Sunday Morning exhortations.

Starting from the exhortation “Let brotherly love continue”, the speaker argues that love is the root and object of the truth, and that those who lack it are not of God and will be cut off like unfruitful branches.

Observes that the breaking of bread directs thought to Christ, and that the Roman Question and the expected end of the Papacy’s 1260 years point to his return, as in Daniel 7.

Observes that the Bible has raised the character of the nation and of individuals, and that progress toward the hope depends on continual submission to the Word and on meeting with the brethren, not retiring from society.

Starts from the opening of 1 John, noting that the apostles’ eyewitness testimony to Christ was written to Gentiles and so addresses present believers, and that its object is fellowship with the Father and the Son.

Taking 1 John 3 as its ground, the exhortation says believers are now sons of God, whom the world does not know, and that sonship means submission to God’s will, learned by continual study of the Scriptures.

Taking John’s Second Epistle as a letter to an ecclesia, the speaker contrasts the ephemeral loves of the world, which rest on instinct and shared interests, with love in the truth, which begins with the truth and grows in step with love of it.

Taking Romans 2 as its subject, the exhortation says believers are called to righteousness, the doing of what God has commanded, and that the judgment will only disclose what each person’s daily life already is, so the present is what counts.

Beginning with the need to behold the High Priest by faith, the exhortation contrasts the disciples’ wish to call down fire (Luke 9) with Christ’s present work of saving and his coming work of destroying, illustrated by the plagues of Egypt.

Expounding 1 Corinthians 2, the speaker argues that the chapter must be read against its setting: Paul preached Jesus Christ crucified, and the kingdom with him, to Corinthians trained in Greek philosophy, which taught that virtuous men would be saved and that the soul goes to a future state.

The speaker thanks God for Christ’s command to assemble and break bread, arguing that believers are to be in the world but not of it, and that regular meeting and daily reading of the scriptures are needed to keep faith and the memory of Christ alive against the pull of worldly things.

The speaker takes Paul’s comparison of the resurrection to a sown grain in 1 Corinthians 15 and argues that the germ of the seed corresponds not to an immortal soul but to the truth, which dwells in believers and is kept in God’s memory until Christ quickens it.

Speaking during a general election, the speaker argues that political reformers cannot cure human misery: greater wealth would only increase wickedness, as in Sodom, and God has chosen the poor as heirs of His kingdom.

On Romans 5, the speaker explains that those justified by faith in Christ have peace and favour with God, which no one has outside Christ.

On 1 Corinthians 12, the speaker says the miraculous gifts have ceased but the chapter’s lessons still apply.

On 1 Timothy 1, the speaker says Paul’s commission as apostle to the Gentiles still reaches later believers and brings a responsibility with it.

Taking Ephesians 5 as his starting point, the speaker says that to follow God is to walk in love, and that a man who holds the truth without love is not of God.

Starting from Paul’s references to prayer in Philemon, the speaker argues that acceptable prayer is brief, intelligent and reverent, citing Elijah’s short prayer at Mount Carmel against the long cries of the prophets of Baal.

The speaker says the breaking of bread directs the brethren to the sorrowful side of Christ’s life, which brings comfort and courage because he was tempted and suffered as they do, and which gives an example of doing good.

Taking Hebrews 11 as his starting point, the speaker says that faith in God as a rewarder of those who seek Him is a great consolation, and that trial, as with the prophets and Joseph, is the means by which God prepares men for the kingdom.

The speaker says three truths, the past, the present and the future, must be realised for an active spiritual life, and that in each the appearance is contrary to the truth.

Starting from the griefs of this mortal state and the way sickness and death show what is of real value, the speaker urges the brethren to give themselves wholly to the truth rather than to the pursuits of the flesh.

Taking 1 John 1 as an address to believers, the exhortation says the truth is meant to fill them with joy, but memory is weak and needs the stirring of apostolic letters.

Taking 1 John 2 as its text, the exhortation says the aim of the gospel is that believers should not sin but walk as Jesus walked, and puts first the duty of living for the good of others.

Taking 1 John 3 as its starting point, the exhortation says believers, as sons of God, must accept that the world knows them not, as it knew not Christ.

The exhortation contrasts the present violent, vain world with the good time coming through Abraham and his seed, and urges that those who belong to Christ be a peculiar people who do good without ostentation, obey his commandments, and sow to the spirit rather than seek worldly pleasure and riches.

Taking up Peter’s call in Acts 2 and 3 to repent that sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing come, the speaker says believers will not know how they stand until the Lord comes and judges.

The speaker reviews three occasions when God intervened in human affairs while most people noticed nothing: the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the coming of Christ, and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

The exhortation begins with the origin of the breaking of bread at the last passover, dwelling on Christ’s sorrow before his death and the comfort he gave his disciples.

Opens by saying that life and all its goods end in the grave, yet men turn from the glory to be revealed and, like an agricultural labourer who distrusts commercial “stock”, despise the spiritual things they cannot see.

Starting from Romans 6 and the principle ‘First pure, then peaceable’, argues that law is necessary and good, and that Paul’s saying that the law entered that sin might abound gave God occasion to show grace through Christ, who upheld the law by his death.

Notes that in Paul’s day the ecclesias were guided by men endowed with spiritual gifts, whereas today there is no such authority and all is voluntary.

Takes Romans 2:7 and argues that patient continuance is needed because the believer’s way implies something to endure and hope is often deferred.

Taking Romans 13, the exhortation says that, since Christ’s kingdom is not yet established, believers must be obedient subjects of the existing governments, which God appoints and overrules, and must not take part in political movements or agitation.

Begins from the weekly breaking of bread as Christ’s appointed reminder of himself, whom the world offers nothing to recall, and presents him as the captain who chooses his followers, requiring loyalty and promising immortality in return.

Reads 1 Corinthians 12 against the situation of the Corinthian believers, who had received the gifts of the Spirit yet were divided, and some of whom, influenced by Greek philosophy, called Jesus accursed while claiming the Spirit.

Taking Paul’s opening words in 2 Corinthians 1, the exhortation says that the peace Paul wished the Corinthians rests on purity, and that believers should take comfort only where they are walking in obedience, and repent where they are not.

Says believers are called not merely to believe and speak of the truth but to holiness, and that the only standard of righteousness is obedience to God’s commandments.

Takes the apostolic entreaty not to receive the grace of God in vain and says grace is favour offered with a purpose, which can be wasted, as Israel in the wilderness wasted it.

Says the day of the Lord will come as a thief only upon those who cry ‘peace and safety’, not upon believers who are children of light, yet an ecclesia may contain members who fall short, as the message to Laodicea shows.

Roberts contrasts the hopeless, mortal state of man in Adam with the sonship and fellowship with the Father offered through Christ, whom the breaking of bread sets before the brethren.

Starting from 1 Timothy 1, Roberts explains that Timothy was left at Ephesus to check those whose teaching ministered questions rather than godly edifying, and warns against treating speculative points as matters affecting a believer’s standing.

Expounding Colossians 2, Roberts describes the comfort Paul desired for the brethren, found chiefly in Christ and also in mutual faith, and argues that true love among believers rests on a shared full assurance of understanding rather than on sentiment.

Expounding Colossians 3, Roberts explains that believers baptised into Christ are risen with him and must set their affections on things above, which he distinguishes from the popular idea of going to heaven, since those things are to be brought to the saints at Christ’s coming.

Taking Paul’s letter to Philemon as a model, Roberts urges brethren to imitate apostolic warmth in their intercourse and letters: using genuine words of affection, invoking God’s blessing on one another, and thanking God for faithful fellow-labourers.

Expounding Hebrews 1 and 2, Roberts argues that God’s final speaking by a Son, greater than the angels, the prophets and Moses, calls for the more earnest heed to what has been heard.

Roberts imagines travelling back eighteen centuries to Rome and then to Paul, a prisoner, letting Paul recount his conversion, and then traces Bible history back through the patriarchs and Noah to Eden.

Starting from the reading in Hebrews 13, Roberts warns against covetousness and the world’s pursuit of money, holding up Job as an example of riches rightly used and urging contentment in God’s promise never to leave or forsake His people.

Turning from James to 1 Peter 1, Roberts presents Peter’s words as comfort for believers who are strangers and sojourners in the present world, urging them to gird up the loins of the mind, pass their sojourning in fear, be holy, and keep the Word in earnest memory.

On 2 John, the speaker distinguishes the worldly and orthodox notions of love from the apostolic love, which is bound up with the truth and issues in obedience.

Takes the Lord’s message to the ecclesia in Sardis as instruction for every ecclesia, including Birmingham, beginning with his assurance ‘I know thy works’.

Beginning from the breaking of bread, the speaker describes the love of Christ as the strongest motive among men and sets out the many sides of his character, which are all to be imitated, not only the gentle ones.

Notes that the world regards the breaking of bread with scorn, though the saints are now free to meet since the end of the Papal power.

Taking the breaking of bread as a reminder of Christ’s inner experience in the days of his flesh, the speaker reads Psalm 69 as the voice of Christ in his waiting, his hatred by the world without a cause, his burden of mortal nature, and his zeal for the Father.

Beginning from the saying that all that was written aforetime was written for our learning, the speaker urges daily, patient and prayerful reading of the Bible as against the occasional study of mere scholarship.

Takes Paul’s counsel to the Corinthians to be without carefulness, applying it first to slave and free, master and servant: the believer in either condition belongs to Christ, and the present state is short, so its burdens may be borne patiently until the freedom and change of body that Christ will give at his coming.

Taking Paul’s words ‘If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant’ (1 Cor. xiv. 37), it urges that the truth must not be governed by pusillanimity or misplaced charity, and that the ‘bearing’ of the strong with the weak in Romans xv. concerns matters outside the faith and not its doctrines and precepts.

Argues that Christ’s allusions to his second coming presuppose a period of waiting, and that the apparent delay is no delay from the Lord’s point of view but a matter of our expectations, since the end and the time of the end are different things.

Gathered at the table, the exhortation surveys the Bible story as a landscape coloured with Christ: behind, his birth, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension and the apostolic age, followed by the decline into apostasy and the rise of the Papacy; ahead, his reappearing, the judgment, the time of trouble among the nations and the kingdom of God filling the earth.

The speaker urges the brethren to use the present opportunity to examine themselves, since after the Lord’s arrival judgment will be too late to amend; mere sorrow and resolution do not help unless they lead to the word of God.

The speaker says that those called by the gospel must see their present life as part of God’s long plan, and that acceptance at Christ’s coming follows from the course pursued now, as harvest follows seed-time.

Noting that the events of Daniel’s image have run their course without us and that the end is near, the speaker says the question at Christ’s appearing will be whether our lives have been in harmony with the principles of the kingdom, which differ from the world’s wisdom.

Taking comfort from the psalm read, the speaker turns to Paul’s example and to 1 Thessalonians, urging the brethren to abound more and more in a walk that pleases God.

Urges the brethren to keep assembling and exhorting one another daily, noting the restoration of the Spanish monarchy and the Jewish Board of Deputies’ decision on Sir Moses Montefiore’s Holy Land scheme as signs of the Lord’s approach.

Takes two points from Psalm 46: the confidence in God that sustains believers in trouble (verse 1) and the declaration ‘I will be exalted’ (verse 10).

Reads Psalm 19 as a hymn on the glory of God in creation, and holds that the unchanging order of nature points to the same power that will bring in new heavens and a new earth when the apostles’ words and the Sun of Righteousness again go forth.

Spoken on learning of the sudden death of brother Allsopp, who led the singing; praises his usefulness, Scripture-reading and zeal, and suggests the loss may be like rain on the garden, sent so that the Word planted in believers may bear fruit.

Contrasts the judgment of natural men, who commend whoever does well for himself, with God’s standard, which puts duty to God first; on that standard the world, though outwardly pious and respectable, is wicked, and God will punish it when his time comes.

Says the conflict with enemies in David’s psalm reflects God’s plan to take out a few chosen by faith and the world’s nature of self-interest, so the world hates the truth and believers must expect tribulation, honouring the shame as a sharing in Christ’s.

Starting from Jesus’ words about the blessedness of those who see and hear, says the blessedness is yet future, that present life is brief, and that the long reign of evil teaches God’s greatness and trains the sons of God through chastisement.

Takes Psalm 72 and Luke 24 to show the double application of God’s promises, in which David’s covenant and Solomon’s reign foreshadow the greater reign of Christ, who will deliver the needy as no mortal ruler can, helped by immortal fellow kings and priests.

The exhortation urges the brethren to let the word of Christ dwell in them richly, by steady daily reading of the Scriptures rather than fits of intense application followed by neglect.

Beginning from the breaking of bread, the exhortation says obedience is the great lesson of the faith and the test by which Christ’s friends will be known at his coming.

Taking the Eastern Question as a sign that the Lord is near, the exhortation turns to the comfort of Psalm 84, “The Lord God is a sun and shield”, and to the kindness of God shown in reconciling the world through Christ.

Starting from the weekly breaking of bread as a needed reminder, the exhortation rejects the theories that man has a light within or a permanent store of knowledge, and says that light comes from without, through the gospel believed and obeyed.

Contemplating the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, the speaker says Christ’s sufferings were largely mental, caused by a world indifferent to God, and that believers share them as pilgrims in an evil world; he contrasts the living sacrifice God requires with the penances of Charles V. and the early martyrs.

Taking Peter’s rule to speak “as the oracles of God”, the speaker argues that Solomon’s Proverbs carry apostolic authority and that they supply correctives against extremes: diligence against shiftless trust, warnings against haste to be rich, firmness towards fools and false brethren alongside kindness, and knowledge against the dangers of pride.

Taking the apostolic call to behold the goodness and severity of God, the speaker says Israel’s sacrifices and feasts were rejected because they lacked love to God and care for neighbour, and that believers who rely on knowledge, baptism and breaking of bread without these may fall into the same position.

Starting from the readings in Ezekiel and from Jesus, the exhortation says that the same God speaks by the prophets and by his Son, with the same aim of bringing men to obedience, and that Gentile believers, grafted into Israel’s olive tree, are exhorted to rejoice.

Taking Paul’s exhortation to go forth unto Christ without the camp, the speaker says that it meant excommunication for Jewish believers and, for the brethren, separation from the popular religious system, which does not uphold “the truth” as the pillar and ground of it.

Taking the apostolic warnings about the dangers of the present evil world, the speaker says the love of pleasure is the danger named in the chapters read, and that those who have only a form of godliness deny its power as seed that is not allowed to bear fruit.

Beginning with the way the Scriptures never lose their interest, the exhortation takes the two chapters read, Jonah 4 and Hebrews 9, as showing the goodness of God.

Christ is not found in daily surroundings or in nature, but through the preaching of the apostles’ written word and the breaking of bread, by which faith in him is created.

Taking the parable of the marriage feast, the speaker shows that the Gentiles of the highways and hedges are invited through Paul’s word, but that being called is not enough: the guest without a wedding garment is cast out.

The basis of the ecclesia is the work of the apostles, and the first-century brethren were faithful without the excitement of the political signs of the times.

Taking notice of Russia’s declaration of war against Turkey, the speaker says it is the event long looked for from Daniel, Ezekiel and John, and contrasts the situation with that of 1854, when Papal power, France, Turkey and the state of the Holy Land and of believers made the time not yet ripe.

Taking the statement that “the word of the Lord endureth for ever”, the exhortation says it assures the stability of the universe and, more importantly, the certainty of what God has said to individuals.

Pointing to Paul’s practice of exhorting the brethren constantly, the exhortation says the matters needing constant repetition are not the first principles but our moral relation to God and to the world, summed up in the command to “walk worthy of God”.

Starting from Jeremiah’s question why the way of the wicked prospers, and the same complaint in David and Habakkuk, the exhortation says the answer is that their prosperity is only for a season and will end when the kingdoms of this world become Christ’s.

Starting from the reading of the prophets, the exhortation says believers now understand what Israel and the churches around us do not, and that this shows them, like Ezekiel, living in the midst of a rebellious house whose ways, not only its opinions, are contrary to the Scriptures.

Taking Daniel, read that morning, as a brother “greatly beloved”, the exhortation first shows that apparent evil (the captivity, like the good figs of Jeremiah 24) may be God’s way of leading His people to good.

Spoken after the sudden death of a sister who had broken bread the Sunday before, it says that sorrow is for ourselves, since the dead in Christ are at rest, and that death teaches the wisdom of the house of mourning over the pursuit of present cares, riches and pleasures.

From the oracle of Zephaniah 2, the exhortation says that Scripture written about ancient peoples is for our instruction, and that the ‘men settled on their lees’ who think God does nothing, good or evil, hold what is now called Deism.

Starting from the comfort the Scriptures give, the exhortation takes God’s question in Zechariah 8:6, ‘if it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant... should it also be marvellous in mine eyes?‘, and applies it to the believer’s hope of Christ’s return, the kingdom and bodily change.

Starting from Psalm 96:5, “the Lord made the heavens,” the speaker says the starry heavens impress on us the greatness of God, and that even scientists find things that appear “made” at the lowest depth of investigation.

At the breaking of bread we are to remember Christ in all his aspects, including as the manifestation of the Father, who dwelt in him and whose love Christ himself declared.

Taking ‘Thou wilt guide me by Thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory,’ the speaker says believers are guided now by the written word, which makes the man of God thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

From Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, the speaker explains that the day of the Lord will come as a thief and a snare upon the unwatchful world, but not upon the brethren who watch and know the signs.

Taking Paul’s call not to sleep as others do but to watch and be sober in view of the day of the Lord, the speaker likens the world’s unawareness to a sleeper robbed by a burglar.

Beginning from the heavy tidings against Zion in the portion of Jeremiah read that morning, the speaker turns to the promises of her comfort and restoration, and says the time of Jerusalem’s desolation is now past.

Taking Paul’s contrast between those who are after the flesh and those who are after the spirit, the speaker says the weekly breaking of bread does not lose its interest, and that the world is almost wholly given to the things of the flesh.

Taking Paul’s words in Ephesians about the mystery that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, the speaker argues that orthodox believers in the immortality of the soul cannot understand it, since before Paul’s mission the Gentiles were without hope and were admitted only through the gospel.

Starting from the proverb that he who walks with wise men shall be wise, the speaker says that society dismisses Paul as obsolete, whereas Christ chose him and he repeatedly told believers to follow his example.

Taking up the apostle Paul as the model Christ has set before disciples, the exhortation dwells on his constant, practical recognition of God in all he did, shown in his use of “if the Lord will”, his appeals to God as witness, and his habit of prayer.

Beginning with the privilege and present comfort of knowing the truth in a time of gathering tribulation, the exhortation recalls that the Gentiles were called when Israel declined the invitation.

Starting from the purpose of the weekly breaking of bread, the exhortation considers the temptation of Christ as part of his moral preparation as a sinless but tempted brother.

On Psalm 95, the exhortation says praise is reasonable because the Lord is a great God and Creator, notes why “the deep places of the earth” are mentioned, and describes the full praise that will be offered when Christ and his brethren are manifested.

The speaker asks what wisdom is, contrasting the world’s claims to wisdom with Paul’s words that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

Taking up Paul’s address at Antioch (Acts 13), the speaker says popular religion neglects the history of Israel, whereas the hope of believers rests on those histories being true.

The speaker commends fixed Scripture readings as the basis of exhortation, then draws from the burden of Moab the lesson that pride and contempt of Israel bring judgment, which the world’s like sins will bring at Christ’s coming, so that believers must not be one with the world.

Beginning with the privilege of hearing God’s voice in the readings, the speaker says Isaiah shows that Israel’s calamities were God’s doing and not merely human prowess, and that the next chapter promises restoration.

Begins from the wisdom shown in creation and argues that the Bible, which makes everything of God, answers the self-evolution theory and settles the question of the Creator.

Takes Baruch, Jeremiah’s companion, as a sorrowing man, and shows from Jeremiah and James that the prophets were fellow-sufferers with believers today.

Starts from the four figures in the Ezekiel 17 reading (Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, the king of Judah and the prophet), all long dead, to show that the present life is brief yet decides the future.

Says the breaking of bread was appointed so that believers would keep Christ in memory during his absence, and takes Paul’s words ‘I have received of the Lord’ as its starting point.

Starting from the reading in Hebrews 3, the speaker urges believers to grow in the truth, saying growth depends on daily companionship with the word and the avoidance of worldly company.

Taking the vision of the olive-fed golden lampstand in Zechariah 4, the speaker says its message, “Not by might nor by power, but by My spirit”, points to the future work of God through Christ and the saints drawn from Jew and Gentile, the two olive trees, by tried faith.

Taking the blessing on those called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, the speaker says the Bride is the saints, so those now called are invited to take part in the union and not merely to watch it.

With no appointed readings, the speaker takes Proverbs 1 and John 14, saying that Proverbs is a book of revelation whose wisdom differs from Gentile philosophy in being centred on God.

Takes the 1880 general election as a sign of the times and says that the Liberal victory must serve the purpose of God, as Joseph’s sale into Egypt did, so that believers can only watch the developing latter-day situation.

Takes points from Proverbs 28 as read that morning. Verse 4 shows Christ and his brethren contending with the wicked, which the writer distinguishes from mere contentiousness, and says a believer should not expect to be well spoken of by the world.

Begins from Israel as a nation ‘terrible from their beginning hitherto’, arguing that Israel’s conquest of Canaan and survival as a people can be explained only by God’s work with them, as part of a plan to make His name known and prepare the earth.

Begins from the passing of human generations and the vanity of present life, and sets against it the hope and ‘abundant mercy’ of 1 Peter 1, which promises relief from every present trouble.

Takes up Paul’s sorrow in Romans 9 over Israel’s estrangement from Christ, and compares the lot of believers among a nominally Christian community that disregards the truth, urging patience and separation.

Returns to Romans 9 and argues that God’s family is not developed on mere descent but on faith and docility like Abraham’s, so that heirs must do the works of Abraham.

Takes Christ’s words ‘Salvation is of the Jews’ to argue that there is no hope in natural directions, only in Christ, and that the Christ of the Bible cannot be separated from Israel’s history and land.

Taking the Daniel 9 reading, notes that Babylon’s fall shows God’s purpose standing sure and that reading the Scriptures together relieves the feeling that present evils must last.

Taking Christ’s words ‘If ye believe not me, believe the works,’ the speaker argues that God’s appeal to man has always rested on facts, and that believers today stand on a long record of fulfilled prophecy, including the prophecy that prophecy would cease for a time.

Beginning with the passover that Jesus kept with his disciples, the speaker treats it as a type fulfilled in Christ, who shared the mortality of those he came to redeem and whose own blood delivers them.

Taking the words “until he come” from Paul’s remark on the breaking of bread, the speaker contrasts the first disciples, who had known Christ personally, with believers now, and says the Lord’s return is more nearly due than ever, though the exact time has been withheld.

Starting from the Lord’s words that he would not drink of the fruit of the vine until he drank it new with his disciples in his Father’s kingdom, the speaker argues that the promise is to be taken literally, even though it also carries a wider significance.

Starting from the unshaken foundation on which believers stand, the speaker asks whether Christ will accept those who have accepted him, and finds the answer in the Spirit’s declaration that the Lord has chosen ‘him that is godly.’ Godliness is held to be devotion to God himself, as shown in the Mosaic and Christian systems and in Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus, rather than the mere ‘manliness’ of popular Christianity.

Asked what is meant by ‘the truth,’ the speaker shows from John’s epistles and Paul’s words that it is the truth of the gospel, which is the hope of Israel, so linking John to the Isaiah chapter read that morning.

Invites the brethren to review the past six days. Using Romans 7, he distinguishes the unavoidable weakness of the flesh, which will be forgiven through Christ’s intercession, from deliberate, wilful sin, which excludes from the kingdom, illustrating the two with Peter and Judas.

From the interview between Jeremiah and the Rechabites, who obeyed their father’s command to drink no wine while Israel disregarded God’s, the speaker draws the lesson that the words of a man are obeyed and the words of God are not.

The exhortation argues that right views of life are of great consequence, since human life and history look aimless without the testimony of Scripture.

Starting from the genealogy of Christ read that morning, the exhortation says the unbroken line from Adam to Christ helps us to realize that life is short, and shows that Christ is of Adam’s race (needed for him to abolish death by his own death and resurrection) and heir to David’s throne.

Taking the first chapter of Colossians, the exhortation says Paul gave thanks for the brethren because of their love to all the saints on account of the hope laid up for them, and that this is the love believers should have, not an attachment to personal qualities.

The exhortation proposes a collection that morning for the Jews suffering persecution in the Russian empire, on the ground of the general command to do good to all men and, above all, because they are Abraham’s descendants, the nation to whom the promises belong.

Starting from the praise of wisdom in Proverbs, the speaker says wisdom is the right adaptation of means to good ends, seen in nature and revealed to man in the Scriptures, where God makes known how free will should be used.

Taking the opening of Galatians 1 as an antidote to the suspicion that the hope of the Gospel is too good to be true, the speaker argues that it rests on God and not on man.

The speaker asks why the brethren meet every first day to break bread, and answers that Jesus commanded it and that his works, and above all the apostles’ eye-witness testimony to his resurrection confirmed by miracles, show him to be Master and Lord.

Starting from the frequency of ‘the will of God’ in the apostolic writings, the speaker takes the reading in Isaiah, where a ceremonially religious Israel is reproved for lacking mercy and kindness to others.

Taking Paul’s exhortation to put on the whole armour of God, the exhortation says believers are in a life-and-death battle against the inherited sentence of death, the carnal mind, unbelief, ignorance, and the love of the world.

Taking Ezekiel 20 as God’s own review of Israel’s history, the exhortation says the elders who came to enquire of Ezekiel were rebuffed because they approached without reverence, and that God repeatedly spared a rebellious Israel for His Name’s sake.

Standing with Paul on Mars Hill (Acts 17), the exhortation defends reasoned argument for the faith, provided it is done in love, and contrasts the restless search for novelty in speculative philosophy with the satisfaction the truth gives.

Taking Psalm 40 as its starting point, the exhortation explains two features of the Psalms.

Taking 1 Corinthians 8, the speaker says knowledge by itself puffs up, and that Paul and modern science agree nothing can be known of the ultimate nature of things in the philosophical sense.

Taking John’s words that believers are called the sons of God, the speaker says the world knows them not because it knew not Christ.

The speaker asks the hearers to look at their lives as they will appear in retrospect, and urges them to live now so that the judgment seat of Christ will find them faithful, taking the Scriptures alone as guide.

Starting from James’s appeal to the prophets as examples of affliction and patience, the speaker says they were not men free from distress, and cites Ezekiel, sent to a rebellious house and told to eat a roll of lamentation and woe.

Taking Peter’s call to desire the sincere milk of the word, the speaker turns to Ezekiel 12, where the proverb ‘the days are prolonged and every vision faileth’ was rebuked, and compares it with the scorn now met at the delay of Christ’s coming.

Reflecting on the reading of Paul’s shipwreck in Acts, the speaker argues that the narrative is plainly true history, and that the charge against Paul, as stated by Festus, was that he affirmed Jesus, who was dead, to be alive.

The speaker says the ecclesia has the honour of uniting that morning to do good to Israel after the flesh, and that God’s friends must not add to the affliction of a people scattered as foretold.

Returning to Paul’s shipwreck, the speaker notes that an angel stood by Paul in the storm, and that Paul told the ship’s company that he believed God, that it would be as it was told him.

Beginning with the darkness of the world, and recent revelations of the misery of the London poor, the speaker takes comfort from James’s words that all God’s works are known to him from the beginning.

Opens with an extract by R. Ashcroft arguing that all life and power come from God, that men wrongly exalt the creature, and that Scripture praises only spiritual qualities and never natural greatness.

Joins the morning’s two readings: Ezekiel’s vision of the restored land, temple and city, which is the ‘heavenly country’ and ‘city having foundations’ Abraham looked for, and Christ’s discourse in John about the vine and the branches.

Starts from the prospect of being made equal to the angels and notes that Christ says not all who are called will be chosen.

Takes the parable of wisdom in Proverbs 8 and says that God’s wisdom is seen in all creation, while human wisdom is the right use of knowledge to secure life, so that a man who lives only for the present is a fool.

Taking the readings from Isaiah 54 and Revelation 17 and 18, the speaker contrasts two cities: Jerusalem, now desolate because God has forsaken her for a time, and Rome, which has long ruled the nations as the harlot of the Apocalypse.

Speaking at a meeting held in the Birmingham Town Hall, the speaker contrasts the political hope of the town’s public men and the religious hope of its sectarians with the hope of Israel, centred on Christ’s return and the kingdom of God.

Imagining a stranger who asks why the ecclesia meets to break bread, the speaker explains who Christ was, why he died and why he is remembered, and says the weekly meeting renews faith against the passing things of this world.

The speaker says the apostolic call to ‘overcome’ is a war in the mind between the old man, the natural state, and the new man, formed by divine ideas.

Taking the morning’s three readings as the “words” of God that give light, the speaker finds in Job a rich man who used wealth faithfully and a pattern of patience toward God in unexplained trouble, which God uses to teach dependence and which is the preliminary discipline of those who will inherit the kingdom.

The speaker defends the commanded meeting and urges that its order and exhortation aim at edification, then argues that the Lord’s coming is nearer than supposed, since death, as with a young brother lately dead at 27, would bring it for any of us in a moment.

Starting from the refrain of Psalm 107, “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness”, the speaker argues that praise of God is reasonable, since the universe shows a Maker, and that revelation lets us praise Him knowing His purpose with us in Christ.

Beginning from the refreshing sameness of the things of God and the commanded means of preparation (breaking of bread, prayer, reading), the speaker treats the day’s three readings as windows on the divine work.

The exhortation takes Ecclesiastes’ “a time to be born and a time to die” as a reminder of mortal birth, of the coffin, and of the sentence of death under which all are born, and urges that remembering death makes for sober, godly living.

Using the picture of a scrap of paper from which a finder could infer a paper mill, a pen and a living writer, the exhortation reasons from the opening words of Philemon (“Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ”) to the facts behind them.

Taking the morning’s reading of Isaiah 40, the exhortation argues that the comfort addressed to Jerusalem is for believers, who as Gentiles taken out for his name are now God’s people through believing and obeying the gospel.

From the drought described in Jeremiah 14, the exhortation says Israel’s calamities came because they forgot God and neglected His law, and that this is written for our learning, so that the world’s forgetfulness of God and the risk of drifting with it are warned against.

Taking the book of Ezekiel read that morning, the exhortation says it has a beginning, middle and end, in each of which the prophet witnesses the glory of the Lord: first in the vision by the river Chebar, then in the glory’s departure from Jerusalem, and finally in its return to the future temple.

The exhortation asks why the prophets, unlike other national writers, are full of condemnation of Israel, and answers that they spoke by divine impulse because Israel had set God aside, and that it is reasonable for God’s will to be law since all things are of Him.

Beginning from Philip preaching Jesus to the eunuch out of Isaiah, the exhortation takes the eighth chapter of Daniel and shows its connection with Christ: the ram, the he-goat and the little horn are explained as Persia, Greece and Rome, and Rome is said to complete the prophecy by standing up against the Prince of Princes at Christ’s coming.

Taking the short prophecy of Obadiah against Edom, the exhortation says it is the vision that matters rather than the prophet, and explains why Esau was hated and Jacob loved and why the world hates those who love God.

Taking the morning’s reading from Zechariah 4, the speaker says prophecy is deliberately given in dark figures that must be searched out, and reads the waking of Zechariah as a figure of resurrection.

Beginning from the command to break bread “until he come”, the speaker imagines a stranger reading Revelation’s “Surely I come quickly” and tracing who Jesus is back through the New Testament to the Old: the promises to Abraham, Israel and the law, and the prophets’ foretelling of a son of David.

Starting from the wonder that Christ is remembered every week, the speaker turns to the chapter read, which shows Jesus in Gethsemane submitting the Father’s will over his own.

Answering the charge that believers live in the past or future, the speaker says the table of the Lord links the first century to the present, and urges reading the New Testament as true eye-witness record.

Taking Acts 2, the speaker explains why the apostles were told to wait for Pentecost: their personal testimony to the resurrection needed the confirmation of miracles, and speaking in known languages before the crowd at Jerusalem supplied it.

Taking Isaiah 17, the speaker says forgetfulness of God is the ultimate cause of human ruin, and that the desolation foretold of Damascus, Aroer and Ephraim is seen in Israel’s present state.

Beginning with the breaking of bread, the speaker says the ordinance keeps Christ in remembrance and shows, in his death, the condemnation of sin and the majesty of God.

The speaker marvels that the truth can be talked of week after week without loss of interest, while worldly pursuits fade like the flower of the field, because the Word of the Lord meets man’s real needs.

Beginning from the risen Christ’s interest in the disciples on the Emmaus road and in the breaking of bread, the speaker explains why sin brought death and why God chose a middle way, enforcing the law while offering mercy to the repentant.

The speaker says believers stand between the old man and the new, and that God alone can make all things new, which is why His words are to be trusted as true.

The speaker urges reading the apostolic narratives in the settled conviction that they are true, and then draws a lesson from each of the three portions read.

Beginning from the fact that the Scriptures are God’s word and not man’s, the speaker takes the song of Isaiah 26 and shows from Isaiah 25 and 1 Corinthians 15 that it is to be sung in the day of Christ’s return and the resurrection.

The exhortation says the meeting helps us see beyond our present surroundings, backward and forward, and that the Scriptures supply the material for this.

Taking Paul’s words of comfort to the Thessalonians, the exhortation distinguishes those who trouble, those who are troubled, and those who know not God.

The exhortation contrasts the world’s gatherings with the remembrance of Christ at the table and urges each believer to dwell on Christ as a living person with whom he will deal individually.

The exhortation considers Jesus as shown in the emblems and expects the aspect in which the world sees him to change soon, judging from the state of Europe and the coming end of Papal supremacy.

Meeting at the emblems in obedience to Christ’s command, the speaker says the obedience asked of believers is that of intelligent friends rather than mere servants, and turns to the day’s readings.

The speaker says the truth is for every-day use and is given in varied form so that it can be handled daily without weariness.

From the day’s readings in Kings, Jeremiah and Mark, the speaker draws that God’s word by his prophets comes to pass and must be obeyed, citing the man of God at Bethel and the warnings against any other gospel.