The Prized Treasures

-
Image
  “Will the prized treasures of today always be the cheap trifles of the day before? Will rows of our willow-pattern dinner-plates be ranged above the chimneypieces of the great in the years 2000 and odd? Will the white cups with the gold rim and the beautiful gold flower inside (species unknown), that our Sarah Janes now break in sheer light-heartedness of spirit, be carefully mended, and stood upon a bracket, and dusted only by the lady of the house? . . . .   The “sampler” that the eldest daughter did at school will be spoken of as “tapestry of the Victorian era,” and be almost priceless. The blue-and-white mugs of the present-day roadside inn will be hunted up, all cracked and chipped, and sold for their weight in gold, and rich people will use them for claret cups; and travellers from Japan will buy up all the “Presents from Ramsgate,” and “Souvenirs of Margate,” that may have escaped destruction, and take them back to Jedo as ancient English curios.” Jerome K. Jerome, “T...

Ear-itch, or Heartburn?

-
“’We don’t want sermons,’ say the program chairmen of many religious meetings today, as well as many editors of religious periodicals and leaders of youth meetings. Sermons are no longer a drawing card. ‘Put on a picture or have a celebrity in the pulpit to pack the house.’ Then maybe the preacher can give a gospel message. But plain, old-fashioned preaching cannot stand on its own, to hear some people tell it. It must have a crutch to get along.

My Bible does not say, ‘How shall they hear without a brass band?’ It says, ‘How shall they hear without a preacher?’ If preaching won’t do God’s work, nothing else will. We have fallen upon all sorts of carnal devices to pack the house with the argument that the end justifies the means. It is an admission that we have failed to follow the New Testament pattern. God’s method is to use a Spirit-filled church. Rather than pay the price of being Spirit-filled, we substitute false fire and worldly expedients.

It is not the duty of the preacher to fill the house; it is his business to fill the pulpit. The church members should fill the house by being there and bringing others. Lacking a Spirit-filled membership, fervent soul winning and a separated testimony, we are hard put to devise other means to secure the desired ends. Of course, the preacher may also be at fault in the state of his heart or the content of his message, and he may need to build a fire under the pulpit in order to warm up the church. But preaching is still the appointed means; and although we are in a day when men will not endure sound doctrine but have ‘ear-itch’ instead of heartburn, let us not forget that the command in that very connection is “Preach the word” and that God manifests His Word and His will through preaching.

Let us hope and pray that the people of God will grow weary of stones and seek bread. We do not better ourselves by aspersions cast on great preaching or by lowrating giants of a past generation; we could use a few today. “

—Vance Havner, condensed from The Standard

Popular posts from this blog

Rock Me, Epictetus!

-
Image
“Keep constant guard over your perceptions, for it is no small thing you are protecting, but your respect, trustworthiness and steadiness, peace of mind, freedom from pain and fear, in a word your freedom. For what would you sell these things?” EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.3.6 b –8 
Read more

The Smooth-flowing Life

-
Image
Legend has it that the astronomer Ptolemy (1st century A.D.) suggested that falling stars were caused by the gods moving in the heavens, thus knocking stars out of their places. Somehow people reasoned that that if the gods were moving, they must be getting close to earth so they would lift their "prayers" or "wishes" (literally, "desires") whenever they saw the stars falling in hopes the gods would notice and grant a favorable answer. But how does one wish on falling star? Once you see it, it's gone before the wish or prayer can be made! The answer is simple: meteor shower. That's how to get your wish. Mrs. Ann Hodges had a wish fall right into her lap. Sort of. In 1954 Mrs. Hodges was sleeping on the couch when a 8 1/2 pound meteorite fell through her house and into her living room where it bounced off the radio and struck her left hip leaving her with a bruise. Not sure what she was wishing, but that's not how to do it. Epictetus hel...
Read more