Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

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BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
864. It does not require a devil to tempt you. The smallest
thing can tempt. As poor John Bunyan said once, something
kept tempting him to sell Christ. If he stooped to pick up a
pin, the voice said: "Sell Him for that! sell Him for that!"
And men sell their honour for things as cheap. A pin will do it;
a sweet smile ; a fair face ; the ruby wine ; the love of money.
Ah! for what has not a man sold his soul! George Dawson.
865. "A man got up in a meeting to speak. He was a farmer,
an old man. He had become a Christian late in life, and this
evening was telling about his start. He had been a rough, bad
man. He said that when he became a Christian even the cat
knew that some change had taken place. That caught my ear.
It had a genuine ring. It seemed prophetic of the better day
coming for all the lower animal creation. So I listened. He
said that the next morning after the change of purpose he was
going down to the village a little distance from his farm. He
swung along the road, happy in heart, and thinking about the
Saviour. All at once he could feel the fumes coming out of a
saloon ahead. He couldn't see the place yet, but his keen,
trained nose felt it. The odours came out strong, and gripped
him. He said he was frightened, and wondered how he would
get by. He had never gone by before, he said—always gone in
but he couldn't go in now. But what to do, that was the rub.
Then he smiled, and said : T remembered, and I said, "Jesus,
you'll have to come along and help me get by; I never can by
myself."' And then in his simple, illiterate way he said: 'And
He come and we went by, and we've been going by ever since.'
THANKFULNESS
866. Thankfulness has been termed the poor man's payment.
It is a virtue all can possess. Paul tells the Ephesian disciples to
give "thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ to God, even the Father" (Eph. 5:20). He exhorts
the Philippians: "In nothing be anxious; but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be
made known unto God" (Phil. 4:6). To the Thessalonians he
writes : "In everything give thanks : for this is the will of God
in Christ Jesus to you-ward" (1 Thess. 5:18).
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