The Expositor's Bible: The Book of JoshuaBlaikie, William Garden
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Joshua
Blaikie, William Garden
Bible. Joshua -- Commentaries
And where is the man--parent, teacher, pastor, or friend--that does
not become conscious, at some time or other, of having influenced for
harm those committed to his care? We taught them, perhaps, to despise
some good man whose true worth we have afterwards been led to see. We
repressed their zeal when we thought it misdirected, with a force
which chilled their enthusiasm and carnalised their hearts. We failed
to stimulate them to decision for Christ, and allowed the golden
opportunity to pass which might have settled their relation to God all
the rest of their life. The great realities of the spiritual life were
not brought home to them with the earnestness, the fidelity, the
affection that was fitting. "Who can understand his errors?" Who among
us but, as he turns some new corner in the path of life, as he reaches
some new view-point, as he sees a new flash from heaven reflected on
the past,--who among us but feels profoundly that all his life has
been marred by unsuspected flaws, and almost wishes that he had never
been born? Is there no city of refuge for us to fly to, and to escape
the condemnation of our hearts?
It is here that the blessed Lord presents Himself to us in a most
blessed light. "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest." Do we not labour indeed, are we not in
truth very heavy laden, when we feel the burden of unintentional evil,
when we feel that unconsciously we have been doing hurt to others, and
incurring the curse of him who causeth the blind to stumble? Are we
not heavy laden indeed when we cannot be sure that even yet we are
thoroughly on the right track--when we feel that peradventure we are
still unconsciously continuing the mischief in some other form? Yet is
not the promise true?--"I will give you rest." I will give you pardon
for the past, and guidance for the future. I will deliver you from the
feeling that you have been all your life sowing seeds of mischief,
sure to spring up and pervert those whom you love most dearly. I will
give you comfort in the thought that as I have guided you, I will
guide them, and you shall have a vision of the future, that may no
doubt include some of the terrible features of the shipwreck of St.
Paul, but of which the end will be the same--" and so it came to pass
that they escaped all safe to land."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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