Dail$ Devotional Home Readings Connected with International Sunday) School Lessons
St
Bj> FREDERIC W. FARR, D. D.
FRIDAY, Dec. 3. Matt. 13:34-43. The Final Harvest. We can not say that the work of the Gospel is to convert all the tares into wheat inasjnuch as tares and wheat are to grow together until the harvest and the harvest .is declared to be the end of the age. A converted world is not the church objective in the present age, but rather an evangelized world. The ob ject of world evangelization is to gather that elect company which when com plete and removed to its heavenly sphere, will, in co-operation with Israel the earthly election, secure the conver sion of the world in the coming king dom age. As the end of the present age draws near, the tares are gathered into bundles. Does this give signifi cance to the modern tendency toward federation in the industrial, commercial and religious worlds? If the bundle stage has come, the fire is not far off. SATURDAY, Dec. 4. Rev. 20:11-15. The Judgment Those who reject the Bible doctrine of the second coming of Christ on the ground that it would be retrogression for God to pass from grace to judgment in dealing with mankind, forget that judgment is the background of the pres ent age of grace and that every previ ous dispensation has closed by judg ment and catastrophe. Reasoning from analogy and apart from the statements of Scripture there is every reason for believing on a priori grounds that the present age will come to an end in like manner. This expectation is confirmed by explicit passages of Scripture. God will judge the world by that man whom He hath ordained, even Jesus Christ whom the world once judged and cruci fied. SUNDAY, Dec. 5. Is. 60:1-3, 10, 14. The Glory of the Future. The glowing prophecies of Isaiah re fer not- to the earthly glory of the church but to the future blessing of the nations under the domination of Israel. The three subjects of Old Testament prophecy are the Messiah, Israel and the nations. The great theme is the
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 1. Matt. 13:1-17. The Seed and the Soil. It is possible that while Jesus was re lating the parable of the sower, men were sowing seed upon the adjacent hillsides in full view of the multitude. The parable was given to explain the establishment of the kingdom and to show how comparatively few there are who enter it. The seed is the word of the kingdom. The soil is the heart of the hearer. The purpose of the sowing is that the seed should take root and produce the harvest of a transformed life and a renewed heart. The different kinds of soil represent various classes of hearers. Men are responsible for re ceiving the truths of the Gospel and for the effects upon life and character. The seed and the soil need each other. Each is helpless and fruitless without the other. Truth becomes vital and dyna mic only as incarnate in life and con duct. THURSDAY, Dec. 2. Matt. 13:18-23. The Result of Sowing. The seven parables of the kingdom in Matt. 13, were spoken consecutively as is evident from verses 36 and 53. They naturally fall into two groups, the nrst four being given to the multitudes out doors and the last three to the disciples indoors. Those addressed to the multi tudes refer to the outward development of the kingdom. Those spoken to the disciples refer to the inner and deeper truths which they were fitted to receive. Parables are examples of indirect and spiritual instruction. They are intended both to reveal and conceal the truth. They reveal it to eager, earnest and pre pared hearts. They conceal it from the careless, indifferent and hostile. This illuminates the -Saviour’s statement, “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” The whole matter turns upon the dis tinction between honest inquirers and careless unbelievers. Only one-fourth of the seed sown came to fruition. “Think truly and thy thoughts Shall the world’s famine feed, Speak truly and each word of thine Shall be a fruitful seed, Live truly and thy life shall be A great and noble creed.”
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