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.

Need of Watchfulness

        During the French and Indian War, a period of seven years, the English and French fought against each other in North America, both of them used the Native Americans wickedly to help them fight in battle. The English army was encamped on a certain plain: it was autumn and the nights were long. The sentinels were set all around the camp, with their watchfires, as usual, to give alarm in case of any attack. One morning the sentinel at a particular post was found dead, stabbed in the back with a native's knife. Next morning the same thing happened. On the third morning also the sentinel was found dead. A young officer volunteered to take this post of danger, and in the night he saw, as he thought, one of the black hogs common in that country, rooting amongst the trees. As he watched, it drew closer and closer to him, and at last he fired at it. With a wild yell a native sprang up and fell dead on the spot. He had disguised himself in a hogskin, and so contrived to get behind the unsuspecting sentinels and stab them. 

"And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch .  After two days was the feast of the Passover, and of the unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death." Mark 13:37 and Mark 14:1

Thou Shalt NOT Preach This!

       To all ministers of God's words, God's Holy Word (The Bible), which may not , unfortunately be your own... It brings me great anxiety and grief that so many of you have fallen by the wayside given the political climate of this country. And for those of you who have a problem with me because I am a woman posting this opinion, look to the scriptures to see Deborah and the necessity of her life's struggle to understand where I am at this moment in my own life... I would have loved to have lived in a world where I could in good faith, live for my own interests without the burden of meddling in yours. I do not covet the minister's life; indeed I am very familiar with it. However, too many preachers have been silent for far too long.

1. You shall not preach to the masses that it is o.k. to worship at the altars of lesser gods. If God delivers your congregants from any other belief system or addiction, He does not want his flock to return to these over and over and over. He wants the cycle of addiction broken and he wants his sheep to worship only at a righteous and Holy altar. A listing of verses for those pastors who no longer understand that God, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit are Holy. (Leviticus 11:45, Deuteronomy 32:4, 1 John 3:3, 1 Peter 1:15-16 , 2 Timothy 1:9-10)
2. You shall not preach to the masses that it is o.k. to make idols of anything that is not God.
3. You shall not preach to the masses that it is o.k. to call on the name of the Lord in order to entertain or insult the most Holy God.
4. You shall not preach to the masses that it is o.k. to forget the Lord God on the day that has been set aside in the week to remember His blessings, to pray and worship and to also rest from their earth-bound labor.
5. You shall not preach that it is o.k. to forget to honor one's parents. Treat them with kindness and mercy until their deaths so that their children may prosper in the place of their birth or within the blessings God has given for their security on earth.
6. You shall not preach that it is o.k. to murder others. That includes people that you don't agree with or like.
7. You shall not preach that it is o.k. to commit adultery just because you or other people haven't learned to control your/their flesh. 
8. You shall not preach that it is o.k. to steal anything that doesn't belong to you. Give unto God what belongs to Him for the safe preservation of a soul. Give unto the government what belongs to them for the safe preservation of order. Mark 12:17, Matthew 22, Luke 20.
9. You shall not preach that it is o.k. to lie about your neighbor's beliefs or actions! Nor is it o.k. to lie about your own. Bearing false testimony is a sin against God.
10. You shall not preach that it is o.k. to look at your neighbor's stuff and want it enough to steal it for yourself. Ask God for His favor, if it is just and beneficial according to God's will, He will supply your needs. Your neighbor is everybody human on the planet.

and remember . . . 

Jesus has said, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.'' This kind of ''love'' is called respect in English translated from the Greek.