B Arrows

B Believing our living.

You cannot live without faith: for again and again we are told—"The just shall live by faith." Believing is our living, and we, therefore, need it always. And if God give thee great faith, my dear brother, thou must expect great trials; for, in proportion as thy faith shall grow, thou wilt have to do more, and endure more. Little boats may keep close to shore, as becomes little boats; but if God make thee a great vessel, and load thee with a rich freight, He means that thou shouldst know what great billows are, and should feel their fury till thou seest "His wonders in the deep."

Believers' loyalty. Have you never heard of the dying and wounded in Napoleon's wars who still clung to their Emperor with an idolatrous love in the hour of death? Lifting himself upon his elbow, the soldier of the Old Guard gave one more cheer for the great captain. If the dying warrior saw Napoleon riding over the field, he would with his last gasp, cry, "Vive l'Empereur!" and then expire. We read of one, that when the surgeons were trying to extract a bullet from his chest, he said, "Go a little deeper and you will find the Emperor." He had him on his heart. Infinitely more commendable is the loyalty of the believer to the Lord Christ.

Bible always right, The.

If my compass always points to the north, I know how to use it; but if it veers to other points of the compass, and I am to judge out of my own mind whether it is right or not, I am as well without the thing as with it. If my Bible is right always, it will lead me right; and as I believe it is so, I shall follow it.

Bible dangerous to superstition, The.

Here I go into one place of worship, and I see a pretty little doll's house at the further end, and people are bowing down before some paper flowers and candlesticks. Around the building I see pictures of virgins and saints; but he who has read his Bible enters not into the modern idolatry. A priest once said to a poor Irishman, "There will be no good come of your reading the Bible." "Why," replied the man, "it is written, 'Search the Scriptures.' Please, your reverence, I was just reading, 'Ye shall read it to your children,' and the priests have no children; how can you account for that?" "Ah!" replied the priest, "the like of you cannot understand the book." "Well!" said the man, "if I cannot understand it, it will do me no harm; and if I can understand it, it will do me great good." Just so: the Bible is a very dangerous book to superstition, but to nothing else. Spread it, then, to the winds of heaven; and read it every one of you.

Bible—inspired, The. This Book is inspired as no other book is inspired, and it is time that all Christians avowed this conviction. I do not know whether you have seen Mr. Smiles' life of our late friend, George Moore; but in it we read that, at a certain dinner party, a learned man remarked that it would not be easy to find a person of intelligence who believed in the inspiration of the Bible. In an instant George Moore's voice was heard across the table, saying boldly, "I do, for one." Nothing more was said. My dear friend had a strong way of speaking, as I well remember; for we have upon occasions vied with each other in shouting when we were together at his Cumberland home. I think I can hear his emphatic way of putting it—"I do, for one." Let us not be backward to take the old fashioned and unpopular side, and say outright, "I do, for one."

Bible—true, The.

I have heard of two Romanists, a man and his wife, who became possessed of a copy of the Scriptures, of which they had never seen one before. The man began to read it, and one night, as he sat beside the fire, with the open book, he said, "Wife, if this book is right, we are wrong." He continued reading, and a few days after this, he said, "Wife, if this book is right, we are lost." More eager now than ever, to see what the Word of the Lord was, he studied the book, until one night he joyfully exclaimed, "Wife, if this book is true, we are saved." The same word that showed them they were undone, revealed also the gospel of salvation. This is the glory of the Word of God; it is against us until we are led out of our sins, and then we find that death becomes the gate of life to our souls, and the Word of God is on our side. The same word that reveals the terrors of the Lord, also says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."

Blessings—opportune.

God never brought you to a well, and put a bucket and rope in your way, without intending to fill that bucket when you let it down. When the thirsty soil has opened all its mouths to drink in the rain of heaven, that rain always comes. When the ears of wheat are ready for the sun to ripen them, the heat of harvest is near. When a man of God so looks for the Spirit that he spreads the sails of hope, the breeze is sure to blow.

Blood—precious. To me there is a great sanctity about the blood of man. I saw last Wednesday the Prayer-book which Bishop Juxon held in his hand as he stood by the side of Charles I. on the scaffold at Whitehall. Two spots of blood are on the page wherein he was reading the prayers, as the axe fell upon the monarch's neck. I have no reverence for Charles I., but I have reverence for drops of blood. I looked at them, and they were no theme of jest for me: the blood of a man is sacred. But what shall I say of the blood of the Son of God! God Himself, incarnate, in some mysterious manner taking into union with Himself our humanity, and then shedding His blood to redeem us! What is to be said of this? Look with reverence upon that precious blood.

Book-worm.

I have many an old book in my library in which there have been book worms, and I have sometimes amused myself with tracing a worm. I do not know how he gets to the volume originally, but being there he eats his way into it. He bores a hole in a direct line, and sometimes I find that he dies before he gets half-way through the tome. Now and then a worm has eaten his way right through from one wooden cover to another; yes, and through the cover also. This was a most successful book worm. Few of us can eat our way quite so far. I am one of the book worms that have not got half way into my Bible yet; but I am eating my way as fast as I can.

Burden of Sin.

We have seen pictures of the Arabs dragging those great Nineveh bulls for Mr. Layard, hundreds of them tugging away; and I have imagined how Pharaoh's subjects, the Egyptians, must have sweated and smarted when they had to drag some of the immense blocks of which his obelisks were composed, thousands of men dragging one block of masonry; and I seemed to have just such a load as that behind me and it would not stir. My burden of inward sin at fifteen years of age was such that I knew not what to do. I prayed and it would not stir. I took to reading my Bible, but my load would not stir. Deep ruts the wheels were in. I cried to God in my agony; I trusted Him, and the enormous weight behind me was gone.

Balance your duties, and let not one press out another.

Baptize your heart in devotion ere you wade into the stream of daily care. Be sure the lodestone is not far off when the needle is so much moved.

Better be Christ's patient than a Doctor of Divinity.

Better in the abyss of truth than on the summit of falsehood.

Better the smitings of truth than the kisses of deceit.

Better to be God's dog than the devil's darling. Beware of aptness in making an excuse. Beware of contentment with shallow grace. Beware of ill company in the evening!