“The natural man cannot but conclude that there is a God, but his conception of His nature is never a very exalted one. Even during Old Testament times, and not infrequently during the New Covenant, the ideas of God’s own children, with respect to His nature and disposition, were often rather dark and forbidding; they regarded Him as a stern, ruthless, relentless taskmaster. Jesus’ revelation of God was far other than this. He showed God to be a Father, approachable, merciful, loving, forgiving iniquities and sins. We can never afford to lose this conception of God. But, as is so frequently the case with weak, vacillating human nature, many have gone to the other extreme. They conceive God to be a being whose love excludes all other attributes, one whose love has so weakened His character that, though He may feebly demand righteousness, He will not punish even where His requirements are disregarded.”
“The manuscript therefore that the Holy Spirit has given us is the Book which I hold in my hand, the writings of old, the Holy Scriptures, to which the apostle refers when he says, Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me.”
“What is it we owe our fellowman? We owe it to him to let him make a decent living, to let him have the opportunity for cultivating his mind and inner life, the enjoyment of his rights. We owe him the financial help necessary to bridge over a season of enforced inactivity. But this is not all, it is the least that is required of us. The Divine requirement is, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor.’ The fundamental requirement in the religious and ethical system of Jesus Christ is love. And love is more than money or a dole of bread. Human life originated and originates in love. Love holds together the basal human institution, the family. It recreates, gives new visions and new impulses to, the individual human life. It is the principle which leavens and transforms all human relations. It is the active principle of all heavenly conduct on the part of God and the holy angels.”
Those times in which the great Physician walked visibly among men and healed all manner of disease are long since past, and the gates of heaven have opened and let the King of glory in. How is it with us? It seems to so many as if the great Physician were now afar off, away from this earth where we labor and suffer, and inaccessible to our burdened souls. It is not so, my brethren, it is not so. He is here. He has not forsaken His people. He will not leave us. He is here now, ready to heal. For He has told us, “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.” John 14:18. Before He ascended into heaven He said to His disciples:
“These last commandments deal with the root and source of all sin; namely, the evil desires of the heart. It is true that, in the explanation of all the commandments, we bring out the fact that they are broken first of all in the heart, and that they are kept aright only when kept in and from the heart, and that in their scope they are all-inclusive. The Fifth Commandment, for instance, does not only forbid murder, but also anger, malice, and every kind of malevolent affection. This is Scriptural, though it is not expressed in so many words in the commandments themselves. Luther correctly introduces this in his explanations, but he gets it from other Scripture teaching and from the central thought of the Ninth and Tenth Commandments.”
Charles A. Stork came of a line of preachers. His grandfather, Carl August Gottlieb Storch, had been sent from Germany in the year 1788, as a missionary to the Lutheran Church in North Carolina, where he labored faithfully until his death in 1831. He bequeathed his calling and his devotion to the ministry, together with his name Gottlieb (anglice Theophilus) to his youngest son, Theophilus Stork, who in his turn handed them down to his own eldest son, named after his grandfather, Charles Augustus Stork.
“The tendency to gossip in some people becomes a passion. Their tongues simply run away with them. It must wag, though it be without either rhyme or reason; and regardless of consequences. Sometimes there is no conscious desire to do any one an injury. But even where there is no evil intent harm is nevertheless often done. The idle talker usually loses the power of perspective so far as truth and untruth are concerned. While there may be a thread of truth in the fabric which comes from his loom, it often becomes lost or obscured in the elaborate design he fashions. He is apt to set forth facts in disjointed relations, to take no account of circumstances, to assume motives or disregard them, to suit the color scheme of the narrative, as his fancy or purpose may suggest. The result is that the hearer usually gets a distorted image of the matter reported.”
“The more we knew Mr. Eyster, the more we loved him.” Table of Contents Michael Eyster. Early Days and Coming To Faith Academic Studies Greencastle and the Loss of His Wife Health Issues Mr. Eyster’s Character Fearlessness Scholarship Minister Publication Information Michael Eyster. More than twenty years have passed away since we first met with the subject of our present sketch, and from the very beginning of our acquaintance, we entertained for him the warmest regard, which more intimate relations only strengthened, and the changes of time never diminished. Seldom have we encountered a stranger, to whom we so quickly became attached, and felt more free in giving our most unreserved confidence. The attachment was reciprocated, the confidence was not misplaced.
“The boneless tongue, so small and weak, Can crush and kill,” declared the Greek. “The tongue destroys a greater horde,” The Turk asserts, “than does the sword.” The Persian proverb wisely saith, “A lengthy tongue, — an early death;” Or sometimes takes this form instead: “Don’t let your tongue cut off your head.” “The tongue can speak a word whose speed,” Says the Chinese, “Outstrips the steed.” While Arab sage doth this impart: “The tongue’s great store-house is the heart.” From Hebrew hath the maxim sprung — “Though feet should slip, ne’er let the tongue.” The sacred writer crowns the whole: “Who keeps his tongue doth keep his soul.”
As a pastor he was faithful and zealous. His whole time seemed consecrated to the spiritual improvement of his people. During the thirty-two years of his ministry, it is supposed he preached upwards of eight thousand sermons, baptized five thousand persons, and received into the church, by the rite of confirmation, more than two thousand.
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