Robert Stuart - MacArthur | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. ZEALOUS SERVICE FOR GOD. "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." Kom. 12:11. The Bible is an intensely practical book. It is full of that most uncommon sense which we call common sense. It does not contain specific rules for the government of our conduct in all the varied relations of life. Manifestly it could not. It is said that the Arabian commentators of Mohammed, being desirous of furnishing a rule for every situation in life, prepared a book containing seventy-five thousand directions; but it was soon found that cases occurred for which no rule of the entire number was applicable. The Bible follows another method; it lays down broad principles of everlasting righteousness, and it gives us wisdom to understand and grace to apply these principles. These principles, like all God's commandments, are'" exceeding broad." They confront the merchant and his customer, the employer and the employed, the physician and his patient, the lawyer and his client, the pastor and his people. The practical character of the Bible is finely illustrated in the relation between this chapter and the one which precedes it. In that chapter we have a statement of some of the important doctrines of Christianity; in this chapter we have a dissertation on some of the important duties of Christianityduties toward ourselves, toward our neighbor, and toward God. Religion is intended toreach every relation in life; its aim is to beautify and to glorify life in its lowliest as in its loftiest aspects. It is not a series of speculations; it is rather a system of obligations. It is designed not simply to inform our minds, but also and chiefly to reform our lives. We have, to this end, in this chapter, many pithy and practical directions. It is the application o...