Exhortation
The mental habit of leaning on God
will save you many a care and secure you many a joy.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
Build by whatever plan Caprice decrees,
With what materials, on what ground you please;
But know that Israel's Hope alone shall stand,
Which Paul proclaimed in Rome to ev'ry man.
Brother Robert Roberts
On title page Elpis Israel
4th edition
1878
~
The man anxious to be “wise unto salvation”
will strive to master the historical part of the Word of God…..
not only the nominally historical books,
but the prophetic records in which is found the inner history of Israel,
the unveiling of God's mind in reference to the transactions of the nation of Israel.
Here to read what God thought of them, and intends with them,
is to ascend as it were from the arena of human strife to the cool elevated pinnacle of God's Almighty scan.
This altitude is so much above the natural grasp of the human mind
that we have to go there often to become accustomed to it.
An occasional visit to the exalted summit of which we speak is not adequate to our spiritual wants.
The knowledge of God must be constantly streaming through the mind.
The study of the word of God must be incessant…
Brother Robert Roberts
The Ambassador
1864
~
It is ours to hold forth the light,
And to be lights in the dark places of this midnight hour,
if all our labor should prove ineffectual upon the outside world.
But we labor not without hope,
for we are assured by brother Paul that our labor in the Lord shall not be in vain,
and we may find (though it now appears not) when the great muster day comes,
that some of those who shall be accounted jewels have been developed and polished by our humble endeavors.
Jane Roberts
1883
~
The crown waits
for those whose obedience in days of evil proves them fit.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
Personal love will exist
in the ratio of the love existing for the truth itself.
You only have to pass in review the different classes of people
professing the truth to see the truth of this.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
A man deliberately makes a choice. A man's religion should never be a Sunday religion, or a deathbed religion.
It should not be the kind of sentiment that depends on tragedy; that is melted by the sun or blown away by the breezes of the mountaintop.
It should be a matter if wisdom, deep set, logical, real- a something that is continually present, and takes full and calm possession of the mind.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
Are we sufficiently wise to love Him more than the things the world loves,
and more than the things that we loved in the days of our ignorance?
Upon the answers to these questions, which will be infallibly given one day soon,
will hang the destiny of the great matter.
Brother Robert Roberts
Seasons of Comfort
~
Little sparks sometimes cause big conflagrations.
Small leaks sink great ships.
Beware of the sparks: look after the leaks,
before they get beyond control.
1887 Christadelphian
~
Hatred is a quick propagator.
Never sow the seed if you can help it.
Kindness does not take quick root - sow it nevertheless.
Few know not which shall prosper- this or that;
and if it all fail,
you have the certainty that God will approve your efforts,
however feeble, to overcome evil with good.
The Christadelphian
1887
~
Brethren, whether rich or poor,
should all remember
that when they are redeemed from the sins of the past,
in putting on the Christ-robe of righteousness,
through the obedience of faith,
they are "a purchased people:'
and that when so purchased,
the purchaser bought all they possess;
so that they are no longer their own,
but property of another.
Now, when a man purchases a servant,
he does not buy him to sit all his days
with a bushel on his head in complacent quietude.
A slave owns nothing, neither himself, nor anything belonging to self
before he came a slave.
Such is the relation of brethren to Christ,
their Lord and Master.
A complacently quiescent Christian is one who will never inherit the kingdom,
though his faith be ever so orthodox,
or his baptism ever so valid.
He is an unprofitable concealer of his Master's property in a napkin.
Brother John Thomas
in a letter to brother Roberts
My Days and My Ways pg 40
~
Our salvation is not to be obtained other than in fear and trembling.
There is no time for pleasure-hunting.
The service of Christ is now, as it always has been, a course of self denial.
Analyze most mens hearts, and self-comfort, self-prosperity, self-honor, self-pleasure,
in some form or another, will be found the directing motive.
Christ is made to wait on Mr. Self's convenience.
It is a dangerous policy; for,
without respect of persons,
the Father, who judgeth every one's work,
will shortly ask of the whole program,
"Did ye it for Me?"
Christ stands now at the door and knocks...
Brother Robert Roberts
~
Why do we fail?
Sometimes we fail to "behold" this.
Many things help cloud it from our view-
the natural weakness of the flesh,
personal shortcomings, preoccupations with the things of this life,
physical and mental weariness, trials of various kinds.
When we thus fail,
we deny ourselves the strength,
comfort and help that true worship will provide.
We try to fight the battle of life in our own strength,
and we wonder why we fail.
Therefore, the invitation of the Psalmist provides a means of real help in the fight of faith:
"O come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before Yahweh our Maker!"
Psa. 95:6
H.P Mansfield
In Defense of the Faith
~
We must take our example from the good and not from evil.
We must, therefore, preach the word,
be instant in season and out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine.
We must affirm, constantly, that they which believe in God
be careful to maintain good works.
The adoption of this plan will be sure to call forth
the disfavor of some who will talk about the
standard being too high and the call to duty too incessant;
but against all such murmurings
a wise man will set his face as a flint.
The exhortation is the apostle's,
the standard is Christ's,
and to tamper with it is a crime.
Brother Robert Roberts
The Christadelphian 1875
~
It is better to know not the Way of Truth at all
than knowing it,
to continue in the ways, works and maxims of the flesh.
The saintship that is disfigured by a conformity to this
God-forgetting,
man-fearing,
self-seeking,
money-making,
poor-neglecting,
unmercy-showing,
proud, unjust, impure,
drunken, tobacco-stupified age-
even if they are erring,
fruitfulness in every good work,
always abounding therein with thanksgiving-
in the inextinguishable hope of the heavenly calling.
This is the portrait drawn by the hand of the spirit:
the "image" exhibited for us to try to become conformed to.
We become conformed to it "in the renewing of our minds,"
which is effected by the Word abiding in us,
and the Word abides in us by being continually implanted
in the reading and the study of it.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
"The things that are highly esteemed among men,"
says Christ,
"are an abomination in the sight of God."
This ought to be a hint to us whenever we find
all the world looking after anything.
It is a common saying that what everybody says must be true;
but, the fact is, the truth is just the contrary of this:
what everybody declares to be true is false.
There are two classes of ideas in the world:
the ideas of man and the ideas of God;
and God says that His ideas, ways, and thoughts,
are the very opposite of the ideas, ways and thoughts of man;
"my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than earth, so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts."
So that what all men think is true, you may tell infallibly,
without setting up Popes, to be false.
Therefore, the revelation of Jesus,
who expounded the mind of the Father, gives us -
that which is esteemed among men, is an abomination in the sight of God,
is a principle judgment that will save us from making a vast number of mistakes
in the political or ecclesial world.
~
A truly wise man will take this world as he finds it,
using it without abusing it,
and "contending earnestly"
for nothing - but
"the faith once delivered to the Saints."
Brother John Thomas
~
There you see what God reprobates:
Those things that are highly esteemed among men,
are the very essence of abomination in the sight of God,
who is purity and truth.
Brother John Thomas
~
We can never too earnestly repeat to ourselves
that this is the time of probation-
not effectuation.
It is our part to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God,
who will exalt us in due time.
The waiting may be wearying to flesh and blood,
but not more wearying than the disappointments
that are inevitably associated with all human schemes;
and in the end, this is nothing but
joy and peace, satisfaction and glory, immortality and perfection
for those who with enlightened eye and resolute hand,
accept the short-lived position of strangers and pilgrims
in the journey to an everlasting place in the house of God.
Brother Robert Roberts
1894 Christadelphian pg. 62
~
With the increasing degeneracy and warped standards of values
which are associated with this present evil world,
the clear cut line of demarcation between that which is Godly,
and that which is ungodly is becoming increasingly blurred and clouded
in the minds of many of Christ's brethren.
There is a fearful danger in this.
As the world slides further and further downward,
spiritually and morally,
there exists a grave danger that Christ's brethren
begin to passively accept aspects of worldliness,
which in earlier times, they would have repudiated and disowned.
The present ungodly environment provides the testing ground
for the faith of Christ's followers.
Will they maintain their integrity before God,
unreservedly renouncing "the world" and the "things of the world"?
Or
will they slowly and by degrees, capitulate to the pressures of the times,
thereby developing a philosophical approach towards the Truth
which provides licence for breaking down their initial strong stand
for those things which are righteous and true
in Yahweh's eyes?
Brother John Ullman
1983
~
It is the voice of God that says
"come out from among them and be ye separate..."
Shall we hesitate to respond to the invitation because
of the present inconvenience it entails?
That same voice says-
"give diligence to make your calling and election sure...Watch ye, stand fast in the faith,
quit you like men, be strong....to him that overcometh will I give power over the nations."
Shall we refuse the earnest service required, and slacken off and grow supine
to suit the easy notions of the natural man?
Nay, nay.
Wise men will join with Joshua when he said:
"Choose ye this day whom ye will serve;
as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh."
Brother Robert Roberts
Seasons of Comfort
~
There is no good
to be done in giving in to failure.
Some fall, and incline to lie where they fall.
This is a mistake.
Let them get up and try again.
We do not stand where Adam stood.
One offence brought ruin to him; he had no high priest;
we have, and are invited to make confession
of our failures and trespasses and try again.
Obtaining forgiveness, we are told to
"hold fast and repent",
not losing hope, yet putting ourselves
on a strict guard, for, with this,
'Christ is well pleased'.
If, on the contrary, we abandon hope
and give ourselves up to the world,
we seal our own doom.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
The way of life so familiar with us today,
in its political, social and religious manifestations,
is destined to be destroyed at Christ's coming.
*
How then can we be found identified
with that which we hope to help Christ destroy?
Logos
January -2002
~
Criticism
is useful when guided by a real discernment,
and inspired by a benevolent desire to remove blemish.
But very often it is the mere squirt of venom.
No prominent author or man of mark has, in any age,
escaped detraction at the hand of writers whose mere object
is to lower the character of men whose distinction they cannot attain.
~
Moses, rejected as a murderer;
David, as a rebel; the prophets, as madmen;
the apostles, as liars and madmen.
See Paul, belittled as a contemptible speaker by false brethren,
and hounded to death as a pestilent fellow by his own nation.
Example of examples, behold Christ,
branded as a gluttonous man and a winebibber,
and John the Baptist as a man possessed of demons.
Jesus gives the critics their right place in comparing them to the frivolous chatterers of the market place
They are the people whose mentality rises no higher than the capacity to see faults of others;
nay, worse, who cannot see their virtues;
or, worse still, who, seeing them, cannot for envy allow them;
and who, lacking any worth themselves, seek, by lowering others,
to attain an eminence they cannot otherwise reach.
They are like vicious crabs or scorpions, whose satisfaction lies in
snapping their pinchers,
even when they have nothing to snap at.
They have a mission in the economy of things,
doubtless, though it is sometimes hard to see.
They, at all events, subject the good to the exercise of patience,
which is a good and necessary thing in the development of moral excellence.
Praise is encouraging, but relaxing.
Blame is depressing, but invigorating; in
so far that it throws a man back upon the intrinsic nature of things for the source of his motives,
and thus accustoms him to a nobler reliance than upon human compliment.
The two seem to be needed in this imperfect state
to make a right balance in the forces of moral environment.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
It is not edifying to hear a brother,
whose usual habit it is to show coolness in regard to the meetings and to the general well-being of the Truth,
sparkle up when a disturbance is on, and assert his voice and advice.
An ecclesia does well to think twice before receiving the council of such a one.
His advice may be sound, but in all probability it will not be.
A brother who can only be stirred to activity by noise and commotion
is an unsafe man - his motive is carnal, and therefore dangerous.
A brother who has no disposition to work in quiet times -
to support the meetings, to exhort and edify,
and to make himself generally useful in the many and varied ecclesial duties -
is not a man to be relied upon when the brotherhood is passing
through a critical and troublous time.
The Truth's best and safest servants will be found to be peace-lovers -
who engage in conflict solely as a duty
and then only sadly and reluctantly.
Love of the Truth and love of the brethren-
in time of peace as well as in time of war -
are traits that should be looked for in men
elected to be ecclesial leaders and advisers;
and these men should, if possible, be those who have had their
hand in making the ecclesia, and whose heart is in their work.
Let the brethren and sisters whose first thoughts
are for the well being of the brotherhood ponder this advice.
Let them behave wisely, and show regard for their sacred and precious trust.
Ecclesias require not showmen, but servants-
men who are prepared to lose time, money, sleep and even health, for
the Truth's interests. Such men are content to await Christ's return for
recognition and reward, when the true sons of God will be openly manifested and glorified together.
Brother A. T. Jannaway
~
How sad it is when apparently faithful men
swerve from the pathway of life,
and are led to embrace an error that has the seeds of death in it.
But the history of the Truth,
from the days of Cain,
has witnessed many such examples,
underlining the exhortation of Paul:
"Therefore let him that think he standeth,
take heed lest he fall."
Brother H.P. Mansfield
~
The Bible would not be complete without a picture of present life
as it appears in itself from the divine point of view.
In Ecclesiastes we have this picture.
It is a picture that experience finds to be true.
It is unlike human presentations on the subject.
Books and men of all sorts glorify human nature,
and paint human life in bright colors.
Men take more naturally to words of men than to the words of God.
Consequently, they all indulge the most pleasing views and ideals,
and go forth hopefully to find good.
But one after the other, they all come to experience the truth of the Word of God,
that human life now is,
"all is vanity and vexation of spirit."
The pleasing views dissolve as life advances
and the grim nature of current facts is slowly realized,
though never finally discerned or clearly understood
by those who receive not the teaching of the Bible wisdom.
Illusion more or less prevails to the last,
for if a man finds not good in his own case, he at least imagines that his neighbor has found it-
his neighbor all the while thinking perhaps the same of him!
Brother Robert Roberts
~
The supreme proposal of the Gospel is forgiveness.
But this is God's act,
and cannot be coerced or induced by any amount of human exertion
outside the appointments of His own will.
Christadelphian 1898
~
There is a danger of our being content
with the external compliances of saintship,
having a name to live while dead,
professing to be Christ's
while remaining in league with the world
for which he did not pray,
and which he will shortly destroy,
-and us with it, if we make ourselves of it.
No wise man will be content in this matter
short of the genuine apostolic ideal.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth,
where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matt 6:19-21
All human effort is,
in the long run, futile, unless in harmony with God.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
If we store our mind
by reading and reflection,
we shall be enabled to realize how short are the years as they fly by,
and how brief would be the delay of even a whole lifetime.
The man who neglects the food of wisdom
becomes impoverished and lean in his spiritual man,
and too weak to bear the load of present deprivation
or to endure the weariness of waiting.
God's plans are on a great scale, and of slow growth.
If we make ourselves familiar with what is past,
we shall understand what is present,
and be able to patiently wait what is future.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
If we are prepared to close our eyes to facts,
we can delude ourselves that all is well.
We will be deaf to false doctrine,
and blind to deterioration of morals,
and deluded as to the true state of the ecclesias.
We will have what some men call peace.
But we will have it at the expense of peace with God,
as we shall find when Christ returns to arouse us from sleep...
Brother H.P. Mansfield
~
The principal chamber in the human tabernacle
is the brain.
And often it is the emptiest.
Why? Because the good man of the house has neglected the storage.
Nothing comes anywhere by accident.
If you do not furnish your mind
it will not be furnished,
and a man with an unfurnished mind
is of a very poor value indeed.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
It was prophesied that " the last days" would be a time
of peculiar danger to the servants of Christ,
in that Paul said perilous times would come (2 Tim. 3:1).
That may sound a little odd until one realizes that although the early Christians
lived in constant danger of their lives,
that was a strain on their courage - but not a threat to their hope of salvation.
The last days, warned the Apostle,
would be perilous in a different
and much more dangerous way.
The servants of God would live in the midst
of an affluent society which derided the Word of God,
and their peril was that they would be drawn away from the Truth.
Vain philosophies of men would replace the wholesome teaching of Scripture,
and Truth might even once again be completely lost...."
Logos
~
"Let it not be our aim
to make and keep ourselves comfortable;
but to do his work and help his need.
He can be assisted in an abundance of ways.
The honor of his name, the interests of his truth,
the well-being of his people,
present us with many opportunities of writing an account
that we shall not be ashamed to confront in the day of reckoning.
While, then, we comfort our selves, let us be quite sure we
are entitled to the comfort, by obedience;
first, by purity in all things,
and second, by seeking out and performing the Master's will in all things,
and occupying ourselves in the execution of it.
And let us make up our minds that this will not always be necessarily agreeable.
Sometimes it will be exceedingly otherwise..."
Brother Robert Roberts
Seasons of Comfort
~
If we desire to win the prize that Paul has earned,
we must not content ourselves with admiring his noble deeds-
but must emulate them!
Brother H.P. Mansfield
~
Men, to be popular with the world, must be of the world,
and speak in harmony with the world.
The brethren of Christ are not of the world, and, therefore,
the world hates them, as it hated Christ, and for the same reason.
The brethren of Christ are lovers of God, and, therefore,
cannot be friends of the world, who are not.
They may do the world good, as they have opportunity,
but it will be on their own ground as saints,
which they would leave at the peril of their friendship with God.
This, then, is the reason why so few accept the glorious rank of sons of God.
It brings with it the world's rejection, which is hard to bear.
No sane man can find pleasure in the world's scorn,
except in the sense in which it is testified of the apostles,
that they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame
for the name of Christ.
It is crucifying to the natural man to be looked upon as rubbish and rot.
But there is another side. There is a future coming along.
“It doth not yet appear what we shall be,
but we know that when he shall appear , we shall be like him .”
What a wonderful reversal of affairs this will be,
when the poor, and the despised, but faithful friends of Christ and lovers of God
are emancipated from the weakness of this corruptible nature,
and made glorious, and noble, and immortal,
like the Son of God at his return, and exalted to places of honor and power,
when the sinners, however mighty,
will be put down from their seats everywhere throughout the world.
There is not a man of these arrogant, foul-mouthed men of the present order,
but what will want to cringe at the feet
of the smallest of Christ's friends in the day of recompense.
They will all be eager to serve Christ then: but it will be too late.
It is not eye service that Christ appreciates:
it is not service for the sake of advantage that he will accept,
but a service rendered for love's sake,
through the power of enlightenment received and cherished
in the day of darkness that prevails in his absence.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
What was the root cause of Sodom's wickedness?
Ezekiel declares that it stemmed from the cumulative effect of
"pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness".
This induced a state of indifference to the ways of righteousness,
and a hardness of heart which the Truth could not penetrate.
Similar conditions exist in the affluent civilization today.
Brother H.P. Mansfield
~
Soundness of faith is good; it is indispensable;
it is the good foundation on which you may bring forth fruit that shall be unto eternal life:
but if, while possessing the stores of divine knowledge,
you are destitute of lively-working love of Christ-if you are in bondage to the world,
-if you are ensnared by its vitiating pleasures,
-held down and held back by its business exigencies,
deterred by its faithless anxieties from your duty to God,
as represented in His truth and His people,
-if your substance is bestowed upon temporal interests merely,
-if you have so stewarded your affairs
that you cannot spare time for the assemblies convened in His honor,
nor money for the objects proposed in His service
-if fearfulness that your worldly affairs will suffer damage,
keeps you from an open profession and advocacy of His truth;
you are in a perilous way however exact your knowledge may be,
and had better begin to consider
whether you will be able to stand the exacting scrutiny of Him who,
in some sense, even in the present,
requires that we forsake all and follow Him.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
A man perceiving and believing what Christ has offered to the sons of men,
acts in the only reasonable way when he sets his whole heart
and strains his utmost strength to attain to it.
Who would not exchange a dying body for an immortal one?
Who would not part with the weakness and inefficiency of mortal life
for the angelic strength and perfection of the spiritual nature which the
Lord now has, and which, in various beautiful apocalyptic figures,
he offers to give to all who overcome?
Who would not leave the present evil world, with all its corruptions,
its debasements, its unmercifulnesses,
its moral and intellectual hideousnesses,
its unequal arrangements, its beastly immoralities and wasting ambitions,
its degrading squalors and effeminating extravagances,-
its cruel poverties, and distressing arrogances; its degrading ignorances
and unblessed, pompous, shallow knowledges-
for the Kingdom of God,
with its purity, its power, its lofty noblenesses, its kindness,
its unutterable beauties of character and condition,
its thrice blessed arrangement of all men into one happy,
prosperous family, under true nobles of immortal life and power-
God over all, praised for ever?
The man must lack eyes and heart who would falter.
Brother Robert Roberts
~
The foundation of all divine joy is righteousness.
There can be no coming of the redeemed to Zion with singing until sin
has been condemned and righteousness declared
in the results that necessarily attend the reign to sin.
Here is where and why the cross comes before the crown.
Everlasting joy is sown in tears, but we know the psalm that says,
“He that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless
comes again with rejoicing.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”
The glorious Messiah himself was no exception.
“With strong crying and tears he made supplication to Him that was able
to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.”
Therefore, concludes this sorrowful chapter,
“I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the
spoil with the strong.”
It is nothing more nor less than a promise of his exaltation to place and
power,
and honor, and position, and glory, and joy,
in the day when the high places of the earth will be occupied by his
friends,
and his friends alone.
Then will be the day of the new heavens and new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness and every good thing.
May we all be there to rejoice with him.
Brother Robert Roberts
The Christadelphian 1895
~
Be swift to hear: slow to speak: slow to be angry.
It is not seemly to discourse of grave truth in a flippant manner,
or to speak of holy things with jest.
“Gravity and sincerity” is the Apostolic prescription.
The Christadelphian
1888
~
“We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard,
lest at any time we let them slip.”
..It is this “letting them slip” that is the danger-it is so easy-it is so natural.
There are things that we must do, and that there is a certain amount of pleasure in doing.
We must sleep; we must get up and have a morning (bath)...;
we must have breakfast...; we must go forth to some kind of occupation
(for in the present state of human life, the rule is inexorable,
that if a man do not work he cannot eat);
we must continue at our occupation, with slight intermission, till nightfall,
and return home fatigued with the day's labor, and ready for the blankets once more.
There is a “must” about all these things that we cannot escape.
As to the things of God, there is only an “ought” which is not so strong.
The danger is, the “must” will carry the day to the exclusion of the “ought.”
We have to make a place for the “ought,” whereas the “must” makes a place for itself.
Here is the battle. Shall we lose or win it? That is the question.
Some will win; some will lose; that is certain.
We all want to win; that also is certain.
Well, all are invited, and all will be welcome to win,
but the conditions are the same for all and will be enforced.
Brother Robert Roberts
The Christadelphian 1898
~
“Is it worth while?”
there are several remarks that cannot be too strongly made.
The question savours of barbarism or insanity.
The man's judgment must be in a curious fog
who could put God's offered salvation into the scales
with anything under the sun or over it.
It is not a thing to be appraised.
It is not a thing to be accepted at an estimate of value.
It is an offer bearing on its front the rights of the offerer-the owner of all things-
in a way that brings unutterable peril to the man who rejects it.
The rights of God are little thought of by many
who languidly hear of the kindness of God.
The kindness of God is not for those who insult Him by a light estimate of His greatness,
and who handle His offered mercy as a customer might handle a piece of merchandise
to see if it is worth having.
God is a terrible majesty, as the smallest effort of reason tells any man:
He is to be had in extremest reverence of all who approach Him.
Any other approach He will resent as a consuming fire.
The whole Mosaic economy teaches this.
The man who receives an invitation to become His son, and asks,
“Is it worth while?”
is in the act of “treasuring up for himself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
Brother Robert Roberts
1884
~
If our appreciation of the gospel rises no higher than the comfort of being saved,
we receive the grace of God in vain.
Our heart must be filled with an appreciation of the greatness, and goodness,
and worthiness, and unspeakable excellence of Him by whom all things have been made.
The first feature of a true son is that he knows, loves, and glories in his father.
The love of his father's property would not be accepted as an equivalent
for personal love.
Our love of eternal life and the kingdom of God will not stand instead of the
“loving of the Lord our God with all our hearts,”
which is, “the first and great commandment.”
Brother Robert Roberts
1872
~
... The ecclesia-
the aggregate of called out-ones-
in other words the sum total of those
who have believed and obeyed the truth of the gospel,
-are said by Paul to be “the pillar and ground of the truth.”
Hence every constituent element of the community
-every man and woman who has entered it,
has an individual part to contribute to this general function.
They are all “witnesses,”
are all fellows of the individual Antipas (mentioned in Rev. 2:13 .)
who was slain for his testimony in Pergamos;
and members of the symbolical Antipas whose Ishmaelite relationship to mankind is expressed in the etymology of the name -against all.
It is their essential character to be light-shiners, witnesses of the truth,
testifiers of God's judgment and mercies as doctrinally
developed in the message of the Apostles;
and in the faithful sustaining of this character
they put themselves into antagonism with “all,”
for nothing is so unsavoury to the carnal mind-
if ever so well bred-as any allusion to God's purposes,
and nothing will more certainly blast a man's popularity,
nothing more infallibly destroy his social caste,
than a consistent profession of his faith in these things.
God and the world are sworn enemies.
Hence to be “the friend of the world is to be the enemy of God.”
No one who is on God's side can be friends with the world;
he will entirely disrelish the world, and the world will heartily hate him.
This arises from mutual incompatibility.
His testimony, verbal and enacted concerning God's purposes,
involves a testimony to God's moral relations to the world;
for the purposes arise out of the relationship.
To testify the purpose comprehensively is to testify the claims of God,
the absolute subordination of man, the wretchedness of his destiny in Adam,
his ephemerally, his wickedness, his misery;
and all this the world heartily dislikes,
because it takes from the dignity and importance of those present schemes and occupations in which it is diversely engrossed,
and in which it feels so high and lifted up,
and because it is so thoroughly uncongenial to all its sentiments;
for “the carnal mind is enmity against God;
it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be.”
Rom. 8:7
Brother Robert Roberts
The Christadelphian 1864
~
The world from God's standpoint is incorrigibly bad-
“the whole world lieth in wickedness.”
This truth the saints should keep vividly before them.
Let us consider the significance of the expressions which the Scriptures apply to it:
-vain-ignorant-rebellious-cruel-corrupt
-dark-asleep-dead-blind-drunk-mad.
If we keep these characteristics steadily before the mind,
it will stimulate us to be circumspect-
it will steel us to resist the deadly influences which assail us on every side.
But though possessed of this character, the world serves a purpose.
Otherwise it would not exist.
Neither would the faithful be made to struggle within it.
“The creature was subject to vanity, not willingly,
but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.”
The world is God's machinery,
by means of which He produces that character which is essential
for an eternal life in His kingdom.
Christ prayed not that his disciples might be taken out of the world,
but that they might be kept or guarded in it.
To go the way of the world is fatal.
To withstand it-though a painful and distressing exercise-
evolves that spiritual strength and vigor which lead on victory.
Let us realize the good that God is accomplishing in relating us to evil,
and there will be more patience and less complaining.
Brother A. T. Jannaway
The Christadelphian
1887
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Personal love will exist in the ratio of the love existing for the Truth itself.
You only have to pass in review the different classes of people
professing the Truth to see the truth of this.
Brother Robert Roberts
1868
~
It is easy to destroy: it is difficult to create.
It is easy to pull down - but not to build.
It is easy to stop but not to go on.
Wise men are always found in the second of the series, fools generally in the first.
A fool can find fault with things that a great many wise men cannot mend.
Your time is short; your powers are small.
Make the best of things,
O man.
The Christadelphian
1888
~
A man deliberately makes a choice.
A man's religion should never be a Sunday religion, or a deathbed religion.
It should not be the kind of sentiment that depends on tragedy;
that is melted by the sun or blown away by the breezes of the mountaintop.
It should be a matter if wisdom,
deep set, logical, real -
a something that is continually present,
and takes full and calm possession of the mind.
The Ambassador
1868
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“Supposing I send bread to a bakehouse and the journeyman spoils it through carelessness,
should I be justified in applying to his master for recompense, seeing my application might lead to the man's discharge?” -H.E.B.
Answer .-Jesus prescribes to his disciples a very simple and intelligible rule of action
which is applicable to all such matters:
“As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.”
Supposing H.E.B. were the “baker's man,” with orders from baker man to
“bake me a cake as fast as you can;”
and supposing, like Alfred the Great, he were to indulge in reverie instead of minding the cake,
and to discover that, in the words of David ( Ps. 39:3 ),
while he mused, the fire burned “the cake,” would he that baker man should go to his master,
and endanger his daily bread!
No; he would be much obliged to him if he would take his tribulation quietly,
and be content with a promise that he should try to do better next time.
“As ye would that men should do unto you..."
Brother Robert Roberts
~
Evil habits are like bad fruit;
just as one rotten apple will affect the good fruit surrounding it,
until the whole case is ruined.
So, a few evil thoughts, and bad company, if encouraged,
will slowly alter our characters.
First we begin to excuse things we know are wrong,
then we profess to see no harm in them,
and finally we are found doing them.
Brother H.P. Mansfield
Story of the Bible Vol. 1
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Do we not feel like Peter?
`Lord, I am ready to go with thee unto prison and to death.”
Peter failed in the first trial; but afterwards,
he went both to prison and to death for Christ's sake,
and was of those who
“rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.”
So must we, even should we quail at the first shock of battle, overcome at the last,
and be found among those who earn the victor's crown,
setting all foes and all consequences at defiance in our determination
to walk in that path of faith and obedience that alone leadeth unto life.
And if we gain comfort and courage
from that eventful thirty-three years and a half that our Lord lived in the flesh,
do we not gain light and wisdom for our present goings?”
He “left us an example that we should tread in his steps.”
What did he do?
How did he spend his time? To what did he devote his life?
These are questions for us to consider. He went about doing good.
He was an object of attraction even then.
The people crowded to him wherever he went.
We cannot hope to draw people as he drew them,
but in a measure we can follow in his steps.
We can take the lesson he gives us, and become “servants of all.”
We can make it our business to minister, instead of to be ministered unto.
We can seek to “do good;” to be “ready unto every good work” in our little way.
It is not agreeable work except from the dutiful point of view,
but patiently continued in, we shall have a full reward.
Fellowshipping the sufferings of Christ we shall be invited into his joy.
And, oh, what joy!
Christ was an attraction in the day of his humiliation,
but much more will he be an attraction in the day of his glory.
He will be the blessing of God upon earth,
and we shall be a blessing with him if he count us worthy of so great a fellowship.
Brother Robert Roberts
1870
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Now, the devil intensely pious is “a wolf in sheep's clothing”;
in other words, Human Nature pretending to be what it is not-
pretending to be a partaker of the Divine Nature:
a wolf pretending to be a sheep.
But such a pretender is a hypocrite, and only a hypocrite
and can naturally be nothing else but a hypocrite.
A hypocrite is one who personates a character, a playactor.
The Pharisees were denounced as hypocrites because
“they feigned themselves just men.”
Here the just man's character became the garb of the hypocrite.
They played the part of just men for the purpose of ruining the Holy and the Just One;
which he perceiving, his indignation was aroused, and he exclaimed
“Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?”
When, then, a man professes to be full of zeal for the truth;
makes great and wordy demonstration for “the precious cause”;
gets up pious melodies, preaches, and so forth,
you have before you all the paraphernalia of pietism.
It is possible he may know the truth and be really zealous for it;
but if he is of the right stamp, he will be a man of action, not of profession.
But to know whether he is genuine or counterfeit,
a wolf or a sheep, an original or a hypocrite,
we must work by the rule given by Him, who, in his day,
was the terror of hypocrites, namely,
“ By their fruits shall ye know them .”
Brother John Thomas
~
A sharp tongue
is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use-
The Christadelphian
1862
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“Come out from amongst them, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.”
Doing this, we have peace with God,
because we know He is not angry with those who believe His promises,
hope in His word, and obey his commandments.
If we trifle with His word,
or allow other things to have a higher place in our affections,
we have no ground for peace;
but if we magnify His word and give ourselves to the contemplation of it,
we may indulge a peace that passeth understanding.
God is not angry with those who chew the cud,
but with the unclean beasts that take His word,
bolt it, and think nothing more about it.
We appear here this morning to chew the cud,
brethren and sisters:
let us chew it to profit.
Brother Robert Roberts
1869
~
The truth in the present day is like the book of the law in the time of Josiah-
hidden away and lost sight of.
Certain ones have lighted upon this priceless treasure.
The truth has revealed to such
that there has been a wholesale departure from the way of God,
that the world around is utterly sunk in iniquity, and, that,
as in the case of Josiah's contemporaries, the wrath of God is impending.
Let those who in these days have found “the book of the law”
diligently follow Josiah's example,
by making themselves acquainted with its contents,
by humbling themselves before God,
and by actively and persistently endeavoring to enlighten their neighbors.
Josiah's character is that exhibited by all the faithful,
viz., 1st, a supreme regard for God and His word, and,
2ndly, a practical love for others.
“To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and trembleth at my word.”
Brother A. T. Jannaway
~
Our brethren in the first century fortified themselves by the reflection that
“the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us;”
and shall we look at them with a different eye
who are seeking to follow in their footsteps?
God permits suffering to His chosen for this very purpose,
“that the trial of their faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honour and glory,
at the appearing of Christ.”-( 1 Pet. 1:7 .)
He puts his children in the furnace to try them, as gold,
that the dross may be consumed.
No character is complete till it is tried.
A man or a woman is worth little as a companion,
either for wisdom or sympathy, who has not seen trouble.