Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. <\/i><\/p>\n
\u2014Jas. 1:27<\/i><\/p>\n
4830<\/b> Dannecker\u2019s New Desire<\/b><\/p>\n
In his earlier life Dannecker, the sculptor, gained for himself a wonderful reputation for his statues of Ariadne and the Greek goddesses. Approaching his prime he felt he ought to devote all his strength and time to the creation of a masterpiece, so he set about to carve a figure of the Christ. <\/p>\n
Twice he failed in his purpose, but finally he carved an image of Christ so perfect, so exquisitively beautiful that when people gazed upon it, they could only love and adore. Later Napoleon sent for him. \u201cCome to Paris,\u201d he said, \u201cand make for me a statue of Venus for the Louvre.\u201d But no such offer could tempt the heart of Dannecker. His reply was simple. \u201cSir, the hands that carved the Christ can never again carve a heathen goddess.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014The Wind Blows<\/i><\/p>\n
4831<\/b> They Were Down In Cellar<\/b><\/p>\n
Dr. Stuart Holden tells of a boy who was hearing from his father the story of Christ standing at the closed door, as depicted by Holman Hunt in his picture, \u201cThe Light of the World.\u201d As the father told the boy about the love and patience of this heavenly visitant, the little lad burst out with, \u201cFather, did He get in?\u201d \u201cWell, son, no, I don\u2019t think He did.\u201d \u201cBut why, Father? Did they not hear Him knock?\u201d \u201cWell, yes, boy, I think they heard Him knock, but I don\u2019t think He got in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The boy thought a little. \u201cFather, they could not have heard Him, could they? Perhaps they were living down in the cellar, and that\u2019s why.\u201d It may be that some who have heard the call of God have been living away down in the cellar, in the lowest of all life\u2019s levels of desire and have never realized its meaning and tremendous importance. <\/p>\n
\u2014J. A. Clark<\/p>\n
4832<\/b> Like Scrubbing Of Doctor\u2019s Hands<\/b><\/p>\n
The distinguished pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York, Dr. Maltbie Babcock was approached by a physician, a member of his congregation, who was concerned about his health. Handing Dr. Babcock some theater tickets he said, \u201cTake these. You need the recreation of going to this play.\u201d His pastor looked at them. Seeing they were tickets to a play of the kind he could not conscientiously attend, he said kindly, \u201cThank you, but I can\u2019t take them. I can\u2019t go.\u201d \u201cWhy not?\u201d the physician asked. <\/p>\n
\u201cDoctor, it\u2019s this way. You\u2019re a physician; a surgeon, in fact. When you operate, you scrub your hands meticulously until you are especially clean. You wouldn\u2019t dare operate with dirty hands. I\u2019m a servant of Christ. I deal with precious human souls. I wouldn\u2019t dare to do my service with a dirty life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014The Expositor<\/i><\/p>\n
4833<\/b> He Was Good For Nothing<\/b><\/p>\n
A group of children were comparing home situations. The banker\u2019s son said proudly, \u201cMy father gives me a dollar each week for being good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawyer\u2019s son said he received fifty cents. The widow\u2019s son complained that he only got twenty-five cents. <\/p>\n
Then the preacher\u2019s son spoke up. \u201cMy father\u2019s a minister,\u201d he stated matter-of-factly, \u201cso I\u2019m good for nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Gospel Herald<\/i><\/p>\n
4834<\/b> Later Known As \u201cPainter Of Peasants\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
In his earlier years, Jean Francois Millet, the great French painter, devoted himself almost entirely to the painting of nude figures, according to the prevailing practice of the day. But one day, chancing to hear the lustful conversation of some men examining a picture of his in a window, he resolved to turn his talents in some other direction. <\/p>\n
He and his wife were poor. It seemed to mean starvation to them both; but she consented, and he gave up nude art and began to paint peasant scenes. But what seemed to promise him only starvation brought him such fame as will doubtless prove immortal. He is known as \u201cThe Painter of Peasants,\u201d some of his most famous pictures being \u201cThe Sower,\u201d \u201cThe Gleaners,\u201d \u201cThe Shepherds,\u201d \u201cDeath and the Wood Cutter,\u201d and \u201cThe Angelus.\u201d This latter picture is one of the art treasures of the world. <\/p>\n
\u2014Current Anecdotes<\/p>\n
4835<\/b> Neophyte\u2019s Disenchantment<\/b><\/p>\n
Dore has a characteristically suggestive picture entitled \u201cThe Neophyte,\u201d the subject of which is the dismay of a young monk who too soon awakened to the truth that the cloister is not the house of pious meditation and holy life he had pictured in his imagination. <\/p>\n
He is seen at his duties in the choir. Two rows of Carthusian monks occupy the stalls. The tremendous force of the picture lies in the contrast between his fine, sensitive, young face, with eyes burning with spiritual enthusiasm, and the row of monks whose faces represent the effect of their vocation. <\/p>\n
As he looks at them, dismay, disenchantment, even terror, seize his heart. Here they are with their doting, weak, credulous, sensual, smoothy hypocritical countenances. And these are to be his companions; this is what he is to become. <\/p>\n
\u2014James Burns<\/p>\n
4836<\/b> Archbishop Prefers Hell<\/b><\/p>\n
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in the beginning of the twelfth century, said, \u201cIf I should see the shame of sin on the one hand, and the pain of hell on the other, and must of necessity choose one, I would rather be thrust into hell without sin than go into heaven with sin.\u201d<\/p>\n
4837<\/b> Epigram On Purity of Life<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022 I believe in getting into hot water, I think it keeps you clean. <\/p>\n
\u2014G. K. Chesterton<\/p>\n
SECULAR EVENTS APPLICABLE TOTHE CHRISTIAN LIFE<\/p>\n
4838<\/b> Meaning Of \u201cSincerely\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
The next time you receive a letter that carries the word \u201cSincerely\u201d above the signature of the writer, pause a moment and think of the origin of that word. As you may recall, it was first used as \u201csin cerely,\u201d meaning \u201cwithout wax,\u201d by ancient sculptors to mark a flawless piece of work. Wax was then commonly employed to conceal defects, to patch a chipped nose, a poorly-shaped finger, etc. Sincerely is too honest a word to be used loosely, but it is a good word when consciously employed. <\/p>\n
4839<\/b> Each Person Has 36 Odors<\/b><\/p>\n
Scientists at the Illinois Institute of Technology have found that the average person may emit at least thirty-six distinctive odors. But according to Dr. Andrew Dravnieks, director of the odor experiments, a person may give off more than a hundred separate odors. Learn how to identify the combination, and a person could be identified by \u201cscent prints\u201d just as fingerprints are used to identify people today. <\/p>\n
Dogs have always been better \u201csmellers\u201d than humans. A dog\u2019s nose is a million times better for smelling some things than a human nose. <\/p>\n
4840<\/b> Empress Josephine\u2019s Odor Permanently There<\/b><\/p>\n
The Chateau De Malmaison near Paris, long inhabited by Empress Josephine, still exudes the strong odor of musk with which the empress used to douse her person in life. The castle, now a museum, changed hands many times after Napoleon\u2019s wife died in it in 1814. But no effort of the subsequent owners has ever succeeded in eradicating the strong and penetrating scent which clings to the walls, imprinting the empress\u2019 personality on her residence forever. <\/p>\n
\u2014Selected<\/p>\n
4841<\/b> Napoleon\u2019s Perfumes<\/b><\/p>\n
Napoleon was so enamored of the sweet smell of success that he used 54 bottles of cologne a month and carried them with him to his battlefields. One would think that on a windy day the odor would have alerted the enemy of his presence. <\/p>\n
4842<\/b> Most Precious Bank Deposit<\/b><\/p>\n
Sofia, Bulgaria (UPI)\u2014Attar of Roses, kept on deposit by the Bulgarian government in banks in Zurich, Paris and New York, has risen steadily in price since World War II. <\/p>\n
At times it has rivalled the price of gold and platinum and now fetches more than $3,000 per kilo, making it one of Bulgaria\u2019s biggest foreign-exchange earners. <\/p>\n
Used for making perfumes, the value of Rose Attar or distilled rose essence has continued to climb because of the failure of chemists to produce a satisfactory synthetic substitute and the existence of only four producing nations in the world. <\/p>\n
The special climatic and soil conditions needed to make the delicate and precious Attar have defied most attempts to cultivate it commercially. <\/p>\n
Before the last war it was forbidden for anyone to export the seeds but now that it has been shown that it\u2019s almost impossible to produce the Attar elsewhere, the ban has been lifted. <\/p>\n
Artificial fertilizers and irrigation cannot be used and the roses must be hand-plucked. The harvesting of the blood-red crop is usually in May and the dew- filled flowers must be picked between 5 a. m. and 9 a. m. They are then fed into giant copper vats and the precious Attar is extracted and locked up, leaving rose water. It takes 2,000 roses to produce one gram of Attar. <\/p>\n
4843<\/b> The \u201cBlack\u201d Prince<\/b><\/p>\n
For centuries the effigy of the \u201cBlack Prince\u201d has stood in Canterbury Cathedral, but until a few years ago no one knew it was made of pure gold. Its blackness from centuries of grime and coating of protective enamel was appropriate to the memory of the fourteenth-century Edward, Prince of Wales, who fought so heroically in the wars with France and died before he assumed the throne. Recently the coating was removed, and Edward the \u201cBlack Prince,\u201d so-named because he wore black armour, stood forth a beautiful statue of gold! A critic has said, \u201cIt is the most magnificent tomb and statue in England.\u201d<\/p>\n
4844<\/b> Pure Color Always Beside Artist<\/b><\/p>\n
A visitor going into the studio of a great painter found on his easel some very fine gems, brilliant and sparkling. Asked why he kept them there, the painter replied: \u201cI keep them there to tone up my eyes. When I am working in pigments, insensibly the sense of color becomes weakened. By having these pure colors before me to refresh my eyes the sense of color is brought up again just as the musician by his tuning-fork brings his string up to the concert pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014J. H. Bomberger<\/p>\n
4845<\/b> Dirtiest Kid In Town<\/b><\/p>\n
A fashion store in Arlington, Texas, is sponsoring a contest to find the \u201cdirtiest\u201d kid in town. Award is $25.00. Two conditions: (1) Dirt must be naturally-accumulated and not applied; (2) Parents must admit their child is dirty. The contest aims to recognize those kids who like to look \u201cnatural.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Dallas Morning News<\/i><\/p>\n
4846<\/b> The Faded Flag<\/b><\/p>\n
Two cars of an excursion train from Kinston, North Carolina, plunged into an open drawbridge on the Elizabeth River\u2014and eighteen of the passengers were drowned or killed. The signal man insisted that he had displayed his red flag in time for the engineer to stop the train before entering the open draw. Other employees corroborated his assertion. <\/p>\n
The engineer however, contended that it was a white flag that was shown, and he took it as a signal that the road was clear. The flag was produced and the mystery solved. lt had faded and might have been mistaken for a white flag. <\/p>\n
4847<\/b> Totally Removing Opium<\/b><\/p>\n
In January 1919, the Chinese Government burned the entire remaining stock of Indian opium which it had bought. Every case of opium was opened and examined by experts in the presence of many Chinese and foreign witnesses, then taken from Shanghai by special launches under guard to the other side of the river, where four furnaces had been erected for the burning. <\/p>\n
The erection of these furnaces alone cost $9,000, and altogether over twenty million dollars\u2019 worth of opium was burned in them. <\/p>\n
Nor did the destruction end here, for even the material in which the balls were packed followed. Although the wooden cases themselves were at first put to one side, it was not long before a Chinese made the suggestion that even they should not be allowed any longer to exist. The necessary permission having been obtained, the wood, guilty only of having enclosed the drug, was consigned to the fire. <\/p>\n
At intervals the burning mass inside the furnaces was raked over with long rakes to assist combustion. Even the rakes were left for some minutes in the fire so that none of the opium, which in the heat had become soft and sticky, adhered to them. <\/p>\n
Chemical analysis was made of the ashes, which were found to contain no trace of opium, so thoroughly was the drug carbonized, the ashes being simply black carbon. However, no chances were taken even with harmless ashes; the residue from the burning was carefully guarded and bagged and will be taken out to sea by a revenue cruiser and there sunk. <\/p>\n
\u2014Prairie Overcomer<\/i><\/p>\n
4848<\/b> The \u201cMaiden\u201d Knight<\/b><\/p>\n
One of the knights of King Arthur\u2019s Round Table was Sir Galahad, called the \u201cMaiden Knight,\u201d because of his pure life. Tennyson reports him as saying, \u201cMy strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is power in purity. When the Holy Spirit comes upon a person to cleanse his heart, he also brings that one power\u2014power to resist temptation, to \u201cstand up and be counted,\u201d to do the right thing every time. <\/p>\n
\u2014Selected<\/p>\n
4849<\/b> Spider In Air Bubble<\/b><\/p>\n
In South America is a curious little spider which has its home under the water. It forms a bubble about itself in which, like a diving bell, it sinks to the bottom of a pond or river. It will remain there for hours, living below, and yet breathing the air from above. When it returns to the surface it is found to be perfectly dry. Not the slightest moisture will have penetrated its capsule. It is in the water and yet separate from it, maintained by contact with the beyond. <\/p>\n
4850<\/b> Wings Were High<\/b><\/p>\n
If you will go to the banks of a little stream, and watch the flies that come to bathe in it, you will notice that, while they plunge their bodies in the water, they keep their wings high out of the water; and, after swimming about a little while, they fly away with their wings unwet through the sunny air. <\/p>\n
\u2014J. Inglis<\/p>\n
4851<\/b> Pigeon Whlch Came In Clean<\/b><\/p>\n
I was in Massillon, Ohio, the other day. One of my friends invited me to his home. He has sixty-five pigeons, and he told me about them. He said, \u201cSee this bird. I\u2019ll point out just one. She flew the five hundred miles from St. Louis to Massillon non-stop!\u201d<\/p>\n
I said, \u201cNon-stop! Now, let\u2019s be done with this foolishness! You weren\u2019t there. How do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh,\u201d he said, \u201cBrother Roloff, there\u2019s a way to know. She came in clean.\u201d<\/p>\n
I said, \u201cWhat! Came in clean!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she came in, she had no maize chaff, no mud, on her feet; and had nothing on her to make me think she had stopped. She came in clean. She flew all day long. There was only one thing she thought of: \u201cI must get home; there\u2019ll be somebody standing in the back yard waiting for me.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
Vernon said, \u201cBrother Roloff, I really get a lot of joy out of watching for each pigeon to come home. I stand in the backyard and look at my watch, then up at the sky. I knew from which way she would be coming and I thought she would lead all the other birds. Directly l looked up, I saw those old tired wings coming in. Then she came in on the landing board, and I just walked her into her box. Then I set a big meal before her, with all the water she could drink.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014L. Roloff<\/p>\n
4852<\/b> Vase In The Room<\/b><\/p>\n
Hugh Martin in The Parables of the Gospels<\/i>, tells the story of a rather rough, uncultured man who fell in love with a beautiful vase in a shop window. He bought the vase and put it on the mantelpiece in his room. There it became a kind of judgment on its surroundings. He had to clean up the room to make it worthy of the vase. The curtains looked dingy beside it. The old chair with the stuffing coming out of the seat would not do. The wallpaper and the paint needed renewing. Gradually the whole room was transformed. <\/p>\n
\u2014O. R. Powell<\/p>\n
4853<\/b> Beautiful Butterfly Feeds On Dung<\/b><\/p>\n
There is a dainty, bright-blue butterfly of less than an inch wingspread that has jewel-like gold spots on its wings. It is very lovely to behold, but it has a disgusting habit and diet. Instead of soaring heavenward in sunlight as it might, it descends to dung and feeds there. <\/p>\n
\u2014Selected<\/p>\n
4854<\/b> Ermine Would Rather Face Dogs<\/b><\/p>\n
Such pride does the little white ermine take in his spotless coat, he permits nothing to soil it in the slightest degree. Hunters, well-acquainted with this fact, take unsportsmanlike advantage of him. They do not set traps but daub filth within and around the entrance to his home. As the dogs are loosed and the chase begins, the little animal turns to his one place of refuge. But on seeing the filth, turns to face the yelping dogs, thinking it is better to be stained by blood than sully his white coat! <\/p>\n
\u2014Mrs. Clarence Jones<\/p>\n
4855<\/b> Stables Of Augeas<\/b><\/p>\n
The stables of Augeas, King of Elis, in Greece are legendary. In these stables he had kept 3,000 oxen and the stalls had not been cleansed for thirty years. When Hercules was appointed to clean these stables, he caused two rivers to run through them. <\/p>\n
Thus to cleanse the Augean stables means to clear away an accumulated mass of corruption, moral, religious, physical, or legal. <\/p>\n
\u2014E. Cobham Brewer<\/p>\n
4856<\/b> On Book Arrangement<\/b><\/p>\n
Madame de Genlis carried her purity of manners to such an extent, that she reprimanded the bookseller who had the arrangement of her library, for having placed books written by male and female authors on the same shelf. <\/p>\n
4857<\/b> On Becoming Invisible<\/b><\/p>\n
In an old Grecian myth, Gyges had a ring which enabled the possessor of it to be invisible to all. Many would wear the ring of Gyges if they could; and if they did, their lives would be quite different from what the world sees. In the subterranean chamber of imagination, what do you worship? Before what pictures do you bow? Do you do in the mind and imagination what you fear to do in the flesh? Are words spoken there which you dare not speak with the lips? There do you scorn and ridicule one whom you publicly praise or flatter? In this realm do you ever wish another out of your way? What are the pictures on the walls of imagination? <\/p>\n
\u2014C. E. Macartney<\/p>\n
4858<\/b> Epigram On Purity of Life<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022 Someone has said: \u201cIt is not enough for a gardener to love flowers; he must also hate weeds.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 You can find the world\u2019s shortest sermon on a thousand traffic signs: \u201cKeep Right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Amarillo News<\/p>\n
\u2022 The greatest security against sin is to be shocked at its presence. <\/p>\n
\u2014Carlyle<\/p>\n
\u2022 There was a Scotchman who had a dress shirt which he wore on special occasions. After he had used it several times, he would question its cleanness and take it to the window for better light. His wife\u2019s words were very wise: \u201cIf it\u2019s doubtful, it\u2019s dirty!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014V. Raymond Edman<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Teacher was checking her student\u2019s knowledge of proverbs. <\/p>\n
\u201cCleanliness is next to what?\u201d she asked. <\/p>\n
A small boy replied with real feeling: \u201cImpossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Caesar divorced the unfortunate Pemeia; but he expressed no opinion as to the extent of her criminality. He gave as his reason for separating from her, not that she was guilty, but that Caesar\u2019s wife must be above suspicion. <\/p>\n
\u2014Froude<\/p>\n
See also:<\/b> Separation ; Worldly ; Watchfulness ; Rom. 13:12; I Jn. 3:2, 3; Rev. 14:4.<\/p>\n
Q <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. \u2014Jas. 1:27 4830 Dannecker\u2019s New Desire In his earlier life Dannecker, the sculptor, gained for himself a wonderful reputation for his statues of Ariadne and the Greek … Continue reading “PURITY OF LIFE”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}