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NEEDED TRUTH They read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and gave the sense, and caused them, to understand the reading— NEH.8:8 VOLUME LIV (54). January to December,1947 NEEDED TRUTH PUBLISHING OFFICE, ROBOT BUILDINGS, LEEDS ROAD, BRADFORD. 1947-1 JOTTINGS. There are few people more despicable than the sluggard and such did not pass unnoticed by that man of such tremendous mental activity, as Solomon was, who wrote songs and proverbs, and in his botanical knowledge spoke of all the trees of the forest from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop. Twice he uses almost the same words about the sluggard:— "The sluggard saith, There is a lion without: I shall be murdered (or slain) in the streets" (Prov.22:13). "The sluggard saith, There is a lion in the way; A lion is in the streets" (Prov.26:13). "The sluggard burieth his hand in the dish, And will not so much as bring it to his mouth again" (Prov.19:24). "The sluggard burieth his hand in the dish; It wearieth him to bring it again to his mouth" (Prov.26:15). The lion was only imaginary. His fear was actually that his own weary frame would have to be moved from one place to another. The most fearsome excuse is conjured up to justify his indolence. Indeed it would have mattered little if a lion had slain such a cumberer of the ground, and so unprofitable a specimen of humanity. Years will in time make the most active slow down; this is a fitting condition in this present earthly life, but such are not sluggards. Many such have a youthful mind in an aged body, and were their faculties as they once were they would again be lively as a gnat on the wing. But it is those young and strong people who seem as though they carried heavy weights, whose movements are more like the snail rather than a thing with legs. Think too of the grotesque picture Solomon draws of the sluggard at meat. He stretches out his heavy, cumbrous arm to help himself. Instead of his arm being as it is a most wonderful piece of the human anatomy—and indeed the human arm and hand are truly wrought with all the skill of the divine mind. The arm can be moved with such gracious facility and power, swift and slow its movements, and it may be both rough and kindly—the heavy arm of the sluggard seems stiffened by rheumatism or almost helpless by paralysis. Look at him with his hand buried in the dish, and too lazy to encourage that useful member of the human body to perform its first function, that of feeding its owner! Is it any use arguing with a sluggard? No, it will serve no more purpose than if you were to send a snail to school to teach it to gallop. The sluggard will have his excuse, a reason so satisfactory to himself, that he will wonder why all do not see his point of view. Evidently Solomon tried giving such a person some good advice, for he says:— "The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit (or, his own eyes) Than seven men that can render a reason (or, answer discreetly) " (Prov.26:16). If you propose to give the sluggard some sound counsel, it is well to stop before you start. It will come to nothing. In his own view of things he is wiser than seven wise men, so Solomon found out. The hopelessness of the sluggard is further seen in Solomon's words:— "Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? (in his own eyes), There is more hope of a fool than of him" (Prov.26:12). Both wisdom and activity have lost their way in the brain of the sluggard, and all. that is left to him is to let him eat and sleep till he tumbles into his last resting place. Let us all take warning and hear Solomon's further words to the sluggard:— "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep (or, lie down): So shall thy poverty come as a robber, And thy want as an armed man" (Prov.6:10,11). J.M. 1947-1 JOTTINGS. Solomon, who wrote of the ways of the sluggard, wrote also of the works of the diligent. He said:— "The hand of the diligent maketh rich" (Prov.10:4). What is more to be desired in this world than an industrious, thrifty, hard working people, who are kindly in their ways withal? Such folks are a means of enrichment not merely to themselves, but to all who are affectable by them. In words following those quoted above Solomon gives an illustration of such diligence:— "He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: But he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame " (Prov.10:5). The sleepy-headed, careless son, who has had a diligent father before him and who, by his diligence, had left an ample inheritance, thinks he can afford to sleep at a time of year in which his father had laboured hard and long, and that riches will never take wings and fly away, may find to his shame the fruits of his father's toil have flown and left him. What is true in things material is true in spiritual things. Men of the last generation were diligent students of the word of God. The result of that has been that they have left a goodly inheritance of spiritual things. Indeed I am assured and am constrained to say, that had the separation from Open Brethren not taken place when it did, in the time of such diligent students of the word of God, it would never have taken place, for there is not, generally speaking, the diligence in Bible reading and study, such as there was some fifty years, less or more, ago! I know that there are exceptions here and there, in the case of some who do give themselves to the study of the living oracles. How did men reach the house of God, the place of the name? Only by diligent study of the word of God. They saw "the place "in the word of God. the pattern of the house, and they set out on the hard, arduous journey to reach it. Their diligence was the diligence of David when he said:— "Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, Nor go up into my bed, I will not give sleep to mine eyes, Or slumber to mine eyelids; Until I find out a place for the LORD, A tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob" (Ps.132:3-5). Such zeal and diligence were well rewarded, for he passed on to Solomon and to Israel such a heritage of good as no king after him ever did. The hand of diligent David enriched God's people and his seed after him. "Go to the ant thou sluggard; Consider her ways and be wise" (Prov.6:6). One once asked, why the sluggard was told to go to the ant? and the answer was given, "Because the ant had no time to come to him." The ant was too busy gathering her food, but the sluggard had plenty of time dangling from his weary hands. "The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: But the soul of the diligent shall be made fat" (Prov.13:4). "In all labour there is profit" (Prov.14:23). " He also that is slack in his work is brother to him that is a destroyer" (Prov.18:9). Spiritual things demand the greatest diligence, when we remember their eternal consequences and rewards. When diligence in worldly things will have been long forgotten in the rolling ages, the effect of diligence in the things of God will for ever remain. J.M. 1947-2 "FAITH" AND "THE FAITH" In the epistle of Jude we see the inward working of the blessed Holy Spirit, for as Jude was exercised and about to write concerning the subject of salvation, he was "moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Pet.1:21) to write concerning "THE FAITH "saying, "Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3). Here we have two distinct things, firstly the matter of our salvation, in which our own personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the great factor; secondly, the important truth, which is lost sight of by so many in our day—"The faith once for all delivered unto the saints." This clearly indicates that all instruction and guidance had been given, and handed on to God's saints to be carried out during this dispensation of God's grace. May we point out here that the words "our common salvation "should in no way give the thought of something "common "in the sense of being "cheap "or "valueless." The thought here is, that God has provided salvation which is "common "to all believers. God's Word declares that "without faith, it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of them that seek after Him" (Heb.11:6). A glance at Heb.11 will convince the casual reader that God has ever dealt with man on the ground of faith.