Fatal Allurement

        The Judas-tree, so-called, is a remarkable plant. Its blossoms appear before its leaves, and are a most brilliant crimson. The flowers flaming forth, attract innumerable insects. The bee, for instance, in quest of honey, is drawn to it. But searching the petals for nectar, it imbibes a fatal opiate. Beneath this Judas-tree the ground is strewn with the victims of its deadly fascination.

Flicker-flick,
Above the wick.
Burned the candle flame.
Through the open window-shutter
Young Moth Miller came.
Straight he fluttered toward the yellow.
Bright, alluring thing.
And, alas, poor foolish fellow
Scorched his downy wing!

The Bible Survives Three Great Dangers

        The deathless Book has survived three great dangers: the negligence of its friends; the false systems built upon it; the warfare of those who have hated it. Ibid.

Animism

The child's religious nature, like that of primitive man, is animistic. Professor Dawson, in "The Child and His Religion," says:

       It is hard for children to resist the feeling that a summer shower comes with a sort of personal benevolence to water the dry flowers and grass. A little girl of four years illustrated this feeling on a certain occasion. There was a thunder-shower after a long dry spell. The rain was pattering on the sidewalk outside the house. The child stretched forth her hands toward the rain- drops and said: "Come, good rain, and water our plants!" Flowers and trees have individuality for most children, if not for all. Ruth's mama found her sitting among the wild geraniums, some distance from the house. "What are you doing, Ruth?" "I'm sitting by the flowers. They are lonesome and like to have me with them, don't you know?" At another time she said: "Mama, these daisies seem to look up at me and talk to me. Perhaps they want us to kiss them." On one occasion she said to her brother, who was in the act of gathering some flowers she claimed for herself, ''I don't think it nice to break off those poor flowers. They like to live just as well as you do." The boy thus chided by his sister for gathering her flowers was generally very fond of plants and trees, and felt a quite human companionship in them. He could not bear to see flowering plants hanging in a broken condition, or lying crusht upon the sidewalk. Even at the age of ten years, he would still work solicitously over flowers like the violets, bluets, and crowfoots, with evident concern for their comfort

Achievement

 The Denver Republican recently contained this brief account of a farmer working heroically on a one-man railroad, and remarked that it is typical of the individual spirit that has achieved great things in the West:

        The story of the Kansas farmer, who, with a scraper and a pair of mules, is building a fifty-mile railroad, would indicate that the supply of courageous men is not entirely exhausted.
        The farmer who is tackling this tremendous job alone and who is serenely indifferent to all the jeers of his neighbors, scorned to admit defeat when he could not interest any one with capital in the road which he deemed necessary. He went to work with such material as he had at hand and, somehow, even without seeing the man or knowing aught of his project, one can not help sharing the farmer's belief that he is to "carry the thing through."

A Little Missionary

 "I can not afford it," said John Hale, the rich farmer, when asked to give to the cause of missions.
       Harry, his wide-awake grandson, was grieved and indignant.
       "But the poor heathen," he replied; "is it not too bad they can not have churches and schoolhouses and books?"
       "What do you know about the heathen?" exclaimed the old man testily. "Do you wish me to give away my hard earnings? I tell you, I can not afford it."
       But Harry was well posted in missionary intelligence, and day after day puzzled his curly head with plans for extracting money for the noble cause from his unwilling relative. At last, seizing an opportunity when his grandfather was in a good humor over the election news, he said: "Grandfather, if you do not feel able to give money to the missionary board, will you give a potato?"
       "A potato?" ejaculated Mr. Hale, looking up from his paper.
       "Yes, sir; and land enough to plant it in, and what it produces for four years?"
       "Oh, yes!" replied the unsuspecting grandparent, settling his glasses on his calculating nose in such a way that showed he was glad to escape on such cheap terms from the lad's persecution.
       Harry planted the potato, and it rewarded him the first year by producing nine; these, the following season, became a peck; the next, seven and a half bushels, and when the fourth harvest came, lo, the potato had increased to seventy bushels. And, when sold, the amount realized was put with a glad heart into the treasury of the Lord. Even the aged farmer exclaimed: "Why, I did not feel that donation in the least ! And, Harry, I've been thinking that if there were a little missionary like you in every house, and each one got a potato, or something else as productive, for the cause, there would be quite a large sum gathered." Friend for Boys and Girls. 

  "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand." Zechariah 4:10

Parasitism

       Some of the intruding insects that come from oak galls are not harmless. They are the ones called parasites. They live in the houses not for the sake of the protection or the food furnished by the house, but in order to eat the actual dwellers in the house. Often and often not a single real gall-insect comes out in the spring from many of the little houses, but only a little swarm, or sometimes just two or three, or even one, of these insect-devouring parasites that has eaten up the rightful owners of the house. Vernon L. Kellogg, "Insect Stories."

Manisfestation

         ''Just as creation is the revelation of God, his avowal, as a poet has said; so in the same way the external life of man, when it follows its normal development, is the translation, in signs and symbols, of what he bears at the bottom of his being. It would be easier to keep the sap from mounting, the flowers from opening, the leaves from tearing apart their coverings, than human nature from manifesting itself. It is this need that gives man his distinction as a social and communicative being.'' Charles Wagner

Christian Fellowship

       In the New York City aquarium long ago there was what was called a "happy family." In a wooden box, the bottom of which is covered with sand, there are a number of fiddler-crabs from local waters, a dozen or more climbing crabs or land-hermits from St. Kitts, and a small diamond-backed terrapin from Georgia. Although these little creatures live together happily, they were each fed on different food, and their habits and nature were by no means the same.
       The distinguishing characteristic of the Christian Church is that, though men and women are gathered from every kind of sinful past, they are transformed in their spirit by the grace of God, so that they feed upon the same spiritual food and are one in their love for Christ, who, as Paul says, "hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." 

"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.'' Acts 2:42

The Poorest Offerings

       In the middle of the summer season tails of sick cattle are principal native offerings at Saint Herbot, a small parish not far from Paris, France. The annual cattle fair brings together a great number of dealers from all parts of Brittany. Business goes on from early morning until three o'clock in the afternoon, when every one adjourns to the church and joins in the service, at which the benediction of heaven on the worshipers' heads is implored. The custom is for the breeders to cut off the tails of sick animals and lay the tails on the altar, the idea being that this ceremony will restore the sick animals to health. The tails are afterward sold and considerable money realized from the sale.

       Many people are just this way toward God. The poorest products of their life they give to God, and make themselves believe that is giving. To give the tailings of the threshing floor is to give chaff. To give the tailings of the reduction mill is to give the low-grade ore. To give the tail ends of anything is to give the poorest.

The Last Days of Autumn

 THE LAST DAYS OF AUTUMN.

Sir Walter Scott.

Autumn departs — but still his mantle's fold

Rests on the groves of noble Somerville,

Beneath a shroud of russet dropp'd with gold,

Tweed and his tributaries mingle still;

Hoarser the wind, and deeper sounds the rill,

Yet lingering notes of sylvan music swell,

The deep-toned cushat, and the redbreast shrill;

And yet some tints of summer splendor tell

When the broad sun sinks down on Ettrick's western

fell.

Autumn departs — from Gala's fields no more

Come rural sounds our kindred banks to cheer;

Blent with the stream, and gale that wafts it o'er,

No more the distant reaper's mirth we hear.

The last blithe shout hath died upon our ear,

And harvest home hath hush'd the clanging wain,

On the waste hill no forms of life appear,

Save where sad laggard of the autumnal train,

Some age-struck wanderer gleans few ears of scat-

tered grain.

Deem'st thou these sadden'd scenes have pleasure

still,

Lovest thou through Autumn's fading realms to

stray,

To see the heath-flower wither'd on the hill,

To listen to the wood's expiring lay,

To note the red leaf shivering on the spray,

To mark the last bright tints the mountain stain,

On the waste fields to trace the gleaner's way,

And moralize on mortal joy and pain? —

Oh ! if such scenes thou lov'st, scorn not the minstrel

strain!

Parasites

Society has too many members who are willing to live on the labor of others, like the shoveler duck described in this extract:

       One of the ducks has learned a convenient trick for getting his dinner. Some of the diving brotherhood who feed under water stir up a great deal that floats, and the shoveler, preferring to take his provision from
the surface, follows his diving neighbor to the feeding-place, and while the feeders below stir up the inhabitants, he swims around on the surface and catches whatever floats. Olive Thorne Miller, 'The Bird Our Brother."

Defenting The Weak

         A young lady went out with a little girl eight years old for a walk in the mountains in Pennsylvania. Becoming weary, she seated herself and beguiled the time by reading. The child was playing near. Suddenly the woman was startled by an agonized cry, and was horrified to see an eagle trying to carry the child away. She went to the rescue. When the fierce bird saw her it left the child, and with a swoop came down with terrific force on her shoulders. Then began a desperate struggle. The girl tried to drive the eagle away. As often as it was beaten off it would return with a swoop, tearing her clothes. When almost exhausted she succeeded in getting a tight hold of the eagle's head. This proved her salvation, for the eagle, in its struggle to get free, broke its neck. Covered with blood, she led the child, which was but little hurt, and dragged the eagle a mile to her home.
       If we are to share the sufferings of our Savior, we must stand ready to defend the weak and the tempted from the fierce birds of prey that swoop down upon them in this wicked world. Every day we come in contact with those who are being torn and wounded by the cruel talons of sin. To go to their rescue, and bare our shoulders to their danger, and conquer their enemies in Christ's strength, is our blessed privilege.

        If we share with Christ in suffering, we shall also share with Him in victory. "Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.'' Romans 8:17-18

The Principles of Affluence

         The structural provisions of the living organism are not built on the principle of economy. On the contrary, the super-abundance of tissues and mechanisms indicates clearly that safety is the goal of the animal organism. We may safely state that the living animal organism is provided in its structures with factors of safety at least as abundantly as any human-made machine.
       The moral drawn from these facts is that to govern the supply of tissue and energy by means of food, nature indicates for us the same principle of affluence which controls the entire construction of the animal for the safety of its life and the perpetuation of its species. In other words, we should eat not just enough to preserve life, but a good deal more. In such cases safety is more important than economy. 

 

''But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.''' Mathew 4:4

Mystery In Nature

 What determines which queen shall leave the hive with the swarm? What determines which five thousand out of fifteen thousand worker bees, all apparently similarly stimulated and excited, shall swarm out, and which ten thousand shall stay in? These are questions too hard for us to answer. We may take refuge in Maeterlinck's poetical conception of the "spirit of the hive." Let us say that the "spirit of the hive" decides these things; as well as what workers shall forage and what ones clean house; what bees shall ventilate and what make wax and build comb. Which is simply to say that we don't know what decides all these things.  - Vernon L. Kellogg, "Insect Stories."

What Does "God's Image" Mean?

       In discussing spiritual things, to be right, no one can' go beyond the word of Scripture. The Bible tells us that God gave to man a living soul. In this sense he was in the image of his Maker in his dispositions, temperament and desires, and in his obedience to the divine will; but this condition was forfeited through sin. It could only be said thereafter of those who walked uprightly before God and were inspired of him, that they were "his offspring." (Matt. 13:38; Mark 7:10. See John 12:36; Acts 13:10; Col. 3:6.) Jesus himself drew the distinction when he told the wicked scribes and Pharisees that they were the children of the evil one, and this is the actual condition of every one living in sin, unrepentant and unforgiven. Thus while in his perfect condition man was like his Maker, in a condition of sin he is no longer so, nor has he any of the spiritual attributes and qualities that belong to the perfect condition, or even of the pardoned sinner, who has the hope through Christ of reconciliation and restoration. The Bible nowhere declares that man is of himself and inherently immortal. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." When sin entered, then came physical decay and death; man's first condition was lost and with the continuance of sin, and unrepentant and unforgiven, he also forfeited spiritual immortality. Eternal life is the gift of God. Paul declares that Jesus, through .his Gospel, brought life and immortality to light for fallen man and showed the path to restoration through repentance, forgiveness and acceptance.

Paradox

         Nature is full of paradoxes. The water which drowns us as a fluent stream can be  walked upon as ice. The bullet which, when fired from a musket, carries death, will be harmless if ground to dust before being fired. The crystallized part of the oil of roses, so graceful in its fragrance - a solid at ordinary temperatures, tho readily volatile - is a compound substance, containing exactly the same elements and exactly the same proportions as the gas with which we light the streets. The tea which we daily drink with benefit and pleasure produces palpitation, nervous tremblings, and even paralysis if taken in excess; yet the peculiar organic agent called "thein," to which tea owes its quality, may be taken by itself (as thein, not as tea) without any appreciable effect. - Vyrnwy Morgan 

 Joseph Hart, the hymnist, wrote "The
Paradox," as follows:

How strange is the course that a Christian
must steer!
How perplexed is the path he must tread!
The hope of his happiness rises from fear,
And his life he receives from the dead.

His fairest pretensions must wholly be
waived,
And his best resolutions be crossed;
Nor can he expect to be perfectly saved.
Till he finds himself utterly lost.

When all this is done, and his heart is assured
Of the total remission of sins;
When his pardon is signed, and his peace is
procured,
From that moment his conflict begins.

The Real Best Seller

       The Bible is today more widely read than ever. Last year Bible societies printed and circulated 11,378,854 Bibles. More Bibles were sold than any other hundred books together. It is now printed in four hundred languages. China alone last year bought 428,000 Bibles. Last year's Bible output of the British and Foreign Bible Society was 6,620,024 copies. In the 106 years of its existence that society has issued 220,000,000 copies of the Scriptures and its annual output is steadily rising, last year's being 685,000 copies in excess of the year preceding. Of what other book could anything like this be said? If you pile in a single pyramid all the copies of the Koran since Mahomet's day till now, with all the copies of the Scandinavian Eddas, the Hindu Vedas, the Persian Zend-Avesta, the Buddhist Tripitakas and the Chinese Five Kings, and add to the pile the hundred other most famous books the world has ever known, including the best sellers of all ages, the pyramid, contrasted with the thousands of millions of copies of the Bible, would be as an ant-heap to Mount Everest. Christian Herald, 1912.

The Ideal Pastor

The Ideal Pastor by Bishop Hare

Give me the pastor whose graces shall
possess
Of an ambassador the just address;
A father's tenderness, a shepherd's care,
A leader's courage, which the cross can
bear;
A ruler's awe, a watchman's wakeful eye,
A fisher's patience, and a laborer's toil;
A guide's dexterity to disembroil;
A prophet's inspiration from above;
A teacher's knowledge, and a Savior's
love.

Key Bible passages for adults to memorize...

1. The Divine Word - - - - - John 1 : 1-18
2. The New Birth ------ John 3 : 1-21
3. Penitence and Pardon - - - Psalm 51
4. A Psalm of Trust ----- Psalm 91
5. A Prophet's Call Hosea 14
6. Some Laws of the Kingdom - Matt. 6 : 19-34
7. Comfort and the Comforter - John 14 : 1-17
8. A Model Church ----- Acts 2 : 41-47
9. The Lord's Supper - - - - 1 Cor. 11: 23-28
10. The Old and the New - - - Heb. 9 : 1-28
11. The Mind of Christ - - - - Philippians. 2:5-11
12. Secure in God's Love - - - Romans. 8 : 26-39 
13. ''Them that are Asleep " - 1 Thess. 4 : 13-18
14. The Last Day ------ Matt. 25 : 31-46

Midnight in Prison at Philippi

Description of Illustration: two followers of Christ sit in prison, never alone in the dark, chains and cold darkness, the light inside of enlightened men, scriptural reference from Book of Acts 16:25-40, Paul and Silas singing praises to God in the dark, just before the earthquake

Have a question about the illustration? Just type it in the comment box and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I only publish content that is closely related to the subject folks.

God-Consciousness Of The Bible

       The first thing which impresses the student of the Bible is what may be called the God-consciousness of its writers. As, on a beautiful day in spring, hills and valleys, fields and forests all lie bathed in the sunshine, so all parts of the Bible are bathed in this sense of the divine presence. On that beautiful spring day there may be a few places where shadows fall, so there may be places in the Bible where this divine presence may seem to be wanting. But this consciousness of the divine is certainly one of the dominant characteristics of the Bible. It opens with the significant words, ''In the beginning, God,'' and it closes with an eager, expectant, upward look, coupled with a gracious benediction. Its historical portions are the record, mainly, of a people who believed - that they were under the peculiar care of Jehovah and that He was working out His will through them. Its poetry breathes a lofty spirit of reverence and worship, and is charged with a powerful sense of the overshadowings of the Almighty. Its prophets came to the people burdened with the awful sense of a message from Jehovah, and their utterances abound with expressions showing their responsibility as bearers of such messages. The law, moral and ceremonial, rests upon a ''Thus saith the Lord,'' and every ministration of priest and Levite was calculated to direct the thought of the people to God.'' John Wesley Conley, D.D., in The Bible in Modern Light

Spirit of The Bible Inspired

       There are many texts cited in the New Testament from the Septuagint, where it differeth from the Hebrew; wherein it is utterly uncertain to us whether Christ and His apostles intended to justify absolutely the translation which they used, or only to make use of it as that which then was known and used for the sake of the sense which it contained. If they absolutely justify it, they seem to condemn the Hebrew, so far as it differeth. If not, why do they use it, and never blame it? It seemeth that Christ would hereby tell us, that the sense is the gold, and the words but as the purse; and we need not be over-curious about them, so we have the sense. Bazter, 1615-1691. 

Bible Truths Too Great For Words

        ''To suppose that human words and human ideas can be adequate exponents of Divine truths in their full perfectness is simply absurd. As certainly as a vessel can hold no more than its own measure, so certainly no being can understand anything higher than itself. The animals have no power of understanding those qualities in which man transcends the limits of their nature; man has no power of understanding those qualities in which angels excel us. For the finite, however large, can never comprehend the Infinite.'' Payne Smith.

Authenticity of The Bible

        The Papists receive the Scriptures on the authoritative, infallible judgment of their own church, that is, the Pope; and I receive it as God's perfect law, delivered down from hand to hand to this present age, and know it to be the same book which was written by the prophets and apostles, by an infallible testimony of rational men, friends and foes, in all ages. And for them that think that this lays all our faith on uncertainties, I answer, 1st, Let them give us more certain grounds. 2d, We have an undoubted, infallible certainty of the truth of this tradition, as I have often showed. He is mad that doubts of the certainty of William The Conqueror's reigning in England because he hath but human testimony. We are certain that the statutes of this land were made by the same parliaments and kings that are mentioned to be the authors; and that these statutes which we have now in our books are the same which they made; for there were many copies dispersed. Men's lands and estates were still held by them. There were multitudes of lawyers and judges, whose calling lay in the continual use of them; and no one lawyer could corrupt them, but his antagonist would soon tell him of it, and a thousand would find it out. So that I do not think any man doubteth of the certainty of these Acts being the same as they pretend to be. And in our case about the Scriptures, we have much more certainty, as I have shown. These copies were dispersed all over the world, so that a combination to corrupt them in secret was impossible. Men judged their hopes of salvation to lie in them, and therefore would surely be careful to keep them from corruption, and to see that no other hand should do it. There were thousands of ministers whose office and daily work it was to preach those Scriptures to the world, and therefore they must needs look to the preserving of them; and God was pleased to suffer such abundance of heretics to arise, perhaps of purpose for this end, among others, that no one could corrupt the Scriptures, but all his adversaries would soon have etched him in it: for all parties, of each opinion, still pleaded the same Scriptures against all the rest, even as lawyers plead the law of the land at the bar against their adversaries. So that it is impossible that in any main matter it should be depraved. What it may be in a letter or a word, by the negligence of transcribers, is of no great
moment. Baxier, 1615-1691.

Wonderful Harmony of The Bible

        Consider what, as a matter of fact, we have in this old book, or collection of books, men call the Bible. We have in its first chapters answers to the universal questions, Whence came the world and man? Then we have memorials of the rise and fall of the proudest empires the earth has seen. We have the story of the development of the mightiest of moral forces, even this Christianity which we profess. We have some predictions such as those of the diffusion of the Gospel and the dispersion of the Jews, whose fulfillments are all around us. And its last book is in large measure devoted to the satisfying of that other universal human craving by which only is man's longing to know the secrets of the past transcended, even our desire to discern somewhat of the hidden future. Thus this Bible possesses rounded completeness. It begins by telling us how order was brought forth from the chaos, and it ends by revealing to us the new heavens and earth to which, in the glory of their redemption, no trace of the curse of sin by which they are marred shall cleave. Whence has come this singular perfectness? The Bible is not the production of one writer; it is no great epic or history conceived and consummated by one mighty human genius. For the harmony that characterizes it, we might then reasonably have looked. But it is the production of many writers, of different nations, of varied tongues. It was commenced by Moses in the deserts of Arabia, and completed by John in the Island of Patmos. Between its commencement and its close entire phases of civilization appeared and disappeared. To its earlier penmen the very speech of its later writers was unknown, and to the authors of its closing half the dialect of Moses and of David had become unintelligible. And yet this book, produced in such far removed times, such distant places, and by such varied instrumentality, is one, and forms a whole! Now, is not this itself a proof of more than human  origin? Was there ever a cathedral constructed by means of the building by one man of a wall, and by another of a window, and by another of an arch, and by a fourth of a doorway, and by a fifth of a spire, and so on through its countless parts, without concert, without a common plan, without an architect to supervise? What would you say to the man who should tell you that thus originated the minster of York, or St. Paul's in London, or that Abbey in which repose the ashes of England's noblest dead, or that mightier pile which is Rome's crowning glory? But shall we believe that this grander cathedral of truth, built through vaster space of time, serving nobler ends, glorious with completer perfectness, had no architect, that its many builders were not guided by any common plan, that its harmony is a mere accident and result of chance?  A. Bertram.

Bible Harmonizes When Rightly Viewed

       We are confident that the careful and minute study of the evangelists, in the light of grammar, of philology, and of history, results in the unassailable conviction of their trustworthiness. The process is one of those profound and unconscious ones which bring us to the goal before we are aware. The conviction that the four Gospels are organically connected, and constitute one living and perfect harmony, cannot be violently and quickly forced upon the mind. At first sight, the objections and difficulties fill the foreground; particularly when protruded and pressed upon the notice by the dexterity of the biased and hostile critic. But as when we look upon a grand painting, in which there are a great variety and complexity and apparent contrariety of elements, it requires some little time for the eye to settle gradually and unconsciously into the point from which the whole shapes itself into harmony and beauty, so it requires wise delay, and the slow penetration of scholarship and meditation, to reach that center from which all the parts of the evangelical biography arrange themselves harmoniously, and all contradiction disappears forever. And when this center is once reached, and the intrinsic, natural, artless harmony is once perceived, there is repose, and there is boldness, and there is authority. He who speaks of Christ out of this intuition, speaks with freedom, with enthusiasm, with love, and with power. Objections which at first sight seem acute, now look puerile. The piecemeal criticism which, like the fly, scans only the edge of a plinth in the great edifice upon which it crawls, disappears under a criticism that is all-comprehending and all-surveying. Shedd. 

Threads of Crimson and Gold In The Bible

        The Dutch critic, Professor Kuenen, criticized the Old Testament with unbiased freedom, and especially the Prophets; yet he wrote concerning them. As we watch the weaving of the web of Hebrew life, we endeavor to trace through it the more conspicuous threads. Long time the eye follows the crimson; it disappears at length; but the golden thread of sacred prophecy continues to the end. The Prophets teach us to live and to struggle; to believe with immovable firmness; to hope even when all is dark around us; to trust the voice of God in our inmost consciousness; to speak with boldness and with power.We have often visited the ruins of a famous castle in Heidelberg, with which no doubt many of our readers are well acquainted. Long ago it was captured, and, that it might never be a stronghold to the patriots of Germany again, the enemy burnt it and blew up the walls. But in the weedy fosse there is a huge fragment of a tower which, when exploded, alighted there; and in the goodly joining of its stones and the hardening of its ancient mortar such a rocky mass had it become, that when lifted from its base, instead of descending in a shower of rubbish, it came down superbly a tower still. And like that massy keep, the books we have been considering are so knit together in their exquisite accuracy, the histories are so riveted to one another, and the epitles so morticed into the histories, and the very substance of epistles and histories alike is so penetrated by that cement of all-pervasive reality, that the whole now forms an indissoluble concrete. Such a book has God made the Bible that, whatever theories wax popular or whatever systems explode the scripture cannot be broken. Hamalton, 1814-1867.

Christ Everywhere In The Bible

       Brethren, Scripture is full of Christ. From Genesis to Revelation everything breathes of Him, not every letter of every sentence, but the spirit of every chapter. It is full of Christ, but not in the way that some suppose; for there is nothing more miserable, as specimens of perverted ingenuity, than the attempts of certain commentators and preachers to find remote, and recondite, and intended allusions to Christ everywhere. For example, they chance to find in the construction of the temple the fusion of two metals, and this they conceive is meant to show the union of divinity with humanity in Christ. If they read the coverings to the tabernacle, they find implied the doctrine of imputed righteousness. If it chance that one of the curtains of the tabernacle be red, they see in that a prophecy of the blood of Christ. If they are told that the kingdom of heaven is a pearl of great price, they will see in it the allusion‚ that, as a pearl is the production of animal suffering, so the kingdom of heaven is produced by the sufferings of the Redeemer. I mention this perverted mode of comment, because it is not merely harmless, idle, and useless; it is positively dangerous. This is to make the Holy Spirit speak riddles and conundrums, and the interpretation of Scripture but clever riddle-guessing. Putting aside all this childishness, we say that the Bible is full of Christ. Every unfulfilled aspiration of humanity in the past; all partial representation of perfect character; all sacrifices, nay, even those of idolatry, point to the fulfillment of what we want, the answer to every longing‚ the type of perfect humanity, the Lord Jesus Christ. W. Robertson, 1816-1853.

Unity and Beauty Of The Bible

       We take the Bible into our hands, and examine diligently its different sections, delivered in different ages of mankind. There is a mighty growth in the discoveries of God's nature and will, as time rolls on from creation to redemption; but as knowledge is increased, and brighter light thrown on the Divine purpose and dealings, there is never the point at which we are brought to a pause by the manifest contradiction of one part to another. It is the wonderful property of the Bible, though the authorship is spread over a long line of centuries, that it never withdraws any truth once advanced, and never adds new without giving fresh force to the old. In reading the Bible, we always look, as it were, on the same landscape; the only difference being, as we take in more and more of its statements, that more and more of the mist is rolled away from the horizon, so that the eye includes a broader sweep of beauty. If we hold converse with Patriarchs occupying the earth whilst yet in its infancy, and then listen to Moses as he legislates for Israel, to Prophets throwing open the future, and to Apostles as they publish the mysteries of a new dispensation, we find the discourse: always bearing, with more or less distinctness, on one and the same subject: the latter speakers, if we may use such illustration, turn towards us a larger portion than the former of the illuminated hemisphere; but, as the mighty globe revolves on its axis, we feel that the oceans and lands, which come successively into view, are but constituent parts of the same glorious world. There is the discovery of the new territories; but, as fast as discovered, the territories combine to make up one planet. There is the announcement of the new truths; but, as fast as announced, they take their places as parts of one immutable system. Indeed, there is vast difference between the Epistles of St. Paul, and the Psalms of David, or the Prophecies of Isaiah. But it is the difference, as we have just said, between the landscape whilst the morning mist yet rests on half its villages and lakes, and that same range of scenery when the noontide irradiates every spire and every rivulet. It is the difference between the moon, as she turns towards us only a thin crescent of her illuminated disk, and when, in the fullness of her beauty, she walks our firmament, and scatters our night. It is no new landscape which opens on our gaze, as the town and forest emerge from the shadow, and fill up the blanks in the noble panorama. It is no new planet which comes traveling in its majesty, as the crescent swells into the circle, and the faint thread of light gives place to the rich globe of silver. And it is no fresh system of religion which is made known to the dwellers in this creation, as the brief notices given to patriarchs expand in the institutions of the law, and under the breathings of prophecy, till at length, in the days of Christ and His apostles, they burst into magnificence, and fill a world with redemption. It is throughout the same system for the rescue of humankind by the interference of a surety. And revelation has been nothing else but the gradual development of this system, the drawing up another fold of the veil from the landscape, the adding another stripe of light to the crescent, so that the early fathers of our race, and ourselves on whom ''the ends of the world are come,'' look on the same arrangement for human deliverance, though to them there was nothing but a clouded expanse, with here and there a prominent landmark, whilst to us, through the horizon losing itself in the far-off eternity, every object of personal interest is exhibited in beauty and distinctness. Melvill 

A Vision Of The King Through The Bible

        Twenty-two years ago, with the Holy Spirit as my guide, I entered this wonderful temple called Christianity. I entered at the portico of Genesis, walked down through the Old Testament art gallery where the pictures of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Isaac, Jacob and Daniel hung on the wall. I passed into the music-room of Psalms, where the Spirit swept the keyboard of nature and brought forth the dirge like wail of the weeping prophet Jeremiah to the grand, impassioned strain of Isaiah, until it seemed that every reed and pipe in God's great organ of nature responded to the tuneful harp of David, the sweet singer of Israel. I entered the chapel of Ecclesiastes, where the voice of the preacher was heard, and into the conservatory of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valley's sweet-scented spices filled and perfumed my life. I entered the business office of the Proverbs, then into the observatory-room of the prophets, where I saw telescopes of various sizes, some pointing to far-off events, but all concentrated upon the bright and morning star which was to rise above the moonlit hills of Judea for our salvation. I entered the audience-room of the King of kings, and caught a vision of His glory from the standpoint of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; passed into the Acts of the Apostles, where the Holy Spirit was doing His work in the formation of the infant church. Then into the correspondence-room, where sat Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James and Jude, penning their epistles. I stepped into the throne-room of Revelation, where all towered into glittering peaks, and I got a vision of the King sitting upon His throne in all His glory, and I cried:

''All hail the power of Jesus' name,
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem
And crown Him Lord of all.''