The Heart of the Lesson By T. C. HORTON
Lesson V II.— February 15, 1914. G olden T e x t— Galatians 6:7. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man someth, that shall he also reap.” It is a trite but true saying, “You can fool all the people sometime and you can fool some of the people all the time,” and to this should be added, “You cannot fool God, at any time.” How heart-searching was this message of the Christ to the Pharisees! How He laid bare their hy pocrisy! They magnified petty things and minified precious things. They were punc tilious about the outside of the platter, but they were careless concerning their souls. The Lord would gladly have overlooked the soil on their hands if there had been no soot on their souls. Their fathers mur dered the prophets. Their sons built sep ulchres for them. Then they put the Lord of glory to death and persecuted His fol lowers. They were as diabolical as some of the opposers of the truth today,, who shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for they neither go in theniselves, neither suffer them that are seeking to enter in. God wants less pious froth and more of practical Christianity. Most any of those Pharisees would have served upon a build ing committee for the erection of a sepul chre but they stoutly resisted the effort of the Holy Spirit to affect a personal house cleaning of dead men’s bones. God pity the teachers who pretend to know the Way of life and have themselves lost the key of knowledge. “Let not him that is.deceived trust .in vanity, for vanity shall be his recompense.” Long prayers, long garments, loud professions of piety, ostentatious giv ing may fool the public for a season, but for all who are guilty of such there re- maineth a woe. God searcheth the heart and trieth the reins of the children of men to give every one according to the fruit of his doings (Jer. 17:9-10'). “God is not mocked.”
Judas found it so, and so did Dives when he lifted up his eyes to torment. God wants men with clean lives, kind hearts and right eous minds, and He will give these to men who surrender to Him. If a man thinketh himself to be something when he is noth ing he deceiveth himself, but he does not deceive God. Lesson V III.— February 22, 1914. G olden T e x t— Luke 12:8. Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son o f man also confess, be fore the angels of God." Here is a call to the real confessional, a call to the open, a call that tests a man as to ;his courage or cowardice. The Lord makes no provision for secret disciples. The condition is simple, “confess me before men.” Christianity is the religion of a per son, it centers in Christ, for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Your confession of Him as Saviour is your confession of yourself as a sinner and this is the stumbling block to many who fail through fear. Always, everywhere, by lip and life we should be bearing testimony to our faith in Him. There are men who are mean enough to want to get to heaven without acknowl edging their Lord, down here, but He makes no provision for secret disciples. The Lord save us from cowardice concerning the Cross! “Why should we fear to own His Cross or blush to speak His name?” It should be a joy to us to confess Christ. This is the soft age, the goody-goody age. It costs so little to be a follower of the Lord now. The Christian life has become so professional there is but little call to courage. There is dpportunity enough left, if believers were but true to their Lord. We can fon- fess Him in the defense of H is Word. We can confess Him in defense of the great doctrines. We can confess Him in the separation from a life of worldliness and also we can deny Him in our failure to defend
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