‘We pray always for you, that our God would count          you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the          good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of          faith with power; 12. That the name of our Lord          Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in          Him.’–2 THESS. i. 11, 12.In the former letter to the Church of…

          ‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,          13. For it is God which worketh in you both to          will and to do of His good pleasure.’–PHIL. ii.          12, 13.‘What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder!’ Here are,joined together, in the compass of one practical exhortation, the truthswhich, put asunder, have been the war-cries…

          ‘Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on          the breastplate of faith and love; and for a          helmet the hope of salvation.’–1 THESS. v. 8.This letter to the Thessalonians is the oldest book of the NewTestament. It was probably written within something like twenty years ofthe Crucifixion; long, therefore, before any of the Gospels…

    ‘Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding    great reward.’    GENESIS XV. 1.Abram was now apparently about eighty-five years old. He had beenfourteen years in Palestine, and had, for the only time in his life,quite recently been driven to have recourse to arms against aformidable league of northern kings, whom, after a swift forced marchfrom…

          ‘Them that are without.’–COL. iv. 5.That is, of course, an expression for the non-Christian world; theoutsiders who are beyond the pale of the Church. There was a very broadline of distinction between it and the surrounding world in the earlyChristian days, and the handful of Christians in a heathen country felta great gulf between them…

    ‘Enoch walked with God,’–GENESIS v. 22.    ‘Walk before Me.’–GENESIS xvii. 1.    ‘Ye shall walk after the Lord your God.’–DEUTERONOMY xiii. 4.You will have anticipated, I suppose, my purpose in doing what I veryseldom do–cutting little snippets out of different verses and puttingthem together. You see that these three fragments, in theirresemblances and in their differences, are equally…

          ‘That I may have whereof to glory in the day of          Christ, that I did not run in vain neither labour          in vain. 17. Yea, and if I am offered upon the          sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and          rejoice with you all. 18. And in the same manner          do ye also joy, and rejoice with me.’–PHIL. ii.          16-18…

          ‘Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as          there was a readiness to will so there may be a          performance also.’–2 COR. viii. 11.The Revised Version reads: ‘But now complete the doing also; that asthere was the readiness to will, so there may be the completion also outof your ability.’ A collection of money for the…

          ‘I will therefore that men pray every where,          lifting up holy hands without wrath and          doubting.’–1 TIM. ii. 8.The context shows that this is part of the Apostle’s directory forpublic worship, and that, therefore, the terms of the first clause areto be taken somewhat restrictedly. They teach the duty of the malemembers of the Church to take…

          ‘In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any          thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh          by love.’–GAL. v. 6.It is a very singular instance of imaginative misreading of plain factsthat the primitive Church should be held up as a pattern Church. Theearly communities had apostolic teaching; but beyond that, they seem tohave been in no respect above, and…