Luke 1:75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. "There is nothing," it might have seemed when the first settlers of Massachusetts established the English race on the cheerless shores, the barren rocks, the trackless forests of this continent. Yet there was everything; there was the hope of a new world; there were the elements of a mighty nation, if only those who followed after sustained the high spirit and great resolves of those who had gone before. It was but two days ago that I read in the close of a volume written by the founder of the venerable village of Concord, a sentence which ought to bring at once the noblest encouragement and the sternest rebuke to every citizen of this Commonwealth. "There is no people," says Peter Bulkley, in his Gospel Covenant, in the year 1646, to his little flock of exiles, "There is no people but will strive to excel in something. What can we excel in if not in holiness? If we look to numbers, we are the fewest; if to strength, we are the weakest; if to wealth and riches, we are the poorest of all, the people of God throughout the whole world. We cannot excel, nor so much as equal, other people in these things; and, if we come short in grace and holiness, we are also the most despicable people under heaven. Strive we therefore to excel, and suffer not this crown to be taken away from us, (Dean Stanley.) Parallel Verses KJV: In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.WEB: In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. |
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