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THE KING’S BUSINESS
absence the church is a “widow” and should “cry day and night” unto God and God will avenge her speedily. -The great lesson of the passage is that “men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” This is a much needed lesson. W e ask for a thing once or twice and if we do not get it then we conclude “ it is not God’s will,” and we stop praying and call this submission to God’s will, when in reality it is spiritual laziness. Oh! if Christians would only study this parable and lay its central truth to heart. More people have missed the blessing in prayer because they do not pray through, than from almost any other cause. Even “ the unjust judge” at last yielded to the importunity o f the widow, how ttiuch more shall a God who delights to answer prayer yield' to ours. God would gladly give us at the first asking were it not that He wishes to develop our persistence and faith by withholding until we have asked again and again. But though God is doing so much more to develop our faith, yet the whole parable closes with the suggestion that when the Son o f Man comes faith will be a thing difficult to find on this earth. Friday, February 4 . Luke 18 : 9 - 14 . One o f the two men o f this parable, the Pharisee, was the man who was univer sally most esteemed; the publican on the other hand was the man whom everybody despised. And yet the publican was the man whom God heard, and the Pharisee was the man to whom God turned a deaf ear. The Pharisee’s prayer was wholly taken up -with extolling his own virtues. It is evident- he had little real thought o f God. He was occupied chiefly with two things, his own excellencies and the delin quencies o f “the rest o f men.” The Phari see, in his own estimation, stood in a class by himself (v. 11, R. V .). There was no confession o f sin anywhere in his prayer, and no real thanksgiving. What he tried to pass off as thanksgiving was really a laudation o f himself. On the other hand, the publican was taken up with God’s holi ness and mercy and his own sin.J' While
the Pharisee regarded himself as the one righteous man and the “ rest o f men” sin ners, the publican regarded himself as the one sinner (see v. 13, R. V. Marg.). The Pharisee was moral, religious, orthodox, a generous giver, but nevertheless he went out o f the temple unsaved.; The publican had been irreligious, a great offender, sac rificing everything for money, despised by others and by himself, nevertheless he went home “justified.” Why? He had taken his right_ place before God, the sinner’s place. Any man who takes his place before God- as a sinner will find pardon, no mat ter how bad he has been, but no man who claims the place o f a righteous man will The disciples were displeased that the time o f the great Teacher should be taken up with such insignificant, beings as chil dren. They had the same thought o f chil dren and their unimportance that many hold today. Blit while the disciples were displeased with those who brought infants to Jesus, Jesus was displeased with His disciples (cf. Mark 10:14). The disciples rebuked those who brought the children, but Jesus rebuked the disciples. Over and over again does our Lord’s love for chil dren come out in the brief story that we have o f His life. Any one who does not love children is not Christlike. Our Lord’s words do not teach us that all children are by nature in the kingdom, but that "of such is the Kingdom o f God,” i. e., that children have the spirit o f humility and teachableness that fits them to enter the kingdom (cf. John 3:6 ), W e should be careful then to lead them into the king dom when they are at that early age when entrance is so easy and natural. The con ditions o f entering the kingdom mentioned elsewhere should be carefully studied in connection with this passage (cf. John 10:9; 3:3, 5 ; Matt. 5:20; 7:21; Acts 14:22; Heb. 3:18, 19; 4:1-3; 2 Peter 1:5-11). Humility and teachableness, so character istic o f children, as distinguished from self- confidence in our own wisdom and suffi- be justified before God. Saturday, February 5. Luke 18 : 15 - 17 .
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