951
THE KING'S BUSINESS
SEPTEMBER 30, 1923
REVIEW: CREAT MEN AND WOMEN OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Golden Text: "Therefore Jet us also seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside ev'ery weight, and the .sin which doth s~ easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Heb. 12:1. Devotional Reading-Heb. 11:13-16, 39, 40. The lessons of the Third Quarter cover a period of about 62 years-from the birth of John the Baptist, B. C. 6, up to the final imprisonment of the Apostle Paul in Rome, A. D. 68, when he wrote his second letter to Timothy.
of the soul is the realm of choice; Heb. 12: 1 has been paraphrased as follows; "Since so many !llustrious patriarchs, prophets and martyrs, who preceded us, have exercised faith, persevened In it and obtained the rewards consequent upon it, let us in like manner, reject– ing every solicitation to renounce our hopes and our holy religion, persevere in the belief and in the duties which the Gospel requires." The great men and women of the New Testament were only human beings trained for their work and filled with the Holy Spirit. We have the same spirit, the same means of grace and in addition two thousand years of Christian example and experience to inspire and instruct us. The great "cloud of witness-bear– ers" may encourage us but only the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ will impart the necessary power to actual– ize the Gospel ideal. The secret of New Testament life and victory is Christ Himself coming into the heart and reproducing His own life there. Two bodies cannot occupy th.e same place at the same time. Neither can two spirits. If one comes in, the other goes out. In the measure that we go out, Christ comes in. The decisive factor in the problem is the yielding of the will to the Holy Spirit. This en– ables him to bring in the supernatural life of the risen Lord which works in us liberty and victory.
Judaism developed a noble type or character because up to the advent or Christianity it was the only Divine re– ligion in the world. The heroes of faith In Hebrews the DEVOTIONAL eleventh chapter at COMMENT least subsequent to Dr. F. W. Farr "Moses were all Jews. The early Christian church was Jewish in its origin and up to the time that Paul carried Christian– ity to the Gtintiles it was composed ex– clusively of Jews. At that time a Jew did not have to give up anything to be a Christian. He simply added some– thing to Judaism by accepting Jesus as the Messiah. The Christian ideal how– ever displaced the Jewish as the Jews rejected the Saviour. The Gentiles that came into the early church came out of raw heathenism. They were saved from its vices and corruption. The Immediate transformation of character which their conversion produced was a moral miracle of Divine power more transcen'dent than any physical sign or material miracle could possibly be. A transformed life Is the supreme test of Christianity. A code of ethics may pro– duce a reformation that is external, transient and superficial. A Divine religion is necessary to change the course of human life and bring regen– eration. It has been truly said that the great– est battle field in this world is the hu– man soul and the great battle field
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