Religion ebooks

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. WHY JESUS CAME TO THIS WORLD
II. JESUS IS BORN IN BETHLEHEM
III. THE BOYHOOD OF JESUS
IV. JOHN THE BAPTIST
V. JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK
VI. SOME WORDS AND WORKS OF JESUS
VII. A FRIEND FOR THE SORROWFUL
VIII. MORE WONDERFUL WORKS AND WORDS
IX. THE MAN BORN BLIND, AND LAZARUS
X. THE PRODIGAL SON, AND OTHER STORIES
XI. THE LAST DAYS IN JERUSALEM
XII. THE CRUCIFIXION AND THE RESURRECTION XX SELECTED SONGS, PSALMS, AND PRAYERS

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER

"And Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that I have" (I Kings 20: 1-4).

What Ben Hadad asked was absolute surrender; and what Ahab gave was what was asked of him-absolute surrender. I want to use these words: "My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have," as the words of absolute surrender with which every child of God ought to yield himself to his Father. We have heard it before, but we need to hear it very definitely - the condition of God's blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands. Praise God! If our hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what God will do for us, and to the blessing God will bestow.
Absolute surrender - let me tell you where I got those words. I used them myself often, and you have heard them numberless times. But in Scotland once I was in a company where we were talking about the condition of Christ's Church, and what the great need of the Church and of believers is; and there was in our company a godly

CONTENTS

• How to Become Like Christ
• The Transfiguration
• Indiscreet Importunity
• Shame on Account of God's Displeasure
• Naaman Cured
• The Lame Man at the Temple Gate

CONTENTS

• THE WISE MEN'S VISIT
• THE ANGEL'S TIDINGS
• JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
• THE WONDERFUL DRAUGHT OF FISHES
• THE HOUSE BUILT UPON THE SAND
• HEALING THE CENTURION'S SERVANT
• ANOINTING THE FEET OF JESUS
• THE RICH FOOL
• THE UNFRUITFUL TREE
• SOWING THE SEED
• THE ENEMY SOWING TARES
• THE PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN
• SEEKING FOR HIDDEN TREASURE
• THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE
• THE PARABLE OF THE NET
• THE MAN POSSESSED BY DEVILS
• CURING THE INCURABLE
• JAIRUS' DAUGHTER
• THE TWO BLIND MEN
• FEEDING FIVE THOUSAND
• CHRIST WALKING ON THE SEA
• THE WOMAN OF CANAAN
• PETER AND THE TRIBUTE MONEY
• THE GOOD SAMARITAN
• IMPORTUNITY REWARDED
• THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT
• THE GOOD SHEPHERD
• THE LOST PIECE OF MONEY
• THE PRODIGAL SON
• PETER'S WIFE'S MOTHER CURED
• THE UNJUST STEWARD
• THE RICH MAN AND THE BEGGAR
• "AVENGE ME OF MY ADVERSARY"
• THE PHARISEE AND THE TAX-GATHERER
• THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD
• THE BARREN FIG TREE
• THE WICKED HUSBANDMAN
• WITHOUT THE WEDDING GARMENT
• THE FOOLISH VIRGINS
• THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS
• MAN WITH THE WITHERED HAND
• JESUS ASCENDS TO HEAVEN
• THE PHILIPPIAN JAILER
• TIMOTHY

They go from strength to strength, Every one of them appeareth before God in Zion

Preface

In intercourse with young converts, I have very frequently longed for a suitable ebook in which the most important truths that they have need of for the New Life should be briefly and simply set forth. I could not find anything that entirely corresponded to what I desired. During the services in which, since Whitsuntide 1884, I have been permitted to take part, and in which I have been enabled to speak with so many who professed to have found the Lord, and who were, nevertheless, still very weak in knowledge and faith, this want was felt by me still more keenly. In the course of my journey, I felt myself pressed to take the pen in hand. Under a vivid impression of the infirmities and the perverted thoughts concerning the New Life, with which, as was manifest to me from conversations I had with them, almost all young Christians have to wrestle, I wished, in some words of manual and encouragement, to let them see what a glorious life of power and joy is prepared for them in their Lord Jesus, and how simple the way is to enjoy all this blessing.
I have confined myself in these reflections to some of the most important topics. The first is the Word of God as the glorious and sure manual, even for the simplest souls that will only surrender themselves to it. Then, as the chief element in the word, there is the Son, the gift of the Father, to do all for

Thoughts on Our Training for the Ministry of Intercession

PREFACE.

Of all the promises connected with the command, 'ABIDE IN ME,' there is none higher, and none that sooner brings the confession, 'Not that I have already attained, or am already made perfect,' than this: 'If ye abide in me, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.' Power with God is the highest attainment of the life of full abiding.
And of all the traits of a life LIKE CHRIST there is none higher and more glorious than conformity to Him in the work that now engages Him without ceasing in the Father's presence--His all-prevailing intercession. The more we abide in Him, and grow unto His likeness, will His priestly life work in us mightily, and our life become what His is, a life that ever pleads and prevails for men.
'Thou hast made us kings and priests unto God.' Both in the king and the priest the chief thing is power, influence, blessing. In the king it is the power coming downward; in the priest, the power rising upward, prevailing with God. In our blessed Priest-King, Jesus Christ, the kingly power is founded on the priestly 'He is able to save to the uttermost, because He ever liveth to make intercession.' In us, His priests and kings, it is no otherwise: it is in intercession that the Church is to find and wield its highest power, that each member of the Church is to prove his descent from Israel, who as a prince had power with God and with men,... Click here to read the full description!

PREFACE

On the use of this little volume I would fain say two things which lie upon my heart.
The first is this: that the Christian who desires to make use of it must not be content merely to see and to understand the portion for the day, but must take time to meditate upon it and to appropriate it. I am convinced that one chief cause why some do not grow more in grace is that they do not take time to hold converse with the Lord in secret. Spiritual, divine truth does not thus become our possession at once. Although I understand what I see, although I consent heartily to it, although I receive it, it may speedily fade away and be forgotten, unless by private meditation I give it time to become fixed and rooted in me, to become united and identified with me. Christians, give yourselves, give your Lord time to transfer His heavenly thoughts to your inner, spiritual life. When you have see a portion, set yourselves in silence before God. Take time to remain before Him until He has made His word living and powerful in your souls. Then does it become the life and the power of your life.
And this brings me to the second remark which I desire to make. It is this: that the Christian must take special care that he do not suffer himself to be led away from the Word of God by the many guides which in our days are seeing the light. These ebooks will have this result, -whenever a man seeks his manual only in what the writer has to say, he then becomes

PREFACE

These addresses on Obedience are issued with the very fervent prayer that it may please our gracious Father to use them for the manual and strengthening of the young men and women, on whose obedience and devotion so much depends for the Church and the world. To all of them who see this I send my loving greeting. The God of all grace bless them abundantly!
It often happens after a Conference, or even after writing a ebook, that it is as if one only then begins to see the meaning and importance of the truth with which one has been occupied. So I do indeed feel as if I had utterly failed in grasping or expounding the spiritual character, the altogether indispensable necessity, the divine and actual possibility, the inconceivable blessedness of a life of true and entire obedience to our Father in heaven. Let me, therefore, just in a few sentences gather up the main points which have come home to myself with special power, and ask every reader at starting to take note of them as
SOME OF THE CHIEF LESSONS
to be learnt in Christ's school of obedience.
The Father in heaven asks, and requires, and actually expects, that every child of His yield Him whole-hearted and entire obedience, day by day, and all the day.
To enable His child to do this, He has made a most abundant and altogether sufficient provision in the promise of the New Covenant, and in the gift of His Son and Spirit.
This provision can alone, but can most certainly, be

PREFACE

BOOK I of this volume occupies a quarter or a third of the volume, and consists of matter written about four years ago, but not hitherto published in book form. It contained errors of judgment and of fact.
I have now corrected these to the best of my ability and later knowledge.

Book II was written at the beginning of 1903, and has not until now appeared in any form. In it my purpose has been to present a character- portrait of Mrs. Eddy, drawn from her own acts and words solely, not from hearsay and rumor; and to explain the nature and scope of her Monarchy, as revealed in the Laws by which she governs it, and which she wrote herself.

MARK TWAIN
NEW YORK. January, 1907.

BOOK I CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

"It is the first time since the dawn-days of Creation that
a Voice has gone crashing through space with such
placid and complacent confidence and command."

CHAPTER I
VIENNA 1899.

This last summer, when I was on my way back to Vienna from the Appetite- Cure in the mountains, I fell over a cliff in the twilight, and broke some arms and legs and one thing or another, and by good luck was found by some peasants who had lost an ass, and they carried me to the nearest habitation, which was one of those large, low, thatch-roofed farm-houses, with apartments in the garret for the family, and a cunning little porch under the deep gable decorated with boxes of bright colored flowers and cats; on the

THE REALITY OF PRAYER

FOREWARD

During the last 25 years of the nineteenth century and a score of years of the twentieth, there lived and died three great men of God whom I knew-men whom God has doubtless numbered among the foremost of His heavenly host. The first was Edward McKendree Bounds, author of this present volume and the other "Spiritual Life" Ebooks. The second was Claud L. Chilton, minister for many years in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and a musical composer of religious music of considerable note. The third, Clement C. Cary, preacher and editor, lost his life in an automobile accident in 1922. The fourth was Dr. B. F. Haynes, minister, editor and author, who died in Nashville, in 1923.

What Dr. Thomas Goodwin, the Puritan, was to Strong, Arrowsmith and Sparstow; what John Wesley was to Whitefield, Fletcher and Clark, Bounds was to Chilton, Cary and Haynes. What David Brainerd's Journal did for Cary, Martyn, McCheyne, Bounds' ebooks can do for thousands of God's children. He was a man who lived ever on prayer ground. He walked and talked with the Lord. Prayer was the great weapon in his arsenal, his pathway to the Throne of Grace. None who see what he has written can fail of realising that Edward McKendree Bounds talked with God, as a man talketh to his friend.

Homer W. Hodge
Flushing, N.Y.

I. PRAYER.A PRIVILEGE, PRINCELY, SACRED

I am the creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow... Click here to read the full description!