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Dail$ Devotional Home Readings Connected with International Sunday) School Lessons
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B>> FREDERIC W. FARR, D. D.
He had now begun His public ministry and been attested from heaven as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. What a contrast there is, be tween the delivery of this sermon and the giving of the law in the Old Testa ment! Mt. Sinai was a storm-rent and desolate elevation composed of red granite crags, surrounded by the barren wilderness. ' The law was given amidst thunder, lightning and earthquake, with the sound of the trumpet waxing louder and louder. The people stood afar off and so terrible was the sight that Moses said “I exceedingly fear and quake.” The mount of the beatitudes on the other hand was carpeted with verdure. The song of birds and the perfume of flowers were in the air. The throngs of earnest listeners were grouped around the preacher hanging with rapt attention to the words of grace that flowed like music from His lips. It. seems fitting that this discourse should have been delivered upon a mountain for its lofty teaching towers mountain high above all other truth the world has ever known. The octave of beatitudes reverses all maxims of worldly wisdom and flatly contradicts the opinions that men have cherished and maintained. The first one is a sam ple and is fundamental to all that fol lows. The world says “Blessed are the proud and haughty, the grasping and ambitious, the arrogant and self-suffi cient for theirs are the earthly prizes of daring and success. Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” WEDNESDAY, Sept. 3. Matt. 5:13-30. Light, Law and Love, Christians are the light of the world but they are not self-luminous. They shine by reflected light. Jesus is the true and only light. John the Baptist was a burning and a shining lamp. This is all that any child of God can be. There is but one light that lighteth every man that cofneth into the world. The command “Let your light shine” carries us back to creation’s morning when God said “Lét there be light.” “Let” is found fourteen times in the
MONDAY, Sept. 1. Matt. 13:31-33. The Kingdom of God. The theme of Old Testament proph ecy is the kingdom of God on earth. To this end Israel was chosen as the pro phetic, priestly and kingly nation from whom should come the personal prophet, priest and king. The nation and the man are identified and neither acts without the other. Under the Old Tes tament Israel had the kingdom in its outward form. Under the New Testa ment, the Gentiles have it in its inward form. In the age to come both Jews and Gentiles will have both forms com bined. “The kingdom of the heavens” is a phrase used by Matthew thirty- three 'times and is found in no oiher writer. “The kingdom of God” is used in some places where it is obviously a synonym of the former expression. Paul’s definition in Rom. 14:17 seems to justify the idea that the latter phrase may refer for the most part to the in ward condition and the former to the outward administration. Cf. Dan. 4:26, 35. A kingdom is' a form of govern ment administered by a king. The king dom of God is the rule of God, or a theocracy. This is the ideal government for man and the earth. All other forms of government have been tried and have broken down. Autocracy, the rule of one, oligarchy, the rule, of the few, aristocracy, the rule of the best, plutoc racy, the rule of wealth, .democracy, the rule of the many, all have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. A Christian is always a theocrat who prays “Thy kingdom come,” II Sam. 23.3. Jesus was a king de jure from his birth. He will be a king de facto at His second coming. Luke 1:33. Rev. 11:15. When we crown Him in our hearts, we anticipate His coming coronation. Rev. 19:12-16. TUESDAY, Sept. 3. Matt. 5:1-13. The Laws of the Kingdom. The sermon on the mount may be called the inaugural proclamation of the king. Because it is His first official ut terance, it is introduced by the phrase, “He opened His mouth.” The Messiah’s mouth had been closed for thirty years.
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