APPENDIX: GIVING; IMMORTALITY; ISRAEL ｜ 附录：奉献・不朽・以色列

ENGIVING. [Both the tithe and the freewill offering are binding as long as man endures; neither, in any sense, derives its obligation from the Mosaic law. Both are moral duties; and all moral duties have their origin in our moral nature—law defines, but does not create them. Thomas Kane.] [Principle and impulse. Giving should be systematic, and from principle. Impulse is a shaving fire: the door of the heart, creaking on rusty hinges, may open to a sudden and eloquent appeal, only to be bolted the closer when the spasm is over. Zigzag, haphazard giving begets no habit and confers no strength. God gives from principle: His daily and yearly mercies come round in their season. H. Easton.]

BSB2 Corinthians 9:7 Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.

中奉献。〔十分之一与甘心祭这两样，只要人还存在一日，就一日有约束力；而无论从哪个意义上说，二者的约束力都不是从摩西律法而来。二者都是道德本分；而一切道德本分都源于我们的道德本性——律法只是把它们界定出来，并不创造它们。凯恩（Thomas Kane）〕〔原则与冲动。奉献应当有章法，出于原则。冲动不过是刨花火：心门在生锈的合页上吱呀作响，也许会因一次突如其来、动人心弦的呼吁而开启，却在那阵痉挛过去之后关得更紧、闩得更牢。忽东忽西、随兴所至的给予，养不成习惯，也不能使人得力。神施予是出于原则的：他每日每年的怜悯，都按其时节循环而来。伊斯顿（H. Easton）〕

ENIMMORTALITY. [Our friends who pass over do not return to tell us of their new homes and conditions. When the veil drops between us and the fading eyes, it is never lifted; the hushed voice is heard no more. If we inquire of nature, she makes no answer: the material universe is as silent as the dead. And yet all about us we see the handiwork of a Creator; and the more we look into nature, the more we become convinced of His presence and of His infinite ingenuity and power. But there is no inkling given anywhere in regard to our own future, nor whether we are to have any future. Why should not this Creator answer our anxious questionings? There is but one unanswered question; but that one is more absorbing than all other questionings put together: "If a man die, shall he live again?" What we should so reasonably expect—and without which, to us, all the beauty and riches of the universe are but a vain and fleeting show—is answered: Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light. W. C. Gray.]

BSB2 Timothy 1:10 And now He has revealed this grace through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the gospel,

中不朽。〔我们那些先走过去的亲友，并不回来告诉我们他们新的居所与光景。当幔子在我们与那双渐渐黯淡的眼睛之间落下，它就再也不曾被揭起；那止息了的声音，再也听不见了。我们若去问自然，她并不作答：物质的宇宙静默如同死人。然而在我们四围，处处可见一位创造者的手工；我们越往自然里看，就越确信他的同在、他无限的巧思与能力。但关于我们自己的将来，关于我们究竟有没有将来，却处处得不到一点风声。这位创造者为什么不回答我们焦切的追问呢？未得解答的问题只有一个；但这一个比其余一切追问加起来更牵动人心：『人若死了，岂能再活呢？』那件我们如此合理地期待着的事——若没有它，宇宙的一切美丽与丰富对我们不过是一场虚空易逝的戏——已经有了答案：耶稣基督把生命与不朽彰显出来了。格雷（W. C. Gray）〕

ENISRAEL, THE JEWISH PEOPLE. [Of all the peoples that have risen or fallen, the Israelite alone passes through each vicissitude the same; and whether upon the throne of dominion or an exile without country or flag, he preserves his identity unimpaired. He remains the marvel of history, the witness of revelation. Our modern critics tell us that "Abraham never lived"—but the Jew lives; account for him. They tell us that "Moses never wrote"—but the Jewish literature exists; account for it. For eighteen centuries he has had no country, no scepter, no home; and yet behind every throne in Europe he stands, a figure silent, immobile, supreme. He is girded with no sword, yet his word makes war or establishes peace. In philosophy he has given us Spinoza; in music, Mendelssohn; in statesmanship, Disraeli. When the Christian Church had misread its own annals, Neander, a Jewish proselyte, rewrote the story of the growing kingdom; when Christian scholars had groped darkly after the facts of Eastern life in the Messiah's day, Edersheim, son of a converted Jew, gave to the world an incomparable Life of Jesus. Yet with all these wonderful qualities he still remains, in each land, an exile; in every place, an alien. All this strangely contradictory life is foretold in the Bible: whenever that word was written, and by whomsoever it was penned, it foretells this imperishable, this invincible, this unsatisfied life; it foretells at once his pre-eminence and his captivity. He is at once "chosen" and "rejected": without a throne, or a temple, or a home, he rules and worships and dwells. He is a living witness to the truth of the sacred Scriptures, to the inspiration of the prophets, and to the purposes yet to be wrought out; and no one can study the facts of his past and present without new confidence in the Word of God, and gratitude for the assurance of St. Paul that in the fullness of time Israel shall be brought in.]

BSBRomans 11:25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

中以色列，犹太民族。〔在一切兴起或衰亡过的民族之中，惟独以色列人历尽每一次变迁而依然故我；无论是坐在统治的宝座上，还是作无国无旗的流亡者，他都把自己的身分保全得毫发无损。他始终是历史的奇迹，是启示的见证。我们的现代批判学者告诉我们『亚伯拉罕从未存在过』——可是犹太人活着；请你解释他。他们告诉我们『摩西从未写过什么』——可是犹太文献存在着；请你解释它。十八个世纪以来，他没有国土，没有权杖，没有家园；然而在欧洲每一个王座背后，他都站在那里，一个沉默、不动、至高的身影。他腰间没有佩剑，他的一句话却能挑起战争或缔造和平。在哲学上，他给了我们斯宾诺莎；在音乐上，门德尔松；在治国之术上，迪斯累里。当基督教会把自己的史册读错了的时候，是犹太归信者尼安德（Neander）重写了那不断生长之国度的历史；当基督徒学者还在黑暗中摸索弥赛亚时代东方生活的实况时，是一位归信犹太人之子爱德闪（Edersheim），把一部无可比拟的《耶稣传》交给了世界。然而他虽有这一切非凡的品质，在每一片土地上仍旧是流亡者，在每一个地方仍旧是外人。这一整段离奇矛盾的历程，圣经早已预告：无论那话语是何时写下的、出自谁的笔，它都预告了这不可磨灭、不可征服、却又不得满足的历程；它同时预告了他的卓越与他的被掳。他既是『蒙拣选的』，又是『被丢弃的』：没有王座、没有圣殿、没有家园，他却治理着、敬拜着、居住着。他是一个活的见证——见证圣经的真实、众先知的默示，以及那些尚待成就的旨意；凡研究他过去与现今之事实的人，无不因此对神的话生出新的信心，并为保罗那句保证而感恩：到了日期满足的时候，以色列全家都要得救。〕