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

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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.''

The Bible Has Inspired Greatest Deeds

       That marvelous book, that has guided the brush of the painter and steadied the chisel of the sculptor, has wrought yet more deeply upon the minds of men. M. Renan knew something of its power when he declared the Gospels the democratic book. Professor Whitney made no mistake in his well considered words, that since Luther's translation this one book is the vehicle of literature and instruction everywhere. On this volume rest the foundations of the great universities of Paris, Oxford and Cambridge. The first public library of modern Europe in Glasgow owed its origin to the same source. To its matchless themes Stuart Mill attributed the power of the Scotch intellect. The greatest minds have been its deepest students. 

The Martyrdom of The Baptist...

Description of Illustration: beheaded, the forerunner, the evil of Herod Antipas, daughter of Herodias depicted "Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.'' Matthew 14:8

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Even the archangel, exercises caution...

Description of Illustration: Michael fighting with the devil, sword drawn, wings, Good versus Evil, columns, ''But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" Jude 1:9

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A Soft Answer

        A drunken carter came into a Greenock (Scotland) train and sat opposite a clergyman, who was reading his paper. Recognizing the profession of his vis-a-vis, the carter leaned forward and in a maudlin way remarked, "I don't believe there's any heaven." The clergyman paid no heed. "Do you hear me?" persisted the carter. "I don't believe there's any heaven." Still the clergyman remained behind his newspaper. The carter, shouting his confession loudly, said, "I tell ye to your face, and you're a minister, that I don't believe there's any heaven." "Very well," said the clergyman; "if you do not believe there is any heaven, go elsewhere, but please go quietly." 

"A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, But the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.'' Proverbs 15:1-2

Affliction Producing Virtue

 The editor of The United Presbyterian writes thus:

       On a recent evening during a severe hail-storm we opened our door to observe the progress of the storm, and were surprised to find the air laden with the odor of nasturtiums. There were porch-boxes containing nasturtiums, geraniums and other flowering and foliage plants. Beds of nasturtiums were by the street's side and at the side of the lawn, and into these the hail had fallen, beating down and breaking the vines until the porch floor and the ground beneath the boxes and the vines were covered with ends of broken sprays, leaves and bright bits of yellow and gold, scarlet and maroon of the mangled flowers. But the air was full of the sweetness of the crusht and wounded vines. They were returning good for evil in the misfortune that had come upon them. For every wound that the hail had made they were giving out the fragrance of a beautiful spirit. Tho bruised and broken, they were filling the whole atmosphere with an aroma which was in beautiful contrast to the adverse rain of hail that still rattled on the roofs and walks and fell among the prostrate vines. Blest is that life which can yield its sweetest fragrance when the storms are at their highest. We have all known men and women who, when lacerated with pain, prostrate under the hand of God, have made the very atmosphere of the sick-room redolent with the incense of Christian hope and trust.

Attributes of The Evil One... just a few among many.

Just in case some of you are no longer aware of what evil looks like. Here are just a few of the Devil's attributes from scripture:

• He is a liar. ''You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.'' John 8:44.
• He is an interloper. "So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disquise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds." 2 Corinthians 11:15.
• He is condescending, he mocks the frailties of others. "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.'' 1 Peter 5:8
• He is self-righteous only, he never depends upon the righteousness of God. "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which decieveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." Revelations 12:9 
• He never asks for pardon or forgiveness of past sins. He is proud of evil. "A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth; He winks with his eyes, He shuffles his feet, He points with his fingers; Perversity is in his heart, He devises evil continually, He sows discord. Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; Suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.'' Poverbs 6:12-19
• Both Satan and his followers and those whom he is able to deceive will always trade the life of the church or Christ himself for money. "Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.'' Luke 22:3-6
• He makes human brothers fight one another. He seeks to divide God's house in particular. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and waiting there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." Ephesians 6: 10 - 20

The New Age

Frederick Lawrence Knowles writes this optimistic outlook for the future:

When memory of battles.
At last is strange and old,
When nations have one banner
And creeds have found one fold, 

 
When the Hand that sprinkles midnight
With its powdered drift of suns
Has hushed this tiny tumult
Of sects and swords and guns;  

 
Then Hate's last note of discord
In all God's worlds shall cease,
In the conquest which is service,
In the victory which is peace!

Age and Oratory

 This is the description of one who had the privilege of hearing Gladstone, in the autumn of 1896, make his last great oration in Liverpool:

       See the old man with slow and dragging steps advancing from the door behind the platform to his seat before that sea of eager faces. The figure is shrunken. The eyelids droop. The cheeks are as parchment. Now that he sits, his hands lean heavily upon his staff. We think, "Ah, it is too late; the fire has flickered out; the speech will be but the dead echo of bygone glories." But lo! he rises. The color mantles to his face. He stands erect, alert. The great eyes open full upon his countrymen. Yes, the first notes are somewhat feeble, somewhat painful ; but a few minutes pass, and the noble voice falls as the solemn music of an organ on the throng. The eloquent arms seem to weave a mystic garment for his oratory. The involved sentences unfold themselves with a perfect lucidity. The whole man dilates. The soul breaks out through the marvelous lips. Age? Not so! this is eternal youth. He is pleading for mercy to an outraged people, for fidelity to a national obligation, for courage and for conscience in a tremendous crisis. And the words from the Re- vised Version of the Psalms seem to print themselves on the listener's heart: "Thou hast made him but little lower than God, and crownest him with glory and honor."

Pride of Our Inheritance

        Long ago there was quite a widespread discussion, in the public press, concerning a proposal to purchase as a public reservation Thomas Jefferson's famous home in Monticello. The scheme was thwarted at the very start by the refusal of its owner, Mr. Jefferson M. Levy, a descendant of the great commoner, to part with it. He said, when asked about the matter, that it was a matter of personal and family pride with him that Monticello be kept up, and that no sum of money could possibly compensate him for the loss of the estate. Some years ago "William M. Evarts, then Secretary of State, urged Mr. Levy to allow him to ask Congress to purchase Monticello. His answer was: " Mr. Secretary, if you offered me all the money this room [the Secretary of State's private office in the State Department] would hold, you could not tempt me." Mr. Evarts replied: "Well, Mr. Levy, I admire you, and do not blame you."
       There is no more striking figure under which the New Testament seeks to arouse our love and gratitude and righteous pride than St. Paul's declaration that the Christian is an heir of God and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. We ought to be proud of our inheritance. If a descendant of Thomas Jefferson is to be admired for sacrificing many personal luxuries in order that he may keep up the family inheritance, how much more admirable are those who endure hardship with gladness, that they may keep the Christian name in honor before all the world! 

"The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and it children, then heirs-heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.'' Romans 8:16-17

Man Godlike

 Man Godlike

Swarming across the earthly crust,
Delving deep in the yellow dust.
Raising his ant-hills here and there.
Scoring the soil for his humble fare,
Braving the sea in his tiny boat -
Tireless he struggles, this human mote.

Tempests scatter his ant-hills wide,
Vainly he braves the boiling tide.
Fire will ruin his busy mart.
Famine stilleth his throbbing heart.
Trembles the earth and prone he falls,
Crusht and tombed by his pigmy walls.

Heir of the kingdom 'neath the skies,
Often he falls, yet falls to rise.
Stumbling, bleeding, beaten back,
Holding still to the upward track;
Playing his part in creation's plan.
Godlike in image - this is man!

God's Present Judgement

        A man, who had once been an officer in the army during the great civil war between North and South, recorded a story he witnessed one day as he was lying wounded on the field of battle, and suffering terribly from burning thirst, he saw another wounded soldier of the opposite army lying near him and he was drinking from a canteen. As he looked over toward him and begged him to give him a little of the precious water, his enemy raised himself on his elbow and aimed his rifle right at him, prepared to shoot. At that very moment a bullet penetrated his enemy's head and he fell back dead. The surviving soldier thought surely this to be God's judgment, for the battle had ended and all who remained where left to die alone or be collected by ''sawbones'' or ''butchers.''

''Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind
exceeding small;
Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness
grinds He all. - Longfellow.

Adversity

        The whole tenor of the New Testament inculcates the principle of resignation under adverse conditions, and more. For the follower of Jesus Christ must not be merely a passive sufferer but a strenuous and persevering- "ombatant against opposing force...
       Tourists along the shores of the Mediterranean express their surprise at the insipidity of the fishes served up for food. This flavorless quality is easily accounted for. The fish around the shores of Spain, Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor are mostly caught in the quiet lagoons or calm waters of protected bays and gulfs, where they swim lazily and slowly, or bask indolently in the quietude. How different is the life of battling with storm and tempest on the part of the creatures that inhabit the rough waters around the Orkneys, the Shetlands, and the Hebrides of Scotland! Fish caught there is always delicious. 

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trails of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.'' James 1: 2-4

Adaptability

       As an illustration of adaptability to circumstances and the willingness to take chances in order to achieve results of any kind, of the men who open up a newer country to civilization, a recent incident is instructive:

       A little schooner reached Seattle from Nome, on Bering Sea long ago. She had made the voyage down during the most tempestuous season of the year in the North Pacific, and had survived storms which tried well-found steamships of the better class. Yet there was not a man on board, from the captain down, who had ever made a voyage at sea, save as passengers, on a boat running to Alaska. There were no navigating instruments on board save a compass and an obsolete Russian chart of the North Pacific.
       These men wanted to come out for the winter, and there was no other way within their means to accomplish the trip. They got hold of the schooner and they started with her. They were not seamen or navigators, simply handy men who were accustomed to doing things for themselves. This was out of the routine, but they did it.
       The men who made the voyage down from Nome in a little schooner without any previous knowledge of seamanship probably saw nothing remarkable in the feat. They were used to doing things that had to be done with the material that came to hand, whether they knew anything about how it should be done or not.  Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.'' Romans 12:2

Instant Action

       'I have seen ten years of young men who rush out into the world with messages, and when they find how deaf the world is, they think they must save their strength and get quietly up on some little eminence from which they can make themselves heard. "In a few years," reasons one of them, "I shall have gained a standing, and then I shall use my power for good." Next year comes, and with it a strange discovery. The man has lost his horizon of thought. His ambition has evaporated ; he has nothing to say. The great occasion that was to have let him loose on society was some little occasion that nobody saw, some moment in which he decided to obtain a standing. The great battle of a lifetime has been fought and lost over a silent scruple. But for this the man might, within a few years, have spoken to the nation with the voice of an archangel. What was he waiting for ? Did he think that the laws of nature were to be changed for him? Did he think that a "notice of trial" would be served on him? Or that some spirit would stand at his elbow and say, "Now's your time?" The time of trial is always. Now is the appointed time. And the compensation for beginning at once is that your voice carries at once. You do not need a standing. It would not help you. Within less time than you can see it, you will have been heard. The air is filled with sounding-boards and the echoes are flying. It is ten to one that you have but to lift your voice to be heard in California, and that from where you stand. A bold plunge will teach you that the visions of the unity of human nature which the poets have sung were not fictions of their imagination, but a record of what they saw. Deal with the world, and you will discover their reality. Speak to the world, and you will hear their echo.' John Jay Chapman.

"For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints..." Hebrews 4:12

Absorption

       The Italian mothers get for nurses the most beautiful persons, because they believe that by constantly looking into such faces the infant will unconsciously take on some of the beauty of the nurse.
       This may be a fiction; but we do know that where there is mutuality of interest and deep affection, persons thrown closely together, in the process of the years, take on traits each of the other.

''Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Philippians 4: 8-9

Certainty of the End of this World

        The Word of God holds up before mankind two great days-the first day and the last. The first was when He spake this earth into form; the last, when it shall be dissolved. The world we inhabit had a birth-day; it will have a death-day. As the body we occupy was born, and must die; so this planetary body had its cradle, and will have its grave. As our frames testify to the presence of diseases that can destroy them, so this goodly frame of earth testifies to the presence of diseases that could instantly and easily destroy it. Sir Charles Lyell said once, "In view of the activity of these elements, the wonder is, not that the earth will be dissolved, but that it exists for a moment."

''Immediately after the distress of those days ''the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.' Matthew 24:29

Daily Duty the Preparation for Judgment

        An eclipse of the sun happened in New England in 1806. The heavens became dark, and it seemed by many that the Day of Judgment was at hand. The Legislature of Connecticut happened then to be in session, and as the darkness loomed a member moved the adjournment of the House, on which an old legislator, Davenport of Stamford, rose up and said that if the last day had come, he desired to be found in his place and doing his duty; for which reasons he moved that candles should be brought, so that the House might proceed with its business. Waiting at the post of Duty was the maxim of this wise man, and he carried his motion!

"So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. 'Put this money to work,' he said, 'until I come back.' Luke 19:13

Similitude of the Last Judgment

        There is a machine in the Bank of England which receives sovereigns, as a mill receives grain, for the purpose of determining wholesale whether they are of full weight. As they pass through, the machinery by unerring laws throws all that are light to one side, and all that are of full weight to another. That process is a silent but solemn parable. Founded as it is upon the laws of nature, it affords the most vivid similitude of the certainty which characterises the judgment of the great Day. There are no mistakes or partialities to which the light may trust; the only hope lies in being of standard weight before they go it.