The Heart of the Lesson By T. C. HORTON
Holy Spirit in every breath of His influ ence within the Church, is one—it is the salvation of the lost—to gather them to the “great wedding feast” ? Does this purpose possess us, direct us, and control our whole life? If not, we should question the reality of our profession as disciples of Christ. Let us meditate on the love of Christ—the love that exceeds all martyrdoms, and all mysteries, and all marvels of the love of mothers, brothers and lovers. There never was a love like it. It, is not earth-born. It is from heaven. It is love unto death; love actually Divine. From everlasting to everlasting He is God, and from everlasting to everlasting He is love. Many waters cannot quench it, floods of iniquity cannot drown it. The love of Jesus spoke in His words, is shown in His actions, it was manifest in His tears, in His bloody sweat in the garden, and finally it fell drop by drop in His own blood from the Cross. May we be filled with this love, and go forth in the power of it, extending the Gos pel invitation to “as many as we find” and bid them to the “ Great Wedding Feast.” LESSON IX.—August 30, 1914 Golden Text,—Matt. 22:21 “Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesars; and unto God the things that are God’s.” Our Divine Lord was more than a match for the cunning and subtle Pharisees, Scribes and Saducees. No matter how suddenly they sprung their sophistical ques tions He invariably answered them in such a way as to close their mouths effectually. How true the saying of John 2:24, 25: “ But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and need ed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man.” And how blessed to know that the Father who gave His Spirit without measure to His Son, “gives us in measure suited to our capac ity the Holy Spirit so that we may be
LESSON VIII.—August 23, 1914. Golden Text,—Luke 13:34 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gath- ereth her own brood under her wings, and ye would not!” In this lesson we have our Lord's testi mony in parabolic form, as to His rejection by His own people the Jews. “ He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11). “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief : and we hid as it were our faces from Him ; He was de spised, and we esteemed Him not” (Isa. S3:3). There are two principal points in the lesson. The first is, the infinite compassion of Christ, as revealed in the golden text: the second is, the urgency manifest in the command to his servants to go forth and gather the “ whosoevers” into the wedding feast. The Dispensational Key unlocks this mystery of the “ Kingdom of Heaven.” Paul, in the 9th, 10th and 11th chapters of Ro mans furnishes the Holy Spirit’s own in spired commentary on this parable. How wondrously the love and compas sion of Christ is shown forth in the lesson before us. He commissions His disciples to bring in “ the good and the bad.” All through the Gospels we find His love man ifested in greatest tenderness for the weary and heavy-laden (Matt. 11:28-30) ; the weak in faith (Matt. 12:20); the tempted (Heb. 2 :1 8 ); the afflicted (Luke 7:13; John 11: 33, 35) ; the diseased (Matt. 14:14; Mark 1 :41) ; the poor (Mark 8:2) ; lost and per ishing sinners (Matt. 9:36; Luke 19:10; John 3 :16). Is it not true that the purpose of God in giving His Son; the purpose of Jesus Christ our Saviour in all His life and death and resurrection; the purpose of the
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