Gold Nugget 354 - Widows, Parents and Children

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      “Honour widows.”  Let them have a special place in reverent care and common prayer, as they have a lot which is so isolated and so hard – a battle so keen and terrible, and as they find that the slender means are so soon spent.  The lonely hours are full of pictures of the past:  as wives they were the first to be thought of and provided for – the best was for them, the first place at the table and in the heart was theirs; so honour them, for thy are sensitive to slight and indifference. …

      An ungrateful child, who never thinks on a parent’s past self-denial in its education, a parent’s watchfulness in times of weakness and sickness, a parent’s interest in its pleasure and counsels as to its companionships, and a parent’s long interest in all that relates to mind and heart, - is an impious child.  Quick, clever, it may be flattered by new friends, and favoured by fortune with pleasant looks, and yet be selfish, indifferent, and forgetful.

      Remember, young friends, that you have to requite your parents, not with the patronage of commercial payment when you succeed, but with the requital of the tender inquiry, the watchful love, the jealous service, the gracious respect. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, I Timothy 110, I Timothy 5:3, (W. M. Statham)

 

Gold Nugget 354

Widows, Parents and Children

 

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Gold Nugget 353 - Inheriting the Universe

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      A man may overcome others by violence, overcome difficulties in his secular pursuits, overcome the forces of nature so as to make them subserve his will, and yet not overcome himself. 

      Self-conquest includes at least two things – the subordination of the body to the soul, and the subordination of the soul to sympathy with God.  The soul may rule the body, but it may rule it for selfish, or skeptical, or ambitious ends.  Such a rule would not be self-conquest.  The soul should be ruled by sympathy with God, sympathy with his character, his operation his plans.  In these two things self-conquest consists, and such conquests require battling – resolute, brave, persistent, invincible battling. …

      The millions of men who live in the universe do not inherit it; it inherits, possesses them, uses them, plays with them, absorbs them.  But the man who has conquered himself comes under the control of sympathy with the great God – inherits all things – gets the universe.

      He gets the whole of it; he penetrates its meaning, appropriates its truths, admires its beauties, drinks in its poetry, revels in its spirit, exults in its God, and says, “The Lord is my Portion.”  He gets the whole of it to enjoy forever. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Revelation p. 538, Revelation 21:5-8, (D. Thomas)

 

Gold Nugget 353

Inheriting the Universe

 

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Gold Nugget 352 - In the Name of Religion

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      Evil never appears in its own true character.  Dishonesty wears the aspect of rectitude; falsehood speaks the language of truth; selfishness has the voice of benevolence; profanity robes itself in the garb of sanctity; the “prince of darkness” appears like an angel of light. 

      The most monstrous deeds that have been perpetrated under these heavens have been done in the name of religion.  The Alexanders and the Caesars of this world have fought their sanguinary battles, and reared their empires upon slaughtered nations in the name of religion.  The popes of the world have erected their iron throne upon the soul of Christendom in the name of religion.  The persecutors of the world have invented their Inquisitions, built their dungeons, and kindled their fires in the name of religion.   Ah me! The Son of God himself was put to death in the name of religion. …

      Many have been and are not, some have risen and have passed away, others in their course have come and will disappear.  This has been the history of moral evil in our world.  Many of the arguments that have sustained it from time to time have appeared as settled and imposing as mountains, as gorgeous and majestic as kings; but “mountains have fallen and come to nought,” and even imperial bulwarks have disappeared as visions of the night.  So it has been, so it is, and so it must be to the end.

      Moral error has no lasting foundation.  Its superstructures are not houses on the rocks, but on shifting sands.  Whether it appears in the form of thrones, governments, churches, colleges, markets, it stands nowhere but on volcanic hills.  They may be clad in loveliest verdure and enriched with the choicest fruit, but fires lie beneath them which will rive them to pieces and engulf in ruin all that have stood and flourished above. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Revelations p. 428-430, Revelations 17:7-13, (D. Thomas)

 

Gold Nugget 352

In the Name of Religion

 

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Gold Nugget 351 - Crawling Craftiness

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      Until conventional Christianity is banished from the land, and the Christianity of the sermon on the mount is restored, the moral condition of the human race will sink lower and lower …

      Everywhere men trade in the gospel, and the trade is carried on with all the passionate avarice, foul fallacies, and flatulent puffings that characterize the market.  Pulpits are regarded as means of livelihood, chapels and churches are become shops, ecclesiastics are the grandees of the world, robed in costly attire and rolling in chariots of opulence.  Institutions abound and multiply, baptized with the name of Christian, where men of feeble talent but crawling craftiness creep into offices of salary and show.

      I protest that conventional Christianity is not the Christianity of Christ – a Devine entity that “seeketh not her own.”  The Christ exhibited in the creeds and institutions is as unlike the Christ of the Gospels, as the mechanical force of the manufacturing machine, throwing off commodities for trade, is unlike that vital energy in nature that clothes the landscape with verdure and fills the earth and the water with countless tribes of life.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Revelation p. 427, Revelation 17:1-7, (R. Green)

 

Gold Nugget 351

Crawling Craftiness

     

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Gold Nugget 350 - To Prick a Wind-bag

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      It is difficult to answer folly.  Whichever way we take it, we are in danger of blundering.  If we meet it on its own ground we may share its shame.  If we treat it soberly we may only incur ridicule.  Both courses are beset with difficulties.  This is especially true of folly in the biblical sense of the word, according to which it is not so much stupidity as willful perverseness, light-hearted but depraved.  It is not easy to find any point of attachment through which to influence this condition of soul. …

      We are not to give back foolish answers to foolish questions, nor to attempt to attract the frivolous by frivolous methods.  But, on the other hand, it is not wise, nor is it right, to treat foolish people as though they were serious and thoughtful.  Thus if questions are raised in mockery, it is our duty to treat them accordingly, and therefore to refuse to answer them.

      If it is evident that an inquirer is not in earnest it is not for his good nor for the honour of truth to meet him with the language which would be suitable for an honest truth-seeker.  To do so would be to cast pearls before swine.  It may be well to meet folly with gravity and to rebuke frivolity.  This is answering a fool according to his folly, in the right way; for it is taking note of his folly and directing attention to it.

      Mockery should not go unchastised.  Insincerity ought to be exposed.  Pompous folly is sometimes best met by ridicule.  Thus Erasmus castigated hypocritical pretences to piety with the keen rapier of his wit.  It is wise to prick a wind-bag.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs p. 504-505, Proverbs 26:4, 5 (W. F. Adeney)

 

Gold Nugget 350

To Prick a Wind-bag

 

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Gold Nugget 349 - A Lopsided Mind

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      Those who are perpetually partaking of one particular kind of religious nourishment, however good that may be in its way and measure, ore over-eating of one kind of food, and they will suffer for doing.  They will not grow as God meant them to grow, proportionately and symmetrically; there will be a lopsidedness about their mind or character which is very noticeable and very ugly.  Whether it be the contemplative, or the poetical, or the speculative, or the evangelistic, or the didactic, or any other side of truth in which men surfeit their souls, they make a mistake in so doing.

      They should understand that Divine truth has many sides and aspects, that there is not any one of them that constitutes wisdom or is sufficient to fill the mind and build up the character of a man.  Our wisdom is to partake of the various dishes which are on the table our bountiful Host has provided for us; for as the body is the better for eating of many “meats,” so is the soul all the stringer and all the fairer for partaking in moderation of all the various sources of spiritual nutrition that are within its reach.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs p. 496, Proverbs 25:16, 17, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 349

A Lopsided Mind

 

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Gold Nugget 348 - Actuality of Moral Cowardice

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      Wisdom is too high for the indolent to climb to, for the sensual and earthly to admire and love. … From such no good counsel ever comes.  They are dumb “in the gate,” on every important occasion, when help, light, sympathy, are needed.  … “Self’s the man,” says a Dutch proverb.  But those who would gain all for self end by losing self and all. …

      It is a short step from groveling egotism to active malice.  Extract the root of self-seeking out of any dispute, private or public, in Church or state, and the other differences may soon be adjusted.  To make mischief is a diabolic instinct, and it certainly springs up in the mind void of healthy occupation and of interest for the true, beautiful, and good; for the mind’s principle is motion, and it cannot cease to act. …

      When busy invention and meditation are at work in the mid of the wicked and the fool, nothing good is produced.  Still more is it the case with the scoffer.  In him the ripened and practiced powers of the mind are brought into alliance with evil desire. … The man who can sneer at goodness, or hold what is by common consent good and beautiful in contempt, is already an outcast from his kind, and need not complain if he is treated as such. …

      The man who makes duty his polar star, and trusts in God, can actually do more when things seem to be against him than when all is in his favour.  Moral cowardice is closely connected with the root-sin of unbelief.  Indulgence in it impoverishes and weakens the soul, so that the man ends by being actually unable to do what once he only fancied himself unable to do.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs p. 469-470, Proverbs 24:7-10, (E. Johnson)

 

Gold Nugget 348

Actuality of Moral Cowardice

 

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Gold Nugget 347 - The Greatness of Our Wrath

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      It seems to have be universally felt that a “brother offended” is very hard indeed “to be won.”  It is more easy to effect a reconciliation between strangers than between those united by ties of blood.  Hence a family feud is usually a very long as well as a very sad one.  This does not seem to be a local or a national peculiarity.  What Solomon wrote in his land and age might be written by an English or continental moralist to-day.  It is human. …

      It is an aggravated difficulty, inasmuch as the bitterness aroused is more intense.  For always in proportion to the fullness of our love is the greatness of our wrath.  Anger is love reversed.  Whom we love the most we are in danger of disliking the most; it is against his own wife that the madman first turns his hand. …

      We shrink with greatest sensitiveness from humbling ourselves before our kindred.  Reconciliation usually means apology, and apology means a measure of humiliation.  And we do not like to humble our hearts before one with whom we have had and may have so much to do. We are inclined to “stand upon the order of our going;” each thinks the other should make the first move; the younger thinks the elder should because he is the elder, and the older the younger because he is the younger. …

      Our duty … is clearly this: … To make a determined effort, after earnest thought and prayer, to master the difficulty we find in our heart, and make the first overture to the offended brother.  So shall we win a really noble victory over ourselves; so shall we gain the warm approval of the Prince of peace.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs 362-363, Proverbs 18:19, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 347

The Greatness of Our Wrath

 

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Gold Nugget 346 - Well-Spring of True Life

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      The words which come from the mouth of wisdom are “as deep waters.”  How shallow is much, if not most, that is spoken in our hearing!  It strikes no deeper than “the hour’s event,” than the mere gilding of our life; it only extends to the circumstances or to the conventionalities of life; it deals with tastes and customs, with regulation and proprieties; it goes no further than pecuniary or social expectations; it lies upon the surface and does not touch “the deep heart and reality of things.” 

      But the wisdom of the wise strikes deep; it goes down into the character; it touches first principles; it has to do with the sources and springs of human action; it concerns itself with the intrinsically true, the really beautiful, the solidly and permanently good. …

      The utterances of men who are not truly wise are lacking in this.  They can only repeat what they have learned; they have to consult their “authorities’ in order to know what they should say; they have to labour and strive in order to express themselves. 

      Not so the truly wise.  Their words come from them as water from a well-spring; their speech is the simple, natural, unconstrained outflow of their soul; they speak from the heart, not from the book.  Their spirit is full of Divine wisdom; they “have understanding”; they have knowledge, insight, love of the truth; they “cannot but speak” the truth that they have learned of God, the things they have heard and seen.  And the spontaneity of their utterance is one real element in their eloquence and their influence. ..

      They are “as a flowing brook.”  As water that is not pent up like a reservoir, but flows on through the thirsty land, communicating moisture and thus ministering to life and growth, so the words of the wise are continually flowing; they spread from heart to heart, from land to land, from age to age.  And as they flow they minister to the life and the growth of men; they communicate those living truths which enlighten the mind, which soften and change the heart, which transform and ennoble the life.  Their career is never closed, for from soul to soul, from lip to lip, from life to life, wisdom passes on in its blessed, unbroken course.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs 359-360, Proverbs 18:4, (W. Clarkson)

See also:  Proverbs 17:24

 

Gold Nugget 346

The Well-Spring of True Life

 

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Gold Nugget 345 - True Marriage

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      In a true marriage a man’s wife is his best friend.  Fellowship of soul makes the union more than a mere contract of external relationship.  Now, this fellowship is greatly needed for solace amid the cares of life, and strength to face its difficulties.  The wife is able to give it to her husband, and the husband to the wife, as no persons in the outer circle of social relationship can hope to offer it. …

      Woman is degraded when she is treated as a toy of idle hours, to amuse in the drawing-room, but not to take her share in the serious concerns of life.  No true woman would desire so idle a position. …

      The wife is not the counterpart of the husband, but the complement.  Human nature is completed in the union of the two.  Therefore it is not the part of women to imitate men, nor is inferiority to be assigned to women because they differ from men.  The rich, full, perfect human life is attained by the blending of differences. …

      There must be mutual confidence between husband and wife if the marriage is to be one of true and lasting blessedness.  The Oriental cruelty of imprisonment in the harem, and the Western cruelty of degradation in domestic drudgery, are both fatal to the idea of marriage.  Whatever be their position in the social scale, it is possible for husbands and wives to share one another’s interest and enlarge one another’s lives by conceding the fullest mutual confidence. …             Selfishness is fatal to marriage.  Love must learn to give, to suffer, to endure.  The happiness is most complete when each seeks it chiefly for the other. …

      The true marriage must be ratified in heaven.  Its happiness may be wrecked on so many hidden rocks that it is not safe to venture on to the unknown sea without the assurance that God is guiding the voyage. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs 356, Proverbs 18:22, (W. F. Adeney)

 

Gold Nugget 345

True Marriage

 

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