THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
Lesson VIII, November 24th, 1907.
WORLD’S TEMPERANCE SUNDAY.
Romans 14:12—23.
Golden Texts—Judge this rather, that
no man put a stumbling-block or an occa
sion to fall in his brother’s way.
There are certain questions or acts
which are universally conceded to be right,
and to come within the Christian law of
liberty. About these, people of religious
intelligence have no question and do them
freely.
There are other acts which are plainly
prohibited. To do them is wrong and
always wrong.
There are a large number of acts which
are right or wrong according to the cir
cumstances, and motives of their doing.
How to determine these has perplexed
every conscientious Christian and teacher
of practical morals.
To the early Christian Church, com
posed of Jews and Gentiles, these ques
tions were presented. There were two
Sabbaths, the Jewish Sabbath, or Satur
day, and the Lord’s day. Which should
they keep? What should the Jews do
about attending social feasts, weddings,
etc. in Gentile homes, where meats for
bidden the Jews were served?
Should they eat the meats which were
upon the markets—a large portion of
which had been, in part, offered to idols?
There are not a few similar questions
continually confronting us with something
wholesome and beneficial. Is it right to
dance? To play cards? To play bill
iards? To go to the theatre? To attend
parties? To use tobacco? Many liberties
taken in regard to Sabbath observance and
more especially comes the question of j
abstinence from alcoholic drinks and
narcotics.
These matters are settled by ourselves,
for ourselves according to the law of
liberty ever remembering that “we shall
all stand before the Judgment Seat of
Christ”.
We are taught to put no stumbling
block in others’ way. Then let all use
liberty to refrain from indulgence.
Our conduct in relation to all these
questions must be guided by the great end
and aim of living to promote the Kingdom
of Heaven in ourselves and in the world.
Among a majority of the boys and
youn<| men, who may read these lines,
there may be an inclination to indulge in
the cigarette habit. This habit proves
itself destructive to bodily strength, men
tal keenness and moral character, so much
are these effects observed that our educa
tors, business men and public officials are
declaring that their doors must be closed
against cigarette users.
Peloubet mentions twenty-seven well
known and influential doors closed against
cigarette us^rs.
1. Athletic Clubs.
2. A business College.
3. Union Pacific Railway.
4. Omaha Schools.
5. Swift & Co., Packers, Chicago.
6. Marshall Field, dry goods, Chicago,
7. Life Insurance Companies (some).
8. Lehigh Valley Railroad.
9. United States Army positions.
10. United States Naval Schools.
11. Carson, Pirie & Scott, Chicago.
12. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific
Railroad.
13. Central Railroad, Georgia.
14. High Schools.
15. Ayer’s Sarsaparilla Company.
16. John Wanamaker’s, Philadelphia.
17. Morgan & Wright Fire Company.
18. Western Union Telegraph Com
pany.
19. Burlington Railroad.
20. United States Weather Bureau.
21. Heath & Milligan.
22. Montgomery, Ward & Company.
23. Academy of North Western Uni?
versity.
24. Telephone Company, Cumberland.
25. N. Y., New Haven and Hartford
Railway.
26. Pittsburg & Western Railroad.
27. West Superior Railway, Wisconsin.
We think, therefore, young people have
no moral right or business judgment to
drug their energies with tobacco.
G. W. T.
THE ART OF REJOICING.
“Rejoice in the Lord alway.” Phil.
IV. 4.—And this counsel is given by an
old man who is now' the prisoner of
imperial Rome! It is not the enervating
speech of the lotus land: it is a bracing
exhortation ringing through the keen nip
ping air of difficulty and strife. Age
is not frequently associated with such
sunny exuberance of spirit. Its song is
apt to “crack,” its lights burn dim, its
disposition becomes despondent. Age is
so prone to become reminiscent, and
memory is a fertile breeding ground of
dark and tearful regrets. Age fondly
dwells on “radiant morns” which have
“passed aw'ay”: it turns its eyes away
from the east whence new mornings break.
And so the psalm changes into a threnody,
and minor tunes pervade the evening
hymn. But here is an old man in whose
vespers the minor note finds no place.
Hard circumstances have not made him
hard. Apparent failure has not soured
him into a cynic. He retains his fine,
appreciative sense of life’s essential sweet
ness. He has not become moodily remi
niscent of past glories and of vanished
feasts. He feels the days before him.
The pains of today are only the birth
pangs of a better to-morrow. 'I'he imme
diate difficulty is 6nly a prickly burr
which contains most toothsome fruit,
Circumstances may impose restraints, they
cannot create an orphanage. Rome may
separate the apostle from his fellows, she
is powerless to separate him from the
Lord. Imprisonment still provides a
room for two, and by no earthly con
spiracy can he be bereft of his great Com
panion. The Lord is with him ! And so
the prison is ablaze with light. Old age
glows with sunny optimism. The psalm
e»f adoration rises night and day. And
the captive sends fbrth to his fellow
believers the invigorating counsel to
“rejoice in the Lord alway”.
Now if this counsel proclaims an attain
able ideal, it is very clear that Christian
joy is a mood independent of our immedi
ate circumstances. If it were dependent
on our surroundings, then, indeed, 'it
would be as uncertain as an unprotected
candle burning in a gusty night. One
moment the candle burns clear and steady,
the next moment the blaze leaps to the
very edge of the wick, and affords little
or no light. But Christian joy has no
relationship to the transient setting of
the life, and therefore it is not the victim
of the passing day. At one time my condi
tions arrange themselves like a sunny day
m June: a litue xarer iney rearrange
themselves like a gloomy day in November.
One day I am at a wedding: the next
day I stand by an open grave. One
day, in my ministry, I win ten converts
for the Lord: and then, for a long stretch
of days, I never win one! Yes, the days
are as changeable as the weather, and yet
the Christian joy can be persistent.
Where lies the secret of its gracious
persistency ?
Here is the secret. “ Lo! I am with you
all the days.” In all the changing days
“He changeth not, neither is weary”. He
is no fair-weather Companion, leaving me
when the year grows dark and cold. He
does not choose my days of prosperous
festival, and refuse to be found in my
days of impoverishment and defeat. He
does not show Himself only when I wear
a garland, and hide Himself when I wear
a crown of thorns. He is with me “all
the days”,—the prosperous days, the days
of adversity: days when the funeral bell
is tolling, and days when the wedding
peal is ringing. “All the days.” The
day of life! The day of death! The day
of judgment!
Here, I say, is the secret of perennial
joy. The all-vital relationship is not.
between we and fickle circumstance, but
between me and an unchanging Friend.
If I draw my water from the wells of cir
cumstances, my resources are exposed to
the peril of drought and convulsions. If
I draw from the wells of salvation, the
rich and bountiful supply shall be found
“Springing up into eternal life.” “There
suie^unoui qiinoqi PUB ‘poAouxaa aq
matfa aq; q*>nom ‘jboj oav ;ou njAt ajo^
be shaken in the heart of the seas.
The Lord of hosts is with us! ”
Now the apostle Paul had become an
expert in “the practice of the presence of
God”. He had so exercised ms spiritual
senses that his discernment had become
delicately sensitive and acute. He had
attained to a fine “feeling”" for God!
Until now the Lord’s presence was as
evident in the prison as in the temple, as
evident when he stood before Festus and
Agrippa as when he met with the little
company of praying wowen by the river
side at Phillippi. He “felt” his Lord
everywhere, and therefore he could
“rejoice in the Lord alway”. To realize
the Lord is to “enter into the joy of the
Lord”, and “the joy of the Lord” be
comes our strength.
In all his thinkings Paul’s first thought
was ever the Lord. All his purposes be
gan in the Lord, and in the Lord they
ended. He did not call on the Lord just
when things had gone amiss, when he had
lost himself in trespassing over a for
bidden moor. To the apostle, the Lord
was his Alpha! He consulted Him at
the beginnings of things. He was also his
Omega: in Him everything found its
culmination. And there is no law in life
more sure than this, that if the mind be
thus centered and fixed upon the Lord,
the Lord will be ever more and more
clearly manifested, and the heart will be
passessed by a quiet, sunny assurance
which no circumstances can despoil and
which will remain bright and increasing
“even unto the end of the world”.—Rev.
J. H. Jowett, M. A. In Record of Christ
ian work.
HOW TO BEGIN THE CONFERENCE
YEAR.
Two suggestions claim attention: First,
the spirit in which we should begin the
work of the Conference year; secondly.
the plans and methods we should employ.
The main thing is that first mentioned
—the spirit in which we should begin
the work of the year. Of course we all
understand that we should begin as we
hope to continue this work. It is easier
to keep out of a rut than to get out. The |
plans and the methods will adjust them
selves aright "where the spirit of the
workers is right. This is said on the
assumption that the preacher is truly
called of God and has special adaptability
to his work. You aspire, my brethren,
to the apostolic success that proves that
you are in the true apostolic succession.
Claim now, at the beginning of this Con
ference vear. the fulfillment of that
promise of our Lord: “Lo, I am with
you always, even unto the end of the
world.” The emphasis is on the present
tense: “Lo, I am with you always.” Do
we realize this Presence with us in this
Preachers’ Meeting this morning? If so,
the language of each heart will be that
of the apostle: “I can do all things
through Christ which strengthened me”,
that is, we can do all things that our
Lord would have us to do. By the lead
ings of his providence and of the Holy
Spirit, we will know what “all things”
mean to each one of us individually. The
sense of power is felt by the servant of
God who feels that touch. To do all
things through Christ means that in the
milpit you shall have liberty in the
delivery of the message of your Lord. It
means that spiritual perception that
knows and chooses the word in season,
the word best adapted to bring the people
that hear you to the saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It means that
at all times in your association with one
another as preachers, and with all other
persons, your religion shall be uppermost.
That is to say, you are to act at all times
and in all places in the spirit of the apos
tolic injunction: “Do all in the name of
the Lord Jesus.” This injunction covers
the whole ground.
As to methods, let us remember that
we shall have to watch and pray if we
would put our religion first and keep it
first. There are many other matters that
will claim and absorb a pastor’s time if
he is not on his guard. There are so
many earthly wants that clamor for recog
nition ; there are so many acquaintances
whose tastes and habits tend to give a
non-religious tone to ordinary social inter
course. that we need the wisdom which
is from above to give us social tact as
well as pulpit power. Let me suggest in
connection with this allusion to pulpit
power that pulpit common sense is a
good thing to begin with and to continue
during the Conference year. This means,
my dear brethren, that it will be well for
us not to make our prayers and our ser
mons too long. This is a mistake fre
quently made. The remedy for praying
too long is earnestness. A man who wants
one thing very truly does -not ask for
everything at once. The remedy for
preaching too long is common sense in a
?low—and this includes thorough prepara
tion.
Let us seek to do good as we have
opportunity, according to the command of
our Lord. We cannot plan for oppor
tunities except to a limited extent. But
every day in the year we can bear in mind
that we are laborers in the cause of Christ.
Opportunities come to the man who is
tuned for them. Men that are alive unto
God do not merely recognize opportuni
ties—they make them. Sometimes our
well-meant endeavors will be repelled.
But we will not lose the promised bless
ing: our peace shall return unto us in
all cases where it is rejected by those to
whom we should give it in the name of
the Lord. And surely, my brethren, it
would be better for us to be repellel by the
rudeness or stung by the criticisms of
unresponsive persons than to suffer the
rebukes of our own consciences.
Let us begin the Conference year with
a purpose in our hearts to pray more
than we have done heretofore. To each
one of us, as pastors and teachers, our
Lord says: “When thou prayest, enter
into thy closet ; and when thou hast shut
thy door, pray to thy Father which is in
secret, and thy Father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly.” This is
the condition of pulpit power, my breth
ren. Let us leave rocr.i for prayer in our
methods. Let us pray more for one
another, and criticise one another less.
After you have made one earnest prayer
for a brother out of the depths of your
heart, you will feel closer to him ever
afterwards—and somehow he will get
closer to you. * • * * ,
Personal communion with God is the
one essential condition of all Christianity
in earnest. A rule is suggested for your
pastoral visiting: Go where your Master
would go, and go in his spirit. Go first
to those who need you most—that is, to
the poor, the sick, the sorrowing and the
lost. Going to these with his message on
your lips and his love in your hearts,
you will meet the pitying 0hrist and get
his blessing for yourselves and be made
channels of blessing to them.
Let us not forsake the assembling of
ourselves together, as the manner of some
has been. By brotherly counsel, united
prayer, and closer fellowship, let us help
one another during this Conference year.
It will be worth while for us to begin
and continue the work of the Conference
year by a renewal of our vows, by service
that is more abundant, and a fellowship
among ourselves more like that which we
hope to enjoy where, in the words of our
ascended chief pastor and brother, Coke
Smith, “the life will be fuller and the
light will be clearer”. There we will
have what the apostle calls “the power
of an endless life”. Power, power, power f
This worn and weakened frame thrills at
the word. It will be sown in weakness,
but it will be raised in power—that is,
power to start with up yonder, and to
increase forever—the power of an endless
life. Glory to God for that word!