The man who knows himself least is likely to have a cheerful if groundless confidence in his own moral worth. Such a man has less trouble believing that he will inherit an eternity of bliss because his concepts are only quasi-Christian, being influenced strongly by chimney-corner scripture and old wives’ tales. He thinks of heaven … Continue reading “HEAVEN:
POPULAR BELIEFS ABOUT”
HEAVEN: LACK OF INTEREST IN; AFFLUENCE; SECOND COMING: LACK OF INTEREST IN
In the United States and Canada the middle class today possesses more earthly goods and lives in greater luxury than emperors and maharajas did a short century ago. And since the bulk of Christians comes from this class it is not difficult to see why the apocalyptic hope has all but disappeared from among us. … Continue reading “HEAVEN:
LACK OF INTEREST IN; AFFLUENCE; SECOND COMING: LACK OF INTEREST IN”
HEAVEN: LACK OF INTEREST IN
The corrosive action of unbelief in our day has worn down the Christian hope of heaven until there seems to be very little joy and expectation concerning the eternal inheritance which God has promised. I think we have a right to be startled by the thought that very few people really believe in heaven any … Continue reading “HEAVEN:
LACK OF INTEREST IN”
HEAVEN: GLORY OF
The true Christian may safely look forward to a future state that is as happy as perfect love wills it to be. Since love cannot desire for its object anything less than the fullest possible measure of enjoyment for the longest possible time, it is virtually beyond our power to conceive of a future as … Continue reading “HEAVEN:
GLORY OF”
HEART; INNER REALITY
Indeed it may be truthfully said that everything of lasting value in the Christian life is unseen and eternal. Things seen are of little real significance in the light of God’s presence. He pays small attention to the beauty of a woman or the strength of a man. With Him the heart is all that … Continue reading “HEART;
INNER REALITY”
HAPPINESS; TRIALS: ATTITUDE TOWARD
From the trials and triumphs of Paul, we gather, too, that happiness is really not indispensable to a Christian. There are many ills worse than heartaches. It is scarcely too much to say that prolonged happiness may actually weaken us, especially if we insist upon being happy as the Jews insisted upon flesh in the … Continue reading “HAPPINESS;
TRIALS: ATTITUDE TOWARD”
HAPPINESS; HOLINESS: FIRST NEED
That we are born to be happy is scarcely questioned by anyone. No one bothers to prove that fallen men have any moral right to happiness, or that they are in the long run any better off happy. The only question before the house is how to get the most happiness out of life. Almost … Continue reading “HAPPINESS;
HOLINESS: FIRST NEED”
HAPPINESS; ETERNITY; ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
We inhabit a world suspended halfway between heaven and hell, alienated from one and not yet abandoned to the other. By nature we are unholy and by practice unrighteous. That we are unhappy, I repeat, is of small consequence. Our first and imperative duty is to escape the corruption which is in the world as … Continue reading “HAPPINESS;
ETERNITY; ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE”
HAPPINESS; DISCOURAGEMENT; SPIRITUAL VICTORY
I am quite sure that people in the average church are not the happy people that they ought to be. The mood in most congregations is not a high, bright, happy key, but instead a low, growling, and gloomy key! Many people who are professing Christians try to retain a cordiality socially, while inwardly they … Continue reading “HAPPINESS;
DISCOURAGEMENT; SPIRITUAL VICTORY”
GREAT PREACHERS
I’m against the idea of putting the “big preachers” on tape and playing them back to the congregations that feel they are being starved by listening to “little preachers.” Fallacy, brethren—a thousand times, fallacy! If we could have the Apostle Paul on tape recordings and let him stand here and preach, he could do no … Continue reading “GREAT
PREACHERS”