Gold Nugget 334 - Not a Sugared Morsel

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      It must have been an interesting day in the Church of Ephesus when it was known that a pastoral letter would be read in the public assembly from the beloved and venerable apostle whose labours had been attended with such a blessing.  Whether the meeting was held in the early morning or late in the evening, every effort would be made by every Christian to be present, and even as they were walking towards the place of meeting, a certain briskness of manner and eagerness of expression would show that something beyond the common was in expectation.

      Those who had to pass the great temple of Diana would cast no lingering look behind, nor think of the contrast between that magnificent shrine of idolatry and the very humble building where the true God was worshipped, by whom all things were made.  Even the children would not linger to peep at the gorgeous glory of the temple, for their parents would have told them that at their meeting a letter was going to be read from the great apostle, now unable to come to them because wicked men had imprisoned him, but still remembering them all, as his letter would show.

      Remembering the interest which, like his Master, the apostle had taken in the young, it would be an interesting question whether the letter to be read would not contain some passage for them, and, if it did, what would be its tenor?  Perhaps the most attentive of them would be beginning to feel weary as five-sixths of the letter was read, but no word yet for them.  But at last the message comes; and when it comes it appears that it is not only about them, but addressed to them; the apostle looks them full in the face and says “Children.”  And when the children’s morsel is brought out, it is perhaps not quite what they expected.

      It is not a sugared morsel, nor is it particularly affectionate in its terms.  It is not a nice little story or a poetical allegory, carrying them to the realms of dreamland; it is just a simple, practical requirement – “Children, obey your parents in the Lord”. …

      Long life among the Jews was a token of the Divine favour, and it seems to have been an emblem of the life to come.  We need not count in all cases on a literal fulfillment of the Jewish promise; but we may rest assured that a spirit of honour to our parents tends to make our earthly lot better and brighter, and will have some recognition likewise in the life that is to come. …

      The prayer of the hundred and forty-fourth psalm is never out of date:  “That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; our daughters as cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a palace. … Happy is that people that is in such a case; yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord.”

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Ephesians p. 261-262, Ephesians 6:1-4, (W. G. Blaikie)

 

Gold Nugget 334

Not a Sugared Morsel

 

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Gold Nugget 333 - A Rare Spiritual Union

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      There should be no secret between husband and wife.  Surely it is a mistake for a husband to hide his trouble from his wife out of a desire to spare her pain, and equally so for the wife to do the same in regard to her husband. …

      Each must be prepared to meet with faults in the other.  But each would be less provoked by those faults if the husband would think rather of what his wife has to endure in him than of what he may be annoyed at in her, and if the wife would reflect in the say way on her own failings. …

      It is sad to see how rarely the Christian idea of marriage is realized; but little better can be expected till men and women are aiming throughout at a higher life than what is now prevalent in society – a life of spiritual union with Christ.

The Pulpit Commentary, Ephesians p. 255, Ephesians 5: 22-23, (W. F. Adeney)

Gold Nugget 333

A Rare Spiritual Union

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Gold Nugget 332 - A Broken Life

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      It is melancholy to see a life rendered abortive from the first, but it is much more mournful to witness the failure of a life that began in promise and made good way toward success.  All the hopes and toils and sacrifices of the past are wasted.  How painful to be so near the goal and yet to give up the race! To sink within sight of the haven! 

      Such a broken life, like a day opening in a cheerful dawn and passing through a bright noon to a dark and stormy night, is of all lives most deplorable.  “ye did run well; who did hinder you” – what pathos there is in these words!  Christ wept over Jerusalem sadder tears than the ruin of Sodom could call forth.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Galatians 290, Galatians 5:7, (W. F. Adeney)

 

Gold Nugget 332

A Broken Life

 

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Gold Nugget 331 - A Distracted Manifold

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      As Ullmann has beautifully said “… True unity in man is possible only when that which is God-like in him – that is, the mind – acquiesces in the Divine order of life, and governs the whole being in conformity therewith.  But when he has once severed himself from the true centre of his being, that is, from God, then also does that element of his being, his mind, which is akin to God, and which was intended to be the connecting and all-deciding centre of his personal life, lose its central and dominant position; he ceases to be lord of himself and of his own nature; the various powers which make up his complex nature begin to carry on, each for itself, an independent existence; the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit wages a fruitless war with the flesh; sinful desire becomes dominant, and while the man seems to be in the enjoyment of all imaginable liberty, he has lost the only true liberty and has become a slave to himself … He is the dependent of self; and being thus the slave of self, he is also the slave of pleasure, and of all those objects which it requires for its satisfaction”  Man becomes thus a distracted manifold, instead of a God-centred unity. …

      Christ is not only the unifying element in Church life, but in the individual life as well.  He fuses all the distracted faculties into a glorious unity, and makes man his own master instead of his own slave.  Hence to quote the writer last referred to, “Christianity alone among all religions maintains a constant antagonism to the special tendency which controls the nature of its followers.” …

      Religion is not to be regarded as a negative thing, contenting itself with antagonisms, but has positive and most important fruits.  It is not a system of severe repressions, but a system full of stimulus towards a better and fuller life. … Thus man is restored to something like his true and better self.  The gospel of Christ is not a weary round of prohibitions, but is a glorious system of positive attainment, in a Divine life, which is loving, joyful, peaceful, and humane to its deepest depths.  

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Galatians p. 278-279, Galatians 5:16-26, (R. M. Edgar)

 

Gold Nugget 332

A Distracted Manifold

 

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Gold Nugget 330 - In Some Strange Land

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      God passes us through the fiery trial to purge us of our dross, to consume our earthliness, our selfishness, our grossness, our unbelief.  And in some “strange land,” in some place of spiritual solitude, in conditions under which we are compelled to feel as we never felt before, to learn what we never knew before, to lay to heart what we never realized before, we leave many things behind us which are weights and hindrances, we move on to that which is before us. …

      We may hear the blessed words of him who never ceases to address the generations of men, saying, “Come unto me, and I will give you rest.”  We may learn of that Divine Teacher that whoever comes back from the “far country” of sin, and seeks the heavenly Father’s mercy, shall find the most cordial welcome he could hope to meet, and be taken back at once to all the love and to all the freedom of the Father’s home.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, II Chronicles p. 446, II Chronicles 36:20, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 331

In Some Strange Land

 

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Gold Nugget 329 - The Inestimable Treasure

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      We may be spending our time and strength, we may be exhausting ourselves and endangering our health and life in all kinds of unprofitable occupation, in fruitless labour or in amusement which begins and ends in itself, and all the time may be neglecting that one study or that one habit in the pursuit of which “standeth our eternal life.”

      There are many men in Christian countries who expend their substance upon, and occupy their very life with, horses, or dogs, or guns, who do not afford even a few hours a year to the serious study of the will of God as revealed by his Son and recorded in his Word.  The treasure which cannot be estimated in gold or silver lies untouched, as much buried from sight and use as if it had been hidden in some crypt of the temple.  It may not be our deeds, but our negligences, that we shall most fear to face in the great day of account. …

Here lies one of our great perils.  Familiarity covers the truth of God with its own veil, so that we do not see what we are looking at.  We want to read the words of Jesus Christ, to listen to the story of his great sacrifice, to hearken to his words of gracious invitation, as if we had never met with them before; we want to bring to them all the force of an unclouded intelligence, of an undulled interest.  And so with the warnings as well as with the promises of Scripture. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, II Chronicles p. 419-420, II Chronicles 34:14-28, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 329 The Inestimable Treasure

 

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Gold Nugget 328 - Dig Deep!

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      A man is led to the appearance (if not the reality) of piety and zeal; he worships regularly in the house of the Lord, and takes a prominent part in the activities of the Church; then with more or less of suddenness he declines; he abandons his religious convictions and his moral principles, and stands before society as a spiritual renegade, living to injure and destroy all he had appeared to love and had busied himself to promote. …

      It may be contended that there is in the mind and in the history of man a constant ebb and flow as in the tides of the sea; that when a mental or moral movement has proceeded long and far in one direction, the time has come for a counter-movement in the opposite direction.  But there is no reason, in the nature of things, why we should not move steadily on in the direction of wisdom and virtue.  Such a tendency as this is not properly a law; it is only a generalization from a comparatively small number of particulars. …

      Man is more or less fickle … and some men are seriously so, and others slightly so.  But other men are constant, faithful, loyal to the last.  Man, as man, is under no necessity to change his course, to reverse his direction, to pursue what he has shunned, to pull down what he has built up. …

      When there is nothing more than mere habit, especially when that habit is of the body rather than of the mind, is fleshly rather than spiritual, it is not to be expected that loyalty will last; it is to be expected that the first strong wind of inclination, or of worldly interest, or social pressure, will carry such a one away and bear him withersoever it wills.

      The one great lesson for parents, teachers, pastors, reformers, patriots, is this – dig deep if you would have your house stand.  If you would not see your sons and daughters, your fellow-members or fellow-citizens swept round with the current, facing the wrong goal, exerting their influence for evil instead for good, then do no be content with scattering seed anyhow and anywhere.  Dig the deep furrow, sow the seed well; plant living convictions in the judgment and in the conscience of men.  Get the whole nature on the side of truth and righteousness.

      If the man himself, and not only his external habits, not only his feelings and inclinations – if he himself, through his whole spiritual nature, gives himself to the service of Christ and of man, you need not fear the coming of an adverse tide; you need not fret about the fickleness of our kind; you will witness no painful and pitiable reaction; the path of those you serve will be one of continuous ascent; it will be “the path of the just, shining brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.”

 

The Pulpit Commentary, II Chronicles p. 336, II Chronicles 28:1-4, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 328

Dig Deep

 

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Gold Nugget 327 - The Crown of Prosperity

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      That which touches us in our home affections either stirs within us the deepest and purest joy or awakens the profoundest and most poignant grief.  An unworthy son, a “thankless child,” an heir who is likely to overturn all that we have laboriously built up, will make the very sweetest enjoyments and the fairest earthly possessions to lose all their charm and be of no account to us.

      But such a son as Jotham is to his father the crown of prosperity and the comfort of adversity.  From royal cares the king goes home to find, in conjugal and in filial affection, a contentment and a peace, an exhilaration and a joy, which no glittering gewgaws and no obsequious attentions are able to command.  We do not know how highly Uzziah prized the virtue and the attachment of his son during his earlier and happier years, but we may be well assured that, when the hand of God was upon him, and he was separated from the society of men, he found in Jotham’s regency and in his filial sympathy a priceless mitigation to his loss, an invaluable treasure in his loneliness and his decline.

      Parents may think that their professional or household duties make it impossible for them to afford time for the teaching and training of their children, for the culture of their Christian character; but they ought to know that, whatever their other claims may be, they cannot afford to neglect their parental duty.  If they do neglect it, they will leave undone that which will make them immeasurably poorer than they might become a few years further on. …

      He inherited great things from his father, the king; but from his father, the servant of Jehovah, he gained one that outweighed them all – the influence for good of a godly man.  … It was very largely, indeed, to his father’s example that he owed his own character for piety and purity.  And what is there in the most splendid surroundings, or in the most attractive positions, that is to be compared with that?  They will perish, but that will endure; they will lose their charm, but it will always be precious beyond all price; they are relatively, but that is intrinsically and eternally, valuable.

      We may not have to thank our parents for a fortune or a dowry – it matters little; we may have to than them for a bright and beautiful example – that matters much, indeed everything.  We should give God heartfelt thanks for all the gracious influences which come to us in our home-life, and regard them as of the very best gifts that come from his Divine hand.  We should have it as a sacred and honourable ambition to confirm (and not to destroy) the work of those who went before us.  If we do thus live, our fathers will be living on in us and through us, and if we cannot immortalize their name, we can perpetuate their influence.  We may hope that such filial devotedness will be rewarded by parental rejoicing in those whom we shall leave behind, to whom we shall commit the fruit of our labor. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, II Chronicles p. 326-327, II Chronicles 27: 1,2, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 327

The Crown of Prosperity

 

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Gold Nugget 326 - The Declining Path

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      The young may be habituated to sacred services, and they may be brought up in the practice of good behavior, but if they have not fully and firmly attached themselves to the Divine Lord whose praises they have been singing and shoes will they have been respecting, their piety will not endure.  “Being let go,” being released, as they must be in time, from the human restraints that hold them to the right course, they follow the bend of worldly inclination; it may be that they yield to the solicitation of unholy passion; but they decline from the path of Christian worship and godly service.

      It is a melancholy sight for the angels of God, and for all earnest human souls, to witness – that of a man who knows what is best, who has stood face to face with Christ, who has often worshipped in his house, and perhaps sate at his table, declining to lower paths … letting another power than that of his gracious Lord rule his heart and occupy his life. …

      When God’s rebuke is heard, coming through the voice of one of his ministers, or coming in his Divine providence; and when that rebuke, instead of being heeded and obeyed, is resented by the rebellious spirit, then there ensues a very rapid spiritual decline.  Men go “from bad to worse,” from indifference or forgetfulness to hostility, from doubt to disbelief, from laxity to licentiousness, from wrongness of attitude to iniquity in action.  To resent the rebuke of the Lord is to inflict upon ourselves the most serious, and too often a mortal, injury.

 

The Pulpit Commentary, II Chronicles p. 291, II Chronicles 24:17-25, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 326

The Declining Path

 

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Gold Nugget 325 - Object of Disregard

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      Men that are wrong and strong will find their advocates; indeed, they find all too many to honour and praise them, both while they live and when they are departed.  But men that are good and weak find none to admire them.  They may start, as Joash apparently did, with fair intentions and blameless desires, but they have no force of character, and being “driven with the wind and tossed,” carried about hither and thither according to the passing breeze, they are the object of disregard, if not of positive contempt.  There is nothing honourable or admirable in them. …

      Such men … may do some good during one half of their life, or at different parts of their life; but the good they then do is counterbalanced by the harm they work during the other half or on other occasions; and no one can say which prevails over the other.  The measure of many a man’s life-influence is a nice sum in spiritual subtraction; and when everything is known it will perhaps be found to be a “negative quantity.” 

      It is a poor and a pitiful thing to see a man first building up and then pulling down; one day working with the people of God and the next associating with the enemies of true and pure religion; subscribing to a Christian charity and attending a demoralizing spectacle; pulling in contrary directions.

      What can such a man do?  What witness can he bear, what work achieve, what contribution bring to the great end we should have in view – the elevation of our kind?

 

The Pulpit Commentary, II Chronicles p. 288, II Chronicles 24:1-2, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 325

Object of Disregard

 

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