THE KING’S BUSINESS The Heart of the Lesson By T. C. HORTON
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Lesson III.—October 18, 1914. G olden T e x t : Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. Matt. 26:41. “One shrinks from touching this incom parable picture of unexampled sorrow, for fear lest one’s finger marks should stain it. There is no place here for picturesque de scription which tries to mend the gospel stories by dressing them in today’s fashions, nor fqr theological systematizers and ana lysers of the sort that, would ‘botanize upon their mother’s grave.’ We must put off our shoes, and feel that we stand on holy ground. . “A storm of agitation and bewilderment broke His calm, and forced from His pa tient lips, little wont.to speak of His own emotions or to seek for sympathy the unut terably pathetic cry, ‘My soul is exceeding sorrowful’ —compassed about with sorrow, as the word means—‘even unto death.’ No feeble explanation of these words does jus tice to the abyss of woe into which they let us dimly look. They tell the fact, that, a little more and the body would have sunk under the burden. He knew the limits of human endurance, 'for ‘all things' were made by Him,’ and knowing it, He saw that He had grazed the very edge. Out of the darkness He reaches a hand to feel for the grasp of a friend and piteously asks these -humble lovers to stay beside Him, not that they could help Him to bear the weight, but that their presence had some solace in it. His agony must be endured alone, there fore He bade them tarry there; but He de sired to have them at hand, therefore tie went but ‘a little forward.’ They would not bear it with Him, but they could watch with Him and that poor comfort is all He asks. What lay before Him was not merely death but the death which was to atone for a world’s sins and in which, therefore, the whole weight of sin’s consequences was concentrated. ‘The Lord hath made to meet on Him the iniquities of us all.’ That is the one sufficient explanation of this in
finitely solemn and tender scene. Unless we believe that we shall find it hard to reconcile His agitation in Gethsemane with the perfection of His character as the cap tain of ‘the noble army of martyrs.’ ”Q»A. Maclaren. That Almighty God did not blot out the nation whose chiefs were guilty of such atrocities against His Son is the greatest i proof of His marvelous mercy. Lesson IV.—October 25, 1914. G olden . T e x t : Woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed! S-Matt. 26:24. “And Judas, also, which betrayed him stood with them.” What a sacrilege to in vade the holy place of prayer! Judas knew the place. Often had he sat there as the Master opened the Scriptures He had seen Him there, pouring out His soul to His Fa ther. Now he comes with a band of ene mies to apprehend the Lord. How comes it, that this former follower has become an informer and betrayer? By what process of mind and heart has he become a traitor, to barter away his Lord— coming now to make delivery of the goods —soiling the cheek of the Son of God with his traitorous kiss? Daily he had been un der the benign influence of this loving teacher—had seen Him tested and tried in fiery ordeals, had marked His tender com passion, His sweet sympathy, His wonderful power. He had listened to His prayers, had heard His words of warning and encour agement, and yet, in the midst of it all, his heart had been hardened as had been the heart of Pharaoh in Egypt. Is there not a solemn lesson here? Can men and women and children grow hard and indifferent to the love of Christ, while the Holy Spirit seeks to woo them unto Him ? Is, it possible in the midst of churches, Bibles, Sunday schools and all the holy in fluences thrown around them, that some, al though identified with the Church, holding
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