er's. The figure Is not too strong. It is as ludicrous to see one with notorious faults condemning the foible of his neighbor. "The pot calls the kettle black;" when the kettle is polished cop- per with but a speck on it! 3. Officious occulists. (1) No man with a cataract would set up as an oc- ulist, but the faultiest moralists offer us their criticism and help. All are more ready to see flaws in others than in themselves. Our own faults being nearest should be clearest. (2) We should be sparing of our judgments (see Rom. 2:1; Mat. 7:1, 2). Before you use the nippers for your neighbor's splinters, use the clamps on your joist. "First cast out the beam in your own eye." But while you have no patience with the brother who resents your meddling with his mote, you are perhaps very angry if one runs against your beam. (3) What is the matter with us? (a) Selfishness. We are self-centered in conceit; (b) have little sense of sin; (c) no yearning for per- fection; (d) not much of the Saviour's company (Luke 5 : 8 ); (e) do not use the mirror of the Word (Jas. 1 : 2 3 ); (f) make pur brother's mote an ex- cuse for our own beam. IV. TREES AND FRUIT. 1. The original law. That herbs shall yield seed, and trees fruit, after their kind (Gen. 1:11, 12.) It i3 un- changing law what a man sows he reaps (Gal. 6:7, 8), and "to every seed his own body" (1 Cor: 15:38). Who goes for figs to thistles? for grapes to thorns? But men look for happiness through un- righteousness, and heaven hereafter from »owing hell here ..now; sowing after the flesh they hope to reap of the Spirit! So evil men bear evil fruit, and good men good. Tou cannot get something out of nothing, and "in me, that is my flesh, dwelleth no good thing" (Rom. 7:18). What comes out of a man was in him; what is in him will come out. What is that? Read Mark 7:21-23. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean" (Job 14:4). There is but one hope: get an "honest and good h e a r t" (Luke 8 : 1 5 ); a "clean heart" (Psa. 5 1 : 1 0 ); a "new h e a r t" (Eze. 36:26.) If any man be in Christ Jesus there is a "new creature" (2 Cor. 5 : 1 7 ); a new tree with new fruit. V. WORDS AND DEEDS. 1. A reasonable remonstrance. "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say." Forgive us, dear Our brother's beam A mote should seem, Our mote, to us, a beam.
Lord. It is meanness and madness to serve God with the lips while the heart is far from Him (Mk. 7 : 6 ), since He looketh on the heart (1 Sam. 16:17), and all things are naked to Him (Heb. 4:13 J. 2. The way of it. One may say, "Lord God" with his lips, and Lord Devil, with his feet, but it is not the motion of his lips, but of his feet that Foundations. 1 The piers of Brook- lyn bridge are set in 160x80x80 feet of concrete on the primal granite. An excavation 40 feet (?) deep filled with; alternate layers of steel rails and con- crete, supports the Masonic skyscraper in Chicago. The lightest weight in all the world is the human soul, but it re- quires the heaviest foundation. S'hould its house go down in the storms of life its fall would be "gréât," greater than that of "the wreck of matter and the crash of worlds." There is no insurance against such a wreck. Hopeless bank- ruptcy interdicts a reconstruction. 2. Do not build on shifting sand. Such are the speculations of men. Man's religion, philosophy, science, are in a state of flow, a river emptying into a sea of oblivion, but bearing ill founded souls into the common abyss. Man has only conjecture and an eternal house cannot stand on a guess. 3. Build on the Rock. (1) The great Gladstone called the Bible "The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture," Think of that all you little speculators! It is to that "Rock" Jesus points as "These sayings of mine." No house can fall built on the promises and pre- cepts for our practice. We can rely on them for this world and the next, for our earthly shack, and our heav- enly mansion. (2) And there is no other Rock. "Other foundation, can no man lay, than that * * * which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 3:11). On that build your golden character; your . silvern practice; your precious stones of happy hope; (1 Cor. 3 : 1 2 ); they shall stand. decides his destination. VI. ROCK OR SAND.
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JOHN QUESTIONS JESUS:
JESUS
HONORS JOHN Lesson XI. J une 16. Matt. 11:2-19.
I. THE IRREPRESSIBLE WORD. > 1. The bonds as well as the blood of the martyrs are seed of the church (Phil. 1:12, 13.) Satan shut up John. Jesus sent out Twelve. Binding the wit- ness liberated the Word (2 The. 2 : 9 ).
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