How Dark The Gold Has Become

The processes used to refine gold are many centuries old. The two most common methods of refining gold are refining with flame and the use of chemicals. Some may be surprised to learn that gold does not exist naturally as 100% pure. Gold ore is mined from the earth’s crust, comprising other types of less-desirable alloyed metals, including platinum, palladium, silver, and copper. Refining by fire is the preferable method for larger quantities of gold. In ancient times, this form of refining involved a craftsman sitting next to a hot fire, with temperatures in excess of 1,000 degrees Celsius, with molten gold in a crucible being stirred and skimmed to remove the impurities or dross that rose to the top of the molten metal.

In the second method various chemicals are added to the molten mix to isolate the gold from the other, less desired metals. This process of extensive smelting involving extreme heat, pressure, and several chemicals results in the removal of various impurities from the gold. Gold refining takes an object consisting of any percentage of gold to make a final product that consists of only pure gold. Once the pure gold content is thoroughly separated from the other metals within the alloy, it can be used to serve myriad purposes. Only through gold refining can the actual gold content be measured and appraised to be recycled into a new gold piece. The purer a gold bar is, the more value it holds. The process of refining allows for a higher quality bar to be created.

Sources: Gold traders, Gilded.

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Little Foxes Song of Songs 2:15 - C. H. Spurgeon.

A little thorn can cause much suffering. A small cloud may hide the sun. Tiny foxes spoil the vineyards; and little sins do mischief to the tender heart. These small sins burrow in the soul and fill it with what is hateful to Christ, and thus our comfortable fellowship and communion with Him is spoiled. A great sin cannot destroy a Christian, but a little sin can make him miserable. Jesus will not walk with His people unless they drive out every known sin. He says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” Some Christians rarely enjoy their Saviour’s presence. How is this? Surely it must be an affliction for a tender child to be separated from his father. Are you a child of God, and yet satisfied to live without seeing your Father’s face? What! You are the spouse of Christ, and yet content to be absent from His company! Surely, you have fallen into a sad state, for the pure spouse of Christ mourns like a dove without her mate when he has left her. Here is the question: What has driven Christ from you? He hides His face behind the wall of your sins. That wall may be made up of little pebbles as easily as of great stones. The sea is made of drops; the rocks are made of grains: And the sea that divides you from Christ may be filled with the drops of your little sins; and the rock that almost wrecked the vessel of your life may have been made by the daily working of the coral insects of your little sins. If you would live with Christ and walk with Christ and see Christ and have fellowship with Christ, pay attention to “the little foxes that spoil the vineyard, for our vineyards are in blossom.” Jesus invites you to go with Him against them. He will surely, like Samson, take the foxes at once and easily. Go with Him to the hunting.

Taken from Morning and Evening, written by C. H. Spurgeon

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Jeremiah, The Weeping Prophet

The kingdoms of Judah and Israel had been divided for about 200 years eventually leading to the kingdom of Israel being overrun by the Assyrians and the people led into exile in 721 BC and then to the downfall of the kingdom of Judah and the exile to Babylonia in 587 BC. This was the world into which Jeremiah was born. It is hard to conceive that there was ever a time when The Old Testament could ever have been lost but that is exactly what had happened before Jeremiah’s time. The oral tradition, handed down from generation to generation, had been perverted to the point where there was no clear understanding of what the people of God were to believe or follow.

The division within the nation had not only split the kingdom and the family of David but also led to splits within the priesthood. Such divisions led to many strange practices.

In his lifetime Jeremiah would move through a period of history as catastrophic as the period in time in the first half of the 20th century. He began to prophesy in the last times of a great nation with its temples and priestly orders and kings. He would witness terrible strife and oppression and see the destruction of the nation’s whole life. He would be challenged to help them find meaning in the midst of such turmoil and be challenged in his own life to discover how to truly worship God when all the familiar places had disappeared.

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