Chapter ix, Continued i. The Gift; the Living Water. St John , that is to say, the Holy Spirit by him, explains this to mean the Holy Spirit. It is the personal Paraclete. And it is the Paraclete in a mode of presence and action specially conditioned by the soul’s having come to Christ, having believed on Christ, already. True it is, deeply true, that when we come and believe it is already because of the Spirit, the Spirit of Faith. But this is not the phase of truth before us in these two utterances. The Lord takes the case of the man as having, anyhow, come and believed. Then, in the sense of after-experience, after-life, in manifestation, unfolding, indwelling, empowering, the man shall “receive the Spirit.” In a sense different from that which might have been true before, the Spirit, the Holy Ghost, shall be in him, and he in the Spirit. He shall be a “spiritual” man, not in any vague sense, not merely as having, somehow, a higher range of interests and idea...

The interview may be read here. Thanks, David.

Luke 8: 5: A sower went out to sow his seed: When I was a kid, pretty much everybody in the neighbourhood had a garden. We had quite a large one. I remember helping my parents to plant the garden and how the seed for different plants was sown in different ways. I remember especially how we planted our corn by making little holes in the rows and putting two kernals in each hole, using two to be sure that at least one of them sprouted. The man sowing seed in Jesus’ parable was obviously not sowing corn. He was sowing something like grass. He threw it everywhere – he broadcasted it - and it landed just wherever it landed. The picture speaks of a person who simply wanted to get as much seed over as wide an area as possible and he had faith that enough would take root that his planting would be successful. He knew some would not take root, but at least most of it would. Jesus then tells us that the seed in the story was symbolic of the Word of God. While the main po...

Chapter ix. living water. The last chapter was full of thoughts of the River and the Well. Let us linger a while longer in the same region of Scriptural imagery; it is a region full “of fountains and depths, that spring out of valleys and hills.” The words “living water” occur in two remarkable passages of St. John’s Gospel, passages widely separated in time and circumstance, but closely united in spiritual significance by this phrase, and that, too, in a way which makes the second passage the true sequel and development of the first. In ch. iv. 14., the Lord Jesus tells the woman of Sychar that had she known the gift of God, and known Him who spoke to her, she would have asked, and He would have given living water; and that this water would have precluded all thirst for ever; and that it would prove to be, within its recipient, a fountain of water, of water not stagnant but “springing, leaping, unto eternal life.” And in ch. vii. 38, we hear the same Voice speak of livi...

My family and I are Sherlock Holmes fans. It started when we were in St. Louis and the Mystery television program began airing the episodes of Holmes played by Jeremy Brett. We purchased a copy of the Holmes stories and the enthusiasm has never waned. One of my favourite stories - and one of Conan-Doyles’ favourites too, by the way - is the “Musgrave Ritual”. It’s my favourite for a number of reasons but one of them is that I’ve long been a student of the Stuart period of British history. The story is about what happened to the crown of Charles the First after his beheading. It turns up, having been cut into pieces, a moldering ruin in appearance – unrecognizable – and tossed into a pond. It may seem an odd end for a royal crown, but when you think of it, it is the end for all the crowns of this world. They are all corruptible, not only because they are made of the material of this world, but because they represent the kingdoms of this world, all of which have either passed ...

Just think. If you are a Christian, you are a partaker of the greatest blessings in all of human history. They are all yours. All things are yours in Christ. Enjoy being part of a patriarchical, hierarchical, and supernatural monarchy today!

David Virtue has this article on his site. Very enlightening. HOW SODOMY WAS SOLD TO AMERICA by Nicholas Jackson NewsWithViews.com December 29, 2007