Mark 4:21 And he said to them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? It might seem a superfluous thing to urge the communication of gospel hopes and comforts, but there is none more needed. For one person who puts the candle on a candlestick, there are twenty that put it under a bushel — a dull wooden measure that keeps in all the light. There are many sorts of bushels. 1. One very bad one, and much employed to cover the light, is modesty (falsely so called). Modesty pretends to be not good enough or wise enough to speak, and turns the soul into a dark lantern. 2. Selfishness is another bushel for the light; forbidding men to take the trouble to shed it. 3. Indolence. 4. Fearfulness. 5. Despair of people heeding. 6. A narrow doctrine of salvation. 7. Sometimes a little scientific knowledge, creating conceit, makes a bushel; men being so anxious to mix the earthly with the heavenly light that the grave, sweet light of godly knowledge cannot get though the mistiness of the earthly mixture. (R. Glover.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? |
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