Gold Nugget 188 - A Loftier State

Click here to download:
Daniel 236.doc (24 KB)
(download)

      They who sink self shall rise into the possession of a better nature and of a loftier state.  To live for others is heroic – god-like.  Real goodness thinks little about itself – is blind to its own virtues and charms.  It deems others’ merits superior to its own, others’ faults to be less.  Its eye is mainly fixed upon the true standard of excellence, and it strains every nerve to reach that.  So long as that is beyond, unattained, it mourns and grieves.

      The mark of true saints, in their present state, is not perfection, but consecration.  They are God’s devoted ones – “the sacramental host of his elect.”  Their characteristic mark is loyalty – growing holiness.  They are devoid of personal ambition.  If they have crowns thrust upon them, they will place them at once at the service of their Lord.  To acquire wisdom, righteousness, love, - this is their ambitious aim, even to be worthy friends of the King of grace.  In process of time they become “more than conquerors,” for they acquire a conquest which is permanent and irreversible – a conquest which serves as a vantage-ground for higher conquest yet.    

The Pulpit Commentary, Daniel p. 236, Daniel 7:15-28, (J. D. Davies)

Gold Nugget 188

A Loftier State

http://www.goldnugget.posterous.com