Post by Char on Oct 24, 2008 17:25:43 GMT -6
THE BLADE OF GRASS
JAMES 1:10-11
St. James plays the fabulist, or historian here, and narrates the sad end of a certain blade of grass. In whose field, then, did this grass grow? St James is here falling back on Old Testament words which would be familiar to the Jews for who he wrote– words which his story would be sure to recall to their minds.
I. THE STORY OF THE BLADE OF GRASS.. ISA. 15:6-8
"FOR THE WATERS OF NIMRIM SHALL BE DESOLATE; FOR THE HAY IS WITHERED AWAY, THE GRASS FAILETH, THERE IS NO GREEN THING.
THEREFORE THE ABUNDANCE THEY HAVE GOTTEN, AND THAT WHICH THEY HAVE LAID UP, SHALL THEY CARRY AWAY TO THE BROOK OF THE WILLOWS.
FOR THE CRY IS GONE ROUND ABOUT THE BORDER OF MOAB; THE HOWLING THEREOF UNTO EGLAIM, AND THE HOWLING THEREOF UNTO BEERELIM."
The grass here represent life which one day is swallowed up of death.
In a field, every blade of grass and every fragile flower has its own little world of hopes and fears, joys and pains, who can fail to be saddened as he beholds them withered by a breath, their early promise unfulfilled, their goodness not ripening to its maturity.
All flesh is as grass– all the great heathen races but also we are as grass– a grass which withers like the rest. Here for a little while and gone, even 83 years seems as only yesterday, I know what this means now.
Like their neighbors, the Jews were in a constant flux, vexed by constant change. One generation came, and another went. The life, vexed with perpetual changes while it lasted, never continuing in one stay, was soon over and gone. Their only hope lay in obedience to the divine word in appropriating that word, in steeping their life in it till it became enduring as the word itself.
II. THE MORAL OF THIS STORY.
St James is not content with a lesson so large and general or had contented Isaiah. He has a special purpose in view in telling the story which called up memories, prophetic and historic, from the past.
The blade of grass reminds us that human life soon withers, the human fortune often withers even before the man dies. The rich man "withers in his ways," in his going to and fore along the lines of his traffic, before his health is touched before his wealth is touched. Therefore, argues St. James, the rich man should rejoice when his riches use their wings and fly away
James had just said, LET THE BROTHER OF LOW DEGREE REJOICE IN THAT HE IS LIFTED UP, BUT THE RICH IS THAT HE IS BROUGHT LOW.
The wealth and the poverty will soon pass, but the character will remain, and will determine our destiny.
It may be easy enough for a poor man to be glad when he gets rich; but how is a rich man to rejoice when he becomes poor?
St. James himself felt that the latter half of his injunction was hard to flesh and blood; in demanding that the rich man should rejoice whenever he is brought low, he felt that he was imposing a very severe test on character, a very heavy strain on virtues.
The rich man is often like a blade of that grass.
The sun of prosperity shines on him more hardly than he can bear; all the promises and beauty of his nature fade beneath the scorching heat; he withers in his ways, in the multitude and perplexity of his schemes and pursuits; the fortune grass, but the man decays, dies before his time, dies even long before he ceases to breathe and traffic.
Every day we live we may see men dying of wealth, all that is manly, all that is fine and pure and noble in character, perishing as their fortunes grow.
The warning comes to us in this age as in few previous eras of the world; for our whole life is so rapid and intense, our business is such a strenuous and exhausting competition, we are solicited by so many schemes for our own advancement, or for the good of the town in which we dwell.
Or for the benefit of the commonwealth of which we form part, that it is almost impossible to make leisure for thought, for a quiet enjoyment of what we have gained, or for those religious meditations and exercises on which our spiritual health in large measure depends.
We are literally withering away in our ways, so many are the paths we have to tread, so rapid the pace we have to maintain, so many are the paths we have to tread, so rapid the pace we have to maintain, so scorching and tainted the atmosphere we breathe.
Whether we are rich, poor seeking riches, or are laboring with anxious and fretting care for a bare competence, we all need to take heed to the warning which speaks to us as to men; and to spiritual and immortal creatures, children of God and heirs of eternity.
If we would not suffer this world, which holds us by ties so many, so strong, and so exacting, to crush all high spiritual man-hoot out of us, we must set ourselves to be in this world as Christ was in the world.
Let the mind that was in Christ be in us also; let us cultivate His preference of duty to pleasure, of service to gain, of doing good to getting good; and instead of withering away in our ways, we shall find every path in which we walk a path of life, a path that leads us home.
III. FADING SPLENDOR...
SO ALSO SHALL THE RICH MAN FADE AWAY.
We delight in pictures and emblems, for then the soul by the help of fancy, hath a double view of the object in the similitude, which is, as it were, a picture of it, and then the thing itself.
Our comforts are perishing in themselves, but especially when the hand of providence is stretched out against them.
There are three sins especially by which you make providence your enemy, and so the creatures more vain. When you abuse them to serve your lust. Where there is pride and wantonness, you may look for burning certainly your flowers will be scorched and dried up.
When you make them objects of trust. Worldly men pursue wealth with great care and industry. The rich turns hither and thither, he hath several ways whereby to accomplish his ends.
Peter toiled all night but caught nothing, till he took Christ into the boat. Luke 5:5.
So you will catch nothing, nothing with comfort and profit, till you take God along with you.
Psalm 124:2.. IF IT HAD NOT BEEN THE LORD WHO WAS ON OUR SIDE, WHEN MEN ROSE UP AGAINST US?
JAMES 1:10-11
St. James plays the fabulist, or historian here, and narrates the sad end of a certain blade of grass. In whose field, then, did this grass grow? St James is here falling back on Old Testament words which would be familiar to the Jews for who he wrote– words which his story would be sure to recall to their minds.
I. THE STORY OF THE BLADE OF GRASS.. ISA. 15:6-8
"FOR THE WATERS OF NIMRIM SHALL BE DESOLATE; FOR THE HAY IS WITHERED AWAY, THE GRASS FAILETH, THERE IS NO GREEN THING.
THEREFORE THE ABUNDANCE THEY HAVE GOTTEN, AND THAT WHICH THEY HAVE LAID UP, SHALL THEY CARRY AWAY TO THE BROOK OF THE WILLOWS.
FOR THE CRY IS GONE ROUND ABOUT THE BORDER OF MOAB; THE HOWLING THEREOF UNTO EGLAIM, AND THE HOWLING THEREOF UNTO BEERELIM."
The grass here represent life which one day is swallowed up of death.
In a field, every blade of grass and every fragile flower has its own little world of hopes and fears, joys and pains, who can fail to be saddened as he beholds them withered by a breath, their early promise unfulfilled, their goodness not ripening to its maturity.
All flesh is as grass– all the great heathen races but also we are as grass– a grass which withers like the rest. Here for a little while and gone, even 83 years seems as only yesterday, I know what this means now.
Like their neighbors, the Jews were in a constant flux, vexed by constant change. One generation came, and another went. The life, vexed with perpetual changes while it lasted, never continuing in one stay, was soon over and gone. Their only hope lay in obedience to the divine word in appropriating that word, in steeping their life in it till it became enduring as the word itself.
II. THE MORAL OF THIS STORY.
St James is not content with a lesson so large and general or had contented Isaiah. He has a special purpose in view in telling the story which called up memories, prophetic and historic, from the past.
The blade of grass reminds us that human life soon withers, the human fortune often withers even before the man dies. The rich man "withers in his ways," in his going to and fore along the lines of his traffic, before his health is touched before his wealth is touched. Therefore, argues St. James, the rich man should rejoice when his riches use their wings and fly away
James had just said, LET THE BROTHER OF LOW DEGREE REJOICE IN THAT HE IS LIFTED UP, BUT THE RICH IS THAT HE IS BROUGHT LOW.
The wealth and the poverty will soon pass, but the character will remain, and will determine our destiny.
It may be easy enough for a poor man to be glad when he gets rich; but how is a rich man to rejoice when he becomes poor?
St. James himself felt that the latter half of his injunction was hard to flesh and blood; in demanding that the rich man should rejoice whenever he is brought low, he felt that he was imposing a very severe test on character, a very heavy strain on virtues.
The rich man is often like a blade of that grass.
The sun of prosperity shines on him more hardly than he can bear; all the promises and beauty of his nature fade beneath the scorching heat; he withers in his ways, in the multitude and perplexity of his schemes and pursuits; the fortune grass, but the man decays, dies before his time, dies even long before he ceases to breathe and traffic.
Every day we live we may see men dying of wealth, all that is manly, all that is fine and pure and noble in character, perishing as their fortunes grow.
The warning comes to us in this age as in few previous eras of the world; for our whole life is so rapid and intense, our business is such a strenuous and exhausting competition, we are solicited by so many schemes for our own advancement, or for the good of the town in which we dwell.
Or for the benefit of the commonwealth of which we form part, that it is almost impossible to make leisure for thought, for a quiet enjoyment of what we have gained, or for those religious meditations and exercises on which our spiritual health in large measure depends.
We are literally withering away in our ways, so many are the paths we have to tread, so rapid the pace we have to maintain, so many are the paths we have to tread, so rapid the pace we have to maintain, so scorching and tainted the atmosphere we breathe.
Whether we are rich, poor seeking riches, or are laboring with anxious and fretting care for a bare competence, we all need to take heed to the warning which speaks to us as to men; and to spiritual and immortal creatures, children of God and heirs of eternity.
If we would not suffer this world, which holds us by ties so many, so strong, and so exacting, to crush all high spiritual man-hoot out of us, we must set ourselves to be in this world as Christ was in the world.
Let the mind that was in Christ be in us also; let us cultivate His preference of duty to pleasure, of service to gain, of doing good to getting good; and instead of withering away in our ways, we shall find every path in which we walk a path of life, a path that leads us home.
III. FADING SPLENDOR...
SO ALSO SHALL THE RICH MAN FADE AWAY.
We delight in pictures and emblems, for then the soul by the help of fancy, hath a double view of the object in the similitude, which is, as it were, a picture of it, and then the thing itself.
Our comforts are perishing in themselves, but especially when the hand of providence is stretched out against them.
There are three sins especially by which you make providence your enemy, and so the creatures more vain. When you abuse them to serve your lust. Where there is pride and wantonness, you may look for burning certainly your flowers will be scorched and dried up.
When you make them objects of trust. Worldly men pursue wealth with great care and industry. The rich turns hither and thither, he hath several ways whereby to accomplish his ends.
Peter toiled all night but caught nothing, till he took Christ into the boat. Luke 5:5.
So you will catch nothing, nothing with comfort and profit, till you take God along with you.
Psalm 124:2.. IF IT HAD NOT BEEN THE LORD WHO WAS ON OUR SIDE, WHEN MEN ROSE UP AGAINST US?
