Gold Nugget 374 - Justice and Mercy

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       The Bible is pre-eminently an anthropomorphitic book, that is, a book revealing God, not directly in his absolute glory, nor through the affections, thoughts, and conduct of angels, but through man – through man’s emotions, modes of thought, and actions.  It sometimes brings God before us in the character of a Husband, that we may appreciate his fidelity and tenderness; sometimes in the character of a Warrior, that we may appreciate his invincibility and the victories that attend his procedure; sometimes as a Monarch, that we may appreciate his wealth, splendour, and authority; sometimes as a Father, that we may appreciate the reality, depth, and solicitude of his love.

      It is in this last character, the character of a father, that these versus present him to our notice.  No human character, of course, can give a full or perfect revelation of him – all fall infinitely short.  The brightest human representation of him is to his glory less than the dimmest glow-worm to the central fires of the universe.  And yet it is only through man that we can get any clear or impressive idea of him.  It is only through human love, human faithfulness, human justice, that we can gain any conception of the love, faithfulness, and justice of the Eternal. …

      Here, then, in the heart of this great Father is justice and mercy.  What is justice?  It is that sentiment that demands that every one should have his due, that virtue should be rewarded, that vice should be punished.  What is mercy?  A disposition to overlook injuries and to treat beings better than they deserve.  These two must never be regarded as elements essentially distinct; they are branches from the same root, streams from the same fountain.  Both are but modifications of love.  Justice is but love standing up sternly against the wrong; mercy is but love bending in tenderness over the helpless and the suffering. …

      There is a father who has a son, not only disobedient, but unloving and malignantly hostile; he spurns his father’s authority, and pursues a course of conduct antagonistic to his father’s will and interest.  Often has the father reproved him with love and entreated him to reform, but he has grown worse and worse, and has become incorrigible.  The wickedness of the son rouses the sentiment of justice in the heart of the father, and the father says, “I will give you up, I will shut my door against you, I will disown you, and send you as a vagabond on the world; never more shall you cross the threshold of my home, never more will I speak to you.”  This is justice; but then the thought that he is his son rouses the other sentiment, love, and here is the struggle: “How shall I give thee up?”

      Such experience as this is, alas! too common in human life.  Such a struggle between mercy and justice is going on now in the heart of many a father … The passage gives us to understand there is something like this in the heart of the infinite Father.  Justice crying out, “Damn!” mercy crying out, “Save!”  This is wonderful.  I cannot understand it; it transcends my conception; and yet this passage suggests the fact.  … “Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.  I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim.”

      Mercy has triumphed over justice in the perpetuation of the race. … Mercy triumphed.  Mercy has triumphed over justice in the experience of every living man … he lives on because mercy has triumphed.

      Mercy has triumphed over justice in the redemptive mission of Christ.  In relation to the whole family tree, justice said, “Cut it down, for it cumbereth the ground;” but mercy interposed, and said, “Spare it a little longer.”

      How comes it to pass that mercy thus triumphs?  Here is the answer.  “For I am God, and not man.”  Had I been a man it would have been otherwise.  “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.”

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Hosea p. 356-357, Hosea 11:8-9, (D. Thomas)

 

Gold Nugget 374

Justice and Mercy

 

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Gold Nugget 373 - Considerate Persuasion

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      God’s love is persuasive morally, not mechanically.  He deals with us as a rational being, treating us neither as machines nor yet as “dumb driven cattle.”  The lower animal must sometimes be drawn, or forced with a degree of violence; but God does not draw men in this way.

      In drawing them he uses neither hard cords nor iron bands.  He draws us by rational means, addressing himself to our intelligence and appealing to our affections.  Thus Paul says, “I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.”  He draws us with gentleness, and not by force.  He employs the mildest means and the tenderest motives.  He draws us in a manner suitable to the dignity of our nature.

      Made in the image of God, originally created in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and still possessed of great susceptibilities, strong affections, warm emotions, and tender sensibilities, we are treated by God with a considerate regard to the high qualities with which he has endowed us.  Accordingly he draws us with human cords and Divine love.  The instrumentality employed is human, and the love that employs it is Divine. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Hosea p. 337-338, Hosea 11:1-4, (J. J. Given)

 

Gold Nugget 373

Considerate Persuasion

 

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Gold Nugget 372 - Fools and Madmen

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      There have been religious ministers in all ages, and there are still in connection even with Christianity, who are foolish and “mad”.

      There are men of weak minds.  There are men in the ministry utterly incapable, not only of taking a harmonious view of truth, but even of forming a clear and complete conception of any great principle.  We say not a word in disparagement of men of small cerebral power and feeble understanding.  Heaven made them what they are; but they were never intended for the ministry.  In the ministry they do enormous mischief.  Their silly sentimentalities, their crude notions, their inane conceptions, bring the pulpit into contempt.  They are “fools”.

      There are men of irrational theologies.  There are men who, though not always naturally weak-minded, nevertheless propound theological dogmas which are utterly incongruous with human reason, and therefore unbiblical and un-Divine.  The doctrines that multitudes of men are predestined to eternal misery, that Christ’s death procured the love of God, that all that men require to make them good and happy for ever is to believe in something that took place eighteen hundred years ago; - such dogmas as these are often propounded in pulpits, and they are utterly foolish; they strike against the common sense of humanity, and have no foundation in the teaching of him who is the “Wisdom of God.” …

      There are men of silly rituals.  The crossings, the kneelings, the bowings, the robings, the upholstering, the grimacings, which constitute much of the ministry of a large number of what are called Protestant ministers, justify the people in calling them fools and madmen.  The outside world is constantly pointing to the pulpit, and saying, “The prophet is a fool, and the spiritual man is mad.”  Alas! That there should be any cause for it!

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Hosea p. 293, Hosea 9:7, (D. Thomas)

* Note:  The Pulpit Commentaries were written in the late 1800s, thus the reference to “eighteen hundred years ago.”

 

Gold Nugget 372

Fools and Madmen

 

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Gold Nugget 371 - Quiet Strength

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      “In quietness … shall be your strength.”

      It is a common fallacy that noise and strength are closely allied.  On the contrary, it is the quiet and even the silent things which are the strong ones.  The thunder startles or appalls, but it effects nothing; gunpowder deafens the ear, but it enriches no one; tempestuous rhetoric excites to momentary force or feeling, but it adds nothing to character. 

      It is the silent forces of gravitation and electricity acting for ages without being known to exist; it is the soft sunshine and the still rains of heaven, it is the quiet words of the calm teacher finding their way to the mind and working conviction and conversion there; - it is in these things, and in things like these, that real power resides.  The quiet strength of a gentle mother’s purity and love, of a faithful father’s warning, of an honoured teacher’s counsel and example, of an earnest Church’s testimony and work; - these are the God-given agencies by which the world is to be won to righteousness and truth.

      Noisy, spasmodic, irregular outburst may be auxiliaries, but they are only that.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Isaiah I p. 503, Isaiah 30:15, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 371

Quiet Strength

 

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Gold Nugget 370 - The Prospect of Death

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      By nature man has an absolute horror of death.  Self-preservation is the first law of his being.  He will suffer anything, he will do anything, to avoid death.  Death is in his eyes a fierce monster, cruel, relentless, detestable.  To live may be hard, grievous, wretched, scarcely tolerable; but to die is wholly intolerable.  It is to exchange the bright pure light of day for absolute darkness, or at best for a dim, dull, murky region in which souls wander without aim or hope  It is to be cut off from all that is known, customary, intelligible, and to be thrown into a world unknown, unfamiliar, full of terrors.  It is to lose all energy, all vigour, all robustness, all sense of power. … Better, in they eyes of the natural man, to live on earth, even as slave or hireling, the hardest of all possible earthly lives, than to hold the kingship of the world below and rule over the entire realm of shadows.     

      In the vigour of his youth and early manhood the natural man forgets death, views it as so distant that the fear of it scarcely affects him sensibly; but let the shadow be suddenly cast across his path, and he starts from it with a cry of terror.  He can, indeed, meet it without blenching in the battle-field, when his blood is hot, and to the last he does not know whether he will slay his foe, or his foe him; but if he has to die, he accepts his death as a miserable necessity.  It is hateful to him to die; it is still more hateful to be cut off in his prime, while he is still strong, vigorous, lusty.

      It is not till old age comes on, and his arm grows weak, and his eye dim, that he can look on death without loathing.  Then, perhaps, he may accept the necessity without protest, feeling that actual death can be little worse than the death-in-life whereto he has come. …

      The whole relation of death to life and of life to death became changed by the revelation made to man in Christ.  Then for the first time were “life and immortality” fully “brought to light.”  Then first it appeared that earth was a mere sojourning-place for those who were here as “strangers and pilgrims” upon it, having “no continuing city.”  Then first were the joys of heaven painted in glowing hues, and men told that “eye had not seen, nor ear heard, neither had it entered into the heart of man [to conceive], the things which God had prepared for those that love him”. 

      No sensuous Paradise of earthly joys was depicted, no “Castle of Indolence,” no mere haven of rest, but man’s true home, the place and state for which he was created, when is his citizenship, where he will be reunited to those whom in life he loved, where his nature will be perfected, and where, above all, he will “be with Christ”, will “see God”, and “know even as he is known”.

      The prospect of death thus, to the true Christian, lost all its terrors. … Natural shrinking there may be, for “the flesh is weak;” but thousands have triumphed over it, have sought martyrdom, have gone gladly to their deaths, and preferred to die.  Even when there is no such exaltation of feeling, death is contemplated with calmness, as a passage to a better world – a world where there is no sorrow nor sighing, where there is no sin, “where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest”. 

      Ultimately death from natural disease or accident is to the Christian no sign of God’s displeasure, but rather an indication of the contrary.  God takes to himself those whom he recognizes as fit to die … He takes them in love, not in wrath, to join the company of “the spirits of just mend made perfect, to be among his “jewels”.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, II Kings p. 410-412, II Kings 20: 1-3, (G. Rawlinson)

 

Gold Nugget 370

The Prospect of Death

 

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Gold Nugget 369 - Hope Against Hope

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      We suppose that education does everything, and we look to see the children of godly parents grow up godly, and are apt, without any inquiry into the circumstances, to suppose that every ill-conducted young man must have been badly brought up.  The dictum of the wise man, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”, may be quoted in justification of such views, and is often quoted, as if it were a rule without any exception.  But no proverb is of this character.  All are general rules, which admit of exceptions …

      “Instruction,” education, training, though sometimes of no avail, have, in the majority of cases, very great weight.  Even when they seem to have failed, it often happens that their results remain deep buried in the soul, and in the end show themselves, and are of sufficient force to snatch many a brand from the burning.  The parent must not despair because he does not see much fruit of his labours at once.  He has to do his best, to “liberate his own soul,” to see that, if his child be lost, it is not owing to his neglect.  He has to “hope against hope,” to persevere with his efforts, to be unwearied in his prayers, to do the utmost that lies in his power to lead his children into the right path.  A parent ought never to despair.  While there is life there is hope. … The mercy of God is unsearchable, unfathomable.

      The influences which go to form each man’s character are countless, and with hundreds of them a parent has nothing to do.  Again, there is “the personal equation.”  There do seem to be some who, “as soon as they are born, go astray and speak lies.”  It is among the mysteries of man’s existence here on earth that natural dispositions should so greatly vary.  No parent of many children but knows, by certain experience, that this is so.  One child gives no trouble, and scarcely requires any guidance.  Another is willful, perverse, headstrong, almost devoid of good impulses, and full of inclination to evil.  Parents are answerable for neglect, for unwisdom, above all for bad example; but they need not fear, if they earnestly endeavour to do their duty by their children, that in God’s just judgment the iniquity of their children will be imputed to them.  “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son” …

 

The Pulpit Commentary, II Kings p. 318-319, II Kings 16:1-4, (G. Rawlinson)

See also:  Proverbs 22:6,

 

Gold Nugget 369

Hope Against Hope    

     

Gold Nugget 368 - Needful Destroying Agencies

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      The destroying agencies of nature prepare the way for fresh life.  Geological catastrophes renew the face of the old earth with virgin fields of fertility.  The products of decay are the food of new life; the rotting leaves of autumn nourishing the blooming flowers of spring.

      National revolutions sometimes introduce a better order.  Out of the corruption and disintegration of the Roman empire the separate nationalities of modern Europe sprang into being.

      Religious destructive agencies prepare the way for new religious institutions.  The work of the Hebrew prophets, of Christ and his apostles, - especially St. Paul, - of the leaders of the Reformation, was largely destructive, and only after a certain amount of ruthless breaking up of old revered habits and doctrines was it possible to introduce the good things they were ultimately destined to establish.  We may be too fearful of needful but painful destroying agencies, and by joining the new cloth to the old garment may only increase the final rent.

      Destructive influences in private life are overruled by God’s providence to produce fruitful issues.  Our cherished hope is dashed to the ground; for the moment we are in despair.  But in time out of the grave of the past God makes a purer, nobler hope to spring …

      It is only in strength that we can find true gentleness.  While gentleness makes us great, greatness is necessary to the perfection of gentleness.  Soft weakness is not gentleness.  Self-control, forbearance, quiet work in the midst of difficulty are signs of gentleness, and they all imply great strength of soul. …

      Violent exercises of strength are sometimes required to remove an unsettled, restless condition of things, to establish an equilibrium, and so secure more peace.  Storms clear the air and bring about a more stable calm than that which preceded them.  The troubles of life subdue our passions, rebuke our willfulness, chasten our affections, and thus prepare us to receive the peace of God.

      A healthy exercise of strength is the means of bringing happiness to others.  Sentimental sympathy is of little use.  If we wish to sweeten the lot of the most miserable classes of men, we must be prepared for active measures of improvement.

      In proportion to the violence of earthly trials will be the sweetness of the heavenly rest. 

     

The Pulpit Commentary, Judges p. 158, Judges 14:14, (W. F. Adeney)

 

Gold Nugget 368

Needful Destroying Agencies

 

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Gold Nugget 367 - The First Human Duty

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      The union of two souls in the love God and in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ; the union of two minds in all rational and sober pursuits, whether intellectual, political, or social; the identity of interest; the community of purpose to make the most of what God has given to each for the common stock of happiness; the care of each for the other as the first human duty, and the faithfulness of each to the other in the whole series of actions, from the least to the greatest – this is the ideal of Christian wedlock to which we are led by the failures of the one as well as by the virtues of the other.

      It is sad to think how frequently happy married life is an idea only, and not a reality, from the entire failure on both sides to carry out the conditions upon which happiness depends.  A foolish choice at first, based only upon beauty and vanity, upon wealth and position, upon whim and fancy, without consulting religion, or reason, or true affection, is followed up by independent and selfish action, by each crossing the other’s wishes, by mutual neglect, by mutual reproach, by mutual violation of the spirit of the marriage contract.  There follow in different cases various degrees of unhappiness and disorder according to the various measures of temper, and violence, and self-will, and disregard of solemn vows, and contempt of God’s word, of the parties concerned.

      In one home it is the constant jarring of antagonistic wills, and unloving tempers; in another it is the coldness of distant and reproachful spirits; the constant sense of injury from unfilled duties; in others, the man having failed to find in his wife the kindness, the solace, the help, which he expected, seeks to indemnify himself in the flatteries and cajoleries of other women; and the wife, wounded in her pride, and hurt in her affections, looks for balm and for revenge in the attentions of the profligate, and the admiration of the licentious.  In both cases true manhood and womanhood are marred and crushed, and the whole life is distorted, and like a building in ruins.

      Public duties in the cabinet and in the field may indeed be performed by men of gifted minds and transcendent powers, in spite of their aberrations from moral rectitude; but delicate organisation of affections and faculties which were given to make up the charm and beauty of private and domestic life cannot live in an atmosphere of vice; and when there is a breakdown of the love and obedience due to God; there is a breakdown also of the dignity and happiness of man.

      The careful study by married people, in a spirit of true Christian philosophy, of what is necessary to make wedlock the blessing God intended it to be when he “made the woman and brought her unto the man,” and the careful daily endeavour, in the spirit of saintly obedience, to perform each his or her part in the mutual contract, in spite of difficulties and hindrances, would be a large contribution to human happiness, and to the beauty of the Church of God.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Judges p. 156, Judges 14: 10-20, (A. C. Hervey)

 

Gold Nugget 367 

The First Human Duty

 

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Gold Nugget 366 - Last Words

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      We feel that there is a value in these last words of David, not simply by what an examination of their strict sense may yield, but because they are his last words.  All last words are weighty in comparison with others; for they close the record, or end the intercourse, or give, as in dying words, the matured expression of one’s long experience. 

      The last words of Jacob, of Moses, of Paul, and above all of Christ, are very rich in instruction by virtue of being last.  The last words of children, parents, friends who sleep in Jesus, are most precious; they are treasured forever.  There are special reasons for attaching weight to them.

      They are reflective, and touched by the influence of the eternal world.  Men are earnest, sincere, uttering only what a review of the past and a prospect of the future will warrant.

      The mind is usually calm.  The passions of life are gone, the strife of tongues is no more heard, the spirit is open to the still, small voice.

      Worldly influences are in abeyance.  The pomps and fashions of this world are reduced to their proper position.  There is scope for things eternal to get their legitimate hold on the thoughts, and so to form aright the conceptions of duty. …

      The affections are most pure and tender.  The heart goes out freely toward the Saviour and toward men.  Silver and gold and the perishable things of active life are now as dross, and words flow forth steeped in love and tender concern for others, and delight in God’s great salvation.  Dying saints preach powerful sermons.  Their memory is blessed.  The words are rich in all that is good and helpful.  

 

The Pulpit Commentary, II Samuel p. 574, II Samuel 23:1-7, (C. Chapman)

 

Gold Nugget 366

Last Words

 

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Gold Nugget 365 - As a Mother Loves

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      Love, in this world, always brings grief, through making the sorrows of others our own, as well as rendering us sensitive to their treatment of ourselves.  The more deep and tender the love, so much the more poignant the grief.  And, as a mother loves most, she is most susceptible of sorrow.  She is often pained by her children when they do not think it; and every stroke inflicted on them strikes her to the heart. …

      She loves because it is her nature – freely, spontaneously, making no calculation, asking for no return.  Not without hope, indeed, that she may one day be rewarded by her children’s welfare and affection; but far from regulating her love by this; rather she lavishes it most on those from whom she cannot expect recompense – the weakest, the most sickly, those most likely to die; yea, as Rizpah, those who are dead.  “Death might bereave her of them, not them or her love” (Bishop Hall). …

      Prompting to and sustaining in arduous labours, long and wearisome watchings, self-inflicted privations, for the good of her children.  For the sake of their education and advancement, she cheerfully gives up, not only luxuries, but comforts, and even necessaries.  And when they have gone beyond her reach into the unseen world, their mortal remains are dear to her, and she will spare nothing that may honour them or prevent dishonour to them. …

      A mother’s love is lifelong.  “A mother’s truth keeps constant youth.”  It endures through years of toil, hardship, and suffering; when feebly responded to, or quite unappreciated, or requited by neglect, hardness, or cruel wrong.  When son or daughter is utterly debased and degraded, the mother clings and hopes; when cast off by all the world, she does not abandon them. …

      And although usually the light of a mother’s love shines chiefly in the privacy of home, and she neither asks nor expects applause or record, it is impossible that she can act a noble part without exercising an influence for good which may widen and ramify far more than she could have imagined, and may secure her an honour she never desired.  And if no others, “her children arise up, and called her blessed”, and tell of her character and works to their children. …

      If human love be so deep and strong, what must be the love of God, from whom it springs, and of which it is one great sign and proof?  All the love of all parents, of all human beings, flows from this original Fountain.  The Fountain is greater than the streams. …

      How strong and constant should be the love of children for their mothers!  Prompting them to all that would gratify and honour them and promote their happiness; to self-denial and self-sacrifice for their good, should they live to need the help of their children; and to patience and forbearance towards them, should they, under the infirmities of old age, make demands on these virtues.         “Despise not thy mother when she is old”.

      How base the conduct of many children (especially of many sons) to their mothers!  Selfishly wasting their resources, imposing on their credulity, abusing their indulgence, disgracing their name, breaking their hearts.  “A foolish [wicked] son is the heaviness of his mother”.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, II Samuel p.527-528, II Samuel 21:10, (G. Wood)

See also:  Proverbs 31:28, Proverbs 10:1

 

Gold Nugget 365

As a Mother Loves

 

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