Jottings

by J Miller | Category: Jottings | Feb 1950

It is evident that Jacob had learned a very profound truth, that creatures take on inward impressions from things they look at, when he peeled white strakes in the rods of poplar, almond and plane trees, and put them before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs (Genesis 30.88-40). Such impressions he knew would affect the mothers and in turn affect their offspring. It reveals profound thought in the mind of a man who lived quite early in the history of the human race, 10 which men in modern times seem to pav little or no attention. Not only are mothers impressionable, but children t(;o, in that formative period when the mind is rapidly developing, are greatly affected by what they see. That modern invention, the cinema, is one of the most damaging to the mind of the child. What might be used as a means of education is tw ned by the devil (we believe we are correct in tracing the evil to its source) to that fell purpose of leaving the most damaging effects on the minds of children. Instead of elevating the mind by what is shown, the picture show is turned to depict scenes as to how crime can be committed, and to sex appeal, out of which all manner of crime develops, and written indelibly in the records of the brain are things that prove a menace to right thinking and peace in children's minds. The lowest emotions of a human being are set in motion, and often the child sinks till it becomes a moral delinquent, sometimes reaching the prison cell or the gallows, and if it escapes these, the mind as it develops wrestles with the conscience in scenes of sordid imagination. Public authorities are often alaTmed at the increase of child defaulters, and divorce courts are eventually crammed by persons seeking freedom from those who in youth have learned a licentious way of life from the cinema entertainment. On the other hand an ever4ncreasing police force can hardly deal with the increasing volume of crime, learned in many cases from scenes shown in the picture house. Still nothing is done to restrain the evil. It flows through the nation like an open sewer spreading its disease as it goes.

Such being the condition of things in the world around, the Christian does well to cry to God as the psalmist did:

"Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity,

And quicken me in Thy 'ways" (Psalm 1i9. 87).

How happy would David's experience in his later days have been if what he said of himself in Psalm 25.15 had always been true !"Mine eyes are ever toward the Loan;

For He shall pluck my feet out of tIe net" (Psalm 25.15).

But, alas, as he walked on the roof of his house one day, his eyes turned from looking toward the Loan, and he saw a woman bathing. Then came that sad fall that has stained for ever the fair record of David (1 Kings 15. 5). Lust conceived and brought forth sin. The lust of the flesh is allied to the lust of the eyes (1 John 2.16). Eve, in the dawn of human history, saw that the fruit of the forbidden tree was a delight to the eyes (Genesis 3.6). Here was the lust of the eyes, which followed the lust of the flesh-" the tree was good for food "what an impression it gave to her mind, but what a death blow, it gave to her soul! Let us follow that word"I will set no base thing lefore mine eyes " (Psalm 101. 3).

Solomon's words provide food for thought in Ecelesiastes 2.8-10.

It was a great enterprise, but a dangerous one, to allow his eyes to roam about and to gratify them with all they desired, and so to test all things that were under the sun. Such a course might answer in a day when he was in the strength of lils manhood, when his wisdom remained with him, and he had a measure of :fresoristance against the lust of the flesh and of the eyes, but who cannot feel sad

that aged and pathetic figure, as, led by the many strange women he loved, he is found going after the gods of the nations around (1 Kings ii. 1-7) and offering incense and sacrifices to them? His words, "Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them," brought its savage and fearful recompense. J.M.

The life of Christ being manifested in the believer is one of the essential features of the Faith. Paul said in Galatians 2.20: "1 have been crucified with Christ; yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me." Paul the cultured and religious Pharisee was dead; Paul the cruel and persecuting religionist was dead. Such an one was crucified with Christ, yet he lived, but not as he lived once, finding his life in forms and ceremonies, and hating all with a malignant hatred who da ed to challenge and upset his mode of life. Tbat same n:am lived again, but now not in forms, but in faith. Saul, the hater of Christ, was dead; now he says with a ringing, joyous voice of triumph: "Christ liveth in me." In this man's life Christ was no mere caricature. There eceild be seen in him the clear delineation of Him who lived, and walked, and talked to men in those years of self-sacrificing service in the days of His flesh. It is this kind of life that counts with men. It is this life that leaves its mark on the memories and conselenees of men. It is this life that turns other lives to flow in other channels, than in the filthy course of this world. It is the life of Christ in men that has affected men for good oftentimes long after the saint bad passed to his rest. In such a mode of living the believer by faith takes in more and more of the life of Christ, and is transformed into Christ's image from glory to glory, and this work is wrought by the Spirit, as Paul says, "Even as from the Lord the Spirit', (2 Corinthians 3.18).

The words of Paul, in Romans 12. 1, 2, are worthy of greater consideration than they are given by us all. Here is not the word of command, but that of entreaty. Here we have a pleading, beseeching apostle. What is the backgroimd of his beseeching? The mercies of God! The mercies of God should strike a chord in all our beings. What debtors to divine mercy we are I Not one mercy, but many; mercies more numerous than those of which the psalmist sang in Psalm 138, when he sang of the mercies of Jehovah; a long chain of them, every link in which is a link of gold, and every single mercy with golden beauty of its own.

The transforming of the believer is one of the most important features of the individual life of a believer. The believer may be affected both from without or within. He may be fashioned according to this world or age, or be transformed as the result of a renewed mind within. If the mind of the believer is not being renewed by the continual reading of the Scriptures and by prayer, both under the direction of the Holy Spirit, then there will be no transformation, but the fashion of outward things will have their sad effect on the believer's life. We are all of us impressionable, and if impressions are not being made on us by the mind within, then impressions will inevitably be left on us by the minds of others from withotit. We cannot stand immune like a statue or a stone, tdi~iDg on no impressions from the passing crowd.

Women, perhaps, are more impressionable in one sense than men, both in dress and make-up. Of course, we are not forgetting that there are dandies in the male sex. When Paul wrote of behaviour in the house of God, his counsel to men is contained in one verse, but his counsel to women runs into six verses (1 'Timothy 2.8-15). Recently women were dragged along by the fashion of the age, with bobbed hair, and skirts to their linees; now the fashion has changed, and we have long hair and long skirts, "the new look" as it is called, but in addition to this, the fashion of the world is for women to have painted faces, painted lips, and painted nails. These fashions may in time give place to others. Should Christian women and men be dragged along tied to the world's chariot of fashion? Should they render themselves fashion's willing slaves? The body of the believer is for the Lord, it is not to be defaced and defiled by fashion's vagaries. If women could but realise it, there is abundant charm in a godly womaahood to captivate their husbands, or, if unrnarried, the hearts of all right minded persons. Let women give heed to the adornment ot the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price (1 Peter 3.4).

J Miller | Feb 1950
Jottings