W.B. Crumpton and Associates
January 25
RELIGION AND SOCIAL LIFE.-Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith
unto him, Go home to your friends, and tell them how great things the
Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. Mark 5: 19
And thy neighbor as thyself. Luke 10: 27.
Love not the world neither the things of the world. If any man love
the world, the love of the father is not in him. 1 John 2: 15.
MEDITATION.-If we take out of our life that part of it which is
peculiar to ourselves, that part which is covered by our political and
civil relations, and that part which constitutes the extended and
varied field of the professional, commercial, and industrial, what is
left is, roughly speaking, our social life. This includes the home
circle, the parlor, the dining room, the neighborhood, and the
pleasure hall or place of entertainment. Here are innumerable
relations, interests and activities that must be covered by religion
or religion is practically nothing. Isolation from society is not a
divine ideal. Hermitage and the cloister indulged in too far become
unchristian, even anti-christian. We must live our life, if we expect
it to be healthy, in the midst of the breathing, moving world, as
Jesus did; the city on the hill whose light cannot be hid, the lamp on
the lampstand filling the room with radiance. The enervating
influences of society, if society be wrongly tasted, soon show
themselves on the spiritual life: and with us it is peculiarly in the
social world that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
SUGGESTION FOR PRAYER-O God our Father, who hast measured to us so
varied a life on earth, help us to acknowledge thee in all relations.
May our contact with the social world about us be ever within the
sanctions of religion. May both our pleasure and our influence in the
same be directed by the Spirit. In Jesus' name.
HYMN.-- Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee;
Naked, poor, despised, forsaken,
Thou, from hence, my all shalt be.
SCRIPTURE READING.-1 Peter 2: 3-12.
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These daily devotions come from an old book by Rev. Washington Bryan
Crumpton, 1842-1926. The book is called DAILY DEVOTION and was first
published in 1923 by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist
Convention.
This book is now extremely rare. These daily meditations are copied
exactly from a precious copy the Lord led me to. There is but one copy
now known to be available in an in depth search of the Internet,
although Rev. Crumpton wrote other books, one of which, ADVENTURES OF
TWO ALABAMA BOYS, can still be obtained for hundreds of dollars, or
can be downloaded free from the internet.
More information on W.B. Crumpton, including a picture of himself and
his brother, can be found at this URL:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/crumpton/illustr2.html
A search of google.com will also glean tidbits about the role of Rev.
Crumpton in the history of the Southern Baptist church.
May you find as much joy, comfort, and love in these old fashioned
devotions as I have. God bless you all.
Love,
Anonymous.
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