II. IN WHAT RESPECTS IS SUCH A GOOD OLD AGE DESIRABLE? There is nothing desirable in old age itself.

1. It is a proof of sincerity.

2. It gives opportunity for considerable growth in grace.

3. It recommends religion to others.

4. It tends to an extraordinary fitness for heaven.Such are some of the advantages of a religious old age. And this is a subject in which all are deeply concerned. Improve the present season, for "what a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

(S. Lavington.)

1. The emblem under which it is conveyed suggests to us the care and affection with which the great Head of the Church regards the progress and the end of His servants.

2. The comparison of the text implies that progress belongs to the very nature of religion, and therefore is its invariable and indispensable law.

3. There is a state of grace attainable on earth which may be fitly described as a state of maturity. Consider in what that maturity consists.

4. It should reconcile us to such losses to reflect that a state of maturity necessitates the reaping.

(Daniel Katterns.)

II. A CONSIDERATION OF THE PERIOD OF DEATH'S ARRIVAL. How few die in old age! It is "full age" with us when we are prepared to depart — when the work is done we have to do.

III. THE MANNER OF DEATH'S ARRIVAL. The last enemy wears a thousand forms.

IV. SOME REFLECTIONS. Christians do not repine at God's decree. The Christian is taught to believe that whilst the spirit is in God's keeping, the body also is not undeserving His cognisance.

(George Anthony Moore.)

1. The first parable of harvest is, that harvest is God's memorial, and the parable of His love. His promise is that while the bow is in the heaven, springtime and harvest shall not fail. God sets the bow for a sign, a bright watcher or minister, to declare His goodwill to us. How miraculous a thing is the wheat harvest of the world! The wheat harvest in the East is the one supreme event of the year. This is the first and chief lesson of the harvest; we are God's pensioners, and He spreads the table in the wilderness.

2. The order of the world is use first, and beauty second. There are many things more beautiful than corn. True, it has a certain humble grace of its own, but it is the democratic grace of the worker, not the aristocratic grace of the idler. You could live in a world without roses, but not in a world without corn; you like to have perfume, but you must have bread.

3. The harvest is the parable of life itself. How little spoils both. How irrevocable the tendencies of each! A slight error spoils the year's husbandry, as slight errors often spoil a whole life. See in corn an illustration of the solidarity of life itself. The corn travels the wide world over. It has no local limit, it is cosmopolitan. It has no personal life; its life is for the race. In these respects the parable of life is revealed. We live in infinite relations, beyond our relation to the soil we thrive in, and the age we are said to live in. We sow ourselves as corn is sowed, and others reap; even as we before reaped what others sowed.

4. The harvest is the parable of death. What is death? We know that decomposition is recomposition. Nothing perishes, for there is no waste in nature. Here we have the revelation of the true purpose of life — which is use; and of the true triumph of life — which is to be sacrificed, as the corn must be plucked and ground before it can become bread.

(G. W. Dawson.)

1. Bear in mind that we must grow old. This is the law of our being, fixed and certain as the law of mortality.

2. If we would grow old gracefully, we must possess true piety; faith in Christ as our Saviour, and hope in God as our everlasting portion.

3. We must cultivate a love of nature.

4. We must continue to take an interest in the young, and in whatever is moving around us, affecting the welfare of society and the cause of Christ.

5. There are some peculiar faults and sins — incident to age — against which we must be guarded, if we would grow old gracefully. Such as peevishness. "There are two things which a man ought not to fret about, — what he can help, and what he cannot." Avarice or covetousness. Jealousy of whatever is new, and a proneness to think that things are growing worse because they are different from what they were in former days. And an unwillingness to let go of the duties, responsibilities, and honours of life, retire from the stage of action and be forgotten. This is indeed a hard lesson to learn.

6. There are certain virtues which demand to be cultivated, if we would grow old gracefully. Such as patience, liberality, cheerfulness, hopefulness, readiness to yield the field of labour and responsibility to them that are younger; and an habitual and cheerful posture of readiness to leave the world and go to be with Christ.

(J. Hawes, D. D.)

I. THE MATURITY OF MAN IN ITS CHARACTERISTICS. To die old seems a natural wish. Death in old age comes not with a shock, as of something abrupt, unexpected, but as a natural issue — the culmination of life's manifest destiny, the measurement of the full circle of life's journey. It carries the associations of the sunset, of the harvest — tender, but not sombre and sad. And these are right and religious feelings. For man's life on earth is a great thing, a sacred power, a most momentous and immeasurable trust. The error of mankind is not that they place life too high, but that they think far too little of its true value, of its most awful responsibility. Scripture has not taught us to think lightly of life, or to wish an early removal from it. It cultivates the appreciation of life as a great and holy thing. Used as a power of getting and of doing good, life is a glorious privilege. Life on earth has its completed circle — its threescore years and ten — when it has rounded that little orbit, the bodily life has reached its maturity, beyond which it is not fitted to survive, and sinks into the dust as naturally as the ripened corn falls into the ground. But if that were all, it were hard to tell why it should be a thing of Divine promise. That were a poor consolation, to have the full term of life, and to come to the grave in however ripe an age, if the grave were all. But the body is not the man — only the vehicle and tabernacle of the man. It is the soul that is the man; and the man is then only "as a shock of corn in his season," when he is mature in the spiritual and immortal part. The decay of the body imposes no inevitable decline in the soul's higher life. Time leaves no mark on the mind, except of growing power. If, then, the full age of man be of the spirit — ripeness for immortality — what are the characteristics of one ready to be garnered into heaven?

1. Christian maturity is the fulness of spiritual life. Man is of "full age" when the whole circle of Christian excellences is present in the character, and each unfolded in its due proportion. When all the graces meet in a person, they robe him with a glory known only to Christianity. The last attainment is completeness. Christianity is the union of all the graces, not only in their completeness, but in their individual fulness. In our second birth are included all the elements of final perfection — not then come to their full measure, but from that moment the formative principles of character should advance to maturity.

2. Christian maturity is the fulness of spiritual experience. We associate experience with life — Christian experience with the Christian life; and this adds elements and aspects to the piety, which are not found in its first rise — mellowing, sobering, enriching the whole spiritual man, as with the golden glow of autumn. There is a wide difference between the effect of worldly experience and of Christian experience. The former dis. enchants the heart of all its youthful illusions, and makes it distrust all appearances and persons, and hope for nothing better than vanity and vexation of spirit. The effect of Christian experience is to transfer the hopes and affections to the realities of a higher world, and to deepen their power. The follower of Christ is conducting a great experiment as to the power of the Gospel. And he finds as he goes on, that it justifies all his confidence. Faith becomes experience — less liable to be moved away by blasts of unbelief, or by assaults of temptation. The disciple becomes an established Christian.

3. Christian maturity is completed by spiritual usefulness. Christianity will make a man useful in every way, secular as well as religious. But no measure of secular service can be accepted as an apology for the neglect of the higher work, which is laid to every man in Christ's kingdom. Spiritual life and experience are the preparatives and the power of usefulness. As they are enlarged, they nourish and enrich that spiritual fruitfulness which puts the crown on Christian maturity.

II. THE CONDITIONS OF CHRISTIAN MATURITY. How is it prepared? The shock of corn is the result of a process. Christian maturity represents the whole course and combination of influences that have been at work in the man. Nothing can mature that has not life. Among the conditions of a Christian maturity we name —

1. Early decision for Christ. True piety takes its rise in a cordial surrender to Christ, and it reaches its maturity in the completeness of that surrender.

2. Progressive piety. There would be no harvest if the seed plant only rooted and sprung up above ground, and never advanced any further. There is a succession of stages of growth — "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." No man, at whatever stage of his Christian course you find him, is all that he needs to be. There must be progress in Christian intelligence, growth in Christian faith — which worketh by love. There must be assiduous cultivation of piety, which will include a growing love to the sanctuary, to the Bible, to the service of prayer, to the scene of communion. There will be a growing devoutness approaching ever closer to the spirit of heaven, and waiting the call to enter into the joy of the Lord.

(J. Riddell.)

(R. Ainslie.)

1. It is high time that the king of terrors were thrown out of the Christian vocabulary. Many talk of death as though it were the disaster of disasters, instead of being to a good man the blessing of blessings.

2. First frost and then sunshine. We all know that husking time was a time of frost. We remember we used to hide between the corn stacks, so as to keep off the wind. But after a while the sun was high up, and all the frost went out of the air, and hilarities awoke the echoes. So we all realise that the death of our friends is the nipping of many expectations, the freezing, the chilling, the frosting of many of our hopes. But the chill of the frosts is followed by the gladness that cometh in like a shock of corn cometh in in his season.

3. The husking process. The husking time made rough work with the ear of corn. The husking peg had to be thrust in, and the hard thumb of the husker had to come down on the swathing of the ear, and then there was a pull, and a ruthless tearing, and a complete snapping off, before the corn was free. If the husk could have spoken it would have said, "Why do you lacerate me?" That is the way God has arranged that the ear and the husk shall part. That is the way He has arranged that body and soul shall separate. You can afford to have your physical distresses when you know that they are forwarding the soul's liberation. This may be an answer to the question, "Why is it that so many really good people have so dreadfully to suffer?" Some corn is hardly worth husking. With good corn the husking work is severe. There must be something valuable in you, or the Lord would not have husked you.

4. Husking time was a neighbourly reunion. There was joyous feasting together when the work was done. Heaven will be a time of neighbourhood reunion.

5. All the shocks come in in their season. Not one of you having died too soon, or too late, or at haphazard. Cut down at just the right time. Husked at just the right time.

(T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

I. LAY UNDER THE COMMON SENTENCE OF DEATH ALL THEIR DAYS. They were under the sentence of death all the while they lived in this world, and a long life was only a longer reprieve. We knew that our friends were mortal, all the while they lived with us.

II. IT IS COMFORTABLE TO CONSIDER HOW LONG THEY WERE SPARED AND CONTINUED TO US IN A USEFUL STATE. What great reason for thankfulness to God for sparing the comfort of their useful lives. Often, then, recall the more remarkable instances of their former usefulness, and exemplary character while they lived. We have not done with our departed friends when we have lodged them in the grave; we must remember what was eminent and exemplary in the several stations of life, and circumstances of things through which they passed.

III. CONSIDER THE GREAT HONOUR PUT UPON THEM WHO WERE LONG SERVICEABLE IN THIS WORLD. They have had a greater exercise of Divine care over them, and a larger experience of Divine goodness in the many expressions of a gracious concern for their good, of seasonable interposure, and distinguishing favour. What a mercy it was to our deceased friends to ripen by long standing, in wisdom and experience, and to be successful instruments of the Divine glory, and of good to the world, for a great while together!

IV. CONSIDER HOW OFTEN THE AGED OUTLIVE THEIR OWN USEFULNESS. It is no wonder if active natures and brisk spirits, long exercised in painful service, begin at length to decay. The more zealous and industrious they are in the service of God, the more likely they are to find their natural strength abated in advancing age. Sometimes good and useful men are disabled for service by the weakening of their intellectual powers. Then their death becomes less grievous.

V. CONSIDER HOW WELL PREPARED THEY WERE FOR DEATH AND HOW RIPE FOR ANOTHER WORLD. It is a melancholy thing to think of an aged person dying unprepared. But when they are prepared in the habitual temper of their minds and a blessed composure of spirit, what an evidence this becomes of the truth and value of religion.

VI. CONSIDER THE MERCIFUL RELEASE FROM THE LONG FATIGUES AND CONFLICTS OF LIFE. They are set free from all the burdens of nature, which sometimes are very grievous, and all the afflictions of life, which often create them a great deal of trouble. All the labours of life and difficulties of service cease. They are delivered from the power of all their spiritual enemies, and set out of reach of all their attempts.

VII. CONSIDER THE BLESSED STATE THEY ARE ENTERED UPON AND THE INFINITE ADVANTAGE OF A REMOVAL. They leave a state of sin and sorrow, of the burdens of nature and miseries of life, for a state of purity and peace, of liberty and enlargement, where all their burdens are removed and their desires satisfied. Consider with pleasure the high advancement and honour of our deceased friends, the noble enjoyments, the pure delights, the perfect satisfaction and joy. An undue concern for the death of good men, looks a little selfish, and like envying their happiness.

VIII. THINK OF THE NEARNESS OF OUR OWN DISSOLUTION AND HOW SOON WE SHALL MEET TOGETHER AGAIN. We are following them apace to the other world. What a comfort it is to be followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.

IX. IT IS A CONSIDERABLE REASON OF COMFORT THAT THERE ARE MANY SURVIVING RELATIONS LEFT. We can never say that we are wholly bereaved. Men sometimes live in their posterity several ages.

(W. Harris, D. D.)

I. THAT OLD AGE WILL HELP TO RELIEVE THE GRAVE OF ITS TERROR. Life to those in old age has lost its genial glow; desire has failed; the limbs have lost their vigour; the appetites their relish; the senses their keenness; the faculties their activity; the heart, most of its friendships, its hopes, its aims. They have outlived their interest in the world; their old friends are in the dust; they are surrounded by strangers; they bow beneath the weight of years, and oftentimes welcome the grave. Yes, apart from religion, there is much in old age to make the grave even attractive. But how few of the human family are allowed to reach the grave in this way.

II. THAT SPIRITUAL MATURITY WILL HELP TO RELIEVE THE GRAVE OF ITS TERROR.

1. True religion is a life which grows in this world to a certain maturity.

2. When this maturity is reached in a man, his removal from this world will take place. It ripens in some much sooner than in others.

3. The removal of such from the world will be no terror to them. It will take place under the superintendence of the great Husbandman. This spiritual maturity it is that deprives the grave of its terror. Here then are two helps to relieve for us the terror of the grave. Old age is one. Spiritual maturity of character is the great relieving power.

(Homilist.)

1. In both cases there is labour. Spontaneous harvests do not spring up in this world. If a larger yield is to be produced, and a better quality obtained, he puts more management into his land, and bestows more labour upon It, and the result, in most instances, is a rich crop.

2. The life of a good man, like corn, is a great mystery. If the little, tiny seed which grows in your field baffles you, how much more God's work in the human heart! We need not trouble ourselves about the process; the great question is, "Has the incorruptible seed of the Word of God entered into my nature?"

3. Corn has life in it, and will grow! The men who tell us that Christianity is being played out, are the men into whose souls it has never been played in!

4. The good man, like corn, is nourished by various influences. Through how many processes must a tiny seedling pass, and to how many influences must it be subjected, before it becomes bread on our tables? And how many influences are necessary to form and mature the character of a good man?

5. The great agent is the Holy Spirit, who softens the heart to receive "the incorruptible seed."

6. Adversity helps to mature a good man's character. It is said that each day's sunshine, in the month of June, is worth a million of money to our farmers; but if all the days of summer and autumn were unbroken sunshine, would that be helpful to full barns and big hay stacks? No! David said, "It was good for me that I was afflicted," and millions have made the same confession. These blights and disappointments of life are designed to remind us that eternal fields are within our reach — fields which are always rich in golden harvests. Temporal loss often leads to spiritual gain, and millions have exclaimed, with Richard Baxter, "Oh! healthful sickness! Oh! comfortable sorrow! Oh! gainful loss! Oh! enriching poverty! Oh! blessed day that I was afflicted!"

II. AND WHAT IS MEANT BY A GOOD MAN COMING TO THE GRAVE IN A FULL AGE. "Thou shalt come to thy grave," etc.

1. That he has filled up the measure of human life. We often measure life by length; God measures it by depth and breadth. We look at quantity; God looks at quality. Many a man has died full of good works, long before he has reached forty years of age. Others have passed the allotted span of human life, and left no good works behind them.

2. Coming to the grave like a shock of corn, fully ripe, means the maturity of Christian character. The farmer knows the proper time for cutting down the corn. If he cut it down too soon the ear would not be filled, and if he waited too long, the best of the corn would be shaken and wasted. Our times are wholly in the hands of unerring wisdom and unsearchable goodness, and He will not allow death to overtake us too soon, or be delayed a moment too long.

3. And observe the certainty of all this. "He shall come." Some bestow great labour on that which yields them no profit. The old age of a good man is always richer than his youth. God cares as much for the poor remnant of an old man's life that remains, as for the fresh and stainless period of his youth. And one of the most enviable sights out of heaven, is that of a good old man, waiting, with undimmed powers and unsoured temper, till his Master shall say, "He is ripe for the garner." Indeed, when such a man dies, it is heaven's testimony that he's ready for heaven. The great Dr. Clarke, in old age, looking back on a useful life, and forward to a glorious rest, said, "I have enjoyed the spring of life: I have endured the toils of summer; I have culled the fruits of autumn. I am now passing through the rigour of winter, and I am neither forsaken of God nor abandoned of man. I see at no great distance the dawn of a new day: the first of a spring which shall be eternal. It is advancing to meet me. I run to embrace it. Welcome, eternal spring." Did you ever meet with a godly man who was not prepared to die when death came? Never!

4. A good man, like a shock of corn, is safely garnered. Corn is laid up to be preserved; but that is not all. It is also laid up that it may be used. The best use of corn comes after it has been cut down. Some people imagine that heaven will be a place of perpetual indolence and selfish delights. That is not the Bible conception of heaven. I know that heaven is a place of rest, but then, as Baxter says, "it is not the rest of a stone, but a rest consistent with service; an activity without weariness, a service which is perfect freedom." When a good man dies, he is not flung away as a useless instrument, to be no longer employed in his Master's service, but passes from the humbler services on earth to the nobler service of heaven; from an obscure to a loftier service, "where His servants do serve Him." The sanctity of a good man's soul is not lost at death, but will continue to grow forever.(1) To the unconverted we say, "Sow to yourselves in righteousness" (Hosea 10:12).(2) To the Christian we say, "Be not weary in well doing," etc. "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true," etc. (Philippians 4:8, 9).(3) Let the aged be encouraged.

(H. Woodcock.)

II. THE SEED SOWN MUST HAVE CONTAINED THE PRINCIPLE OF CORN LIFE.

III. THERE MUST HAVE BEEN A PREPARED AND PROPER SOIL.

IV. THE SEED MUST HAVE GROWN GRADUALLY.

V. THE PLANT MUST HAVE BEEN SUPPLIED WITH NOURISHMENT FROM THE ROOT INWARDLY AND BY AIR, RAIN, ETC., OUTWARDLY. This is absolutely necessary in nature, or the plant will wither and die. It is the same in the kingdom of grace. "The trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord" (Isaiah 61:3), must be sustained by the sap from the root, and by the Spirit's operation through the Word and ordinances.

VI. IN GROWING UP IT MUST HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO MANY VICISSITUDES. Cold, heat, drought, flood, and tempest are common between seed-time and harvest; and our Lord has declared to His disciples, that in this world they shall have tribulation.

VII. IT MUST HAVE HAD SUNSHINE TO RIPEN IT. No harvest without sunshine; nor can the soul ripen without the shinings in of the rays of the Sun of Righteousness.

1. Of the truth.

2. Of God's countenance.

3. Of heaven. Conclusion —

1. The husbandman sows seed for the purpose of reaping a joyful harvest. He cuts down the corn when it is golden in the ear that it may not be lost, and when the Lord's time is fully come, He sends forth His reapers.

2. The husbandman separates the grain from the straw, so the Lord separates the spirit from the body. "The body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness."

3. The ingathering is profitable and joyous.

(1)To the husbandman. Christ sees the travail of His soul, and is satisfied.

(2)To the angels and Church above.

(3)To the glorified spirit.

4. Shall we then mourn or regret our loss?

(W. P. Tiddy.)

I. THE SUGGESTIVE SIMILE BY WHICH THE LIFE OF THE AGED SAINT IN THIS WORLD IS DEPICTED. Corn, ripe corn, ready for the husbandman and home. Corn suggests the ideas of preciousness, maturity, diversity of influences, and manifoldness. Let us seek that our lives may be valuable as ripe corn, and not valueless as empty chaff.

II. THE GLORIOUS DESTINY FOR WHICH THE AGED SAINT IN THIS WORLD IS BEING DISCIPLINED.

1. The saint as well as the sinner has to meet the same inevitable lot, so far as the body is concerned.

2. The saint goes to his grave, but the wicked is driven there.

3. The good are not destroyed when they come to the grave, but are gathered into the garner. Let these reflections cheer us in remembrance of our departed, sainted friends, and in anticipation of our own departure.

(F. W. Brown.)

"They err, who measure life by years,

With false and thoughtless tongue:

Some hearts grow old before their time,

Others are always young.

'Tis not the number of the lines

On life's fast-filling page;

'Tis not the pulse's added throbs,

Which constitute true age."Amongst moral and responsible beings, that life is really the longest, however brief its outward term, into which the largest amount of beneficent activity is condensed. Thoughts suggested here in regard to a good man's death.

1. It is not unwelcome. "Thou shalt come to thy grave." He is not driven or dragged to it, as may be said of many an ungodly man. God makes him willing when He has made him ready. I have often been struck with the fact that, when the end of a Christian's life begins to draw near, however reluctant he had been hitherto to leave the world, and however he may even have dreaded his departure, all that reluctance and fear melts away.

2. The death of a good man is seasonable. "As a shock of corn cometh in in his season."

3. As death is welcome to the ripe believer, and seasonable, so it is honourable. It is no ignominious blow; it is not a crushing, humiliating stroke; it is a release, an enfranchisement, a coronation.

(J. Thain Davidson, D. D.)

     4016   life, human
     4412   binding corn
     4970   seasons, of year
     4971   seasons, of life
     5726   old age, attainment
     9040   grave, the

The Peaceable Fruits of Sorrows Rightly Borne
'Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: 18. For He maketh sore, and bindeth up: He woundeth, and His hands make whole. 19. He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. 20. In famine He shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword. 21. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh. 22. At destruction and famine …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Death of the Christian
This morning, we shall consider the death of Christians in general; not of the aged Christian merely, for we shall show you that while this text does seem to bear upon the aged Christian, in reality it speaks with a loud voice to every man who is a believer. "Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season." There are four things we shall mark in the text. First, we shall consider that death is inevitable, because it says, "Thou shalt come." Secondly, that …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

"There is Therefore Now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who Walk not after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. "
Rom. viii. 1.--"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." There are three things which concur to make man miserable,--sin, condemnation, and affliction. Every one may observe that "man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward," that his days here are few and evil. He possesses "months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed" for him. Job v. 6, 7, vii. 3. He "is of few days and full of trouble," Job xiv. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Christian Struggling under Great and Heavy Affliction.
1. Here it is advised--that afflictions should only be expected.--2. That the righteous hand of God should be acknowledged in them when they come.--3. That they should be borne with patience.--4. That the divine conduct in them should be cordially approved.--5. That thankfulness should be maintained in the midst of trials.--6. That the design of afflictions should be diligently inquired into, and all proper assistance taken in discovering it.--7. That, when it is discovered, it should humbly be complied …
Philip Doddridge—The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul

Letter xxxii (A. D. 1132) to Thurstan, Archbishop of York
To Thurstan, Archbishop of York Bernard praises his charity and beneficence towards the Religious. To the very dear father and Reverend Lord Thurstan, by the Grace of God Archbishop of York, Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, wishes the fullest health. The general good report of men, as I have experienced, has said nothing in your favour which the splendour of your good works does not justify. Your actions, in fact, show that your high reputation, which fame had previously spread everywhere, was neither …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Whether we Ought to Pray to God Alone?
Objection 1: It would seem that we ought to pray to God alone. Prayer is an act of religion, as stated above [3016](A[3]). But God alone is to be worshiped by religion. Therefore we should pray to God alone. Objection 2: Further, it is useless to pray to one who is ignorant of the prayer. But it belongs to God alone to know one's prayer, both because frequently prayer is uttered by an interior act which God alone knows, rather than by words, according to the saying of the Apostle (1 Cor. 14:15), …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether we Ought to Call Upon the Saints to Pray for Us?
Objection 1: It would seem that we ought not to call upon the saints to pray for us. For no man asks anyone's friends to pray for him, except in so far as he believes he will more easily find favor with them. But God is infinitely more merciful than any saint, and consequently His will is more easily inclined to give us a gracious hearing, than the will of a saint. Therefore it would seem unnecessary to make the saints mediators between us and God, that they may intercede for us. Objection 2: Further, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether it is Lawful to Imprison a Man?
Objection 1: It would seem unlawful to imprison a man. An act which deals with undue matter is evil in its genus, as stated above ([2910]FS, Q[18], A[2]). Now man, having a free-will, is undue matter for imprisonment which is inconsistent with free-will. Therefore it is unlawful to imprison a man. Objection 2: Further, human justice should be ruled by Divine justice. Now according to Ecclus. 15:14, "God left man in the hand of his own counsel." Therefore it seems that a man ought not to be coerced …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether the Beatitudes are Suitably Enumerated?
Objection 1: It would seem that the beatitudes are unsuitably enumerated. For the beatitudes are assigned to the gifts, as stated above (A[1], ad 1). Now some of the gifts, viz. wisdom and understanding, belong to the contemplative life: yet no beatitude is assigned to the act of contemplation, for all are assigned to matters connected with the active life. Therefore the beatitudes are insufficiently enumerated. Objection 2: Further, not only do the executive gifts belong to the active life, but …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Envy is a Kind of Sorrow?
Objection 1: It would seem that envy is not a kind of sorrow. For the object of envy is a good, for Gregory says (Moral. v, 46) of the envious man that "self-inflicted pain wounds the pining spirit, which is racked by the prosperity of another." Therefore envy is not a kind of sorrow. Objection 2: Further, likeness is a cause, not of sorrow but rather of pleasure. But likeness is a cause of envy: for the Philosopher says (Rhet. ii, 10): "Men are envious of such as are like them in genus, in knowledge, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Envy is a Mortal Sin?
Objection 1: It would seem that envy is not a mortal sin. For since envy is a kind of sorrow, it is a passion of the sensitive appetite. Now there is no mortal sin in the sensuality, but only in the reason, as Augustine declares (De Trin. xii, 12) [*Cf. [2644]FS, Q[74], A[4]]. Therefore envy is not a mortal sin. Objection 2: Further, there cannot be mortal sin in infants. But envy can be in them, for Augustine says (Confess. i): "I myself have seen and known even a baby envious, it could not speak, …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether all Anger is a Mortal Sin?
Objection 1: It would seem that all anger is a mortal sin. For it is written (Job 5:2): "Anger killeth the foolish man [*Vulg.: 'Anger indeed killeth the foolish']," and he speaks of the spiritual killing, whence mortal sin takes its name. Therefore all anger is a mortal sin. Objection 2: Further, nothing save mortal sin is deserving of eternal condemnation. Now anger deserves eternal condemnation; for our Lord said (Mat. 5:22): "Whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment": …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether the Particular Punishments of Our First Parents are Suitably Appointed in Scripture?
Objection 1: It would seem that the particular punishments of our first parents are unsuitably appointed in Scripture. For that which would have occurred even without sin should not be described as a punishment for sin. Now seemingly there would have been "pain in child-bearing," even had there been no sin: for the disposition of the female sex is such that offspring cannot be born without pain to the bearer. Likewise the "subjection of woman to man" results from the perfection of the male, and the …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether Sin Has a Cause?
Objection 1: It would seem that sin has no cause. For sin has the nature of evil, as stated above ([1760]Q[71], A[6]). But evil has no cause, as Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv). Therefore sin has no cause. Objection 2: Further, a cause is that from which something follows of necessity. Now that which is of necessity, seems to be no sin, for every sin is voluntary. Therefore sin has no cause. Objection 3: Further, if sin has a cause, this cause is either good or evil. It is not a good, because good …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Afflictions and Death under Providence. Job 5:6-8.
Afflictions and death under Providence. Job 5:6-8. Not from the dust affliction grows, Nor troubles rise by chance; Yet we are born to cares and woes; A sad inheritance! As sparks break out from burning coals, And still are upwards borne So grief is rooted in our souls, And man grows lip to mourn. Yet with my God I leave my cause, And trust his promised grace; He rules me by his well-known laws Of love and righteousness. Not all the pains that e'er I bore Shall spoil my future peace, For death …
Isaac Watts—The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts

'All Things are Yours'
'They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.'--JUDGES v. 20. 'For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.'--Job v. 23. These two poetical fragments present the same truth on opposite sides. The first of them comes from Deborah's triumphant chant. The singer identifies God with the cause of Israel, and declares that heaven itself fought against those who fought against God's people. There may be …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

2 Sam. 23:4-5. Without Clouds.
[13] "He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springeth out of the earth by clear shining after rain. Although my house be not so with God; yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although He make it not to grow."--2 Sam. 23:4-5. THE text which heads this page is taken from a chapter which ought to be very interesting to every Christian. …
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times

Question Lxxxiii of Prayer
I. Is Prayer an Act of the Appetitive Powers? Cardinal Cajetan, On Prayer based on Friendship II. Is it Fitting to Pray? Cardinal Cajetan, On Prayer as a True Cause S. Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount, II. iii. 14 " On the Gift of Perseverance, vii. 15 III. Is Prayer an Act of the Virtue of Religion? Cardinal Cajetan, On the Humility of Prayer S. Augustine, On Psalm cii. 10 " Of the Gift of Perseverance, xvi. 39 IV. Ought We to Pray to God Alone? S. Augustine, Sermon, cxxvii. 2 V. …
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life

Covenanting According to the Purposes of God.
Since every revealed purpose of God, implying that obedience to his law will be given, is a demand of that obedience, the announcement of his Covenant, as in his sovereignty decreed, claims, not less effectively than an explicit law, the fulfilment of its duties. A representation of a system of things pre-determined in order that the obligations of the Covenant might be discharged; various exhibitions of the Covenant as ordained; and a description of the children of the Covenant as predestinated …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Directions to Awakened Sinners.
Acts ix. 6. Acts ix. 6. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do. THESE are the words of Saul, who also is called Paul, (Acts xiii. 9,) when he was stricken to the ground as he was going to Damascus; and any one who had looked upon him in his present circumstances and knew nothing more of him than that view, in comparison with his past life, could have given, would have imagined him one of the most miserable creatures that ever lived upon earth, and would have expected …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

The Figurative Language of Scripture.
1. When the psalmist says: "The Lord God is a sun and shield" (Psa. 84:11), he means that God is to all his creatures the source of life and blessedness, and their almighty protector; but this meaning he conveys under the figure of a sun and a shield. When, again, the apostle James says that Moses is read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day (Acts 15:21), he signifies the writings of Moses under the figure of his name. In these examples the figure lies in particular words. But it may be embodied …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

A Believer's Privilege at Death
'For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' Phil 1:1I. Hope is a Christian's anchor, which he casts within the veil. Rejoicing in hope.' Rom 12:12. A Christian's hope is not in this life, but he hash hope in his death.' Prov 14:42. The best of a saint's comfort begins when his life ends; but the wicked have all their heaven here. Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.' Luke 6:64. You may make your acquittance, and write Received in full payment.' Son, remember that …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Mothers, Daughters, and Wives in Israel
In order accurately to understand the position of woman in Israel, it is only necessary carefully to peruse the New Testament. The picture of social life there presented gives a full view of the place which she held in private and in public life. Here we do not find that separation, so common among Orientals at all times, but a woman mingles freely with others both at home and abroad. So far from suffering under social inferiority, she takes influential and often leading part in all movements, specially …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life