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THE KING’S BUSINESS
in all the practices in which we indulge, is there anything in this to “cause one of these little ones to stumble.” If so, beware. Saturday, July 17. Mark 10:1-12. The passage that we here study deals with a question that is a burning question today. What Jesus here says about marriage and divorce needs little explanation, or com ment. It is as plain as day. The marriage relation in God’s sight can properly only be dissolved by death. We learn from other utterances from Christ on this subject that if one party dissolves it by gross infidelity to marriage obligations, the other party is free (Matt. 19:9), but the relation then has not been properly dissolved, but annihilated by sin. The marriage relation is more sa cred than any other relation (vs. 7, 8). It is the type of Christ’s relation to His Church (Eph. 5:22-23). Sunday, July 18. Mark 10:12-16. What Jesus here says about the children should be deeply pondered. Children are given a very prominent place in the Bible, even in the Old Testament (cf. Deut. 6:6, 7; 31:12, 13; Joel 2:16). This preciousness of children in God’s sight is emphasized by the example and teachings of Jesus. The disciples were plying Jesus with questions upon deep problems of ethics and theology, and it seemed to their proud hearts an im pertinent intrusion upon their deliberations to bring in these babes, who could under stand nothing of these things.' They felt as some of us do nowadays when an inter esting theological discussion is interrupted by an infant’s cry in the house of God. Jesus felt very differently about children from these self-sufficient disciples. He was greatly pleased to have them come to Him. There was seemingly no other class to whom Jesus’ heart went out as it did to the chil dren. The disciples were indignant at the: parents for bringing their children, and Jesus was indignant at the disciples for hindering them. And He is just as much “moved with indignation” (R. V.) with
rather that men should be lost than that some other denomination should get into a choice field first. God speed any man who is casting out devils in Jesus’ name. There will be enough devils left to occupy all our time and strength. “He that is not against us is for. us,” Jesus said. At an earlier day (Matt. 12:30) Jesus had said “He that is not with me,is against me,” and to some it seems difficult to reconcile the two utter ances. Renan made a good deal of this ap parent contradiction in his “Life of Jesus,” but the two utterances are in perfect har mony, if we only bear in mind that there is no neutral name, .therefore necessarily the one who “is not with is against,” and “the one who is not against is for.” Fur ther than this, we must remember that these words were spolcen at a time when the op position to Jesus had become so profound, and the danger of adhesion to Him so great, that only one who was out-and-out fo r. Him, would venture to do anything in His name. Nothing really done for the Son of God shall go unrewarded. The doer may be, and may remain* outside the Church; he may do many inconsistent things; he may do but the most insignificant thing for Christ, but that thing shall be most surely rewarded. It does not say that he shall be saved, or gain heaven; he may not, but he will be better off some way for having done this thing. Friday, July 16. Mark 9:42-50. Christ’s own are very dear to Him. To do even a .little thing for them is to be speak His •favor, but to cause even one of His little ones to stumble is. to court an awful doom.. How. solemn the warning of verse 42 is.; for sugh is. the delicacy “of a little rone” ;that it is an exceedingly easy matter to cause them to stumble (See R. V.). Many a professing Christian, many a Sunday school teacher, many a pastor, does it by a discouraging word, by hasty and un- biblical statements of opinion, by unsancti fied personal habits that “these little ones”? readily imitate. We do well Jo inquire in all our intended utterances and actions, and
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