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41
on: May 18, 2018, 06:03:16 PM
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The Patriot Post Digest 5-18-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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And that’s why one of the greatest challenges our society will face in the 21st century is maintaining a culture of free speech when so many of us discuss politics and social issues not in the public square where everyone can speak freely, but in the privately-run realms of the Internet.
The time has come for Americans to speak up, before it’s too late. This is no longer a discussion about cleaning up social media, but about preserving a civilization whose great strength has always derived from its First Amendment.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56048-the-cultural-shift-against-free-speech
MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST
Taxpayers Get Half-Billion-Dollar Bill for Nassar’s Crimes32 — Michigan State agrees to a $500 million settlement for the victims of Nassar’s sexual abuse.
Farm Subsidies and the Farm Bill: Truth vs. Fiction33 — The farm bill is currently constructed in a way that ignores several realities.
Video: Why Did America Fight the Korean War?34 — Mention the Korean War today and most people will look at you with a blank stare.
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
Marc A. Thiessen: North Korea Is Acting Up Because Trump Has It Cornered35
Erick Erickson: The Media’s Bias Is Showing36
David Harsanyi: Media Coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian Clash Is Built on a Myth37
Rich Lowry: The Russia Temptation38
Tony Perkins: Christian Colleges Press Their Suit on Mandate39
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion40.
OPINION IN BRIEF
Marc A. Thiessen: “Trump and his national security team have put Kim in a corner, offering him peace, security and prosperity, but only if he first denuclearizes completely, verifiably and irreversibly. Little wonder that North Korea is lashing out. Kim might be looking for a pretext to get out of his meeting with Trump, and the military exercises provide a perfect excuse. He may also be testing Trump to see how badly he wants the summit. Or he may be trying to drive a wedge between the United States and South Korea in advance of the talks. He knows South Korean President Moon Jae-in is deeply invested in his ‘Sunshine Policy’ with Pyongyang. If the North threatens a little rain, perhaps the South — which desperately wants the summit — will pressure Trump to cancel the military exercises or be more flexible at the bargaining table. Trump needs to show Kim that he won’t respond to threats by refusing to call off the exercises. Through back channels, he needs to reaffirm his willingness to provide North Korea with security and prosperity in exchange for immediate denuclearization but also make clear that if North Korea refuses, the alternative is not the status quo. Sanctions will be ramped up, and military action is possible. Above all, Trump should take North Korea’s recent outburst as a signal that Pyongyang is feeling the heat. A cornered animal roars, precisely because it is cornered. Stand firm, Mr. President, and don’t let up the pressure.”
SHORT CUTS
For the record: “The fact is that if Hamas were to drop its claim on Israel proper and stop using every opening provided to instigate violence, not a single Palestinian would ever have to die in this war.” —David Harsanyi
Perspective: “Yes, Trump is cutting Planned Parenthood funding, and should be praised for doing so. However, it’s only about a tenth of the $500 million in funding he just gave them in the omnibus last month. It’s a positive step, yes, but this is not keeping a promise. This is a first step.” —Steve Deace
Braying Jenny: “I think this [Planned Parenthood funding] is an issue that should enrage the American public, particularly women, because it’s an attack on them. I don’t know why members of Congress think it’s their job to tell women what to do with their health care.” —Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (The issue is taxpayer funding, not “telling women what to do.”)
Hypocrite: “We are all God’s children. There is a spark of divinity among every person on earth, and we all have to recognize that as we respect the dignity and worth of every person.” —Nancy Pelosi on “the spark of divinity, dignity and worth” of children in their mother’s womb. No, wait, she was talking about MS-13 gang members…
Missing the point: “However repugnant their actions, MS-13 gang members are human beings.” —CNBC’s John Harwood
Village Idiots: “We should particularly interrogate the role of American policy in helping to make MS-13 the organization it is now.” —John Legend
Belly laugh of the week: “Listen, when I covered Barack Obama, I was just as tough on him.” —CNN’s Jim Acosta
And last… “The sexual revolution has been a catastrophic failure, having wrought only disease, abortion, divorce, unwed pregnancy, and other miseries, with none of the advantages it promised. Maybe it’s time to cut our losses and go back to the old way, which is the only way that works.” —Matt Walsh
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56053-friday-short-cuts
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families. We also humbly ask prayer for your Patriot team, that our mission would seed and encourage the spirit of Liberty in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Mark Alexander, Publisher |
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42
on: May 18, 2018, 06:02:06 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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The Patriot Post Digest 5-18-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Top Headlines8
Multiple dead, unknown injuries in shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas, perpetrator in custody (ABC News9)
DOJ’s inspector general finally completes probe of Hillary Clinton (The Washington Times10)
Gina Haspel confirmed as CIA chief (The Washington Post11)
Democrats: Trump judicial nominees care too much about being impartial (National Review12)
California’s second Gilded Age, bigger mansions, more homeless (USA Today13)
U.S. resettling more refugees than the population of Philadelphia (The Washington Free Beacon14)
Warren reveals her plan to fundamentally transform America (The Western Journal15)
Two in five top-ranking liberal arts schools have no full-time Republican professors (Reason16)
“The Handmaid’s Tale17” now suggests Christians want child brides (The Daily Wire18.)
Humor report: Someone’s dad not attending royal wedding or something, or wow, who cares, seriously (The Babylon Bee19)
Policy: Tax reform: Growing our economy and creating jobs (American Action Forum20)
Policy: CDC neglect is killing Americans (Hudson Institute21)
For more of today’s news, visit Patriot Headline Report22.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56056-friday-top-headlines
FEATURED ANALYSIS
The Cultural Shift Against Free Speech23
Brian Mark Weber
At first, Twitter seemed like a great idea: quickly and concisely communicating our thoughts with just a few keystrokes, rather than babbling on and on. Still, something didn’t seem quite right about that 140-character limitation, even when it was doubled to 280 characters last year. Somehow, it still seemed a restriction on our speech.
But that was just the beginning. This simple social media platform is now going far beyond limiting our character-count to controlling what we think and how we interact with our fellow citizens.
One of the core problems created by social media behemoths like Twitter and Facebook is not that their policies are posing any serious legal threat to the First Amendment. As David French writes24 at National Review, “The law of free speech has mainly improved. Americans might have more legal defenses against government censorship now than they ever have before. If the government moves against your speech based on your viewpoint and you fight back, you’re likely to win.”
But social media platforms can bypass the Constitution altogether by creating a paradigm shift in the way current and future generations understand the important role free speech plays in our society. French adds, “The culture of free speech has decayed. Individuals and organizations are far more sensitive and far less tolerant of dissent than they were even in the recent past.”
Twitter thinks it has the answer, but its users won’t be freer to speak their minds.
In 2016, Twitter launched an Orwellian “Trust & Safety Council” made up of more than 40 organizations, some of which have a history of suppressing free speech. Having thus created a council with representation from a very limited range of ideological perspectives, the company tipped its authoritarian hand.
Twitter explained25 that in order for users to “express themselves freely and safely on Twitter, we must provide more tools and policies.”
Somehow we’ve managed to build a thriving civilization without having our social interactions with others flagged by an intrusive authority, but now Twitter thinks we need just that. After all, society itself has embedded cultural norms and practices over time to ensure civil discourse. But these cultural norms are under actually threatened by the advent of technology and the pervasive use of social media by millions of Americans.
Sure, some of Twitter’s changes seem benign on the surface. For example, the latest push by CEO Jack Dorsey purports to focus on people who are routinely blocked by other users, those who send tweets to accounts they don’t follow, and those who launch multiple accounts from a single IP address. But how far will this go? Dorsey himself said that “this is a step, but we can see this going quite far.”
Indeed, it may well go too far.
This week, The Verge posted26 an internal Google video imagining a future in which social media is used not merely to referee online interaction, but to socially engineer our entire society.
If that doesn’t send chills down your spine, then maybe we’re already closer to that world than we realize.
For now, Twitter asserts that it’s merely trying to rid the platform of “spammy behavior.” But earlier this year, James O'Keefe’s Project Veritas revealed (via The Daily Wire27) “Twitter employees admitting that they ‘shadow ban’ right-leaning accounts, which essentially bans them from the platform without letting them know that they have been banned while allowing left-leaning accounts to slip through without the same scrutiny.”
That wouldn’t be so bad if Twitter were merely trying to filter out inappropriate or abusive online behavior without regard to ideology. But while middle-of-the-road conservative groups and individuals are being shadow-banned, Twitter has no qualms about allowing groups like Hamas to freely express their hatred and their calls for violence simply because Hamas is a democratically elected government entity that claims to be part of the Middle East “peace process.” Remember, Hamas was deemed a foreign terrorist organization by none other than President Bill Clinton in 1997, and it orchestrated the recent violence28 on the Gaza border that lead to the deaths of dozens of its soldiers.
Our Founding Fathers wisely protected us against government’s intrusion into what we say and how we say it. Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms, however, are subversively changing the very way Americans think about communication.
And these changes are also occurring in academia and in the workplace, where the anti-free speech culture being fostered online is also part of the broader culture. The result is that we’ve become conditioned by social media to accept environments in which simply sharing an opinion can lead to being flagged, suppressed or outright banned from a social community. This is having a ripple effect on the way Americans interact with one another away from social media.
Of course, no one is suggesting that the government take action against private companies. As Reason’s Robby Soave writes29, “Twitter is a private company. It is free to make whatever speech rules it wants. Forcing Twitter to permit more kinds of speech would not actually be pro-free speech — in fact, it would violate the First Amendment.” |
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43
on: May 18, 2018, 06:00:48 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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The Patriot Post Digest 5-18-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________
The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
May 18, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/56057-mid-day-digest
IN TODAY’S EDITION
The Leftmedia’s BIG lie on Trump and “animals.”
Trump uses Reagan rule to block abortion funding.
The cultural shift against free speech is worrisome.
Taxpayers get a half-billion-dollar bill for Nassar’s crimes.
Truth vs. fiction on the farm bill.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.
THE FOUNDATION
“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors?” —Thomas Jefferson (1781)
IN BRIEF
‘Animals’: The Leftmedia’s Latest BIG Lie1
Thomas Gallatin
Here we have yet another case study in the mainstream media’s practice of dezinformatsiya in the era of #Resistance to Donald Trump. It was a classic example of how deviously removing context can be used to create an alternative narrative that is then presented as fact. In this case, the MSM went out of its way to bolster its narrative that Trump’s motivation for enforcing America’s immigration laws is his own racism.
The context the MSM intentionally ignored: Trump was involved Wednesday in a roundtable discussion with law enforcement from across the country seeking to address the problems sanctuary cities2 pose for immigration enforcement. At one point, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims thanked the president for recognizing and seeking to address the problem. But she also complained about the law: “There could be an MS-13 member I know about [but] if they don’t reach a certain threshold, I cannot tell ICE about it.”
Trump responded:
We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — and we’re stopping a lot of them — but we’re taking people out of the country. You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals. And we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before. And because of the weak laws, they come in fast, we get them, we release them, we get them again, we bring them out. It’s crazy. The dumbest laws — as I said before, [we have] the dumbest laws on immigration in the world. So we’re going to take care of it, Margaret. We’ll get it done.
Cue the Leftmedia’s spin. Here are a few of the headlines:
The Washington Post: “Trump compares illegal immigrants to ‘animals’”
The New York Times: “Trump calls some unauthorized immigrants ‘animals’ in rant”
Huffington Post: “Trump refers to immigrants as ‘animals.’ Again.”
USA Today: “Trump ramps up rhetoric on undocumented immigrants: ‘These aren’t people. These are animals.’”
Vox: “Trump on deported immigrants: ‘They’re not people. They’re animals.’”
NPR: “During roundtable, Trump calls some unauthorized immigrants ‘animals’”
What utterly contemptible lies. Trump responded to the propaganda in his usual fashion, stating, “Fake News Media had me calling Immigrants, or Illegal Immigrants, ‘Animals.’ Wrong! … I referred to MS 13 Gang Members as ‘Animals,’ a big difference — and so true. Fake News got it purposely wrong, as usual!”
Once again, the Leftmedia has been exposed as a lying spin machine for Democrat talking points. It’s no wonder so many Americans have lost trust in the media.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56050-animals-the-leftmedias-latest-big-lie
Trump Uses Reagan Rule to Block Abortion Funding3
Nate Jackson
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan used Title X regulations to prevent organizations that receive federal dollars from promoting or referring for abortions, or from sharing physical space with abortion providers. After all, the 1970 law establishing Title X states: “None of the funds appropriated under this title shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.” Nevertheless, abortion proponents sued. Though the Supreme Court ruled in Reagan’s favor, the policy never actually went into effect because neither President Bush followed his lead, and, naturally, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama opposed it. President Donald Trump, however, plans to resurrect that rule in an announcement today. Stand by for Planned Parenthood to sue in three, two, one…
Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion mill, kills more than 300,000 unborn babies every year, and it receives $500 million in taxpayer funding to do so. Of course, the organization insists that it’s complying with federal law preventing taxpayer dollars from being used directly for abortions. As Yuval Levin explained4 in 2015, “Planned Parenthood gets around the legal prohibition by formally separating its abortion clinics and its other family planning services, even when those are located in the same facility and essentially funded jointly.”
But let’s be honest — abortions are what Planned Parenthood does. Other health services are a mere fig leaf designed to obscure that fact. Pouring water in the shallow end of the pool is the same as pouring it in the deep end.
Given that Republicans in unified control of Washington have failed to defund Planned Parenthood as promised, Trump’s move is a welcome one. But does it go far enough?
Well, the rule only affects $260 million in federal funding for contraception and other “family planning” services, of which Planned Parenthood receives part. The bulk of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding comes from Medicaid, and only legislation can stop it.
Furthermore, “This proposal does not necessarily defund Planned Parenthood, as long as they’re willing to disentangle taxpayer funds from abortion as a method of family planning, which is required by the Title X law,” said an administration official. “Any grantees that perform, support, or refer for abortion have a choice — disentangle themselves from abortion or fund their activities with privately raised funds.” Planned Parenthood has no shortage of private funds5, either.
In other words, it seems that semantics and accounting gimmicks may still suffice, and, contrary to the Leftmedia narrative6, this does not amount to “sweeping new abortion restrictions.” Even so, Trump has yet again acted where congressional Republicans (and two previous GOP presidents) failed. Let’s hope it leads to further action to stop funding mass slaughter.
By the way, on Wednesday, former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards was presented with the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil and Human Rights Award by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Just a reminder that she oversaw the demise7 of 3.5 million babies in her 12-year tenure.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56054-trump-uses-reagan-rule-to-block-abortion-funding |
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44
on: May 18, 2018, 05:59:19 PM
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The Patriot Post Digest 5-17-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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The real divide in America? The Right believes the Left is wrong. The Left believes the Right is evil.
Thus, leftists believe it is their sacred duty to impose their beliefs on the nation whether it wants them or not. And because of that sacredness, executive orders, court decisions, bureaucratic fiats and everything else that can be used to thwart the constitutional order is perfectly acceptable — when leftists do it.
Thus, a Supreme Court that usurps states’ rights and changes40 the 5,000-year-old definition of marriage is to be applauded. The same Court upholding41 an individual’s right to keep and bear arms? A travesty of justice. Barack Obama implementing42 DACA by executive order? Enlightened. Donald Trump demanding43 Congress decide the issue? Anti-immigrant bigotry.
Nor is the divide simply about differing worldviews. Many progressives themselves once had traditional beliefs regarding subjects like marriage and gender. But since they’ve “evolved,” every American must follow suit — within a progressive-defined timeline. Those who don’t? As contemptible as those who resist completely.
“When civil rights shifted from punishing mandatory segregation to punishing the lack of integration, it ceased to be a movement pursuing freedom and instead became a totalitarian movement,” asserts44 columnist Daniel Greenfield.
That totalitarian movement has pushed millions of well-meaning Americans into tribalist enclaves, where safety becomes more important than freedom of expression. And that retreat is often justified by what many Americans perceive is a double-standard with regard to accountability. Did the Trump campaign collude with the Russians, or is a Ruling Class long used to getting its way seeking to nullify the 2016 election? Are we an exceptional nation built on an unprecedented understanding of human rights and the limits of government power, or one built on the “genocide of native people and slavery,” where the “cradle of democracy is "bulls—t,” as filmmaker Spike Lee asserts45? In America today, one’s answers to such questions are more often than not determined by one’s tribal allegiance.
As Sullivan reminds us, tribalism is not necessarily a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with “unconditional pride, in our neighborhood and community; in our ethnic and social identities and their rituals; among our fellow enthusiasts,” he writes. By contrast, he warns, when it calcifies and “rivals our attachment to the nation as a whole” and “turns rival tribes into enemies” it ultimately destabilizes the nation.
Of course, Sullivan blames both sides for the divisiveness but holds the Right more accountable — or so he thinks. “One of the great attractions of tribalism is that you don’t actually have to think very much,” he asserts.
The American Right can be blamed for a great many things with regard to tribalism. But dumbing-down public schools46 and colleges47 that routinely turn out legions of weak-thinking but well-indoctrinated social justice warriors isn’t one of them.
Is there a truce to be had? Oddly enough, the most recent Supreme Court decision striking down48 a federal law prohibiting sports betting epitomizes the “live and let live” federalism the Founding Fathers were prescient enough to make an integral part of governing documents. Yet federalism is only part of the equation. “Nurturing your difference or dissent from your own group is difficult; appreciating the individuality of those in other tribes is even harder,” Sullivan explains.
Individual thinking would undoubtedly be fatal for tribalism. But if the Left’s reaction to Kanye West49 is any indication, tribalism in America will last as long as leftists view a heckler’s veto as a reasonable substitute for debate.
It’s not. Not by a long shot.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56024-my-country-or-my-tribe
MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST
Gillibrand’s Mythical Version of the 2008 Financial Crisis54 — It was bad Democrat policies, not sexism, that was to blame for 2008 financial crisis.
Free Markets, Free People55 — Our culture increasingly and falsely characterizes capitalism as a form of oppression and exploitation.
Video: Seattle’s ‘Amazon Tax’56 — John Stossel breaks down the “head tax” and explains how politicians created the mess in the first place.
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
Jeff Jacoby: The World Needs a Policeman, and There Is No Alternative to America57
Veronique de Rugy: The Seattle Head Tax Is Idiotic58
Ed Feulner: The Preferred Form of Populism59
Hans von Spakovsky: It’s Now 1984 at the University of Michigan60
Joe Bastardi: Why Another Big Wildfire Season May Be on the Way61
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion62.
OPINION IN BRIEF
Jeff Jacoby: “Since the election of Donald Trump on an explicit ‘America First’ platform, the number of Democrats saying the United States is doing too little to better the world has more than doubled, from 22 percent to 48 percent. Of course it is risky to read too much into public-opinion soundings. Still, Americans … do seem once again to be rediscovering the hard truth that, in world affairs, the United States is irreplaceable. As long as the United States remains the world’s most powerful democracy, it cannot safely shirk the job of global policeman — deterring aggression, upholding the rule of law, defending human rights. When it tries to do so, the planet’s worst actors are emboldened. Americans have changed their mind about Bush. Ten years after he left the White House, a majority now approve of the job he did as president, and his favorability rating has climbed above 60 percent. But Bush’s views haven’t changed. In a speech last week, he reiterated the case for U.S. leadership. ‘America is indispensable for the world,’ said the former president. ‘The dangers of isolation loom.’ He quoted Churchill’s admonition that, as the foremost nation on earth, America could not avoid being ‘convulsed’ by the world’s problems: ‘The price of greatness is responsibility.’ Americans cannot right every wrong, and we have not always acted with prudence. Nevertheless, the world needs a policeman, and there is no realistic candidate for that job except the United States. Retreating into isolation may sound appealing; the results are invariably awful. Americans sometimes forget that lesson, until reality re-teaches it the hard way.”
SHORT CUTS
Upright: “Is [Robert] Mueller investigating a crime or going in search of a crime? One is police work; the other is characteristic of a police state.” —Dinesh D'Souza
For the record: “[Seattle’s] head tax32 won’t be paid by Amazon. Companies don’t pay taxes. People ultimately pay taxes. That means that this tax will come out of the wages of future employees, the bonuses and wage growth of current employees, the dividends of shareholders, and the pockets of customers, who will face higher prices. It could also lead to the longer-term decision by Amazon to shrink its Seattle operation for the benefit of its second headquarters, the location of which is still being decided. Other cities should take note. Don’t repeat Seattle’s mistake.” —Veronique de Rugy
Race bait: “It’s like pulling teeth to get America to acknowledge and to get any sitting U.S. president, Democrat or Republican, to acknowledge that America is a colonial state built on the theft of indigenous people’s land. That white supremacy is America’s original sin. We have to be able to have that honest conversation. We have to say that America is built on unpaid black labor.” —Marc Lamont Hill
Demo-gogues: “What was the point of the Revolution if subjects of the British Crown get single payer health care and university education at a fraction of what it costs us and we are stuck with a President guilty of treason, bribery and other crimes, and a Congress unwilling to get rid of him?” —Democrat Senate candidate Richard Painter
From the Socialist Democrat Files: “I think [government regulation of executive pay] is a very good idea, and I think we should start talking about it.” —Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), deputy chair of the DNC
And last… “We’re at the point where Hamas are freedom fighters and the NRA is a terrorist organization8.” —Twitter satirist @hale_razor
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56028-thursday-short-cuts
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families. We also humbly ask prayer for your Patriot team, that our mission would seed and encourage the spirit of Liberty in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Mark Alexander, Publisher |
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45
on: May 18, 2018, 05:58:11 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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The Patriot Post Digest 5-17-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________
The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
May 17, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/56031-mid-day-digest
IN TODAY’S EDITION
Marking one full year, the Mueller investigation still has no evidence.
Wasserman Schultz: “The NRA is kind of just shy of a terrorist organization.”
How tribalism is ruining America.
Free markets mean free people. The opposite is also true.
Gillibrand’s mythical version of the 2008 financial crisis blames men.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.
THE FOUNDATION
“Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.” —John Adams (1777)
IN BRIEF
Mueller Investigation One Year Old, Still No Collusion1
Thomas Gallatin
President Donald Trump marked the one-year anniversary2 of the Robert Mueller special investigation by writing, “Congratulations America, we are now into the second year of the greatest Witch Hunt in American History…and there is still No Collusion and No Obstruction. The only Collusion was that done by Democrats who were unable to win an Election despite the spending of far more money!” Indeed, the fact remains that after a year of investigating, no evidence of any Trump/Russian collusion has been presented by Mueller’s team of Hillary Clinton donors3. Witch hunt?
Clearly seeking to ratchet up the pressure on the Mueller investigation in order to bring it to a quick end, Rudy Giuliani, now Trump’s lead attorney, stated yesterday, “This case is essentially over. … [Mueller’s team is] just in denial.” Giuliani also noted that Mueller acknowledged the investigation would follow Justice Department guidance and not seek an indictment against Trump. That’s really not news, though, as it does not preclude Mueller from recommending that the House pursue impeachment. But over what?
Speaking of Congress, the Senate Judiciary Committee released a report that seemed to contradict last month’s House report. In short, the Senate concluded that the U.S. intelligence community did indeed believe the Russian government ran a sophisticated and extensive effort to interfere in the 2016 election, and that the Kremlin aimed to help Trump and hurt Clinton. However, this report in no way even purports to provide evidence for any collusion conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. Rather it simply agrees with the intelligence community’s assessment that Moscow was working to interfere in the election. There is no news here, despite Leftmedia attempts to drum it up.
But what is more revealing was yesterday’s release of transcripts4 from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s closed-door hearing with those involved in the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting5 with a Russian attorney. It’s significant because that meeting was supposedly the smoking gun upon which the collusion narrative hung — that and the Clinton-funded dossier6. And what we find is that the meeting was a giant nothingburger. There is no evidence of collusion. In fact, as Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey argues7, “If Mueller doesn’t care about this testimony becoming public … it suggests that the Trump Tower meeting doesn’t matter to the Russian-collusion track — and without the Trump Tower meeting, that track seems pretty narrow.”
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56025-mueller-investigation-one-year-old-still-no-collusion
Wasserman Schultz Calls Five Million Americans ‘Terrorists’8
Nate Jackson
“The NRA is kind of just shy of a terrorist organization,” declared Debbie Wasserman Schultz. “They have done everything they can to perpetuate the culture of violence that we have in our country with the spread of assault weapons across the nation.” She was responding to Oliver North, the NRA’s new president, who said recently of gun-controllers, “They call them activists. That’s what they’re calling themselves. They’re not activists — this is civil terrorism.” He accused them of “intimidation and harassment and lawbreaking.”
North has a point, especially in light of the recent hate-filled boycott campaign9 against the NRA and the ignorant political pawns10 marching against our constitutional rights.
But we want to rebut Wasserman Schultz’s gross slander more specifically. The nearly 150-year-old NRA is made up of roughly five million Americans who love our Constitution and stand in particular for the Second Amendment — the right that secures all the others11. Those Americans commit crimes at a far lower rate than the general population. In fact, as a subset, concealed-carry permit holders are more law-abiding than the police12. No NRA member has ever perpetrated13 a mass murder, though an NRA instructor did stop the one in Texas14 last year. When the annual NRA convention comes to any city, that city’s crime rate drops15. The NRA spends millions instructing Americans of all ages how to responsibly handle firearms, both for recreational purpose and self-defense. That reduces crime.
By contrast, most crime in America — and particularly gun crime — is committed on urban poverty plantations16 that Democrats have run for decades. That crime is not committed with what Democrats have misnamed “assault weapons17,” either, but by illegally owned handguns often wielded by drug dealers and gangs. Democrats perpetuate the culture of death through their rabid support of abortion. When political violence is committed, it’s usually against Republicans18. And as for actual terrorists, well, Democrat Barack Obama funded it19 with billions of dollars.
“It’s kind of like a spoiled child stamping their feet on the ground, insisting that something right in front of their face isn’t true,” Wasserman Schultz said. Yes. Yes it is. But it’s worse than that. Her hateful slander of law-abiding Americans is utterly contemptible.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56026-wasserman-schultz-calls-five-million-americans-terrorists
Top Headlines20
FBI used secret program to gather information on Trump campaign, no judge needed (The Daily Wire21)
Armed resource officer does his job, stops a would-be school shooter in Illinois (National Review22)
Since 2002, U.S. has spent $2.8 trillion to fight terrorism (The Washington Times23)
Senate votes to restore net neutrality rules (ABC News24)
Speaker Paul Ryan: “The House has prevailed” in court saga over ObamaCare payments (The Washington Times25)
Michigan State agrees to pay $500 million to Nasser sexual abuse victims (National Review26)
A new study finds the more people rely on their Facebook feed for news, the less politically knowledgeable they are (Pacific Standard27)
Chicago community group sues to stop construction on Obama presidential library (The Daily Wire28.)
U.S. births hit lowest number since 1987 (The Wall Street Journal29)
Humor: Hamas terrorist at Gaza border surprised to hear media describe him30 as peaceful protester (The Babylon Bee31)
Policy: Seattle’s war on business32 won’t help combat homelessness (Independent Women’s Forum33)
Policy: California’s solar-panel mandate for new homes will keep the cost of living unaffordable (City Journal34)
For more of today’s news, visit Patriot Headline Report35.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/56029-thursday-top-headlines
FEATURED ANALYSIS
My Country or My Tribe?36
Arnold Ahlert
“Tribalism, it’s always worth remembering, is not one aspect of human experience. It’s the default human experience.” —columnist Andrew Sullivan37 in 2017
If one were to believe much of the Leftmedia’s take, America was a reasonable nation until Donald Trump was elected. Yet the tribalism we now call identity politics has been nurtured for decades, engendered by the change from one simple idea to another: a nation once urged to embrace assimilation in all its “melting pot” permutations became one where “celebrating our differences” was deemed the more enlightened approach.
It was a total fraud.
One that is reaching epic proportions. Did we really have a presidential candidate willing to completely dismiss millions of Americans as “deplorables38” simply because they disagreed with her political philosophy, and/or disliked her personally? How do Hillary Clinton, her media allies and her legions of supporters account for the fact that many of those same deplorables voted for Barack Obama?
“Trump ran and won as, among other things, a white racial demagogue who mocked and insulted minorities on his way to the White House; while the left, as it has grown more diverse, has become accustomed to periodic spasms of hostility and mutual recrimination among its various minority groups and their white allies,” asserts39 columnist Paul MacDougald.
Really? A majority of Trump voters embrace racial demagoguery? And the Left’s understanding of diversity consists of sub-tribes jockeying for primacy, largely based on which one can elicit the most guilt from all the others?
Such clichéd cynicism, and the unending torrent of political correctness needed to sustain it, was as much a driver of Trump’s victory as anything else. And adding to leftist despair is the reality that Trump’s coarseness — seen as the antidote to political correctness — was not a bug but a feature of his success. |
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46
on: May 18, 2018, 07:17:23 AM
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Started by Soldier4Christ - Last post by Soldier4Christ
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When We Abide in Christ
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” (John 15:4)
The Lord Jesus has told us to be careful always to “abide” in Him. The Greek word means “remain,” “endure,” “continue,” or “dwell.” He is to be our motivation, our standard, our home, our everything. When we do abide thus in Him, the Scriptures indicate that it will make a great difference in our lives right now, as well as in the life to come.
For example, “he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked” (1 John 2:6). Furthermore, “whosoever abideth in him sinneth not” (1 John 3:6). Love for our Christian brethren will be evident, for “he that loveth his brother abideth in the light” (1 John 2:10). We will obey His Word, for “he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth [same word] in him, and he in him” (1 John 3:24).
In Christ’s discourse on the vine and the branches (John 15:1-16) are several wonderful promises to the Christian. “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit” (v. 5). “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (v. 7). “These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain [same word] in you, and that your joy might be full” (v. 11). “I have chosen you . . . that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (v. 16).
If we dwell in Christ, we actually are abiding in the Father and the Spirit also. Jesus said that “the Spirit of truth . . . dwelleth with you,” and “[my Father and I] will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:17, 23).
Therefore, let us “abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming” (1 John 2:28). HMM
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47
on: May 17, 2018, 08:36:55 AM
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Started by Soldier4Christ - Last post by Soldier4Christ
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Good Soldiers
“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” (2 Timothy 2:3-4)
From a Kingdom perspective, a good soldier has several responsibilities. Initially, we can expect challenges, wherein we might “suffer trouble as an evil doer” (2 Timothy 2:9), endure afflictions (2 Timothy 4:5), or even be afflicted (James 5:13).
Ultimately, a soldier has one purpose, “that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” Put another way, “do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10). Soldiers are called out of the normal life of a nation and dedicated to executing the will of the king.
Thus, from a spiritual perspective, “know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4). The source of that friendship is a focus on walking by the flesh, which has no good thing in it and cannot please God (Romans 8:8).
We are to “war a good warfare” (1 Timothy 1:18) and to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12) because “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
Fighting God’s battles with God’s armor ensures the ultimate victory promised by our King, Creator, and “captain of the host of the LORD” (Joshua 5:14). “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 25:8). HMM III
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48
on: May 16, 2018, 05:40:54 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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How then could you be happy in Heaven, if you do not love God? You would not be happy there—you could not be. The very thing that would fill every other soul with unspeakable joy, would make you miserable. The presence of God that would give them such gladness as they never knew on earth—would only make you tremble. The eye which they would love to have resting on them—would fill you with fear. Like the guilty pair in the garden, you would wish to hide yourself from the presence of the Lord God (Genesis 3:8.). Oh, reader, if you have no love to God on earth—then you would have none in Heaven; and then Heaven would be no place of happiness to you.
You cannot deny this. And yet you have a kind of feeling that, somehow or other, death and the resurrection will make such a change in you that you would then be happy in Heaven—though you could not be happy there as you now are. Have you not some feeling of this sort?
No doubt, death and the resurrection will make a change—but not such a change as you suppose. They who now love God—will love Him better then. They who hate sin now—will then be set free from it; never will it vex or grieve them again. Those who now wish and strive to serve God, will serve Him perfectly in Heaven. And those who delight in public worship and in private prayer and yet are often troubled with wandering thoughts and cold hearts, will have no such troubles in the worship of Heaven. They will be so changed that they will be able to "serve Him day and night in His temple" without weariness! They will desire no rest and no relief. They could not serve Him so now.
There will be a change therefore. But what sort of a change? Only a change from a little—to a great deal of the same thing; from wishing—to being able; from striving—to doing. The person in Heaven will be of the same mind as he was upon earth; he will care for the same things and take pleasure in the same employments. Only he will be perfect there, and all that he will do and say and think will be good, whereas now he only wishes and strives that it may be so.
But death will not make such a change as to turn people from unholy, into holy people; from people who never cared for God at all, into people who love Him perfectly; from people who loved sin and scoffed at the good and seldom or never prayed, into people who delight in being with God and saints and angels forever. Death will make no such change as this! Our Lord said, "Where your treasure is—there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21). So if a man's treasure is in Heaven—then his heart will be in Heaven already. If Heaven be the home to which he is going and for which he is longing—then there will be much that is heavenly in his heart and life even now.
No! Do not deceive yourself with any such thought! Death will make a great change—but it will make no such change as you imagine. If Heaven would not be a happy place to you, supposing you to be taken there now, in a moment, just as you are—then you would not be happy there, if at any time you were to die in your present state and find yourself there. No impenitent sinner, no unconverted person—would be happy in Heaven.
You must seek a change now, a thorough change, a new heart. Think no more of being changed somehow at death or after death, so as to be made fit for Heaven—but ask God to change you now. Surely you must see that you need a great change. The very fact that Heaven itself would be no place of happiness to you as you are—must show you how greatly you need to be changed. If you were to be save by Christ and your sins should be forgiven, and you should learn to hate sin and to love God and to delight in prayer and praise—then you would begin to be happy even here; and then you would feel and know that Heaven would be a happy place to you indeed.
Oh, be persuaded to seek salvation at once. What you need above all things, is the work of the Spirit in your heart to turn you, change you, convert you, sanctify you. Man cannot do this work; it is the work of God alone. Kneel down without delay and ask God to change your heart. You cannot be in the way to Heaven—if you would not be happy there. Settle that well in your mind. And if not in the way to Heaven—then what way are you in? There are only two ways, and two ends. And each way leads to its own end. Oh that you may be led to see these things, as you will see them some day, and that a day not far off!
One word more: Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you … that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2-3). You do not really love that place now, though you say you hope to go there. But if you did but love Jesus—then you would love the place where He is, and long to be with Him there.
Jesus came and died on the cross for sinners! Will you not listen to Him? Will you not come to Him? He alone can make you happy, here or hereafter. If you go on refusing His offers, you cannot be saved; you will walk on still in the wrong way, and you will reach at last the miserable end. But if you listen to His voice, come to Him, and seek Him as your Savior—then He will be indeed a Savior to you! He will bless you all your life long with the blessings of His grace. He will give you even here, a peace and happiness which the world could never give—and He will take you at last to that place which He has gone before to prepare—a place which you will find happy indeed—happy beyond what eye has seen, or ear heard, or heart conceived! |
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49
on: May 16, 2018, 05:39:52 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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Not happy in Heaven? You are surprised at reading these words. Not happy in Heaven? Why, is not Heaven a place in which all who get there will be happy? Yes, but there are thousands and thousands who never will get there. They are not in the way to Heaven; and, unless they become quite changed, they will never get to it. And further—even if they did, if they could, they would not be happy there.
Still you are surprised. You have never perhaps thought much about Heaven—what sort of a place it is and what people do there and what makes it happy. But you have never had any doubt that it is happy. You have always heard it talked of as the happy place; you have heard people of all sorts say that they wished to go there when they died, and hoped they would go there. So of course you have always thought it must be a happy place.
If I asked you where you hoped to go when you died, you would answer, "To Heaven."
But are you sure that you would be happy there? Are you certain that it would be a happy place to you? Let us look into this matter more closely.
There is no sin in Heaven.
Do you love sin? Is there some one sin to which you are more given than to others, one which you will not leave off—a "bosom sin"? Have you such a sin? You could not keep that sin in Heaven. You must give it up there, for there is no such thing as sin in Heaven. But you love it. Nothing can make you part from it here on earth. Then how could you be happy without it there in Heaven?
Grant for a moment that you could get to Heaven just as you are: unchanged, unconverted, with all your love for sin still in your heart—how could you be happy there without your sins? You would not be fit for such a place. You would not enjoy it. All your tastes and pleasures would be different from those of Heaven. Heaven would be no Heaven to you!
But what do people do in Heaven? Read here: "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple" (Revelation 7:15). Would that make you happy? Judge by what makes you happy now. Do you love the house of God? Are you glad when the Lord's Day comes, and you can go there again? Do you take delight in drawing near to the throne of grace? Do worship and prayer give you comfort and make you happy? Prayer of all kinds—public prayer, family prayer, private prayer? If not, you would not be happy in Heaven.
What! You who neglect prayer in your family, and seldom bend the knee in private, and think it a burden to go to one service on Sunday, and perhaps do not even as much as that—can you suppose that you would be happy in Heaven, where they "serve Him day and night in His temple?"
Why would you love it there, any more than you do here? Why would not the worship of God in Heaven be as great a weariness to you as His worship on earth is? And then consider—here it comes only now and then; there it will be every day, day and night, always, forever. Would you be happy there?
And who live in Heaven? Not as on earth, people of all sorts, good and bad, serious and careless, holy and unholy—but only the holy. There will be none but holy people there. Do you love such people now? Are you glad to meet them? Do you take pleasure in their company and conversation? Perhaps not. Perhaps you rather dislike them, than otherwise. It may be that you sneer at them; and that (though you have no reason whatever to doubt their sincerity) you are in the habit of calling them hypocrites, saints, and so forth.
If so, how could Heaven be a happy place for you? Heaven is the home of such people—their city, their country, the place to which they are going, and for which they are longing, the place where they will be forever—they, and none but they. If you do not love them now—would you love them then? If you do not like their company below—would you like it any better above? Only consider, you who mock them and jeer at them now—how would you feel toward them then, and how would you like to find yourself alone with them forever, with none of your favorite companions near, none near you but those very people whom you have disliked all your life long? Would you be happy with them?
But now comes a yet more solemn question. Who reigns in Heaven? God. The chief happiness of Heaven will be to be with God, to see Him face to face, to be always in His presence, and to be always doing His will. When the Lord Jesus wished to comfort His disciples, He said, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2-3). It was the best comfort they could have—to know that they would see Him again and be with Him forever, because they loved Him.
Do you love Him? If not, you would not be happy in Heaven. For, even here below, to be always with a person whom we do not love—to live with him, to see him all day and every day, to be constantly under his eye and subject to his power—this would be anything but happiness! |
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50
on: May 16, 2018, 05:37:16 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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Perhaps you do not like either of these words. You do not pretend to be righteous—yet you are not so bad, you think, as those who are called ungodly or sinners.
Then, reader, I ask you, if neither righteous nor ungodly—what are you? Put your finger on that word in the Bible which describes you. You cannot. There is nothing in the Bible between righteous and unrighteous, godly and ungodly, reconciled and unreconciled. And if you are not righteous in God's sight, then before Him—whatever you may be in your own eyes or in the eyes of the world—before Him, you are ungodly or sinful. I beseech you—weigh this well.
And now we come to the question itself, "Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?" But this question must not be taken by itself; it hangs upon what has gone before about the righteous: "If the righteous one is scarcely saved—then where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?"
The full meaning is this. Seeing that even the righteous man is scarcely saved, that his dangers and difficulties are great; that he finds it necessary to "put on the whole armor of God" (Ephesians 6:11), to "press toward the mark" (Philippians 3:14), to "strive to enter through the narrow gate" (Luke 13:24), and that, though saved to the uttermost by Jesus Christ—yet it is as one is rescued from the water or the flames—seeing all this, what will become of the wicked?
Shall the righteous be scarcely saved—and you so easily? Shall he reach Heaven by so rough a road—and you by one so smooth? Shall he go in by the straight gate and the narrow way—and shall you choose the broad gate and the wide road, and yet find it leads you at last to the same happy place? Shall he take up his cross and follow Christ—and shall you follow nothing but your own will, and yet win Christ in the end? Never repenting, never turning, never believing—and yet saved? Finding without seeking; not running the race, and yet winning the prize; wearing a crown, though never having taken up the cross?
Impossible! Reason says so—conscience says so, and, as plainly as words can speak, God Himself has said so. Have you never read of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:30), of the sheep and the goats, of the right hand and the left (Matthew 25:33)?
I spoke just now of a broad road and a narrow road, a straight gate and a wide gate; do you remember what the Bible says about them, and about the places to which they lead? Here are the words—our Lord's own words: "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).
The righteous and the wicked are traveling different roads—and will come to different ends. It is true, they are mixed now, as plants growing in one field are mixed; but it will not always be so. A great separation day is coming, when every plant which God has not planted shall be rooted up (Matthew 25:13); and all refuges of lies shall be swept away (Isaiah 28:17), and the true sheep of Christ from every quarter shall be gathered together into one fold, into which no mere pretender shall ever come.
To that great day, this question itself seems to point, "Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" Appear when? Why, on that very day when the Lord Jesus shall appear in His glory, and the saints who slept shall appear with Him, and His waiting people on earth shall appear with joy to meet Him. Then, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Appear they must, somewhere. They cannot hide themselves. "Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him" (Revelation 1:7).
Oh, sinner! Careless and stout-hearted now—where will you appear, and how will you feel then? In vain will you call upon the mountains and rocks to fall on you, and hide you "from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb!" (Revelation 6:16). You must come forth—you cannot escape from that all-seeing eye—you must meet the Judge. Where will you appear?
I leave the question to your conscience. "If the righteous one is scarcely saved—then where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?" Look on to that great day—so sure to come and coming so swiftly! Look on to it as if already come—imagine yourself even now before the throne; imagine that, just as you are, you are suddenly called to stand there. Where do you appear? What do you feel? Which side are you placed on? What words do you hear? How does it fare with your soul?
Can you think of this—and yet continue in sin and still put off coming to Christ? Come with us. "We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, 'I will give it to you.' Come with us, and we will treat you well; for the Lord has promised good things to Israel" (Numbers 10:29).
His word cannot fail. Not one true believer shall be lost. "He is also able to save to the uttermost, those who come to God through Him" (Hebrews 7:25)—and He will save them with an everlasting salvation.
"Come with us." Turn from sin and the world. Leave the broad road and begin to walk in the narrow way. It is a safe way, though narrow—the only safe way; and happy, though rough. And it is not always rough; it has many green spots, many pleasant places; and even when rough, One is with us in it, to help and cheer us by His presence.
Oh, set out on this road without delay! Too much time has been lost already—lose no more. No longer run the risk of appearing among the ungodly and the sinners at His coming—flee to Christ at once; be instant and urgent at the mercy seat; pray for the Holy Spirit, for light, pardon, grace, and strength; and ask that, for Christ's sake, you may even now be reckoned among the righteous, and be saved in the day of the Lord! |
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