"Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar", (Prov. 30:5-6). The purity of God's Word is precious. Consequently, the seriousness of adding to it is exceedingly grave. Both the Old and New Testaments issue warnings against such. Moses warned Israel at Deuteronomy 4:2, saying: "Ye shall not add unto the Word which I commanded you, neither shall you diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you". Again, Jesus warns the churches of Asia Minor in Revelation 22:18-19 with a similar admonition: "If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book, and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of Life, and out of the Holy City …"
    The day of judgment, which shall be precipitated by the second coming of Christ, shall expose the lies of Protestantism and those

    What awful intensity in those words applied to Jesus: "He suffered, being tempted!" Though incapable of sin, there was, in the refined sensibilities of His holy nature, that which made temptation unspeakably fearful. What must it have been to confront the Arch-traitor? to stand face to face with the rival for His throne and universe! But the "prince of this world" came and found "nothing in Him". Billow after billow of Satanic violence spent their fury, in vain, on the Living Rock!
    Each of us must still contend with this same malicious enemy. He assails us in a thousand insidious forms - marvelously adapting his assaults to our circumstances, temperaments, mental bias, and master-passion. There is no place where "Satan's seat" is not; "the whole world lieth in the Wicked one", (I Jn. 5:19). He has his whispers for the ear of childhood; nor is hoary age inaccessible to his wiles. "And this will I give thee" is still his bribe to deny Jesus and to "mind earthly things".

    He will meet us in the crowd; he will follow us to the place of solitude; his is a sleepless vigilance!
    Are YOU bold in repelling him as your Master was? Are YOU ready with the retort to every foul suggestion: "Get thee hence, Satan"? It is important that we cultivate a tender sensitiveness about sin. The finest barometers are the most sensitive. Whatever your besetting frailty, whatever passion within you consciously aspires to the mastery over your life, WATCH IT, crucify it and nail it to the cross of your dear Lord!
    Though you may despise the day of small things, your adversary surely does not. He knows the power of the seemingly insignificant; that, little by little, it will eat out and consume the vigor of the soul. Once the disintegrating movement is permitted to begin within one's spiritual life, it will go from weakness to weakness rather

than "from strength to strength".
    Let us, therefore, make no compromises. Never join in the amusement of the ungodly, or venture upon any questionable path with the argument that "It can do me no harm!" When entering Canaan, the Israelites disobeyed the commandment of the Lord and made a truce with their enemies instead of destroying them. Do you know what was the result of that disobedience? Those whom they spared were "scourges in their sides and thorns in their eyes!" - necessitating many long years of warfare.
    Thus, the importance of keeping our hearts with all diligence, "For out of it are the issues of life", (Prov. 4:23). May this ever be our preservative against temptation: "How would JESUS have acted here?" Would He not have recoiled from the remotest contact with sin? Can we permit ourselves to dishonor Him by flirting with His enemy; incurring from His own lips the bitter reflection of injured love: "I am wounded in the house of my friends"?
    He reveals the secret of our preservation and safety: "Simon! Simon! Satan hath desired to have thee, that he might sift thee as wheat; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not!"
    May such a mind be ours!
    One of the greatest tragedies of life is to combine high mentality with low morality.
    If you take "serve" out of service you have only "ice" left. Many professed Christians need de-frost-ing.

    Paul has urged his brethren at Corinth to forego the full exercise of their liberty in Christ; to be more concerned for mutual edification, thus, strengthening and enriching the fellowship of the body, than for the full enjoyment of all their "rights". They are to consider one another - esteeming others better than themselves - and so conduct themselves as to contribute to the growth of the church toward spiritual perfection.
    It is not to "defend his rights", but to set an example in DECLINING TO EXERCISE all his rights, that Paul raises the series of questions recorded in chapter 9. No one was ever more free, in Christ; yet, few have ever approached such a disciplined exercise of that liberty, as was manifested in him who became "all things unto all men" that he might by all means save some!
    Enroute to Damascus, Paul had met the Living Christ face to face - an experience that had transformed and revolutionized his life. Furthermore, he had been appointed a minister, and sent forth as an apostle, in the service of Him Whom he had previously, in ignorance, despised. The Corinthians were the very "seal" of his apostleship - having, under the influence of his ministry, turned from their

idols to serve the Living and True God.
    There are numerous rights and privileges that Paul might demand and exercise as an apostle of Jesus Christ, but he does not exercise all those rights. His mention of this is in order that he may urge the Corinthians to forego the exercise of some of THEIR liberties - if the exercise thereof would be a cause of stumbling to some weaker brother in Christ.
    Because he was "free indeed", and because there was no one in the church at Corinth who could honestly question his apostleship, he could urge them to follow his example, in this, as he had followed that of the Christ, (Phil. 2:5-11).


who have promulgated them. Those who have added to the Word of God shall be rebuked and punished as "liars", as well as those who have taken away from it. Such are spiritual liars; they shall receive a portion of the wrath of God and shall never be allowed to enter the Holy City (Rev. 22:15). My brethren, how very serious is this matter of being truthful with the Word of God. May God give His people the grace to uphold the truth and the wisdom to recognize error!
    A smile is a gently curved line that sets a lot of things straight.
    Being told things for our own good seldom does us any.

Why didn't I sing more when they
  were all small
And sharp little ears were listen-
  ing to all?
What matter if singing would make
  teardrops start,
As a message in song penetrated
  my heart?
Why was I reluctant that they see
  my tears?
How foolish - how foolish were
  those petty fears!
So I hurried and rushed my way thru
  the days,
And seldom they heard my voice
  lifted in praise.

Why was it so hard to let them see
  me cry --
But not so important if I chanced
  to sigh?

Or crossly would answer some child-
  ish request
And failed, as a Mother, to give
  them my best?
My own precious Mother would work
  and would sing,
And still in my mem'ry, I hear
  those songs ring.
How sweet to remember, as if 'twere
  today --
My Mother and Dad sing "I'm Going
  That Way".

But I'd try to sing and the tear-
  drops would start,
And I was ashamed to reveal all
  my heart
To my precious children with
  listening ears --
Opportunities pass along with the
  years,
For the years have gone by -- the
  children are grown --
And some of them have little ones
  of their own;
Now sometimes I weep as I ponder
  this thing --
When they were all with us - Why
  didn't I sing?


When as a child, I laughed and wept
  Time CREPT;
When as a youth, I dreamed and
    talked,
  Time WALKED;
When I became a full grown man,
  Time RAN;
When older still I daily grew,
  Time FLEW;
Soon I shall find, in travelling on
  Time GONE!