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<GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY>
<12 October 2002>

In this issue:
--------------
(1)  <Exhortational> "Minced oaths-a vital message for every Christian" - 
G.A.Seville
(2)  <Doctrinal> "Shall we meet our loved ones again?" (Pt-2) - D.L.Moody
(3)  <Prophetical> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-51)- A.W.Pink


(1)  <EXHORTATIONAL>
MINCED OATHS - A VITAL MESSAGE FOR EVERY CHRISTIAN
George H. Seville

"Gosh", "Golly", "Darn", "Gee", "Gee-whiz", "Ding", "Dang", "Dog Gone", 
"Gosh Darn", "Jeez", "My Heavens", "Goodness Sakes", "Good Gracious"

A visiting minister was asked to lead in prayer in Sunday school, and when 
he had finished, a teacher heard one of her girls whisper, "Gosh, what a 
prayer!" Such an exclamation seems incongruous in expressing one's 
appreciation of a prayer, but a little thought will lead anyone to the 
conclusion that "gosh" is not an appropriate word for a Christian on any 
occasion. When we look into the original meaning of such interjections, we 
may be surprised that even Christian people are habitual users of 
expressions which the dictionary terms "minced oaths."

A commonly used interjection is "Gee." It is capitalize in Webster's New 
International Dictionary, and given this definition: "A form of Jesus, used 
in minced baths." Two common words and their definitions are these: 
"Golly--a euphemism for God, used in minced oaths; gosh--a substitute for 
God, used in minced oaths.'' "Darn, darned, darnation" are said to be 
"colloquial euphemisms for "damn, damned, damnation." Persons who allow 
their lips to utter "Gosh-darned" quite freely, would be shocked if they 
realized the real meaning of the word.

Now a professor in a sound seminary, a certain minister was not allowed to 
use "goodness," "mercy." or "gracious" as exclamations when he was a child. 
He was inclined to think the restrictions a family peculiarity, merely a 
parental over-carefulness; but now he can see that it had a sound Scriptural 
basis. The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, "What is required in the 
third commandment? The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use 
of God's name, titles, attributes, ordinances, words and works." Certainly 
goodness, mercy, graciousness are attributes of God.

The use of minced oaths is quite contrary to the spirit Of the New Testament 
teaching. For example, our Lord Jesus said, "But I say unto you, Swear not 
at all. . . But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for 
whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." (Matthew 5:34, 37). The 
phrase "whatsoever is more than these" suggests the use of an exclamation or 
an expletive, which is defined as "something added merely as a filling; 
especially a word, letter, or syllable not necessary to the sense, but 
inserted to fill a vacancy."

James in writing his epistle repeats almost exactly the words of Christ 
quoted above, but adds the warning, "...that ye fall not under judgment" 
(James 5:12). That last word recalls our Lord's declaration, " But I say 
unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account 
thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, 
and by thy words thou shall be condemned" (Matthew 12:36, 37). If we try to 
excuse ourselves by saying that these exclamations slip through our lips 
unawares, we need to heed the Holy Spirit's warning in the epistle of James, 
"If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his 
tongue, but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain" (1:26).

James seems puzzled by the same anomaly that puzzles us, namely, the 
presence of minced oaths on the lips of Christians. Writing of the tongue as 
a "restless evil ... full of deadly poison," he said,

"Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men. who are 
made after the likeness of God; out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing 
and cursing My brethren. these things ought not so to be" (James 3:8-10

While no attempt has been made to give a complete list of all the words in 
the vocabulary of near-profanity, enough has been said to indicate that 
present day speech has fallen below that standard which Christ set for His 
disciples. A careless following of others in the use of these common minced 
oaths will dull our own spiritual sensitiveness, and will weaken our 
Christian testimony.

To gain the victory in this matter of full obedience to our Lord Jesus, we 
need to make the prayer of David our daily petition. "Let the words of my 
mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my 
strength and my Redeemer" (Psalm 19: 14).
_______________________________________________________________________

(2)   <DOCTRINAL>
SHALL WE MEET OUR LOVED ONES AGAIN? (PART-2)
A STUDY OF 1 CORINTHIANS 15
D.L. Moody

Mankind has natural "yearnings after the infinite." Among the most primitive 
peoples philosophers have detected what has been well called "an appetite 
for the infinite," which belies the teaching that death ends all.  It is one 
of the points of difference between man and beast. Birds of the air and 
beasts of the field are much the same today as they were in Eden. They eat, 
sleep and pass their lives from sun to sun in unvarying monotony. Their 
desires and needs are the same.

But man is always changing. His desires are always enlarging. His mind is 
always planning ahead. No sooner does he reach one goal than he presses 
towards the next. Not even death itself can arrest him. A well-known infidel 
once said, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is not death, but the 
belief of man in his own immortality."

This presentiment of a future life has been beautifully illustrated by the 
feeling which grows within the bird when winter approaches, impelling it to 
travel towards the south -- "an impulse mysterious and undefined, but 
irresistible and unerring"; or to "the longing of southern plants, taken to 
a northern climate and planted in a northern soil. They grow there, but they 
are always failing of their flowers. The poor, exiled shrub dreams of a 
splendid blossom which it has never seen, but which it is dimly conscious 
that it ought
somehow to produce. It feels the flower which it has not strength to make in 
the half-chilled but still genuine juices of its southern nature. That is 
the way in which the thought of a future life haunts us all."

Philosophers have many facts to prove this universal reaching forward to the 
life beyond the grave. It is supposed that many funeral rites and 
ceremonies, for instance, are due to it. If the body is once more to be 
occupied by its spirit, it at once suggests itself that it must be protected 
from harm. Accordingly we find that graves are concealed lest enemies should 
dig up the remains and dishonour them.

Livingstone tells how a Bechuana chief was buried in his own cattle pen, 
then the cattle were driven about for some hours until all trace of the 
grave was obliterated.  But the body must be protected not alone from 
ill-usage, but also, as far as possible, from decay; and the process of 
embalming is an endeavour in this direction.

Sometimes, indeed, resurrection would be undesirable, and so we find that 
dead bodies are thrown into the water to drown the spirit.
Modern Egyptians turn the body round and round, it is said, to make the 
spirit giddy and therefore unable to retrace its steps.
Certain aboriginal Australians take off the nails of the hands lest the 
reanimated corpse should scratch its way out of its narrow cell.
When the conception of a second life as a continuation of the present life 
is held, we find the custom of burying inanimate things, such as weapons and 
instruments. The dead man will require everything beyond -- as he did this 
side -- death.

Not alone inanimate things, but animals are killed in order that their 
ghosts may accompany the ghost of the dead man. The Bedouins slaughter his 
camels over the grave of their dead comrade: indispensable in this world, it 
will be the same in the next.  From this, one step leads to the immolation 
of human beings. Wives follow their husbands; slaves are slain that they may 
continue to serve their masters. In the words of a poet:

'They that in barbarian burials killed the slave and slew the wife
Felt within themselves the sacred passion of the second life.'         [To 
be concluded]
_______________________________________________________________________

(3)   <PROPHETICAL>
"THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-51)
THE IMMINENCY OF THE REDEEMER'S RETURN
Arthur W. Pink
....
3. Why was the fact of our Lord's Return presented in the language of 
Imminency and the exact date withheld? (1/2)

At first sight it may appear strange that our Lord has not made known to us 
the precise date of His appearing. He has caused many details concerning the 
Blessed Hope to be recorded in the Word. He has made known many things which 
are to transpire at His second advent, and in view of the fact that so much 
has been revealed it may strike us as peculiar that the very point upon 
which human curiosity most desires enlightenment should have been left 
undefined. We need hardly say that it was not ignorance on our Lord's part 
which caused Him to leave the hour of His second coming un-determined, 
though some of His enemies have dared to charge this against Him, basing 
their evil indictment upon Mark 13:32--"But of that day and that hour 
knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but 
the Father." These words need occasion no difficulty if we pay due attention 
to the particular Gospel in which they are found, namely, Mark's- the Gospel 
of the Servant of Jehovah. The purpose of Mark's Gospel is to present the 
Lord Jesus as the perfect Servant, the obedient Servant, the Servant whose 
meat it was to do the will of Him that sent Him, and "the servant knoweth 
not what his lord doeth" (John 15:15). Mark 13:32 does not call into 
question our Lord's omniscience but asserts that, as a Servant, He waited 
Another's will. A little reflection will reveal the perfect wisdom of our 
Lord in concealing the exact date of His Return. One reason was that He 
desired to keep His people on the very tiptoe of expectation, continually 
looking for Him.

Again; this question needs to be pondered in the light of the Unity of 
Christ's church. The tendency with all of us is to regard believers as so 
many detached individuals, instead of viewing the saints as "one body" (1 
Cor. 12:13) "members one of another" (Rom. 12:5). The church is not an 
organization, it is a living organism, a "body" of which Christ is the 
"head." Hence, the Imminency of the Redeemer's return is to one member 
precisely what it is to all the members. and therefore it is that first 
century believers were just as truly and just as much interested in the 
appearing of the Saviour as are believers now living in the twentieth 
century. The object of hope then is the object of hope now, for the Body is 
one, and conversely, the object of hope now must necessarily have been the 
object of hope then. Consequently, the early Christians, by virtue of the 
Unity of the saints, were exhorted to walk in the light and blessing of a 
hope which is common to the entire church.

The Return of our Lord might not have been revealed at all, but in that case 
a most powerful dynamic to godly living would have been withheld from the 
church. The Imminency of the Redeemer's second advent was revealed as an 
incentive to watchfulness and preparedness. If then the fact of our Lord's 
return had not been presented in the New Testament as something which might 
occur at any time, but, instead, had been expressly postponed and fixed to 
happen in some particular and distant century, then all believers who lived 
in the centuries preceding that one would have been robbed of the comfort 
which is to be found in the assurance that Christ may return at any hour and 
would have lost the purifying effects which such a prospect is calculated to 
produce. As it has been well remarked, "It is not that He desires each 
succeeding generation to believe that He will certainly return in their 
time, for He does not desire our faith and our practice to be founded on an 
error, as, in that case, the faith and practice of all generations except 
the last would be. But it is a necessary element of the doctrine concerning 
the second coming of Christ, that it should be possible at any time, that no 
generation should consider it improbable in theirs" (Archbishop Trench).

Here then is the simple but sufficient answer to our question. The second 
coming of Christ is presented in the language of imminency because of the 
far-reaching effects it is designed to exert on those who lay hold of the 
promise, "Surely I come quickly." The imminent return of the Redeemer is a 
practical hope. It is the commanding motive of the New Testament. The Holy 
Spirit has linked it with every precept and practice of Christian character 
and conduct. As another has so well expressed it: "It arms admonitions, it 
points appeals, it strengthens arguments, it enforces commands, it 
intensifies entreaties, it arouses courage, it rebukes fear, it quickens 
affection, it kindles hope, it inflames zeal, it separates from the world, 
it consecrates to God, it drys tears, it conquers death" (Brookes). To 
amplify this statement in detail--

The hope of our Lord's second advent produces loyalty and faithfulness to 
Christ.  "Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall 
make ruler over His household, to give them their portion of meat in due 
season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so 
doing. Of a truth, I say unto you, that He will make him ruler over all that 
He hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My Lord delayeth His 
coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and 
drink, and to be drunken; The Lord of that Servant will come in a day when 
he looketh not for Him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut 
him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers" (Luke 
12:42-46).

The moral purpose of this parable (see context of above quotation) is 
apparent. While the steward maintained an attitude of watchfulness he was 
faithful and sober, but when he said in his heart "my Lord delayeth His 
coming" he began to beat his fellow-servants and to eat and drink and be 
drunken. Watching for the Lord then is an incentive to loyalty and fidelity, 
while unwatchfulness results in worldliness of heart, carelessness of walk 
and carnality of life.  [To be concluded]

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