Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV)
And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.
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The Amen Corner
Without the Word of God, we are open prey to the Devil and to the enemy; but with the Word of God, we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. -Harold Sightler
In the light of Christ’s inflexible, impartial standards that we are to judge a tree by its fruits; in the light of the undeniable, irrefutable and inevitable fruits of liquor drinking – by the sip, by the drink, by the glass, by the bottle, by the gallon, by the case, or by the barrel – is a sin. -Sam Morris
The men who succeed best in public life are those who take the risk of standing by their convictions. -James A. Garfield
A man cannot always be a hero, but a man can always be a man.
I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man. -George Washington
Even if marriages are made in heaven, a man and a woman have to be responsible for their maintenance.
He who rejects the yoke of Christ bows his neck to something worse by far. -Charles Spurgeon
The will of God – nothing more, nothing less. -motto in G. Campbell Morgan’s study
He left His Father’s throne above (so free, so infinite His grace!), emptied Himself of all but love and bled for Adam’s helpless race. -Charles Wesley
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last. -Winston Churchill
It’s more important to know where you’re going than to see how fast you can get there.
Some vices are hoary with age, but they show no signs of decrepitude; in fact, they seem to enjoy perpetual youth. -F. J. Mallett
One serious malady of the church is infantile paralysis – too many babes who never grow. -Vance Havner
You can do what’s right and you could do what’s wrong; but in deciding, remember that right is always right, wrong is always wrong and there is never a right time to do the wrong thing. -Dr. Shelton Smith
We should be the kind of Christians whose presence makes it difficult for unbelievers to sin. -Dr. Curtis Hutson
Psalm 139:7-10
7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right and evil doesn’t become good just because it’s accepted by the majority. -Booker T. Washington
What makes the difference is not how many times you have been through the Bible, but how many times and how thoroughly the Bible has been through you. -Gipsy Smith
What your conscience knows about you is more important than what your neighbor says about you.
The poorest man I know is the man who has nothing but money. -John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness.
When Isaac was born in 1674, his father was in jail for his approval of Nonconformist thought. Although young Isaac had a great deal of respect for his father’s convictions, he often thought of his mother’s days of nursing her children at the entrance to the jail. The boy Isaac showed his brilliance at a very young age. He learned Latin by age four, Greek at age nine, French at eleven, and Hebrew at thirteen. Many of the well-to-do citizens offered to educate him at Oxford or Cambridge, which would have prepared him for the Anglican ministry. Isaac would have none of it and at age sixteen traveled to London to continue his education at a prominent Nonconformist academy. After graduation in 1694, he spent two years at home where he began his hymn writing.
His most popular hymns are “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “O God Our Help in Ages Past,” and “Joy to the World!” Matthew Arnold, a nineteenth-century author, said, “’When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’ is the best hymn in the English language.” “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” has been given the title of England’s second national anthem and “Joy to the World” stands at the top of Christmas hymns.
In 1705, Watts published his first volume of original hymns and sacred poems. His next hymnal was Hymns and Spiritual Songs and was published in 1707. Many of the Dissenters did not approve of the hymnal. They believed only Psalms and not hymns should be sung in church. This led Watts to adapt the Psalms to Christian worship services. It was called The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament. It was his goal to give the Psalms a New Testament meaning and mode. Watts clarified his method with these words “Where the Psalmist describes religion by the fear of God, I have often joined faith and love to it. Where he speaks of the pardon of sin through the mercies of God, I have added the merits of a Savior. Where he talks of sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God…Where he promises abundance of wealth, honor, and long life, I have changed some of these typical blessings for grace, glory, and life eternal, which are brought to light by the gospel, and promised in the New Testament.”
With Watts’ health failing, he moved to the estate of the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas and Lady Abney, to recuperate. His plans were to stay only a few weeks but spent the next thirty-six years as a guest there.
It is interesting to note that Watts never married. His sickness and unpleasant appearance caused his personal life to suffer. He was five feet tall, pale, skinny, and he had an oversized head. All of the pictures of him show him in a large gown with large folds. This is probably an effort by the artists to downplay his less than pleasing appearance. Elizabeth Singer, an avid reader of his book Hymns and Spiritual Songs thought Isaac Watts was her soulmate even though she only knew him through his writings. A meeting was arranged. When she saw his appearance, she refused his marriage proposal. This was as close as he ever came to being married.
Lowell Mason, composer of “Joy to the World, “was born and raised in Medfield, Massachusetts. As an adult, he worked in a dry goods store and a bank in Savannah, Georgia. His strong interest in music led him to study with Frederick L. Abel and write his own pieces. Later, as music leader at the Independent Presbyterian Church of Savannah, he led the church to set up the first Sunday School for Afro-American children in the United States.
In the last part of his life, he was the music director of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. Here he changed American church music from professional choirs and orchestras to congregational singing and organ music.
first four notes of “Lift Up Your Heads” from Handel’s Messiah and the middle section of the carol (“and heaven and nature sing”), which can also be located in Messiah in the introduction of “Comfort Ye My People.”
Joy to the world! The Lord is come;
Even Steven 