January 1927
39
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
bread'made of? Flour. But what is flour made of? Wheat. Who sowed the wheat? Who took care of the ground? Who cut the wheat? Who took it to the mill? Who -ground it? Who sold the flour ? .Who made the bread? More people than you can count helped to make this piece of bread. All had to do some part, or we would have no bread, and then what would we do ? Suppose the farmer should say, “I’ll only raise enough wheat for myself,” and the miller should only grind enough for himself, what would we do? We have to lean on one another, to get along. If one should say, “I don’t like this work, I will not: do my part,” it would be bad for the rest. We all belong together in this world. God has made us so.. (Primary Teacher.) Lesson S tory : A few days ago a little girl came running up to me. She was so happy she could hardly talk. Her little heart was bubbling over with joy and praise, She told me her mother had just received a letter saying the little girl’s grandmother was coming to make them a visit. She was so happy she could not keep still about it. (Review, emphasizing the need of joy and praise in our lives, and how it glorifies God.) We are all very fond of bread and need it every day, and we need each other too. Bread makes our bodies grow and makes them strong. We. do not want to do any thing that will hurt our bodies God has given to us, and we must not do anything that would harm some one else. Would mother feed you anything which would make you sick, or do anything to injure you? No, indeed! Mother loves you and she would protect you in every way pos sible! Our story tells us we must love our neighbor, as ourselves. If we do that we will help them all we can. Did you know that when we do things that harm this body, we grieve the Lord Jesus very much? There are so many things we can do that would injure us. We can eat things that are harmful. Alcohol and tobacco are very harmful. It is wicked and danger ous to take poison into the good body God has given us. “God gave me this good body To grow both strong and tall. Tobacco helps to spoil it, And so does alcohol. Into my mouth they shall not go, When tempted, I will answer, ‘NO.’” Let us say that “no” as if we meant it. Who do we need to always help us to say no when Satan tries to get us to do wrong? The Lord Jesus living in our hearts. When people sell liquor and to bacco, they are helping to harm others, and spoil the bodies of others. Our story tells us we should help one another by love. If Jesus is living in our hearts, we will love each other and we would not want to do some thing to hurt another. It also tells the awful things people will do, if God’s Holy Spirit is not guiding our lives. The heart will be full of hatred, strife and even murder. But if His Spirit is our Guide, the life will bear love, joy and peace. (Closing Prayer.)
extends its empire o v e r the material world. The struggle must come to a definite issue. Human character t e n d s every day tó a more determinate form; and an hour comes in each case when the victory of flesh or Spirit is irrevocably fixed, when the filthy will henceforth “be filthy still” (Rev. 22:11). Paul has shown (v.17) that the Holy Spirit is the special antagonist of the flesh in the believer. If we yield ourselves to His influence, we shall be no longer under the law. This identification of sin and the law was established in Ch. 2 :16-18, 3:10-22. To be under law was, in Paul’s view (1 Cor. 15:26), to be held con sciously in the grasp of sin. This . was the condition to which legalism would re duce the Galatians. From this , calamity the Spirit would keep them free. We see then that deliverance from sin belongs not to the subject of the law, but to the freedom of the Spirit. This deliverance promised in v. 16 is declared in v. 24, as an accomplished fact: “Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” . . . . . They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions. The tyranny of the fleshes ended for those who áre “in Christ Jesus.” Hjs cross has slain their sins. The en trance of His Spirit imports the final death of carnal affections. The tree will now be known by its fruits (vs. 22-23). Such was the criterion of religious profession laid down by the Founder of Christianity. To Paul, also,, ethics are the fruit of dogmatic faith. What other system of belief has produced a like result, or has formed in men’s minds ideas of duty so reasonable and gracious, so just, so balanced, and per fect, and above all so practicable, as those incalculated in the Apostle’s teaching? “Men do not 'gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles.” Lives of thi|‘”kind aré not the product of imposture or de lusion. The “works" of systems of error are manifest in the moral wrecks they leave behind them, strewing the track of history. But the virtues here enumerated are the “fruits" which the Spirit has brought forth, and brings forth at this day more abundantly than ever. As a representation of what is best in conduct, Christian teaching h a s h e l d through the centuries an unrivaled place. Christ and His apostles are still the mas ter of morality. Making every deduction for unfaithful Christians who dishonor the worthy name they profess, the “fruit of the Spirit,” gathered during nineteen centuries, is a glorious witness to the virtue of the tree of life from which it grew.
before he knows it, he has plunged over a precipice. The trouble with a little sin is, like the tiny bit of knife blade, it turns the life into a channel that leads to more sin and finally to wreckage.
Selected from R ev . G. G. F indlay , B. A.
Love, the Apostle has declared, fulfils, all laws in one. It casts out evil from the heart; it stays the injurious hand and tongues; it m a k e s it impossible for
“liberty”, to give the rein to any wanton impulse. It is a di- ’.vine1'’inspiration. It is the characteristic “fruit of the Spirit” (v. 22) implanted and nourished from above. “When I bid you
. ' by love serve one another,” the Apostle says, “I do not expect you to keep this law of.yourselves by force of native goodness: I know how contrary it is to your Galatic nature; but I say, Walk in the Spirit and this will be an easy yoke; to fulfil the desire of the flesh will -then be for you a thing impossible.” This conception of the indwelling Spirit as the actuating power of the Christian’s moral life predominates in the rest of this chapter. In a word, Christ’s Spirit is the absolute antagonist and the sure vanquisher of our sinful human flesh. “I say, Walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” On what ground does this bold assur ance rest? The Spirit and the flesh are opposites (v. 17). Each is bent on de stroying the ascendency of the other. Their cravings and tendencies stand op posed at every point. Where the former rules, the latter m u s t succumb. “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the desire of the Spirit against the flesh.” All history is a battlefield for the struggle between God’s Spirit and man’s rebellious flesh. In the soul of a half sanctified Christian, a n d in churches whose members “are yet carnal and walk as men,” the conflict is patent. The Spirit has established His rule in the heart, but His supremacy is challenged by the in surrection of the carnal powers. Every lust, every act or thought of evil is directed, knowingly or unknow ingly, against the authority of the Holy Spirit, against the rights of God. Nor is there .any restraint upon evil, any in fluence counteracting it in man or nation or race, which does not proceed from the Spirit of the Lord. The spirit of man has never been without this divine inter ference. “God h a t h not left Himself without a witness” to any. The Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of all truth and holi ness. In the “truth as it is in Jesus,” He possessess His highest instrument. Flesh, in the apostles’ vocabulary fol lows the term spirit, and deepens and en larges its meaning precisely as the latter does. Where Spirit denotes the super sensible in man, flesh is the sensible, the bodily nature as such. Where the Spirit rises into the supernatural, flesh becomes the natural, the human by consequence. It is identical with sin. Sin has incor porated itself with our organic life and
THE LITTLE FOLKS B y M abel L. M errill Serving One Another by Love Gal. 5:13-25.
Memory Verse : “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meakness, temperance.” Gal. 5 :22, 23. Approach'. Show a piece of bread. How do we get bread? Does it grow just like this? Does one man make it? What is
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