George H. Morrison's Old And Beautiful Devotions

[nChrist]

June 7

The Weapon of Ridicule - Page 1
by George H. Morrison

And they laughed him to scorn— Luk_8:53

From Lament to Ridicule

This incident occurred in Capernaum, whither our Savior had just returned. He had scarce landed when the ruler of the synagogue besought Him that He would come and heal his daughter. Then had occurred the interruption in the crowded street, and we can picture the father's agony at the delay, an agony that would dull down into despair when word came that the little maid was dead. So Jesus entered the house with Peter and James and John. it was very crowded and noisy and disgusting. "Weep not," He said, "the maid is not dead, but sleepeth." Were it not better to be quiet when a tired one sleeps? And it was then, not catching what Christ meant, nor guessing that He spoke of a sleep that here has no awakening, that they laughed Him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. One moment there was nothing heard but wailing, and the next the shrill lament was drowned in laughter. One moment there was wild beating of the breast, and the next the heaping of ridicule on Christ; and it is of ridicule, in some of its aspects and suggestions, that I wish to speak.

Jesus Was Often Assailed with Ridicule

Now the first thing which I want you to observe is how often Jesus was assailed with ridicule. Our Lord had to suffer more than bitter hatred. He had to suffer the sneering of contempt. When a man is loved, his nature expands and ripens as does a flower under the genial sunshine. When a man is hated, that very hate may brace him as the wind out of the north braced the pine. But when a man is ridiculed, only the grace of heaven can keep him courteous and reverent and tender; and Jesus Christ was ridiculed continually. "Is not this the carpenter's Son; do we not know His brothers?" "He is the friend of publicans and sinners." Men ridiculed His origin. Men ridiculed His actions. Men ridiculed His claims to be Messiah. Nor in all history is there such exposure of the cruelty and bestiality of ridicule as in the mocking and taunting at the cross, with its purple robe, and its reed, and crown of thorns. Think of that moment when, all forspent and bleeding, Jesus was brought out before the people; and Pilate cried to them, "Behold your king! Is not this broken dreamer like a Caesar?" That was the cruel ridicule of Rome, often to be repeated by her satirists, and it was all part of the cross which Jesus bore. It is not enough to say that Christ was hated, if you would sound the deeps of His humiliation. There is something worse than being hated, and that is being scorned; and we must never forget that in the cup, which Christ prayed in Gethsemane might pass from Him, there was this bitter ingredient of scorn.

Jesus Was Not Impervious to Ridicule

Nor should we think that because Christ was Christ He was therefore impervious to ridicule. On the contrary, just because Christ was Christ He was most keenly susceptible to its assault. It is not the coarsest but the finest natures that are most exposed to the wounding of such weapons, and in the most sensitive and tender heart scorn, like calumny, inflicts the sorest pain. When Lord Byron published his first little book of poems, and when he was covered with ridicule by the Scotch reviewers for it, he was stung into an act of swift retaliation, but there is no trace that he felt that derision deeply. But when Keats, casting his poems on the world, met with like treatment from the same reviewers, it almost, if not quite, broke his heart. Both were true poets, touched by the sacred fire, but the one was of finer fibre than the other, and it was he of the sensitive and tender heart who was like to be broken by the pitiless storm. Now think of Christ, uncoarsened by transgression, exquisite in all faculty and feeling, and you will understand how, to a soul like His, it was so bitter to be laughed to scorn. I thank God that the Savior of the world had not the steeled heart of a Roman Stoic. I thank God He was so rich in sympathy, and so perfectly compassionate and tender. But I feel that the other aspect of that beauty must have been exquisite susceptibility to pain, and not alone the pain of spear and nail, but the more cruel and deep-searching pain of ridicule.

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[nChrist]

The Weapon of Ridicule - Page 2
by George H. Morrison

Ridicule Most Keenly Felt by the Young

Probably it is thus we may explain why ridicule is most keenly felt when we are young. It is not at sixty, it is at one-and-twenty, that we are most afraid of being ridiculous. "He was one of those sarcastic young fellows," says Thackeray of young Pendennis, "that did not bear a laugh at his own expense, and of all things in the world feared ridicule most" and Sir Walter Scott, speaking of the enthusiasms of his own boyhood, said, "At that time I feared ridicule more than I have ever done since." There are many young men who could bear to be thought wicked, but I never met one who could bear to be thought ridiculous; indeed I have found them doing ridiculous things just to escape the taint of being thought so; and my point is that that temptation—for it is such—falls at its fiercest on the heart of youth, because in youth we are sensitive and eager, and not yet hardened by traffic with the world.

Christ Was Ridiculed because People Failed to Understand Him

It is notable, too, that Christ was laughed to scorn because the people failed to understand Him. It was because they had not caught tits meaning that they burst thus into derisive laughter. "The maiden," said Jesus, "is not dead but sleeping"; and they were without imagination, and they took it literally. They had no heart for that mystic and poetic speech that calls the last closing of the eyes asleep. "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth," He said once, "but I go to awake him out of sleep." He thought of His friend whose spirit had departed as of one who had fallen upon the peace of slumber. So here, to the noisy mourners in Capernaum, "The maiden is not dead, but sleepeth"—and they laughed Him to scorn and covered Him with ridicule; and they did it because they could not understand.

Disciples Ridiculed at Pentecost

The same truth meets us in the story of Pentecost, as we read it in the vivid narrative of Acts. There also, on the birthday of the church, we light on ridicule, and there also it is the child of ignorance. For there came a sound as of a mighty wind, and the spirit of God fell on the little Company, and they were exalted marvelously by the gift, and went out in the glory of it to preach Christ—and the people, .blind to the source of their enthusiasm, mocked at them as though they had been drunk. "These men are filled with new wine," they said. It was not an argument, it was a sneer. They could not comprehend what this might mean, but at any rate they could heap derision on it. So once again, on the page of Holy Scripture, that perfect mirror of the human heart, we have an instance of ridicule which sprang from an incapacity to understand.

Ridicule Is Often the Weapon of Incapacity

I therefore trust that people will appraise ridicule at its true value. It is not always the token of superior cleverness. It is far oftener the mark of incapacity. Many of us remember how, not so long ago, it was the custom to ridicule the Salvation Army. In the press, on the street, and on the stage at pantomimes, the Army was held up to derision. But no one ridicules the Salvation Army now. Men may object to its methods, but they do not laugh at it. And why? because they know it better now, and have learned how gallant and pure is its enthusiasm. It is the gradual increase of knowledge and of light that has made that ridicule impossible today. It has died a natural death, and been replaced by admiration or by argument. And if in this case, and a thousand other cases, a clearer knowledge makes ridicule ridiculous—do you not see the point I am driving at, that ridicule is the handy weapon of the ignorant? You cannot refute a sneer, said Dr. Johnson; but if you cannot refute it, at least you can despise it. A sneer is the apology for argument made by a man who does not understand. And that is why, though you find Christ Jesus angry, you never find Him ridiculing anybody, for every secret of every human heart was perfectly understood by the Redeemer.

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[nChrist]

The Weapon of Ridicule - Page 3
by George H. Morrison

The Ridicule of the Wise versus the Ridicule of the Ignorant

Of course I am aware that in a world like this there is a certain' work for ridicule to do. So long as shams and pretensions are abroad, a little gentle ridicule is needed. There are some things that should never be taken seriously—they are in their nature so utterly ridiculous—and against these things no man with any humor would ever plant the great guns of his argument. A jest is sometimes the wisest of all answers, and a little raillery the best of refutations. The world owes not a little to these ready spirits who can answer a fool according to his folly. Professor Lecky tells us that in the Middle Ages the troubadours did one great service to humanity. It was a time when the minds of men were darkened by grotesque and horrible teachings about hell. No one dared argue with the mediaeval church—it might have cost a common man his life to argue—but the wandering troubadours, in their fantastic songs, poured ridicule upon these priestly horrors, and by their badinage helped on a brighter clay. So too in Spain in the sixteenth century, when the popular literature was the romance of chivalry, do you think that preaching could have weaned the people from those so vapid and unedifying books? But Cervantes, in his superb Don Quixote, turned the whole literature of romance into a jest, and brought men to their senses by a laugh. At a party, at which Charles Lamb was present, there was a gentleman who was loud in his praises of Mohammedanism. He would have all the company convinced that Mohammed was far superior to Christ. It does not appear that Lamb discussed the matter. There is certainly not a sign that he got angry. Probably he felt himself incompetent to debate the high matters in dispute. But as the company was dispersing, the gentleman lost his hat, and when Lamb was asked if he had seen it, "I thought," said the stammering and gentle Elia, "I thought that our friend came in a turban!" That was a stroke of the most exquisite ridicule. It was answering a fool according to his folly. You may depend upon it that it would be remembered when all the arguments were quite forgotten. And so long as the world has foolish people in it, who strain at the gnat and swallow down the camel, so long will there be an office in the world for the gentle raillery of ridicule. But remember that the ridicule of genius is very different from the sneering of the world—that mockery which the world loves to cast upon every enthusiasm and aspiration. It is not because it understands so much, it is because it understands so little, so that in Capernaum, and here, it laughs to scorn.

The Danger of Only Seeing the Ridiculous Side of Things

I should like to say also to those who are tempted to see only the ridiculous side of things, that perhaps in the whole gamut of the character there is nothing quite so dangerous as that. The man who is always serious has his risks, for there is more laughter in God's works than he imagines. The man who always argues has his risks, for there are truths too fine to be meshed in any argument. But the man who ridicules what is true and high and noble had a thousand times better never have been born into a world so strangely built as this. It is so easy to raise a laugh at things. It is so cheaply and absurdly easy. And there are men whose only claim to being superior is that they are able to win that little triumph. But I call that the most degrading of all triumphs, and that not only for the harm it does to others, but far more for the irreparable harm that it surely brings upon the man himself. Life is not worth living without some high ideal. Life is quite worthless unless we live it reverently. If there be nothing above us and beyond us, we may as well give up the struggle in despair. And the strange thing is that when we take to ridiculing all that is best and worthiest in others, by that very habit we destroy the power of believing in what is worthiest in ourselves. It was not a caprice that when Jesus Christ was ridiculed, He turned the mockers out of the miracle-chamber. That is what the Almighty always does when men and women take themselves to mocking. He shuts the door on them, so that they cannot see the miracles with which the universe is teeming, and they miss the best, because in their blind folly they have laughed the Giver of the best to scorn. Therefore I beg of you never take to ridicule. If you have started the habit, give it up. I beg of you also, never be turned by ridicule from what you know to be right and good and holy. You serve a Master who was laughed to scorn, but you also serve a Master who despised the shame, and the servant is not greater than his Lord.

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

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[1Tim]

Jesus, I don't look like you.  Help me look like you.

[nChrist]

June 8

Cross-Bearing

If any man will come after me, let him…take up his cross daily— Luk_9:23

The Cross Signified Anything Difficult to Bear

When the Romans crucified a criminal, not only did they hang him on a cross. As a last terrible indignity, they made him carry the cross upon his back. Probably Jesus, when a lad, had been a witness of that dreadful spectacle. How it would sink into His boyish mind the dullest imagination can conjecture. And that was why, when He became a man, He used the imagery of cross-bearing to describe all that is bitterest in life. The cross is anything difficult to bear; anything that robs the step of lightness and blots out the sunshine from the sky. And one of the primary secrets of discipleship is given in our text: "If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross daily."

Cross-Bearing: A Universal Thing

The first implication of our text is that cross-bearing is a universal thing. If any man will come after Me—then no one is conceived of as escaping. In the various providences of God there are things we may escape in life. There are many who have never felt the sting of poverty: there are some who have never known the hour of pain. But if God has His providences which distinguish us, He has also His providences which unite us, and no man or woman ever escapes the cross. There is a cross in every life. There is a crook in every lot. There is a bitter ingredient in every cup, though the cup be fashioned of the gold of Ophir. Our Lord knew that everyone who came to Him, in every country and in every age, would have to face the discipline of cross-bearing. The servant is not greater than his Lord.

The next implication of our text is that cross-bearing is a universal thing. "If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross." From which I gather that crosses are peculiar; separate as personality; never quite the same in different lives. When coins are issued from the mint, they are identical with one another. Handle them; they are alike: there is not a shade of difference between them. But things that issue from the mint of God are the very opposite of that: their mark is an infinite diversity. Some crosses are bodily and some are mental. Some spring from unfathomed depths of being. Some are shaped and fashioned by our ancestors, and some by our own sins. Some meet us in the relationships of life, frequently in the relationships of toil, often in the relationship of home. Were crosses like coins issued from the mint, we should ask for nothing more than human sympathy. That would content us, were we all alike. That we would appreciate and understand. But in every cross, no matter how it seem, there is something nobody else can understand, and there lies our utter need of God. No one was ever tempted just as you are, though every child of Adam has been tempted. No one ever had just your cross to carry; there is always something which makes it all your own. And that is why, beyond all human kindliness, we need the eternal God to be our refuge, and underneath, the everlasting arms.

The third implication of our text is that cross-bearing must be a willing thing. "If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross." Probably our Lord, visiting Jerusalem, had seen a criminal led to execution. He had seen the legionary take the cross and lay it on the shoulders of the criminal. And the man had fought and struggled like a beast, in his loathing of that last indignity—and yet for all his hate he had to bear it. Our Lord never could forget that. It would haunt His memory to the end—these frenzied and unavailing struggles against an empire that was irresistible. Did He, I wonder, recall that horrid scene when He forbade His follower to struggle so? Let him take up his cross, I had a friend, a sweet and saintly man, whose little girl was dying. She was an only child, much loved, and his heart was very bitter and rebellious.

Then he turned to his wife and said: "Wife, we must not let God take our child. We must give her." So kneeling down beside the bed together, they gave up their baby—and their wills. My dear reader, I do not know your cross, I only know for certain that you have one. And I know, too, that the kind of way you bear it will make all the difference to you. Your cross may harden you; it may embitter you; it may drive you out into a land of salt. Your cross may bring you to the arms of Christ. Rebel against it, you have still to carry it. Rebel against it, and you augment its weight. Rebel against it, and the birds cease singing. All the music of life's harp is jangled. But take it up because the Master bids you, incorporate it in God's plan for you, and it blossoms like the rod of Aaron.

The last implication of our text is that cross-bearing is a daily thing. "If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross daily." There lies the heroism of cross-bearing. It is not a gallant deed of golden mornings. You have to do it, cheerfully and bravely, every dull morning of the week. Some disciplines are quite occasional. They reach us in selected circumstances. Cross-bearing is continuous. It is the heroism of the dull common hour. Thank God, there is something else which is continuous, and that is the sufficient grace of Him, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness, and who will never leave us nor forsake us. "If any man will come after me, let him .... take up his cross daily."

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

Dist. Worldwide in the Great Freeware Bible Study package called
e-Sword by Rick Meyer: http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html
Full Featured - Outstanding - Completely FREE - No Strings Attached

(The goal of Rick Meyer is to distribute excellent Bible Study
Software to every country on earth in their own language FREE
of charge, and that goal gets closer by the day.)
____________________

[nChrist]

June 9

Ashamed of Christ - Page 1
by George H. Morrison

For whosoever shaft be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shaft come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels— Luk_9:26

Why Some Were Ashamed of Christ in His Day...

I can understand how men were ashamed of Christ as He moved about the villages of Galilee. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and men hid their faces from Him. Born in a humble and malodorous village (can any good thing come out of Nazareth?), living in the deepest obscurity for thirty years, then suddenly claiming to be the Messiah, yet contradicting the warmest hopes of Israel—no wonder there was disappointment, and that many were ashamed of Jesus and His words.

How Can Men Be Ashamed of Him Now?

But the thing that is difficult to understand is how any man can be ashamed of Jesus now. For now He is no longer rejected and despised: He is enthroned in heaven at the right hand of God. We can understand a man denying that Christ rose—there are many who honestly believe that He still sleeps; but the man who is ashamed of Christ is not an unbeliever; you cannot be ashamed of that which has no existence. The man who is ashamed credits the resurrection—get him alone and he will not deny it. The man who is ashamed credits that Christ is living and is energetic in human hearts today; and the mystery is how, crediting all that, it should be possible to be ashamed of Christ. That it is possible everyone of us knows, and it is on that strange possibility I wish to speak. First, I shall touch on the revelation of this shame; next on the roots of it; and thirdly on some remedies in our power.

Signs of Being Ashamed of Christ

1.Concealment

First, then, I wish to speak about its revelation, about the way in which this shame of Christ betrays itself: and the first feature that rises before me is concealment. Is there any man or woman of whom you are ashamed? Think of them and call up their names while I am speaking. Well, however else your shame may show itself, it will at least have this mark—you are ashamed to be seen with them in public. In private, that is a different matter: you have no objection to meeting them in private. In the pressure of a great crowd, that is a different matter, for any two may be cast together in a crowd. But when you are ashamed of a man you are ashamed of being openly seen with him, you are ashamed of walking in broad daylight through the streets with him; and as that is a feature of all shame between man and man, it is a mark of the man ashamed of Christ. Remember we may be ashamed of Christ although in the quiet hour we pray in secret. Remember we may be ashamed of Him although at the stated times we come to church. For in the one case—in private prayer—there is a solitude, and in other—in public worship—is a crowd; and neither in solitude nor in the throng is the shame or glory of the heart detected. It is as we walk through the streets of daily life; it is as we take up our task in homely scenes; it is as we go about our work and mingle with our friends—it is there that our heart's loyalty shall be seen. if we honor Christ men will perceive the friendship. If we are ashamed of Him we shall conceal it.

2. Silence

The second feature of all shame is silence. There is a close and mysterious tie between the two. The feeling of shame whenever it is operative has a way of putting a seal upon the lips. A child will babble and prattle all day long, and spin out a history about its small adventures; but let it do anything of which it is ashamed, and not a word will it speak concerning that. How many homes there are in which one son or daughter has come to disgrace, till the parents' hearts are breaking! Does the stranger entering that home talk of the prodigal? Is not that the one name that is never mentioned? There are ceaseless yearnings and there are secret prayers rising to heaven daily for the wanderer; but mingling with every thought of him is shame, and one great witness of that shame is silence. Now far be it from me even to suggest that all our silence about Christ is such. There is a reserve which is dignified and right when we move among august and holy things. Still, hours will come in every Christian life when confession is imperative and clearly called for, and if in such hours there be not speech but silence, the silence is the stamp and sign of shame.

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[nChrist]

Ashamed of Christ - Page 2
by George H. Morrison

3. Avoidance

The third witness of shame lies in avoidance. We avoid instinctively what we are ashamed of. When an architect has designed a building of which he is proud, I can imagine his delight in looking at it. I can imagine him going out of his way by half a dozen streets just to get one more glimpse of his conception. But let the building be a failure, and the man ashamed of it—he is not eager to feast his eyes upon it. Now he does all in his power to avoid it, and he avoids it because he is ashamed. I fancy that most of us know places such as that, for we are all the architects of our own fortunes: places that are disgraced for us by wretched memories, tarnished and desecrated by some sin; and we too, as we journey through the years, are glad to avoid such scenes, and we avoid them because we are ashamed. Avoidance is one sign and seal of shame. Can it be said of you that you are avoiding Christ? If so, however you may explain it to yourself, depend upon it you are ashamed of Him.

The Roots of Our Being Ashamed of Christ

So far then of the revelation of this shame: now a word or two upon the roots of it. Whence does it spring? How is it born? What possible cause can there be for this so tragic feeling? It will be best to keep close to Scripture in our answer.

1. Fear

Sometimes we are ashamed of Christ through fear. We are ashamed as Nicodemus was. He came to Jesus by stealth and in the nighttime, and he came so because he feared the Jews. In his heart of hearts he profoundly admired the Lord—we can do that, and yet be ashamed of Him—but he was a public man, a master in Israel, living in the fierce light that beat upon a rabbi, and he was afraid and he crept to the Lord by night, and the root and basis of his shame was fear. My impression is that fear is at the root of far more things than most of us ever dream of. There are even virtues on which men pride themselves which a little more courage would instantly destroy. The Bible never reiterates in vain, and do you know the command that occurs most often in Scripture? The commonest command in Scripture is Fear not. Now we are not in bodily peril like Nicodemus; no one will slay us for being out and out. The day of the thumbscrew and of the stake and of the Solway tide—that day, we may thank God, is gone forever; but though that day is gone, fear has not departed. For in the intricate mechanism of modern society there is ample room for subtler and finer fear—fear lest one's business suffer, fear for one's prospects, fear for the welfare of one's wife and children; and who does not know how often tongues are tied and lips are silenced and confession stifled, through the haunting of a vague fear like that? I do not wish to speak harshly of that temper: I know how hard it is sometimes to be true. There are inevitable and unavoidable accommodations which the wheels-within-wheels of modern life demand. Still, there is such a thing as being ashamed of Christ—if there were not, the words would not be written—and at the root of it today as in Jerusalem, may be the promptings of unmanly fear.

2. Social Pressure

Again the cause of this shame may be social pressure. We may be ashamed of Christ as Simon Peter was. And the amazing thing is that in such a zealous and loving heart there should have been any room for shame at all. But Peter sat by the fire in the courtyard, and they taunted him with his discipleship; and then the girl who kept the wicket recognized him, and everyone present was antagonistic; and Peter denied his Lord—Peter was ashamed of Him—and the shame had its source in his society. Had it not been for Peter's company that night, we should never have had the tale of Peter's fall. Alone, in the dark streets, with what a burning loyalty he would have lifted up his heart to his great leader! But Peter was impressionable, easily influenced, quick to receive the impact of environment, and his society made him ashamed of Christ. Are there none today who are like Simon Peter? Are there none who deny Christ because of social pressure? Are there none who are silent and afraid to speak because of the men and women who surround them? In careless homes, in crowded shops or offices, in football clubs, in social gatherings, is not the old tragedy re-enacted sometimes, and does not their company make men ashamed of Christ?

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[nChrist]

Ashamed of Christ - Page 3
by George H. Morrison

3. Intellectual Pride

One other reason only would I mention, and that is intellectual pride. There are not a few instances in the book of Acts of shame which sprang from a certain pride of intellect. When a minister whom I know well was on the point of entering the ministry, the late Dr. Moody Stuart, a saint and a scholar, happened to walk up and down his garden with him. And the talk fell on the ministry, and on its joys and sorrows, on the love that inspires it and on the hopes that cheer it; when the Doctor turned sharply on his young friend and said, "Mr. C., are you willing to be a fool for Christ's sake?" It was an apposite and pertinent question. There must be something of that willingness in every Christian—the Gospel is so simple, so free from subtle intricacy, so entirely, in the heart of it, a gift. And men are ashamed of Christ because His message is so plain that the illiterate peasant can live by it and die by it. There is nothing so alien in the world to pride of intellect as the life and the words and the sacrifice of Jesus. Here is the great offence of Calvary in intellectual and cultured ages—it is that in Calvary there is a fact which the mind alone is powerless to explain. I bring my learning of a thousand books there, and I cannot fathom its mystery and meaning. It only speaks home to my dark and baffled heart when "Nothing in my hand I bring."

The Remedies for Being Ashamed of Christ

In closing, what are the remedies for this besetting shame? I shall just mention two.

1. Endeavor to Realize Who Jesus Is

The first is, endeavor to realize who Jesus is. If you had lived in London in the times of Queen Elizabeth you might have met two men walking together; and the one by his rich dress and his attendants you would recognize as the Earl of Southampton. But who is the other so plainly and carelessly dressed; and is not my lord ashamed to be seen with him? The other is the profoundest intellect God ever fashioned—the other is William Shakespeare. I do not think we should care much about dress, if we had the chance of a walk and a talk with Shakespeare. He would be a strange creature who would be ashamed to be seen anywhere in such company. And did we but realize who He is, whom we name and whom we seek to follow, the very thought of shame would grow ridiculous. Who are you, tell me that—a merchant or a minister? a teacher or a doctor or a clerk? And who is Christ?-the King immortal and eternal, the Wonderful, the mighty God, the Counselor! When I put it that way does it not seem absurd even to dream of being ashamed of Christ? And no one really likes to be absurd.

2. Endeavor to Realize What Christ Has Done for You

And then endeavor to realize what Christ has done for you. That after all is the great cure of shame. When we once feel deeply all that we owe to Him, the black bat, shame, has flown. I could understand a young fellow about town being ashamed to walk through the streets with an old-fashioned and lame countrywoman. But if the old-fashioned and lame country-woman is his mother—God have mercy on him if he feels shame then! For she cradled him and she watched him night and day, and she nursed him in fever and she prayed for him; and never a day has passed since he left home but her thought has gone out in a great longing to him; and who with a spark of manhood in his heart could ever dare to be ashamed of one who had rendered service so great and rich as that? Yet all the service of the dearest mother is not one tithe of what we owe to Christ. He loved us and He gave Himself for us. He saved us and called us, and has made us heirs of heaven. Just think of it. Try to realize it. Call it up as you walk home from church tonight. Then from the heart you will be able to sing.

I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,

Or to defend His cause.

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

Dist. Worldwide in the Great Freeware Bible Study package called
e-Sword by Rick Meyer: http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html
Full Featured - Outstanding - Completely FREE - No Strings Attached

(The goal of Rick Meyer is to distribute excellent Bible Study
Software to every country on earth in their own language FREE
of charge, and that goal gets closer by the day.)
____________________

[nChrist]

June 10

The Prerequisite of Vision - Page 1
by George H. Morrison

When they were awake, they saw his glory— Luk_9:32

Sleeping on the Mount of Transfiguration Is Spiritually Unnatural

It is very strange to find the disciples heavy with sleep, even on the Mount of Transfiguration. One would have thought that there, if anywhere, there were things happening that would have "murdered sleep." The glory of heaven was shining forth from Jesus, like sunshine pouring itself irresistibly through cloud. There too, not in any ghostly apparition, but in most strange reality, were men who had been dead for centuries; yet in the presence of such scenes as these, Peter and James and John were very sleepy. Then they awoke, startled we know not how. Gradually, as a swimmer might rise to the surface out of deep waters, they came to themselves, and remembered where they were. And then, and not till then, when they were fully awake, the Gospel tells us that they saw His glory.

Only When We Are Awake Do We Have a Vision of Glory

You see, then, that one of the penalties of living sleepily, is that we miss so much of what is happening. The mightiest transactions may be forward, and heaven be stooping down to touch the mountain tops, but we shall see nothing of it all if we be drowsy. The latest biographer of Principal Cairns, in his most satisfactory and illuminative little volume, gives us a very charming account of Cairn's school days. He tells us that very early in the morning, when the house was still, Cairns was already busy with his books. His brothers were fast asleep, so was his father; no one was stirring in the cottage save his mother. She was already hard at work in her day's toils, not grudgingly, but perhaps singing as she worked. Now Cairns had a limitless admiration for his mother; she was his heroine and his saint right to the end. And his biographer suggests that this love and adoration might be traced, in part, to these early morning hours. The cottage was radiant with love and toil and sacrifice. But the others were heavy with sleep, and did not see it. None but the zealous young student were awake; but when he was awake, he saw her glory.

When We Are Awake We See Unexpected Glories

Now it is one mark of every great awakening that it reveals to us unexpected glories. When intellect is quickened and the feelings are moved; when the will is reinforced and conscience purified, the world immediately ceases to be commonplace, and clothes itself in unsuspected splendor. You might play the noblest music to a savage, and-it would carry little meaning to his ear. You might set him down before some magnificent painting, and it would not stir one chord in all his being. But when a man has breathed the spirit of the West, and been enriched by its heritage of feeling, there are thoughts that wander off into eternity in every masterpiece of art—we have been wakened, and we see the glory. Do you think it is an idle figure of speech when we talk of the long sleep of the Middle Ages? Do you imagine that we are only using metaphor when we describe the Reformation as an awakening? I hardly think that we could speak more literally than when we use such simple terms as these. There is always a world of glorious environment; but men were heavy with sleep once, and they missed it. it was not till powers and faculties were quickened in the great movements of Renaissance and Reform, that the clouds scattered and the blue heaven was seen. And if today there is larger meaning in our life, if nature is richer in spiritual significance, if faith and hope and love are far more worthy, if religion is deeper and God more real and tender; it can all be interpreted in the language of the text: When they were fully awake, they saw the glory.

The Lord's Awakening in Us Is Needed before We See Certain Glories

I think, too, that in spiritual awakening we find that the suggestion of our text arrests us. There are many glories which we never see, till the call of our Lord has bidden us awake. There is the Bible, for instance; think of that a moment. We have been taught out of its pages since we were little children, and we can never be grateful enough for this so priceless book, that is alive with interest even to the child. It is the noblest of all noble literature. It is fearless, and frank, and eloquent, and simple. It faces life's depths, yet it is always hopeful. It fronts life's tragedies, yet it is always calm. A man may refuse to believe it is inspired, yet may acknowledge what a debt he owes it. But it is one thing to feel the Bible's charm, and it is another thing to see the Bible's glory; and the glory of the Bible is a hidden glory, until a man is spiritually awake. It is only then that it speaks as friend with friend, and that it separates itself from common voices. It is only then that it reaches us apart, with a message and a music no one else shall hear. It is only then, under the pressure of sorrow, or in the darkness of failure, or beneath the shadow of warring duties, that it touches us as if we were alone in the whole world. That is the glory of love, and of love's literature. And we know much before we wake, but never that. It is as true of us as of the three upon the mountain—when they were fully awake, they saw the glory.

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[nChrist]

The Prerequisite of Vision - Page 2
by George H. Morrison

The Gospel Awakens in Us Glories Hidden in Our Fellowman

Or think again of the life of our fellowman. Until we are awakened by the Gospel, I question if we ever see the full glory there. To most of us the life of thousands of our fellows seems a most dull and commonplace affair. There is little radiance in it, and little hope; it is as cheerless as a Grey sea in late November. But can imagination not do anything? Certainly, imagination can work wonders. If you want to see the charm of common lives; the passion, the tenderness, the joy, the strength of the persons whom you and I would brush past heedlessly, just read the Bleak House of Charles Dickens again.

The poem hangs on the berry-bush
Till comes the poet's eye;
And the whole street is a masquerade
When Shakespeare passes by.

All that is true. And all that should make us very grateful to God for the gift of every real novelist and dramatist. But underneath all life of passion and affection there are spiritual possibilities for the meanest, and not till the world is wakened by the Gospel are the hidden glories of humanity revealed. Why are we carrying on home-mission work? Is it merely to employ our leisure energies? It is because we have been wakened, and have seen the glory of the poorest brother in the meanest street. And why have we missionaries in India and in Africa? Is it because we fear the heathen will be damned for not having trusted One of whom they never heard? It is because we have been wakened, and have seen the glory of every heart that beats in darkest Africa. Under all vice there is still something true; deeper than the deepest degradation, there is still a hope unspeakable and full of glory; in the barren desert the rose may blossom yet, and Jesus Christ has wakened us to that. There was the ring of the true faith about Chalmers of New Guinea when, writing of a cannibal chief of that dark island, he refers to him as "that grand old gentleman."

We Must Be Spiritually Wakened to See the Glories of the Lord

And the same thing is true of our dear Lord Himself. We must be spiritually wakened if we would see His glory. It is only then that He reveals Himself, in the full and glorious compass of His grace. When a man approaches Christ Jesus intellectually, he is humbled and stirred by that wealth of spontaneous wisdom. And when a man approaches Christ emotionally, the sympathy of that matchless heart may overpower him. But the brightest intellect and the most delicate emotions may center themselves for a lifetime on the Savior, yet the glory of the Savior may escape them; it is always difficult for the man who is spiritually dead to understand the dominion of Christ in history. But the hour comes when a man is spiritually roused. Out of the infinite, the hand of God hath touched him. The old content is gone like some sweet dream. He realizes that things seen are temporal. He is not satisfied anymore, nor very happy; sin becomes real, the eternal is full of voices. And it is then, in a vision fairer than any dawn, that the glory of Christ first breaks upon the soul. There is a depth of meaning in His wisdom now, that the mere intellect was powerless to grasp. There is a tenderness and a strength in His compassion that mere emotion never understood. There is a value and a nearness in His death that once would have been quite inexplicable. When they were awake, they saw His glory.

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[nChrist]

The Prerequisite of Vision - Page 3
by George H. Morrison

Time Wakens in Us Glories We Once Missed

But to pass on from that great theme of spiritual wakening, there is one feature of experience which I must not omit. It is part of God's discipline with us in the years, that the years should waken us to see glories which once we missed. The value of our college education is not the amount of raw knowledge which it gives us. There are men whose minds are amazingly full of facts, yet no one would call them educated men. And there are others who have comparatively few facts at their command, yet you instinctively recognize that they are educated. For true education is not meant to store us; true education is intended to awaken us; and the joy of the truly educated man is no poor pride in his superior knowledge: it is that he has been so wakened that in every realm and sphere he can see glories unobserved before.

God's Education Is Needed for Us to See the Glories of Mysteries

Now if this be true of our schools and of our colleges, do you not think it holds also of God's education? It is a truth we should ever keep clear before us. There are mysteries in life's discipline we cannot fathom; there are strange happenings that have baffled every thinker; but at least we know that the change and the stress of years, and the joys they bring with them, and their losses and gains, waken us, perhaps rudely, out of many a dream, and show us glories which once we never saw. I do not think that the man who has never been poor will be quick to see the heroisms of quiet poverty. I do not think that he who is always strong can ever appreciate at its full moral value the dauntless cheerfulness of the racked invalid. You must have been tempted as your brother is, to know his magnificent courage in resisting. To the man who never loved, love is inscrutable. So the Almighty in whose hands we are, disciplines us through the deepening of the years, wakes us by change, by love, by sorrow, by temptation, until the veils are rent that shrouded other hearts. And we say of humanity what these three said of Jesus: "When we were awake, we saw His glory."

But the deepest interpretation of the text is not of this world. It will come to its crown of meaning in eternity. It is then that out of the sleep of life we shall waken, and we shall be satisfied when we awake. We shall see the glory of goodness and of truth then, as we never saw it in our brightest hours. We shall see the glory of having kept on struggling, when every voice was bidding us give in. We shall see the glory of the love we once despised, of insignificant and unrewarded lives, of the silence that shielded and the speech that cheered. We shall see the glory of Jesus and of God. We are heavy with sleep here, even at our best. It is going to take the touch of death to waken us. But when we waken in the eternal morning, I think we shall truly see the glory then.

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

Dist. Worldwide in the Great Freeware Bible Study package called
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(The goal of Rick Meyer is to distribute excellent Bible Study
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[nChrist]

June 12

Holding On

No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God— Luk_9:62

The Ploughman: A Symbol of the Person Who Holds On

Holding to things doggedly was one of the controlling thoughts of Jesus. That was why He singled out the ploughman. Ploughmen are not usually learned persons, nor are they often poets in disguise. But there is one virtue they possess pre-eminently, and that is the virtue of quietly holding to it. And it is because, in Jesus' eyes, that virtue is of supreme importance that He wants tis to take the ploughman for our model. "If ye continue in my word," He says, "then are ye my disciples indeed" (Joh_8:31). Something more than receiving is required to reach the crown. To hold on when the sunshine vanishes, and there is nothing but clouds in the sky, that is the great secret of discipleship.

The Importance of Abiding at All Times

We see that with peculiar clearness when we meditate on the great word abide. That was one of the favorite words of Jesus. With those deep-seeing eyes of His He has discerned the wonder of the vine-branch. The branch was there—abiding in the vine—not only in the sunny days of vintage. It was there when shadows fell, and when the dawn was icy, and when the day was colorless and cloudy, and when the storm came sweeping down the glen. Through all weathers, through every change of temperature, through tempest and through calm, the branch was there. Night did not sever that intimate relationship. Winter did not end that vital union. And our Lord recognized that, as in the world of nature this is the secret and the source of fruitfulness, so is it also in the world of grace. To abide is not to trust merely. To abide is to continue trusting. It is to hold to it—and hold to Him—through summer and winter, through fair and stormy weather. Nothing could better show the Master's vision of the great and heavenly grace of holding to it, than His love for that great word abide.

The Principle of Holding On Exemplified by Christ's Life

Not only did our Lord insist on this; He emphasized it in His life. For all His meekness, nothing could divert Him from the allotted path of His vocation. Think, for instance, of that day when He was summoned to the bed of Jairus' daughter. In the crowded street a woman touched Him, and He instantly felt that "virtue had gone out of him." But the original is far more striking in the light it sheds upon the Lord—He felt that the power had gone out of Him. All of us are familiar with such seasons, when power seems to be utterly exhausted. In such seasons we cannot face the music; the grasshopper becomes a burden. And the beautiful thing about our Lord is how, after such an experience as that, He held to it in quiet trust on God. He knew, in all its strength, the recurring temptation to give over. He had to reinforce His will continually for the great triumph of continuing. Through days of weakness, through seasons of exhaustion, through hours when His soul was sorrowful unto death, He held to the task given Him of God. It is very easy to hold on when we are loved and honored and appreciated; when our strength is equal to our problem; when the birds are singing in the trees. But to hold to it when all the sky is dark is the finest heroism in the world, and that was the heroism of the Lord.

Jesus in Full Agreement with Heaven's Perseverance

Nor is it hard to see where He learned this, living in perfect fellowship with heaven. For few things are more wonderful in God than the divine way He has of holding to it. The ruby "takes a million years to harden." The brook carves its channels through millenniums. There goes an infinite deal of quiet holding to it for the ripening of every harvest. And if we owe so much, in the beautiful world of nature, to what I would call the doggedness of heaven, how much more in the fairer world of grace. We are saved by a love that will not let us go. Nothing less is equal to our need. We often think that God has quite forgotten us, and then we discover how He is holding to it. Through all our coldness and backslidings, through our fallings into the miry clay, He has never left us or forsaken us. When we awake we are still with Him, and, what is better, He is still with us; just as ready to pardon and restore us as in the initial hour of conversion. No wonder that our Lord, in perfect fellowship with such a Father, laid His divine emphasis just there.

If You Want to Be Victorious—Hold On

For (just as our heavenly Father does) we win our victories by holding to it. We conquer, not in any brilliant fashion—we conquer by continuing. We master shorthand when we stick to shorthand. We master Shakespeare when we stick to Shakespeare. Wandering cattle are lean kine, whether they pasture in Britain or in Beulah. A certain radiant and quiet doggedness has been one of the marks of all the saints, for whom the trumpets have sounded on the other side. In the log-book of Columbus there is one entry more common than all others It is not "Today the wind was favorable." It is "Today we sailed on. "And to sail on, every common day, through fog and storm, and with mutiny on board, is the one way to the country of our dreams. Days come when everything seems doubtful, when the vision of the unseen is very dim. Days come when we begin to wonder if there can be a loving God at all. My dear reader, hold to it. Continue trusting. Keep on keeping on. It is thus that Christian character is built. It is thus the "Well done" is heard at last.

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

Dist. Worldwide in the Great Freeware Bible Study package called
e-Sword by Rick Meyer: http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html
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(The goal of Rick Meyer is to distribute excellent Bible Study
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of charge, and that goal gets closer by the day.)
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[nChrist]

June 13

The Mission of the Seventy - Page 1
by George H. Morrison

The Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come .... Said he unto them .... heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you— Luk_10:1, Luk_10:2, Luk_10:9

There Is a Place for You to Serve

Can you picture the distress of a farmer when he sees his fields golden with a harvest, and there are no servants to gather that harvest in? It was such an agony that filled the heart of Jesus as He looked out on His harvest field. The seed had been sown; sunshine and rain had come; by the songs of psalmists and the message of prophets, by national guidance and national disaster, God had been bringing Israel to its autumn. And now there was the harvest ready to be cut, but the harvesters—where were they? How intensely Jesus felt the need of helpers! How clearly He saw that the world was to be won through the enthusiasm and the effort of humble men! It is one glory of our joyful Gospel that if we wish to help, there is a place for us. I have seen boys left out in the cold by their schoolmates, but men by their Master, never.

It's Safe to Be One of the Unnamed Disciples

Well, when the work of Jesus in Galilee was over, and a larger field was calling for larger service, Jesus chose seventy, as before He had chosen twelve. Who these seventy were I do not know. We find no list of their names in the Gospels. But one thing we are sure of, for we have it from the lips of Christ Himself, their seventy names were all written in heaven (Luk_10:20). One of our sweetest poets, who died in Italy, bade his friend write upon his tombstone, "Here lies one whose name was writ in water." But the very feeblest of these seventy, when he came to die, would bid men write, "Here lies one whose name is writ in heaven." What a debt we owe to the unnamed disciples! How we are helped by those we never heard of! If struggles are easier and life is brighter for us, we owe it largely to the faithful souls who pray and work and die, unknown. Do you long to be one of the twelve, till all the land is ringing with your name? Better to be one of the unnamed seventy, who did their work and were very happy in it, and whose names are only known to God. Better: perhaps safer too. There was a Judas in the twelve: we never read of one among the seventy.

Why Seventy?

And why did Jesus fix on that number seventy. Fine souls have dreamed (and sometimes it is sweet to dream a little) that Jesus was thinking of the twelve wells and seventy palms of Elim that had refreshed the children of Israel long ago (Exo_15:27). But if that be a fancy, this at least is fact. It was seventy elders who went up with Moses to the mount and saw the glory of the God of Israel (Exo_24:1-9). Now seventy workers are to go out for Jesus, and see a glory greater than that of Sinai. It was seventy elders who were afterwards chosen to strengthen Moses in his stupendous task (Num_11:24-25). Now seventy are set apart by Jesus to aid Him in His glorious service. Do you see how Jesus gathered up the past? Do you mark how He was guided by the past in making His great choices for today?

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[nChrist]

The Mission of the Seventy - Page 2
by George H. Morrison

They Were to Win Men by Trusting Them

So the seventy were chosen; and with an exquisite kindness were sent out two and two. They were to heal the sick. They were to be the heralds of God's kingdom. If men received them, let them rejoice. If cities rejected them, let them remember Jesus, for "he that despiseth you despiseth me." He was the Lamb of God, and they were sent forth as lambs among the wolves. They were to try to win men, too, by trusting them. For when Jesus bade them leave their wallet and their purse behind, He was not only teaching confidence in God; He was teaching them to look for the best in man. That was one secret of the seventy's success. They took it for granted they would be hospitably treated, and men responded to that trustfulness. They honored that confidence reposed in them; till the hearts of the seventy overflowed with praise, and they came back to Jesus full of joy.

No Time to Waste

It should be noted too, in their directions, how Jesus guarded against all waste of time. There is a note of urgency we must not miss. The value of precious hours is realized. Take this, for instance, "Salute no man by the way." Did Jesus mean that the worker should be a churl? Not that. But in the East greetings are so tedious, so full of flattery, so certain to lead on to wayside gossip, that men who are out on a work of life and death must run the risk of seeming unsociable sometimes. When Elisha bade his servant carry his staff and lay it on the dead child of the Shunamite, do you remember how he said to him, "If thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again" (2Ki_4:29)? The call was so urgent, there was no time for that, and there is a thousandfold greater urgency here. Or why, again, did Jesus say, "Go not from house to house"? Did not the disciples break bread from house to house (Act_2:46)? Did not Paul at Ephesus teach from house to house (Act_20:20)? But what Jesus warned the seventy against was this. It was against accepting that endless hospitality that to this day is the custom in an Eastern village. It was against frittering all their priceless hours away in accepting the little invitations they would get. They must remember how the days were flying. They must never lose sight of their magnificent work. The time is short, and all must give way to this—the preaching of the Kingdom and healing the sick.

Their Success Brought Joy to Christ

The seventy did their work, then, and came home again (for it was always home where Jesus was); and when Jesus heard their story and saw their joy, there fell a wonderful gladness on His heart, This Man of Sorrows was often very joyful, but never more so than in His friends' success. Now is not that a Comrade for us all? Is not that a Companion who will make life rich? We are so ready to envy one another. We cannot hear about a brother's triumphs but it sends a sting into our hearts. Jesus exults when His nameless children prosper. He is jubilant, in heaven, when I succeed. It is worthwhile to master self; it is worthwhile to be a Christian, in my own nameless way, when I have a Friend like that to please.

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

Dist. Worldwide in the Great Freeware Bible Study package called
e-Sword by Rick Meyer: http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html
Full Featured - Outstanding - Completely FREE - No Strings Attached

(The goal of Rick Meyer is to distribute excellent Bible Study
Software to every country on earth in their own language FREE
of charge, and that goal gets closer by the day.)
____________________

[nChrist]

June 15

Unexpected Comforters

But a certain Samaritan .... had compassion on him— Luk_10:33

No Help Came from Those He Expected It From

If ever a comforter was unexpected it was in the case of this poor wounded wayfarer. Half-dead though he was, he still had life enough to be surprised. Had the priest hurried to his help that would have been entirely natural. Had the Levite come to his assistance that was what anybody might have looked for. But a Samaritan was the last man in the world to succor a disabled Jew, yet here it was a Samaritan who did it. The Jews and Samaritans despised and distrusted one another. Between them, for long ages, had been religious and racial antipathy. And yet this man who showed such ready kindness was actually a Samaritan. It is a striking and suggestive instance of the unexpected comforters of life.

Paul Received Help from Barbarians on Malta

It is notable how often one discovers this in the biographies of Scripture. One thinks, for instance, of the earliest Christians. If there was one man they were afraid of it was Paul; his very name struck terror to their hearts. They never heard of his approach without dismay, for everywhere he made havoc of the church. And yet this man, whose coming made them tremble, and who lived to persecute and ravage, was to become their mightiest of champions. Similarly in Paul's own life, when he was shipwrecked on the coast of Malta, one recalls that very charming touch that "the barbarous people shewed us not a little kindness." Roman citizens were bound to help each other to the very extremities of empire: but here the comforters were the barbarians. Paul was finding what we all find, that comforters are often unexpected, that the folk who are kind to us in hours of shipwreck are the last folk in the world we should have thought of. He was like that traveler going down to Jericho who, to his own intense astonishment, was comforted and helped by a Samaritan.

Receiving Help from Unexpected Sources in Our Own Experience

Now what is true of the biographies of Scripture is also largely true of our own lives. There are few of my readers who have been without experience of the unexpected comforters of life. There are those to whom we look for comfort, and thank God, we generally get it. There is the mother of our childhood, or the father, or the wife or husband, or the friend. But, like the well of Hagar, or the burning bush, or the ladder of the sleeping patriarch, how often are our comforters and helpers the last folk in the world we should expect. Sometimes innocent and prattling children, sometimes people whom we hardly know, sometimes those we were jealous of in secret, of whom we never spoke except in bitterness—how they have helped us, poured oil into our wounds, perhaps put their hand into their pockets for us, as the Samaritan did for this sorely battered wayfarer. I recall a woman who came to church one evening hoping to get comfort from the pulpit. Well, she did not get it, for that night I was preaching upon sin. But a lady next to her in the pew spoke to her and was wonderfully tender, and that poor wanderer told me afterwards that peace and comfort flowed into her heart. There are unexpected wells in Hagar's desert; there are unexpected comforters in life. They come to us when we never look for them, as the Lord did on the Emmaus road. All of us are like that Jewish traveler, for we all sometimes get oil and wine from the folk we never should have dreamed of.

Help from a Carpenter—One of long Ago So Different from Us

I venture to say that this unexpected ministry finds its crown in our blessed Lord and Savior. It is a strange thing that men should turn for comfort to One who was a Carpenter of Nazareth. A Carpenter! How can He comfort us, when the heart is heavy and the road is long? He was a child of a different race from ours: He lived some nineteen centuries ago. And the strange thing is that countless multitudes still turn to Him for comfort, and find Him the best Comforter of all. Priests disappoint us; Levites disappoint us. This good Samaritan never disappoints us. He comes just where we are (Luk_10:33), and pours oil and wine into our wounds. And He, too, was despised and rejected, and men were very contemptuous of Nazareth, for they said, Can any good come out of Nazareth ?

Help from Unexpected Sources Ought to Dispel Despair

This fact of life on which I have been dwelling ought always to help to keep us from despairing. How readily we say, when people disappoint us, "there is no eye to pity and no arm to save." I think this wounded traveler said that when priest and Levite passed him by. He despaired; there was no help for him; there was no eye to pity and no arm to save. And just then the Samaritan appeared—the unlikeliest person in the world—and comfort was far nearer than he knew. Do I speak to any whose hearts are very sore in the bitterness of disappointment? To any who have hoped for help from certain people and, like this wounded traveler, never got it? My dear reader, courage! The oil and wine are nearer than you think, for, and very probably, they are going to come to you from someone of whom you would never dream.

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

Dist. Worldwide in the Great Freeware Bible Study package called
e-Sword by Rick Meyer: http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html
Full Featured - Outstanding - Completely FREE - No Strings Attached

(The goal of Rick Meyer is to distribute excellent Bible Study
Software to every country on earth in their own language FREE
of charge, and that goal gets closer by the day.)
____________________