This article has a history. Some time ago a western correspondent sent us an earnest letter urging his view of holiness, and putting certain questions to us to be answered. The letter was so frank and cordial as well as earnest that we fully intended to reply to it at length, and took it with us on a journey to prepare an answer. But somehow it became mislaid or was left behind on the train, and the circumstance dropped out of mind. Later the notes we had prepared in reply came to light, and we believe their publication will interest …
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of May 16, 1920, 1 Samuel 7:2–17)
“The time was long.” This has been the testimony of all the saints of God when the glory of the presence of God has dimmed, and when the heart has been far from His will. Here the ark was far from the heart of the people. One of the poets has said:
“The midsummer sun shines but dim, The fields strive in vain to look gay,”
Whenever the Lord is not near, and His presence real.
“Return unto the Lord with all your hearts.” This was Samuel’s first …
Before you really understand the import of this question you probably would like to look at its setting in the Word of God. Job was a man marvelously blessed of God, blessed because he honored God, because he served God, because he testified about God, because he was a living, walking example of what God could do in a man’s life. Job had so walked before God, so obeyed God, so listened to the dictates of the voice of God that God could afford to bless him. He had many cattle, …
“The Lord called Samuel.” It is easy to understand that this was not a voice which others could hear or Eli could have heard it. The voice was very clear indeed to Samuel; Samuel was sure that some one had called him. This Scripture should show us that while others may be used of the Lord in clearing up our call and proving to us that it is the Lord and not man that is calling, yet the call must be heard by the one called and by him alone.
How foolish we are when we expect others to understand …
“And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take.”—Mark 15:24
The Roman soldiers at the foot of the cross of Calvary, shook dice to see which was the lucky man to win the different garments of the crucified Christ. You must remember that God has garments, that God has clothed Himself as with a garment. To God the sun is a sparkling gem upon His finger, the stars are wonderful pearls about His neck, the Earth covered with its vegetation and water is but the garment that God slips over …
It is concerning this subject, “Alive Again,” that I wish to speak. Let me read from the 20th chapter of John’s Gospel: “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre.” (Here is a little touch of her love for the Master. She cannot sleep—early, early while it was yet dark. You have gotten up many a time to get ready to go to a picnic, early, while it was yet dark. Her heart went out to Christ early while it was yet dark. Note this eagerness on Mary’s part that …
In the King James Version, this text reads, “Rejoice evermore,” but the Revised Version (a more accurate rendering), reads, “Rejoice always. “If I should ask you want the shortest verse in the Bible is, a great sea of hands would go and you would say, “John 11:35, ‘Jesus wept.’” Well, that is so in the English version, but in the Greek that verse has sixteen letters, while our text has only fourteen letters; so in the Greek this is a shorter verse than “Jesus wept.”
I want you to read the verse in its connection: “Rejoice …
“So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it (the end) is near, even at the doors.”—Matthew 24:33
I do not want to give you men’s words to start with, but God’s Word on this subject. If we make any deduction, if we draw any conclusion, we have no right to start with anything as a premise but the Word of God, Who alone holds the future in His hand. Man has been calling himself splendid names because he has been able to preserve something of the past. He points to the pyramids, swells his chest …
“Now there were in the Church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
“And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
“So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed.” —Acts 13:1–4.
(Helpful to Sunday School Lesson of March 7, 1920, 1 John 4:7–21)
“God is love.” We could also say “God is law”; for in another place in the Scripture God says, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Now the law was holy and was placed before men that they might see themselves as God sees them. It was as if a shabby tramp suddenly came upon the picture of a real clean and well-dressed man, and recognized the awful chasm between himself and this gentleman. God placed the law that men might see the chasm between the natural man …
