Category: EXPOSITIONS

          ‘From you sounded out the word of God.’–1 THESS.          i. 8.This is Paul’s first letter. It was written very shortly after his firstpreaching of the Gospel in the great commercial city of Thessalonica.But though the period since the formation of the Thessalonian Church wasso brief, their conversion had already become a matter of commonnotoriety; and the…

    ‘And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward    Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried    there all night, because the sun was set; and he took    of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows,     and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and    behold a ladder set up on…

          ‘Have ye suffered so many things in vain?’–GAL.          iii 4.          Preached on the last Sunday of the year.This vehement question is usually taken to be a reminder to the fickleGalatians that their Christian faith had brought upon them muchsuffering from the hands of their unbelieving brethren, and to imply anexhortation to faithfulness to the Gospel lest they…

          ‘Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.’–2          COR. ix. 15.It seems strange that there should ever have been any doubt as to whatgift it is which evokes this burst of thanksgiving. There is but one ofGod’s many mercies which is worthy of being thus singled out. There isone blazing central sun which shines out amidst…

    ‘And Moses said unto Hobab … Come thou with us, and    we will do thee good: for the Lord hath spoken good    concerning Israel.’–NUM. x. 29.There is some doubt with regard to the identity of this Hobab. Probablyhe was a man of about the same age as Moses, his brother-in-law, and ason of Jethro, a wily Kenite,…

    ‘And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east    of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the    west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar    unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.’    GENESIS xii. 3.These are the two first acts of Abram in the land of Canaan.1.…

    ‘They went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into    the land of Canaan they came.’–GENESIS xii. 5.The reference of these words is to Abram’s act of faith in leavingHaran and setting out on his pilgrimage. It is a strange narrative of ajourney, which omits the journey altogether, with its weary marches,privations, and perils,…

          Having therefore these promises . . . let us cleanse          ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and          spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of          God.’–2 COR. vii. 1.It is often made a charge against professing Christians that theirreligion has very little to do with common morality. The taunt hassharpened multitudes of gibes and been echoed in all…

          ‘Now the Lord of Peace Himself give you peace          always, by all means. The Lord be with you          all.’–2 THESS. iii. 16.We have reached here the last of the brief outbursts of prayer whichcharacterise this letter, and bear witness to the Apostle’s affectionfor his Thessalonian converts. It is the deepening of the ordinaryJewish formula of meeting and…

    ‘And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come    down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves    together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us    gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses,    the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt,    we wot not what is become of him.…