THE KING’S BUSINESS
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O f the wicked dead, the Word declares their conscious existence in hell (Isa. 14:9; Acts 1:25). How essential it is that those who preach the Gospel should realize these facts, and lovingly warn the wicked of the miseries of hell as well as of the delights of heaven. LESSON X.—September 6, 1914. Golden Text,—Luke 10::27 “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” Every human being born into this world since the fall of Adam, has failed in keep ing this commandment, save One, the One of whom the Father declared, “ Thou art My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). And yet this com mand is obligatory upon all. Absolute ober dience to all the commands of God is de manded. But the knowledge of this on the part of the sinner only involves him in perplexity and distress, for there is that within him that precludes him from loving God with all his being. What is he to do under the circumstances ? • There is only one method, and that is by the impartation of the love of Christ, or “birth from above“ (John 3:7 ). When this takes place he is then enabled to walk in obedience to the Great Commandment. Have any of us ever grasped what it cost the «Lord Jesus to secure for us the power to love God supremely? It is well to meditate upon this. Let us think of the Cross; of His bearing our sins there; of His going down into death as our Substitute under the righteous judgment of God; of His cry, “ My G od ! My G od! Why hast thou forsaken me?” pressed from His heart by the hiding of the Father’s face, who could not look upon His Son “made sin” ; of how He hung there suspended between heaven and earth, seemingly forsaken by both; all dark above; His Father turned away; the very heavens hung with sack cloth ; all dark below; the mob, made up
able to meet and defeat the Adversary, no matter in what guise he may appear. In His instructions to His disciples, in Mat thew 10:19, 20, He says: “But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.’’ It has been said that this applies solely to martyrs; but may it not apply to all saints who have the “Word of God indwelling in them richly?” In all ages, men who are filled with the Holy Spirit were always ready to “give a reason for the hope that is in them.” Witness Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms,'where he confounded his adversaries, and came off more than victor over the enemies of the Cross of Christ. The least of God’s saints may possess this gift, and as Bishop Horsley says in the preface to Bagster’s Bible: “ It is incredible to any one who has not made the experiment, what a pro ficiency may be made in that knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation, by study ing the Scriptures with reference to the parallel passages without any other com mentary or exposition, than what the dif ferent parts of the Sacred Volume mutually furnish for each other. Let the most il literate Christian study them in this man ner . . . and the whole compass of abstruse philosophy and recondite history shall fur nish no argument with which the perverse will of man shall be able to shake this learned Christian’s faith.” The main thought in the second section of this lesson' in which Christ silenced the Saducees is, that “ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Here is an antidote to the Christ-dishonoring doctrines of soul-sleeping. The annihilation of the wicked and the “unconscious state of the dead” are current heresies in many quar ters. But the Word of God is very clear as to the fact that the souls of both be liever and unbeliever are- conscious after death. In the case of the believer, he en ters upon rest (Job 3 :17; 2 Thess. 1 :7) ; comfort (Luke 16:25); he is. in the very presence of Christ (2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1 :23).
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