The Iron Pen #93

God & Country

[Editor’s Note: Fisher Ames (1758-1808) was a Founding Father who helped formulate the Bill of Rights in the first session of the U.S. Congress. He graduated from Harvard, 1774, and became of member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1788, where he participated in the state's ratification of the U.S. Constitution.]

"We have a dangerous trend beginning to take place in our education. We're starting to put more and more textbooks into our schools....We've become accustomed of late of putting little books into the hands of children containing fables and moral lessons....We are spending less time in the classroom on the Bible, which should be the principal text in our schools....The Bible states these great moral lessons better than any other manmade book." Fisher Ames

Dr. Walter L. Wilson, the physician soul winner said, "It was a Person that God gave, it is a Person that we need, and it is a Person that we accept by faith." That person is the Lord Jesus Christ. Is He your Savior?

Ambrose (340 – 397 AD)

[Biographical note: Ambrose was a theologian. He was born in Trier, Germany. Though not ordained he became the Bishop of Milan. He was instrumental in defeating the Arian heresy.]

KINDNESS

Kindness breaks up into two parts, good will and liberality. Kindness to exist in perfection must consist of these two qualities. It is not enough just to wish well; we must also do well. Nor, again, it is enough to do well, unless this springs from a good source, even a good will. "For God loveth a cheerful giver." (2 Corinthians 9:7)

FAMILIARITY WITH GOOD MEN

It is a very good thing to unite one’s self to a good man. It is also very useful for the young to follow the guidance of great and wise men. For he who lives in company with wise men is wise himself; but he who clings to the foolish is looked on as a fool too (Proverbs 13:20). This friendship with the wise is a great help in teaching us, and also as giving a sure proof of our uprightness. Young men show very soon that they imitate those to whom they attach themselves. And this idea gains ground from the fact that in all their daily life they grow to be like those with whom they have enjoyed interaction to the full.

UNDERSTAND YOUR FAITH

This is the teaching of our faith – that God is good, eternal, perfect, almighty, and true, such as we find Him in the Law and the Prophets, and the rest of the Holy Scriptures (Ps. 25:8; Jer. 10:10; James 1:17-18; Dan. 9:9-10; Luke 1:37), for otherwise there is no God. For He who is God cannot but be good, seeing that fullness of goodness is of the nature of God (Dan. 9:7; Ex. 34:6); nor can God, Who made time, be in time; nor, again, can God be imperfect, for a lesser being is plainly imperfect, seeing that it lacks somewhat whereby it could be made equal to the greater. Be not confused…our faith is this; God is not evil, that with God nothing is impossible, that God exists not in time, that God is beneath no being (James 1:13; Luke 18:27; Ps. 90:2-4; 89:6).

Daniel Boone wrote, "The religion I have is to love and fear God, believe in Jesus Christ, do all the good to my neighbor, and myself that I can, do as little harm as I can help, and trust on God's mercy for the rest."

Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell;
I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. C. T. Studd