the universe, if nature is the expression of mind, the vehicle by which the Creator-Spirit communicates with the created spirits he has fashioned in his own likeness, then there is at least the suggestion of what is deeper and more significant than the cycles of phenomena.  There is rest for the intelligence in such a conviction as that of the theist, who rises above the utterances to the Being who utters forth his mind and will in the world which he has made, and which he rules by laws that are the expression of his own reason. …

      The fuller revelation with which we have been favoured enlightens us with respect to the intentions of Eternal Wisdom and Love.  Our Saviour has founded upon earth a kingdom which cannot be moved.  And the figures which he himself has employed to set forth its progress are an assurance that it is not bounded by time or space; that it shall grow until its dimensions and beneficence exceed all human expectations, and satisfy the heart of the Divine Redeemer himself.  Each faithful Christian, however feeble and however lowly, may work in his Master’s cause with the assurance that his service shall be not only acceptable, but effective.  Better shall be the end than the beginning.  The seed shall give rise to a tree of whose fruit all nations shall taste, and beneath whose shadow humanity itself shall find both shelter and repose.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ecclesiastes p. 17, Ecclesiastes 1:5-7, (J. R. Thomson)

 

Gold Nugget 153

Not Bounded by Time or Space

 

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Gold Nugget 152 - A Higher Purpose

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      Labour is the destiny of man, and is in most cases the indispensable condition of not only life itself, but of those things for the sake of which many men value life – wealth, comfort, pleasure, and fame.  Yet in how many cases doe toil fail to secure the objects for the sake of which it is undertaken! … Men toil for years, and when they attain that upon which their hearts were set, disappointment and dissatisfaction take possession of their nature. …

      The brute is content to eat and drink, to sleep, and to follow its several instincts and impulses.  But of man we may say that nothing that he can be and do can give him perfect rest and satisfaction.  It is owing to an innate and noble dissatisfaction that he is ever aiming at something better and higher, and that the narrow range and brief scope of human life cannot content him, cannot furnish him to the very nature of earthly things, which, because they are finite, are incapable of satisfying such a nature as that described.  They may and do answer a high purpose when their true import is discerned – when they are recognized as symbolical and significant of what is greater than themselves. …

      There is in human life a continuity only discerned by the reflecting and the pious.  The obvious striking fact is the disconnection of the generations.  But as evolution reveals a physical continuity, philosophy finds an intellectual and moral continuity in our race.

      The purpose of God is unfolded to successive generations of men.  The modern study of the philosophy of history has brought this face prominently and effectively before the attention of the scholarly and thoughtful.  We see this continuity and progress in the order of revelation; but all history is, in a sacred sense, a revelation of the Eternal and Unchanging.

      It is well that what we do we should do deliberately and seriously, not for our own good merely, but for mankind, and in the truest sense for God.  This will lend “profit” to the unprofitable.

      This state is not all.  Life explains school; summer explains spring; and so eternity shall explain the disappointments, perplexities, and anomalies of time.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ecclesiastes p.16, Ecclesiastes 1:3-4, (J. R. Thomson)

 

Gold Nugget 152

A Higher Purpose

 

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Gold Nugget 151 - Vanity?

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      The student of physical science looks at facts; it is his duty to observe and to classify facts; their arrangement under certain relations, as of likeness and of sequence, is his business, in the discharge of which he renders a great service to mankind.  But thought is as necessary as observation.

      A higher explanation than physical science can give is imperatively required by human nature.  We are constrained, not only to observe that a thing is, but also to ask why it is.  Here metaphysics and theology come in to complete the work which science has begun.

      Human life is composed not only of movements, which can be scientifically accounted for, but of actions, of which the explanation is hyperphysical, is spiritual.  Similarly with the world at large, and with human life and history.  The facts are open to observation; knowledge accumulates from age to age; as experience widens, grander classifications are made.  Still there is a craving for explanation.

      Why, we ask are things as they are?  It is the answer to this question which distinguishes the pessimist from the theist.  The wise, the enlightened, the religious, seek a spiritual and moral significance in the universe – material and psychical.  In their view, if things, as they are and have been, be regarded by themselves, apart from a Divine reason working in and through them, they are emptiness and vanity.  On the other hand, if they be regarded in the light of that Divine reason, which is order, righteousness, and love, they are suggestive of what is very different indeed from vanity.  To the thoughtful and reverent mind, apart from God, all is vanity; seen in the light of God, nothing is vanity.

      Both these seeming contradictions are true, and they are reconciled in a higher affirmation and unity.  Look at the world in the light of sentience and the logical understanding, and it is vanity.  Look at it in the light of reason, and it is the expression of Divine wisdom and Divine goodness.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ecclesiastes p. 15, Ecclesiastes 1:2, (J. R. Thomson)

 

Gold Nugget 151

Vanity?

 

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Gold Nugget 150 - "Evil, Be Thou My Good"

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      We often insist upon the fact that goodness is the secret of true happiness, and invite men to rejoice in the service of God; but we are here reminded of an opposite kind of joy which some find in the course of wickedness. …

      The miser loves his money on its own account through previous associations with the ideas of what it might purchase.  So the criminal may come to delight in his crimes because the profit he gets out of them has cast a glamour over the ugly deeds themselves. …

      There is a sense of freedom in sin.  There is more room to range at large over the broad way than in the narrow path of righteousness.  The sinner has burst the shackles of law, and he revels in the licence of self-will. …

      Sin gives an opportunity for the exercise of power.  Much evil is done simply for the sake of effect, in order that the doer of it may find himself producing results.  But it is easier to do harm than to do good.  Therefore a man turns to evil for the larger realization of his power.  So wicked children delight in picking flies to pieces. …

      At first it is painful to sin.  The poor, weak soul gives way to temptation, but the very act of sinning is accompanied with a sense of uneasiness and humiliation.

      A further stage is reached when sin is committed with indifference.  This is indeed a state of moral degradation, for conscience is now practically dead, and the sinner is as willing to have his pleasure by lawless means as in an innocent manner.

      The lowest depth is reached when there is a positive pleasure in doing wrong.  Evil is then chosen on its own account, and not as the disagreeable or the indifferent means for reaching some ulterior end.  When two courses are open, the bad one is deliberately selected as the more pleasant on its own account.  A malignant joy lights up the countenance of the abandoned sinner at the mere prospect of some new villainy.  This is Satanic wickedness.  The abandoned sinner can now exclaim with Milton’s Satan –

 

                                                “Evil, be thou my good!”…

 

      It will not endure.  The pleasures of sin do but endure for a season.  The sweet morsels soon turn to dust and ashes.  After the wild orgie there follows a deep depression or dread despair, or at best a sense of listless weariness.  The appetite is soon exhausted.  New and more piquant forms of wickedness must be invented to stimulate the jaded palate.  At length the awful consequences must come, and anguish of soul follow the delights of sin when God’s judgment takes effect. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs p. 45, Proverbs 2:14, (W. F. Adeney)

 

Gold Nugget 150

“Evil, Be Thou My Good”

 

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Gold Nugget 149 - The Great Security

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      All knowledge tends in some degree to preserve from evil.  Light makes for goodness.  Both are from God, and therefore they must harmonize.  Secular knowledge is morally useful.  A very large proportion of the criminals in our jails can neither read nor write.  Ignorant of wiser courses, they are led aside to the lowest pursuits.  Sound intelligence and good information introduce men at least to the social conscience.

      But the Schoolmaster is not the saviour of the world.  Higher wisdom is needed to be the successful antidote to sin – that wisdom which, in the Book of Proverbs, is almost synonymous with religion – the knowledge of God and his laws, and the practical discernment of the application of this knowledge to conduct.  We must know God’s will and the way of the Christian life, the beauty of holiness and how to attain it, if we are to have a good safeguard against sin.  Christ, the Wisdom of God, dwelling in our hearts, is the great security against temptation.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs p.44, Proverbs 2:10-11, (W. F. Adeney)

 

Gold Nugget 149

The Great Security

 

Gold Nugget 148 - A Very Fair Promise?

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      How many human lives are nothing better than failures!  How many souls are there that “make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience”!  Over how many of the children of men do the wise and the holy mourn, as those who might have done well and wrought good, but who have turned aside to folly, guilt, and ruin!

      As a rule, these have gone astray in their younger days.  Temptation assailed them when they were comparatively unarmed, attacked them when least prepared to resist, and they were overcome. …

      Companionship is dear to the young, and is very powerful over it.  Its heart is open, trustful, responsive.  It rejoices with a keen delight in the confidences of friendship.  And when one whose advances have been received, and who has been welcomed as a congenial companion, says, “Come,” it is hard for friendship to refuse; this more especially when the solicitation comes form him who has a strong will or an amiable and fascinating disposition.  The heart of youth is very powerfully drawn, sometimes to good, but too often to evil, by the chard of early friendship.

      Sin makes a very fair promise, but its word is false, its coin is counterfeit.  It professes disinterestedness but it is utterly selfish at heart.  It affects to be able to hide all traces and elude all evil consequences of its acts, but it cannot:  the blood which its sheds will cry to Heaven for retribution.  It offers gain and satisfaction, but it constantly fails to secure its immediate object, and it never brings real and lasting joy to the soul. … Sin keeps its snares well out of view; it proceeds with cruel cunning; it shows the present pleasure, and hides the coming shame, and so it secures its victims. …

      Sin is suicidal; the young who are yielding themselves to a life of ungodliness and guilt may well be the object of the most fervent anxiety, of the most tender, tearful pity of the wise.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs p.30-31, Proverbs 1:10-19, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 148

A Very Fair Promise?

 

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Gold Nugget 147 - Filial Piety

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      Youth, especially young manhood, is apt to think that there is something unbecoming, ungraceful if not disgraceful, in rendering filial obedience; it is apt to imagine that there is something admirable in breaking away, in even early years from parental guidance, and establishing an independence of judgment and action.  In truth, there is nothing more offensive, nothing morally uglier, than such premature assertiveness.

      On the other hand, nothing is more comely, nothing more attractive, nothing more intrinsically beautiful, than filial devotedness.  It has all the best elements of spiritual excellency:  humility, a lowly view of ourselves; responsiveness to strong and tender love; the recognition of real worth, of the claims of age and wisdom; cheerful acceptance of the ordination of nature, and acquiescence in the will of God.

      Those who illustrate the duty of filial piety live in the admiration of the wise, and walk in the sunshine of the smile of the Supreme.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs p.30, Proverbs 1:8-9, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 147

Filial Piety

 

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Gold Nugget 146 - Earthly Sorrows

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      Divine privileges do not save us from earthly sorrows.  Love cannot hold the beloved for ever.  The pair who love much may yet be parted.  This awful grief of widowhood may invade the happiest home.  They who are never divided in love may yet be thrust asunder by “the dark divorce of death.” …

      Sudden death seems to be best for the victim, for it spares all the agonies of a protracted illness, and all the horrors of the act of dying.  But to those who are left it comes as an awful blow!  Still, as such events do occur in the most affectionate and most peaceful households, we should do well to be prepared for them.  The sweet summer garden of to-day may be a waste, howling wilderness to-morrow. …

      Though the mourner is silent, God is not, and his voice whispers peace to all his trusting sons and daughters in their sorrow.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ezekiel II p.37, Ezekiel 1:16, (W. F. Adeney)

 

Gold Nugget 146

Earthly Sorrows

 

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Gold Nugget 145 - Like Rust

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      Though the vessel be taken out of the damp atmosphere which first corroded it, it does not become bright.  The rust is still on it. 

      We may try to make amends in the future, but by such means we cannot get rid of the guilt and the consequences of the past. … It is not like dust that lies loosely on the surface; it has cut into our nature like rust.  Our feeble self-discipline is ineffectual for removing so close-clinging an evil. … “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin”.  Such sacrifices can be but symbols at the best. …

      As “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,” Christ not only brings pardon, he produces purity.  His mighty arm scours the rust off the soul. 

      This was a weary task for Christ.  Even he found it no easy work.  It required the humiliation of Bethlehem, the agony of Gethsemane, and the death of Calvary.  Christ toiled, suffered, and grew weary unto death in the awful task.  Yet he persevered to the end.

      Christ invites us to abandon our useless, weary task and come to him for cleansing.  It is especially to those who labour and are heaven laden with sin that he gives his great invitation.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ezekiel II p.36, Ezekiel 24:12, (W. F. Adeney)

See also Hebrews 10:4 and Matthew 11:28-30

 

Gold Nugget 145

Like Rust

 

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