Category: EXPOSITIONS

    ‘… The mighty God of Jacob. From thence is the Shepherd,    the stone of Israel.’–GENESIS xlix. 24.A slight alteration in the rendering will probably bring out themeaning of these words more correctly. The last two clauses shouldperhaps not be read as a separate sentence. Striking out the supplement‘is,’ and letting the previous sentence run on to…

          ‘Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed          for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord,          my dearly beloved.’–PHIL. iv. 1.The words I have chosen set forth very simply and beautifully the bondwhich knit Paul and these Philippian Christians together, and the chiefdesire which his Apostolic love had for them. I venture to apply them…

    ‘All that enter in to perform the service, to do the    work in the tabernacle.’    NUM. iv. 23.These words occur in the series of regulations as to the functions ofthe Levites in the Tabernacle worship. The words ‘to perform theservice’ are, as the margin tells us, literally, to ‘war the warfare.’Although it may be difficult to say…

    ‘And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him,    saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you,    and with your seed after you; And with every living    creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle,    and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that    go out of the ark, to…

          ‘Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in          me first Jesus Christ might show forth all          long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should          hereafter believe.’–1 TIM. i. 16.The smallest of God’s creatures, if it were only a gnat dancing in asunbeam, has a right to have its well-being considered as an end ofGod’s dealings. But no…

          ‘Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, and          mark them which so walk even as ye have us for an          ensample. For many walk, of whom I told you often,          and now tell you even weeping, that they are the          enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is          perdition, whose God is the belly, and whose glory          is in their…

          ‘But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent          beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds          should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in          Christ.’–2 COR. xi. 3.The Revised Version, amongst other alterations, reads, ‘the simplicitythat is _towards_ Christ.’The inaccurate rendering of the Authorised Version is responsible for amistake in the meaning of these words,…

          ‘Giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet          to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints          in light.’–COL. i. 12 (R.V.)It is interesting to notice how much the thought of inheritance seems tohave been filling the Apostle’s mind during his writing of Ephesians andColossians. Its recurrence is one of the points of contact between them.For…

          ‘The peace of God, which passeth all          understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds          through Christ Jesus.’–PHIL. iv. 7.The great Mosque of Constantinople was once a Christian church,dedicated to the Holy Wisdom. Over its western portal may still be read,graven on a brazen plate, the words, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labourand are heavy-laden, and I…

    ‘… Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and    that will by no means clear the guilty….’–EXODUS xxiv. 7.The former chapter tells us of the majesty of the divine revelation asit was made to Moses on ‘the mount of God.’ Let us notice that,whatever was the visible pomp of the external Theophany to the senses,the true revelation…