- Mar 9, 2020
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‘Jesus said, Take ye away the stone … Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.’ John 11:39, 44
suggested further reading: Matthew 15:1–20
The manufacture of new commandments is a very fascinating occupation for some people. You must not do this or that or the other, till one feels like a baby in reins. I find that ten commandments are more than I can keep without a deal of grace, and I do not mean to pay the slightest regard to any beyond. Liberty is the genius of our faith, nor do we mean to barter it away for the esteem of modern Pharisees. They say to us, ‘Thou shalt not laugh on a Sunday. Thou shalt never create a smile in the House of God. Thou shalt walk to public services as though thou wert going to the whipping post, and thou shalt take care when thou preachest that thou dost always make thy discourse as dull as it can possibly be.’ We do not reverence these precepts. Anything which is of God we honour, but not the sickening decrees of cant. We are men, not slaves. Our manhood is not annihilated by grace. We think, speak and act for ourselves, and are not the serfs of custom and fashion. We speak out our minds even when propriety is shocked and respectability is enraged. I would always give to young men this piece of advice: ‘quit yourselves like men’; let nobody have to say that your religion is mamby-pamby and your conversation affected. Do not be always sugaring every person you speak of as ‘Dear this’ and ‘Dear that,’ for this savours of nauseous hypocrisy. Do not whine or turn up your eyes or affect to be very devout. Be holy, but not showy, true, but not obtrusive. Be men, be manly, be Christians, be like Christ. He was the very highest type of man; you never see anything stilted or unnatural in him; he is always himself, transparent, outspoken, brave, honest, true and manly.
for meditation: Manliness is required not only in physical battles (1 Samuel 4:9; 2 Samuel 10:12), but also in spiritual warfare (1 Timothy 6:12); ‘in understanding be men’ (1 Corinthians 14:20). ‘Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong’ (1 Corinthians 16:13).
suggested further reading: Matthew 15:1–20
The manufacture of new commandments is a very fascinating occupation for some people. You must not do this or that or the other, till one feels like a baby in reins. I find that ten commandments are more than I can keep without a deal of grace, and I do not mean to pay the slightest regard to any beyond. Liberty is the genius of our faith, nor do we mean to barter it away for the esteem of modern Pharisees. They say to us, ‘Thou shalt not laugh on a Sunday. Thou shalt never create a smile in the House of God. Thou shalt walk to public services as though thou wert going to the whipping post, and thou shalt take care when thou preachest that thou dost always make thy discourse as dull as it can possibly be.’ We do not reverence these precepts. Anything which is of God we honour, but not the sickening decrees of cant. We are men, not slaves. Our manhood is not annihilated by grace. We think, speak and act for ourselves, and are not the serfs of custom and fashion. We speak out our minds even when propriety is shocked and respectability is enraged. I would always give to young men this piece of advice: ‘quit yourselves like men’; let nobody have to say that your religion is mamby-pamby and your conversation affected. Do not be always sugaring every person you speak of as ‘Dear this’ and ‘Dear that,’ for this savours of nauseous hypocrisy. Do not whine or turn up your eyes or affect to be very devout. Be holy, but not showy, true, but not obtrusive. Be men, be manly, be Christians, be like Christ. He was the very highest type of man; you never see anything stilted or unnatural in him; he is always himself, transparent, outspoken, brave, honest, true and manly.
for meditation: Manliness is required not only in physical battles (1 Samuel 4:9; 2 Samuel 10:12), but also in spiritual warfare (1 Timothy 6:12); ‘in understanding be men’ (1 Corinthians 14:20). ‘Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong’ (1 Corinthians 16:13).
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