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[Editorial] Modernize spelling
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acabal committed Feb 6, 2024
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4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions src/epub/text/chapter-1.xhtml
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<p>And, knowing that, He sends His comfort to you, fathers and mothers. The comfort of His promise⁠—As thy days, so shall thy strength be. Just a day at a time, my friend! Do not take fears for next month on your shoulders now. You will get strength given you for today, certain and sure, and when next month comes, the strength and comfort for that day will come too, as certain and as sure. Be not overanxious about the morrow. Leave your tomorrow, and your soldier-son, in God’s hands. You can do nothing more at the best, and this is the best. But it is such a mistake to do anything less. Leave all your tomorrows with God⁠—it is what He wants you to do⁠—and humbly and gratefully take from His hands His gift of Today, and the strength that comes with it. If that be not enough⁠—and it is not enough for God has said more⁠—when that is not enough, still your heart a moment, and listen! And you will hear, beneath that promise for today, like the grand deep tones of an organ, the magnificent diapason of the Father’s constant love and mindfulness⁠—“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” And surely that is enough!</p>
<blockquote epub:type="z3998:verse">
<p>
<span>“So for To-morrow and its needs</span>
<span>“So for Tomorrow and its needs</span>
<br/>
<span class="i1">I do not pray,</span>
<br/>
<span>But keep me, guide me, help me, Lord,</span>
<br/>
<span class="i1">Just for To-Day.”</span>
<span class="i1">Just for Today.”</span>
</p>
</blockquote>
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<p epub:type="title">Now-a-Days</p>
</hgroup>
<blockquote epub:type="epigraph">
<p>“There be many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his master.”</p>
<p>“There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master.”</p>
<cite>1 Samuel 25:10</cite>
</blockquote>
</header>
<p>Nabal, says the Bible, was a churl. When David sent his men to request some provender, in return for services rendered, this ill-mannered sheep-farmer broke out, “Who is David? There be many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his master.” It was a singularly rude and ungracious reply, all things considered. But it is not about Nabal’s truculence I wish to speak. I want you to think about that phrase he used, and the tone in which it was said. “Now-a-days.” The implication, of course, is that servants did not break away from their masters in <em>his</em> young days. Things were different in the times <em>he</em> could remember.</p>
<p>You will recognise this peculiar intonation of “Now-a-days” as something fairly familiar. You hear it yet, quite often. Now-a-days the Church has lost caste. Now-a-days the Bible is a neglected book. Now-a-days faith is on the wane, and most people don’t believe anything at all. There are many such sentences, beginning with the word “now-a-days” and sounding like a chant on a minor key.</p>
<p>This pessimistic philosophy is difficult to fight, for it is unsubstantial, and dissolves like mist whenever you come to close quarters. But there are three queries I have noted in my Bible opposite that “Now-a-days” of Nabal.</p>
<p>And the first is⁠—What about the man himself? Judge his philosophy by his actions. Nabal apparently believed that servants were getting entirely out of hand, and he speaks as if he remembered something very different in his own early days. Very good. What was he doing to maintain the old standards? Nothing, less than nothing. His personal manners and behaviour were such that servants would be very ready to break away on that farm, I should think. Now, what business has Nabal to go whining, in general terms, mark you, about servants now-a-days, when he behaves like a boor to his own? For any declension which he may see about him, he is himself largely responsible.</p>
<p>I think that it is a perfectly fair line of argument, and it disposes of quite a number of pious “inexactitudes.” When I hear a man talking about the lost influence of the Church now-a-days, I am always tempted to inquire what his own relation to it is, whether he is loyally supporting it and working in its interests, for experience has taught me that a very great deal of exaltation of the Church’s past records, at the expense of its position today, comes from men who are themselves doing absolutely nothing to help it on its way. There are exceptions, of course, but, as a rule, it is not the active workers in any worthy cause who are lamenting its failure. The men who think the country is going to the dogs are themselves to be found, for the most part, lolling in the clubs. It is not the pledged and active member of Christ’s kingdom who thinks it is disappearing from the earth. And to those who are fond of the now-a-days type of complaint, I would suggest the inquiry⁠—What about yourself? Are you helping to keep up the old standards as you say you remember them? Or is your influence also tending to set this ball of the earth rolling in the very direction you deplore, namely, down the hill?</p>
<p>The second query on Nabal’s “Now-a-days” is⁠—Can his memory be relied upon? It is an instinct with us all to idealise the past, and gild it in memory with all sorts of romance. We quietly drop all the shadows from the picture as time goes on. Were ever summer days since so long and fine and sunny as they were when we were boys? Never! We are all agreed about that. Yet when we were boys, men who were then grey were using exactly the same words about summer days years before! We are all apt to praise the past just because it is the past, and because it has a way of turning rosy as it recedes. The wise man recognises that, and allows for it. The foolish man begins many sentences with “Now-a-days,” and ends with a shake of the head and a sigh.</p>
<p>But there is something that does not forget nor gild the past with false romance, and that is history. Turn back its pages a hundred years or more; read such a book as <abbr epub:type="z3998:given-name">H. G.</abbr> Graham’s <i epub:type="se:name.publication.book">Social Life in Scotland in the Eighteenth Century</i>; and you will soon discover what a fine word “now-a-days” really is.</p>
<p>As far as humanity and civilisation, brotherly charity, and true religion are concerned, the man who in pessimistic mood contrasts now-a-days with the good old times a hundred years ago, simply does not know what he is talking about. Changes there have been, many and radical, but change is not necessarily a sign either of declension or decay.</p>
<p>Nabal, says the Bible, was a churl. When David sent his men to request some provender, in return for services rendered, this ill-mannered sheep-farmer broke out, “Who is David? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master.” It was a singularly rude and ungracious reply, all things considered. But it is not about Nabal’s truculence I wish to speak. I want you to think about that phrase he used, and the tone in which it was said. “Nowadays.” The implication, of course, is that servants did not break away from their masters in <em>his</em> young days. Things were different in the times <em>he</em> could remember.</p>
<p>You will recognise this peculiar intonation of “Nowadays” as something fairly familiar. You hear it yet, quite often. Nowadays the Church has lost caste. Nowadays the Bible is a neglected book. Nowadays faith is on the wane, and most people don’t believe anything at all. There are many such sentences, beginning with the word “nowadays” and sounding like a chant on a minor key.</p>
<p>This pessimistic philosophy is difficult to fight, for it is unsubstantial, and dissolves like mist whenever you come to close quarters. But there are three queries I have noted in my Bible opposite that “Nowadays” of Nabal.</p>
<p>And the first is⁠—What about the man himself? Judge his philosophy by his actions. Nabal apparently believed that servants were getting entirely out of hand, and he speaks as if he remembered something very different in his own early days. Very good. What was he doing to maintain the old standards? Nothing, less than nothing. His personal manners and behaviour were such that servants would be very ready to break away on that farm, I should think. Now, what business has Nabal to go whining, in general terms, mark you, about servants nowadays, when he behaves like a boor to his own? For any declension which he may see about him, he is himself largely responsible.</p>
<p>I think that it is a perfectly fair line of argument, and it disposes of quite a number of pious “inexactitudes.” When I hear a man talking about the lost influence of the Church nowadays, I am always tempted to inquire what his own relation to it is, whether he is loyally supporting it and working in its interests, for experience has taught me that a very great deal of exaltation of the Church’s past records, at the expense of its position today, comes from men who are themselves doing absolutely nothing to help it on its way. There are exceptions, of course, but, as a rule, it is not the active workers in any worthy cause who are lamenting its failure. The men who think the country is going to the dogs are themselves to be found, for the most part, lolling in the clubs. It is not the pledged and active member of Christ’s kingdom who thinks it is disappearing from the earth. And to those who are fond of the nowadays type of complaint, I would suggest the inquiry⁠—What about yourself? Are you helping to keep up the old standards as you say you remember them? Or is your influence also tending to set this ball of the earth rolling in the very direction you deplore, namely, down the hill?</p>
<p>The second query on Nabal’s “Nowadays” is⁠—Can his memory be relied upon? It is an instinct with us all to idealise the past, and gild it in memory with all sorts of romance. We quietly drop all the shadows from the picture as time goes on. Were ever summer days since so long and fine and sunny as they were when we were boys? Never! We are all agreed about that. Yet when we were boys, men who were then grey were using exactly the same words about summer days years before! We are all apt to praise the past just because it is the past, and because it has a way of turning rosy as it recedes. The wise man recognises that, and allows for it. The foolish man begins many sentences with “Nowadays,” and ends with a shake of the head and a sigh.</p>
<p>But there is something that does not forget nor gild the past with false romance, and that is history. Turn back its pages a hundred years or more; read such a book as <abbr epub:type="z3998:given-name">H. G.</abbr> Graham’s <i epub:type="se:name.publication.book">Social Life in Scotland in the Eighteenth Century</i>; and you will soon discover what a fine word “nowadays” really is.</p>
<p>As far as humanity and civilisation, brotherly charity, and true religion are concerned, the man who in pessimistic mood contrasts nowadays with the good old times a hundred years ago, simply does not know what he is talking about. Changes there have been, many and radical, but change is not necessarily a sign either of declension or decay.</p>
<p>I can partly understand a man without faith in God giving his vote for a general falling off in human progress, but I cannot understand a man who believes in God, and in the presence in the world of a living spirit of Christ, being a pessimist. No one affirms, of course, that we are progressing everywhere, and all the time. Setbacks here and there, there are in human history just as in a successful campaign. But that, on the whole, the world grows better, the Kingdom comes, and earth draws nearer to Heaven, seems to me to be simply a corollary from the fact that God reigns, and has blessed us with knowledge of Himself.</p>
<p>I grant you that the war is a disappointing revelation of how far mankind still has to travel. But, as far as we are concerned, I am not disposed to counsel undue humiliation and self-condemnation on account of it. A people that for the sake of unseen eternal realities like honour and righteousness will make the sacrifices which we are making, can hardly be said to be degenerating, especially when we remember some of the causes for which we have drawn the sword in years and generations gone by. But even though the clock of progress be set back awhile⁠—and that does not seem so likely now as when the war began⁠—it is simply not possible that, in this world of God’s, evil should ultimately vanquish good, that the Spirit of Christ should finally be crushed by the forces that oppose it. That can never be. As soon might the germs of disease which the sun destroys turn round upon it and quench its blessed light.</p>
<p>The third query opposite Nabal’s “Now-a-days” is⁠—Does he truly discern the present time? Does he know “now-a-days” even as well as he knows the past? As a matter of fact, David was not just a servant who had broken away from his master, and if Nabal had only lived a little longer he would have seen how completely he had misread the signs of the times.</p>
<p>That is worth remembering when you are tempted to say, Now-a-days things are out of joint. Maybe you don’t clearly see these very days you are disparaging. When Jesus preached in Nazareth, the village where He had been brought up, the people said, Is not this the Carpenter? and in their anger at His presumption, as they thought it, they wanted to make away with Him. If they had only known!</p>
<p>The third query opposite Nabal’s “Nowadays” is⁠—Does he truly discern the present time? Does he know “nowadays” even as well as he knows the past? As a matter of fact, David was not just a servant who had broken away from his master, and if Nabal had only lived a little longer he would have seen how completely he had misread the signs of the times.</p>
<p>That is worth remembering when you are tempted to say, Nowadays things are out of joint. Maybe you don’t clearly see these very days you are disparaging. When Jesus preached in Nazareth, the village where He had been brought up, the people said, Is not this the Carpenter? and in their anger at His presumption, as they thought it, they wanted to make away with Him. If they had only known!</p>
<p>It is not enough to recognise that we cannot see the future. We cannot even see the present. Think what it would be like if we could see the great men, the prophets, poets, reformers, leaders, who are at this present moment in our nurseries and schools, or if we were able to recognise in the⁠—at present⁠—small shoot of a cause, the great tree into which in God’s providence it is destined to grow!</p>
<p>Now-a-days; now-a-days! What a delusion it is for anybody to think he knows “now-a-days” well enough to call it names! It is not with observation that the Kingdom comes. God rings no bell when He has a new and gracious purpose afoot in the world. And the thing for you and me to do is to rest confidently in the faith that, in His own good way and time, God is redeeming the world to Himself, and to do all that we can to help Him, and to make our little corner of it a brighter and a better place. But do not let us imagine that we can see all that is going on about us. There is far, far more of God and of goodness in the world than we suspect. The woods and hedges look very bleak and bare today.<a href="endnotes.xhtml#note-1" id="noteref-1" epub:type="noteref">1</a> It is a dead and barren aspect that Nature wears now-a-days. Yet <em>even now</em> the sap is mounting quickly in every living stem, and Spring is getting ready while we sleep.</p>
<p>Nowadays; nowadays! What a delusion it is for anybody to think he knows “nowadays” well enough to call it names! It is not with observation that the Kingdom comes. God rings no bell when He has a new and gracious purpose afoot in the world. And the thing for you and me to do is to rest confidently in the faith that, in His own good way and time, God is redeeming the world to Himself, and to do all that we can to help Him, and to make our little corner of it a brighter and a better place. But do not let us imagine that we can see all that is going on about us. There is far, far more of God and of goodness in the world than we suspect. The woods and hedges look very bleak and bare today.<a href="endnotes.xhtml#note-1" id="noteref-1" epub:type="noteref">1</a> It is a dead and barren aspect that Nature wears nowadays. Yet <em>even now</em> the sap is mounting quickly in every living stem, and Spring is getting ready while we sleep.</p>
<p>So, let us have the courage to believe⁠—so is it with every worthy cause of God and man.</p>
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