in our hearts, is atheism.32
It deserves more than passing notice, that the modern denial of God may be reduced to the same ultimate principle as the worship of Baal. For, if the great First Cause – God – God as the Creator – be denied, then the only mode of accounting for the origin of all things is to trace it to the operation of forces in matter. And what really is this but a deification of nature.33
For, we confidently assert and challenge experiment of it, that disbelief in a God, or materialism, involves infinitely more difficulties, and that at every step and in regard to all things, than the faith of the Christian.34
For myself, I cannot understand the rascaldom which underlies writings and lectures intended to make men atheists. If everything is only mud – including, of course, such writings and arguments – what can be the purpose of them? Only that of self-display, and, for myself, I do not admire even the largest accumulation of mud standing out from circumnatant [sic] mud.35
Atonement
On the shedding of blood, which was of the greatest importance – since, according to the Talmud, ‘whenever the blood touches the altar the offerer is atoned for’ – followed the ‘flaying’ of the sacrifice and the ‘cutting up into his pieces.’ All this had to be done in an orderly manner, and according to certain rules, the apostle adopting the sacrificial term when he speaks of ‘rightly dividing the word of truth’ (2 Timothy 2:15).36
But even the need of such a Day of Atonement, after the daily offerings, the various festive offerings, and the private and public sin-offerings all the year round, showed the insufficiency of all such sacrifices, while the very offerings of the Day of Atonement proclaimed themselves to be only temporary and provisional, ‘imposed until the time of reformation.’37
The sin-offering – This is the most important of all sacrifices. It made atonement for the person of the offender, whereas the trespass-offering only atoned for one special offence . . . However, in reference to [both of them], the Rabbinical principle must be kept in view – that they only atoned in case of real repentance.38
Babylonian Exile
It were a one sided view to regard the Babylonish exile as only punishment for Israel’s sin. There is, in truth, nothing in all God’s dealings in history exclusively punitive. That were a merely negative element. But there is always a positive element also of actual progress; a step forward, even though in the taking of it something should have to be crushed. And this step forward was the development of the Kingdom of God in its relation to the world.39
Bar Kochba
His designation as Bar Cochab (the son of a star) dates from his claims to be the long-promised Messiah, and the application to him of the prophetic passage in Numbers 24:17 . . . It is indeed indescribably sad to see a man, weighed down under the burden of years, and endowed with the earnestness, enthusiasm, and generosity of an Akiba, support the claims of so vulgar and clumsy an imposter as Bar Cochab, or Bar Cosab (the son of a lie), as his disappointed followers called him at a later period.40
Such was the Messiah of Israel’s choice, whom they now prepared to support. Only one party in the land opposed a passive resistance to the “son of a lie.” It is touching to have again and again to chronicle the trials, the patience, and the faith of the Jewish Christians. This small and despised number of disciples neither could nor would own the deceiver’s claims.41
Belief
There is not a more common, nor can there be a more fatal mistake in religion or religious movements than to put confidence in mere negations, or to expect from them lasting results for good. A negation without a corresponding affirmation – indeed, if it is not the outcome of it – is of no avail for spiritual purposes. We must speak, because we believe; we deny that which is false only because we affirm and cherish the opposite truth.42
Belonging to God
We are God’s property: blood-bought, love-sought, and Spirit-brought.43
The meanest of God’s saints is one of God’s saints.44
I must remember that holiness is the badge of adoption. God not only takes us to be His children, but makes us to be His children.45
The Lord gives us not only adoption, but ‘the spirit of adoption,’ the family likeness with the family privileges, and not merely the name but the character of children.46
If we regard anything as our own, then surely all is still our own, and we are not His who bought us with His precious blood.47
There is infinite comfort and hope even in the fact of being God’s creature – the work of His Hand.48
Bethlehem
Sheltered from scenes of strife and semi-heathenism, the little village of Bethlehem had retained among its inhabitants the purity of their ancestral faith and the simplicity of primitive matters. Here, embosomed amidst the hills of Judah, where afterwards David pastured his father’s flocks, and where shepherds heard angels hail the birth of “David’s greater Son,” we seem to feel once again the healthful breath of Israel’s spirit, and we see what moral life it was capable of fostering alike in the individual and in the family.49
Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22)
As we remember that on this mountain-top the temple of the Lord afterwards stood, and that from it rose the smoke of accepted sacrifices, we can understand all the better what the inspired writer adds by way of explanation: As it is said to this day, “In the mount where Jehovah is seen,” – where he seeth and is seen, - whence also the name of Moriah is derived.50
Upon Isaac, also, the event had a most important bearing. For when he resisted not his father, and allowed himself to be bound and laid on the altar, he entered into the spirit of Abraham, he took upon himself his faith, and thus showed himself truly the heir to the promises.51
Blessings
And the experience of mercy received in the past is pledge of mercies to be received in the future . . . a prayer heard in the past is pledge of prayers to be heard in the future. Each blessing we receive is but one link; a link fastened on to other links, the whole forming the chain of sovereign love by which Christ binds a soul unto Himself.52
We are neither to be indifferent to earthly blessings, nor to be dependent upon them for our happiness. But we are to trust our Father, alike when He gives and when He withholds, and still to rejoice in Him.53
But the interposition of God, although direct, is not of the nature of magic. If any success granted by Him is to be complete, it implies moral conditions on our part. To put it otherwise: the full reception of God’s benefits has for its condition full receptivity on the part of man.54
Blood Atonement
In accordance with this [Leviticus 17:11] we quote the following Jewish interpreters. Rashi says: ‘The soul of every creature is bound up in its blood; therefore I gave it to atone for the soul of man – that one should come and atone for the other.’ Similarly, Iben Ezra writes: ‘One soul is a substitute for the other.’ And Moses Ben Nachmann: “I gave the soul for you on the altar, that the soul of the animal should be an atonement for the soul of the man.’55
Burdens
It is not the burden which weighs us down; it is when we have to bear it alone, and so long as we bear it alone.56
To
