{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_7338/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_7338","id":"gutenberg_7338","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7338","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Religious education"],"text":"Produced by David Maddock, Charles Franks, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSTUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE CHRISTIAN\n\nHis Faith and His Service\n\nBy\n\nHENRY T. SELL, D.D.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nThese studies consider the questions: What did Christ teach? What is\nthe standpoint of Christianity?  What is a Christian? What ought he to\nbelieve and why? How shall he regard the Bible and the church?  What\nshould be his relations to God, to his fellow men, to his home, to\nsociety, to business, and to the state?\n\nThe strength and reasonableness of the great main positions of\nChristian faith and service are constructively presented. Careful\nattention is also given to the practical application of Christian\nprinciples to the perplexing problems of modern life.\n\nThis book is for use in adult Bible classes, Bible study circles,\npastors' training classes in the essentials of Christianity,\neducational institutions and private study.\n\nIt is uniform with the author's \"Bible Studies in the Life of Christ,\"\n\"Bible Studies in the Life of Paul\" and his other Bible study books.\n\nHENRY T. SELL.\nChicago.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n   I. CHRIST, THE GREAT TEACHER\n\n  II. THE CHRISTIAN'S GOD\n\n III. THE CHRISTIAN MAN\n\n  IV. THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOW MAN\n\n   V. THE CHRISTIAN FAITH\n\n  VI. THE CHRISTIAN'S BOOK\n\n VII. THE CHRISTIAN PRAYER\n\nVIII. THE CHRISTIAN SERVICE\n\n  IX. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH\n\n   X. THE CHRISTIAN HOME\n\n  XI. THE CHRISTIAN BUSINESS WORLD\n\n XII. THE CHRISTIAN SOCIETY\n\nXIII. THE CHRISTIAN STATE\n\n XIV. THE CHRISTIAN'S HOPE\n\n\n\n\nSTUDY I\n\nCHRIST, THE GREAT TEACHER\n\n\nScripture references: Matthew 4:23; 5:1,2; 7:29; 13:54; 26:55;\n28:19,20; Mark 1:21,22; 4:1,2; 6:6; Luke 5:3; 11:1; 19:47; John 6:59;\n7:14; 8:28.\n\n\nTHE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIANITY\n\nThe heart of the Christian religion is found in Jesus Christ. If we\ndesire to know what Christianity is and of what elements it is\ncomposed we must look to Him and His teachings. He is the great source\nof our knowledge of what God, man, sin, righteousness, duty and\nsalvation are.\n\nOur interest in the books of the Old Testament lies in the fact that\nthey lead up to Him. We study the books of the New Testament because\nof their vivid portrayal of His life, teachings, death and\nresurrection.  With Jesus Christ a new era dawned for the world with\nnew principles, ideas and aspirations for humanity.  His teachings\ntouch every department of human life and, where they are accepted and\nfollowed, they show their marvellous transforming power.  There can be\nno more important study than what Jesus Christ said and did while upon\nthis earth.  \"Never man spake like this man\" (John 7:46).\n\n\nWHAT CHRIST TAUGHT\n\nThere are five great lines which His teachings followed; they have to\ndo with God, man, sin, salvation and the future life.\n\nThe Right Relation of God to Man and Man to God.--How does God regard\nman? and, How shall man look upon God? are questions upon which the\nbest thought of men in all ages has been expended.  Upon the answers\ngiven have been founded all sorts of religious and philosophical\nsystems.\n\nMan in this great universe desires to know in what relation he stands\nto the Author of it. Is man only a creature of fate? What does God\ncare, great as He is, for one man?\n\nJesus Christ recognized this desire of man to know his standing with\nGod and He proclaimed not only the power, but the Fatherhood of\nGod. When He taught His disciples how to pray He began His immortal\nprayer not with \"Great God of the universe,\" or \"Creator of all\nthings,\" but \"After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which\nart in heaven\" (Matthew 6:9). Here was a new conception of God.\n\nThrough Christ man comes into personal relations with God as the\nFather (John 16:27) who cares for him as a son. Man is to love and\nforgive as God loves and forgives in this relation of Father (Matthew\n22:37; 6:14,15). Man is to do all that he does as in the sight of his\nFather in heaven (Matthew 6:1-26). God is made known as supreme love\n(John 3:16).\n\nThe Right Relation of Man to Man.--There are many causes which divide\nmen into classes, castes and nationalities. Once divided men begin to\ndevelop a class feeling and pride which tend to deepen and widen the\ngulfs which separate them from each other.\n\nWith the truth proclaimed by Christ of the \"Fatherhood of God\" came\nalso the great truth of the \"Brotherhood of Man.\" The true relation of\nman to man, no matter what the caste, class, employment or\nnationality, is that of sons who have a common father.  The second\ngreat commandment given by Christ is, \"Thou shalt love thy neighbour\nas thyself\" (Matthew 22:39). When He took the example for a good\nneighbour He selected a Samaritan, a man of an alien race. Men are\nnaturally inclined to do good to those who treat them well and whose\nhelp they need; but Christ, in carrying out this new law of brotherly\nlove said, \"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to\nthem that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and\npersecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in\nheaven\" (Matthew 5:44-48). It is only through this love of man for\nman, no matter what the class or condition, that right relations\nbetween men can ever be established and maintained.\n\nThe Right Relation of Man to Sin.--Man violates his sense of\nrighteousness and justice. He transgresses the laws of God and his\nnature. Man's sin is everywhere doing its destroying work. There is\nindividual, social, corporate and national sin (Romans 3:23). This\nfact of sin is not only set forth in the Bible in unmistakable terms,\nbut every government recognizes it in its laws and courts of justice.\nSociety puts up its bars to protect itself against the sinner, and all\nliterature proclaims the evil results of sin.\n\nWhat ought to be man's attitude to sin? Shall he make light of it and\ncall it a necessary part of living?  Shall he continue in it, although\nhe recognizes its evil results, and draw others with him into greater\nand larger violations of the laws of God and man?  These are practical\nquestions. Some temporize with sin and say, \"Let us lead outwardly\ncorrect lives, but within certain bounds we will do as we please\";\nhence arises the practice of secret sinning.\n\nChrist came declaring that man's relation to sin should be\nuncompromising. He used vigorous language in regard to sin. He said,\n\"Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that\noffenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!\nWherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast\nthem from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or\nmaimed, rather than having two hands or feet to be cast into\neverlasting fire\" (Matthew 18:7,8). But Jesus in thus advocating\nheroic treatment for sin was but doing what eminent surgeons are\nadvising every day in regard to certain dangerous bodily\ndiseases. Jesus also laid His finger on the source of sin when He\ndeclared, \"For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,\nadulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these\nare the things which defile a man\" (Matthew 15:19). A man must think\nevil before he does evil, and hence the emphasis which Jesus placed\nupon keeping the heart clean.\n\nThe Right Relation of Man to Salvation.--Man feels his inclination to\ndo evil and, seeing also the degradation wrought by it, desires to be\nsaved from it.  The cry has gone up from many hearts to be free not\nonly from the power of sin but from the desire to commit sin. No man\ncan save himself. He may succeed in a certain outward reformation and\ncorrectness of habit and speech, but he cannot control the thoughts\nand inclinations of his own heart.\n\nThe special mission of Jesus Christ was to place man in the right\nrelation of salvation from his sins and to show Himself the Saviour of\nMan. It was declared of Him before His birth, \"He shall save His\npeople from their sins\" (Matthew 1:21). He said at the last supper,\n\"This is My blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the\nremission of sins\" (Matthew 26:28). He had power to forgive sins (Mark\n2:10). He said not, \"I show you the way,\" but \"I am the way, the truth\nand the life\" (John 14:6). There is here a mighty spiritual power\nwhich can save man from sin and can keep him from the desire to\nsin. It is only as man enters into personal relations with Jesus\nChrist, repenting of his sin and having faith in Him, that the burden\nof sin is lifted from his heart (Matthew 6:33; 11:28,30).\n\nThe Right Relation of Man to Death and the Future Life.--The facts of\ndeath and of what comes after cannot be set aside; they must be\nfaced. All forms of religion and systems of philosophy have striven to\nsustain and comfort men at their trying hour of need. The trouble has\nbeen, however, to find any certain ground of the hope of a future life\nupon which to rest. No man has been able to do more than present a\ngood argument, in regard to the hereafter, which might or might not be\ntrue.\n\nBut when Jesus Christ came He was able to speak with authority and\npower. He plainly, in His description of the last judgment scene\n(Matthew 25:31-46), showed the relation of man's faith and actions in\nthis world to his state in the world to come. He declared that a man\nneed have no fear of death or the hereafter who trusted in Him. \"I am\nthe resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he\nwere dead yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me\nshall never die\" (John 11:25,26). \"In My Father's house are many\nmansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a\nplace for you\" (John 14:2). In a supreme trust in Jesus Christ all\ndread of death and the hereafter may be taken away and man may enter\ninto a right relation to immortality in this life.\n\n\nFORMS OF CHRIST'S TEACHING\n\nHe used many forms in placing the truth before men. He paid great\nregard to the timeliness and the manner of presenting what He had to\nteach. Upon many occasions the multitudes were so captivated by His\nwords and works that they followed Him out into desert places.\n\nDirect Discourse.--The Sermon on the Mount is a good example of this\nteaching. Here He taught plainly, (1) \"The nature and constitution of\nthe Kingdom\" (Matthew 5:1-16); in itself (blessedness, vs.  1-12) and\nin its relation to the world (vs. 13-16).  (2) The law of the kingdom\n(Matthew 5:17-7:12); general principles (vs. 17-20), the moral law\n(vs. 21-48), religious duty (6:1-18), and duty in relation to the\nworld and the good and evil things in it (6: 19-7:12). (3) Invitations\nto enter the kingdom (Matthew 7:13-29).\n\nHe was equally plain in regard to His own mission. He declared Himself\nto be the Son of God and claimed equality with the Father (John\n5:18-23).  He said, \"I and My Father are one\" (John 10:30).  He\naffirmed His preexistence and that He had glory with the Father before\nthe world was (John 17:5) and whoever had seen Him had seen the Father\n(John 14:9). At His trial, in answer to the question of the High\nPriest, He declared that He was the Christ, the Son of God (Matthew\n26:63-66). After His resurrection He told His disciples, in sending\nthem forth to their mission, that all power was given Him in heaven\nand in earth (Matthew 28:18-20).\n\nParables (Mark 4:2; Matthew 13:3).--Christ spoke in parables to convey\nand send home to the hearts of His hearers the truth, just as Nathan\nemployed the parable of the lamb in the case of David to make him\nacknowledge his sin. They were adapted to the capacities of His\nhearers. Each parable had some great central truth.\n\nThe parables have been classified as:\n\n1. The Theoretic, which teach general truths concerning the kingdom of\nGod, such as, \"The Sower\" (Matthew 13:3-23), \"The Treasure\" and \"The\nPearl\" (Matthew 13:44,45).\n\n2. Grace, setting forth the divine goodness and grace as the source of\nsalvation and law of Christian life, such as, \"The Lost Coin,\" \"The\nLost Sheep\" and \"The Lost Boy\" (Luke 15).\n\n3. The Prophetic or Judgment parables, which proclaim the\nrighteousness of God as the supreme ruler, rewarding men according to\ntheir works, such as, \"The Wicked Husbandmen\" (Matthew 21:33-41), and\n\"The Ten Virgins\" (Matthew 25:1-13).\n\nMiracles (John 3:2; 2:23; 6:2; Mark 1:32-34).--Christ appealed to His\nworks as an evidence of His divine mission (John 10:38). Miracles are\npossible, probable and credible, when we believe there is a personal\nGod, who is the Supreme Ruler of the universe and that He cares for\nman.\n\nThe thirty-six miracles of which an account is given in the four\ngospels have been divided into three classes; their teaching is\nimportant:\n\n1. The Nature miracles show the divinity of Christ.  The feeding of\nthe five thousand men (Matthew 14:15-21) reveals His creative power,\nand the stilling of the storm on the Lake of Galilee (Matthew 8:23-27)\nHis divine command over Nature and its forces.\n\n2. The Healing miracles reveal not only His divinity but His humanity\nand compassion. They set forth the one being who loves the human race\nwith His whole heart. This class of miracles shows the mission of\nJesus to be the extinction of sin and disease, and the redemption of\nman, body and soul.\n\n3. The Moral miracles are the life of Christ and its effect upon the\nworld.\n\nExample of Living and Dying, the teaching of which is elaborated in\nthe Acts and Epistles (Acts 1:8; 2:31-41; 13:23-42; Philippians\n2:5-11; Colossians 1:13-20).\n\n\nHOW CHRIST TAUGHT\n\nWith Authority (Matthew 7:28,29; Mark 1:22).--He declared that \"All\npower is given unto Me in heaven and in earth\" (Matthew 28: 18). He\ndid not quote precedents but said, \"I say unto you.\"\n\nWith Persuasiveness and Love (Matthew 11:28-30; 19:13,14; John 3:17;\nLuke 9:56).--People of all classes gathered about Him, in the\nmarketplaces, in the fields and by the seaside. They followed Him into\ndesert places to hear the gracious words that fell from His lips.\n\nWith Originality (John 12:46).--He taught a new philosophy of sorrow\nand suffering, a new law of self-sacrifice and a new law of love for\nfallen humanity.\n\nWith Promise (Matthew 28:20; John 14:12-19; 16:1-14; Acts 1:4-8).--His\nwork He declared was not to end with His resurrection and ascension,\nbut was to continue. He promised to endue His disciples with power\nfrom on high in their task of converting a world. This promise of\ndivine help was also extended to all His disciples in their effort to\nlead pure and righteous lives.\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nWhat can be said about the Founder of Christianity and His teachings?\nWhat did Christ teach; about the right relation of God to man, man to\nman, man to sin, man to salvation and man to death and the hereafter?\nWhat can be said of the forms of Christ's teaching; direct discourse\n(give examples), parables (give the teaching of the three classes),\nmiracles (give the teaching of the three classes) and example of\nliving and dying? How did Christ teach?  What can be said of His\nauthority, persuasiveness, originality and promise?\n\n\n\nSTUDY II\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN'S GOD\n\n\nScripture References: Genesis 1:1; 17:1; Exodus 34:6,7; 20:3-7;\nDeuteronomy 32:4; 33:27; Isaiah 40:28; 45:21; Psalm 90:2; 145:17;\n139:1-12; John 1:1-5; 1:18; 4:23,24; 14:6-11; Matthew 28:19,20;\nRevelation 4:11; 22:13.\n\n\nWHO IS GOD?\n\nHow Shall We Think of God?--\"Upon the conception that is entertained\nof God will depend the nature and quality of the religion of any soul\nor race; and in accordance with the view that is held of God, His\nnature, His character and His relation to other beings, the spirit and\nthe substance of theology will be determined.\" When one man says, \"I\nbelieve in God\" he may have in mind an entirely different conception\nof God from another man who uses the same expression. There is a\nChristian idea of God and there are many non-Christian ideas about\nGod; it is the latter which keep men from heartily engaging in the\nservice of the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nWrong Conceptions of God.--Some of these are:\n\n1. That He is a blind fate or unknowable force.  Personality is\ndenied, and it is asserted that this great force neither sees, cares\nnor even knows what men do or do not do.\n\n2. Even if this great force be personal, and knows what is going on\namongst men, He is perfectly indifferent to right or wrong actions.\n\n3. God knows and sees all that is going on, but He has wound up this\nuniverse like a great clock. To help or succour any man in his\ndistress would disarrange the whole system. Natural law must have its\ncourse; it is useless to pray.\n\n4. God is revengeful or weak; in the first place men seek to keep out\nof His way, in the second they do not care.\n\nWhen men adopt these wrong ideas of God and cherish them they are\nfashioned after them in life and character. Here are the\nstumbling-blocks which need to be removed before men, who think this\nway, can be brought into sympathy with the Church of Christ.  Man can\nnever come into personal loving relations with a Universal Substance\nor Force, no matter how mighty it is.\n\nRight Conceptions of God are necessary for the true worship of the\nAlmighty, for the exercise of proper conduct to our fellow men and for\nthe upbuilding of our own spiritual life. Never was there a time when\nthe great fundamental positions of the Bible, in regard to God, needed\nto be more plainly stated than to-day. When men stand firmly upon\nthese positions a whole host of perplexities and anxieties will take\ntheir departure.\n\nThe Christian Conception of God has been thus expressed, \"God is the\nPersonal Spirit, perfectly good, who in holy love, creates, sustains\nand orders all.\" The essential matters covered in this statement are:\n\n1. The nature of God. He is the Personal Spirit (Exodus 3:14; John\n4:24) who can enter into personal relations with man, and who hears\nand answers prayer.\n\n2. The character of God. He is perfectly good, pure and holy (Psalm\n25:8; Nahum 1:7; Romans 2:4). Man may have perfect confidence, however\nmatters may seem to him to go wrong with his imperfect vision of the\nworld and the happenings in it, that there is a good God who governs\nall in the interest of righteousness (Matthew 13:24-30,36-43).\n\n3. The relation of God to all other existences. He creates, sustains\nand orders all (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 19).\n\n4. The motive of God in His relation to all other existence; it is\nholy love (1 John 4:8).\n\nSupreme power, personality, intelligence and perfect goodness are then\nthe great revealed truths which the Bible presents to us as the proper\nconceptions which we should have of God.\n\nBut if it is desired to know what God is like we look at once to Jesus\nChrist. He is supreme intelligence.  He has power over nature and men\nand He uses all with the motive and purpose of a holy love. We know\nthat He controlled nature, when on earth, and not nature Him. He\ntaught the great love of God for man. He made it plain that men were\nnot in a relation as atoms of matter in a whirlpool of action, but as\nsons to a loving father.\n\n\nGOD IS SUPREME\n\nGod's Attitude to the Universe.--The Scriptures are consistent in the\nstatement, many times made, that God is the source of all things. He\nbrings all things into being and sustains all by the word of His\npower.  His is a work of perpetual administration. But God is not\nwholly occupied in conducting the affairs of the universe, neither\ndoes it exhaust His possibilities (Psalm 8:1; 148:13). He is greater\nthan the universe.  God, says Dr. Clarke, in his \"Outline of Christian\nTheology,\" is like the spirit of a man in his body, which is greater\nthan his body, able to direct his body, and capable of activities that\nfar transcend the physical realm. God is a free spirit, personal,\nself-directing, unexhausted by His present activities. This statement\naffirms both the immanence and the transcendence of God. By the\nimmanence of God is meant that He is everywhere and always present in\nthe universe, nowhere absent from it, never separated from its\nlife. By His transcendence is meant--not as is sometimes\nrepresented--that He is outside and views the universe from beyond and\nabove, but that He is not shut up in it or limited by it, not required\nin His totality to maintain and order it. By both together is meant\nthat He is a free spirit inhabiting the universe, but surpassing it,\nimmanent as always in the universe, and transcendent, as always\nindependent of its limitations and able to act upon it.\n\nGod's Attitude to Man.--God has not only placed man at the head of the\nanimal world, but has endowed him with qualities which make him its\nlord and master. God is more than the Creator of man. He is his\nFather, Saviour and Friend.\n\nGod comes to man in the attitude, of The Supreme Spiritual Being,\napproaching a spiritual being who is of priceless value. Jesus Christ\nmakes this truth very plain. He everywhere teaches the great worth of\nthe life of a man and that God is seeking to come directly into touch\nwith this life which is so precious in His sight (John 3:16; Matthew\n10:30,31). This life is not the physical but the spiritual which is\nthe real life of a man. \"Not what one has, but what one is, gives the\ntrue measure of a man.\" He said, \"For what shall it profit a man, if\nhe shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a\nman give in exchange for his soul?\" (Mark 8:36,37). \"Is not the life\nmore than meat and the body than raiment?\"  (Matthew 6:25). \"In\nharmony with this view of the worth of life,\" Professor Stevens in\n\"The Theology of the New Testament,\" says, \"Jesus taught that the most\nhumble and insignificant person, on whom men set no value, is precious\nin the sight of God. These little ones, be they children or humble\nbelievers, are not the despised (Matthew 18:10). The least important\nperson who goes astray from goodness excites the pity and solicitude\nof God, and He seeks him and brings him back as the shepherd, leaving\nhis ninety-nine sheep, goes into the mountains in eager search after\nthe one that has wandered away\" (Luke 15:14).\n\nThe hope of everlasting life is bound up with the recognition by man\nof the priceless value of the spiritual life and of the necessity of\nhis coming into harmony (in thought, will and action) with God's plans\nfor him (John 17:3; Luke 12:16-21; John 1:4; 3:15,34-36; 6:35,47;\n14:6).\n\n\n\"GOD IS THE PERSONAL SPIRIT\"\n\n\"God is Spirit,\" these words of Christ, uttered to the Samaritan woman\n(John 4:24), have reference to the nature of God and show us how we\nare to think of Him. He is not limited to a particular place of\nworship, but is to be worshipped \"in spirit and in truth\" (John 4:23).\n\nWhen we speak of a spirit we mean a being who has intelligence and\nwill; one who thinks, feels and wills. God the great intelligence and\nwill can enter into communication with man who, while he has a body,\nhas also a spirit possessing intelligence and a will. We need not\ndefine the difference between God and matter, \"if only we give full\nweight to this vital and practical difference, that He is one who\nthinks and feels and wills. The composition of spirit we may never\nunderstand, but this is the action of spirit and this is\nintelligible.\" God is everywhere represented in the Scriptures as\nexercising intelligence and will (Genesis 1:1,2; 6:3; Job 26:7-14;\n38:1-41; Psalm 2; 19; 72; Isaiah 61:1; Mark 10:27; 12:27; John 3:34;\nActs 3:26).\n\nGod is Personal.--Personality has two characteristics;\nself-consciousness and self-direction. When it is said that God is\npersonal, the meaning is that He knows Himself as God and directs His\nown actions.  In the Bible He is represented as saying \"I\" (Exodus\n20:2; 3:14) and as directing all things. Personality does not limit\nGod. He is the one perfect personality.  Personality in man exists\nonly in a more or less imperfect degree. Personality is understood\nhere not as \"bodily,\" but as belonging to the spirit.\n\n\nGOD IS GOOD\n\nThe Character of God is a subject of great importance to man. God is\nthe Supreme Personal Spirit, yet to know only this is to leave out a\nvery vital part in our estimation or knowledge of God. We desire to\nknow and feel that God is not only the greatest, but the best being in\nthe universe. Hence God is shown to us in the Bible to be inwardly\nperfect and outwardly consistent with this perfection. The Old\nTestament shows a struggle between God and man; God seeking to bring\nman to the thinking of right thoughts and doing of right actions and\nman resisting Him. The history of Israel is a story of a nation whom\nGod would make a righteous people; all the laws given to it, civil,\nsanitary and ceremonial, were with the end in view to make it \"a holy\nnation\"; all its prophets and teachers proclaim the righteous and just\ncharacter of God (Exodus 19:6; Leviticus 11:45; 19:2; 20:7, 8; Numbers\n15:40; Deuteronomy 14:2,21; Joshua 24:19; Psalm 22:3; 99:3; 111:9;\nIsaiah 6:3; 57:15). In Jesus Christ and His life upon earth we see the\ngoodness of God in its largeness. \"In His gospel holiness is the\nideal, the substance of Christian character and the end in view in\nChristian experience.\"  He says, in the Sermon on the Mount, \"Be ye\ntherefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect\"\n(Matthew 5:48).\n\nIn Christ we have the one perfect ideal of moral excellence. In Him we\ncan see what goodness in God means (John 14:9).\n\nThe standard for the conduct of man is that of God's goodness,\nrighteousness and truth; this is not a double one--the Old and the New\nTestament--but a single one and applicable to all men of all races and\nclimes.\n\n\"If sin exists holiness in God must absolutely and forever oppose\nit. From the holiness in God's character we can understand His\nrighteousness and justice.  The man who does evil sets his will\nagainst God's will and against the principle upon which He conducts\nthe universe. Such a man has placed himself where he must either turn\nback and forsake his sin or take the inevitable consequences of\nresisting the purpose which God is fulfilling.\"\n\nGod's love for man is bound up with His goodness.  God, foreseeing the\nfearful consequences of man's sinning, seeks in every way to warn and\nturn him back from the evil way. He knows the great worth of the soul\nand desires to save it to everlasting joy (John 3:17; Luke 9:56; John\n14:1-3).\n\n\nGOD'S MANIFESTATION\n\nThe Manifestation of God in Jesus Christ.--Paul says, \"when the\nfullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son\" (Galatians 4:4);\n\"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,\nand things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue\nshould confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the\nFather\" (Philippians 2:10,11).\n\nThis personal manifestation of God in Christ is in perfect harmony\nwith the nature and character of God as we know Him through the\nScriptures. This manifestation of God is not only subject to a\nhistorical test, but may also be made the subject of a personal\nexperience test, \"If any man will do His will he shall know of the\ndoctrine\" (John 7:17). Soon after the resurrection and ascension of\nJesus the disciples, who had been with Jesus when He was upon earth,\nbegan to urge others to make a test of personal experience in regard\nto the manifestation of God in Christ (Acts 2:14,31-47; 3:19-21;\n7:56). Paul, who had a special experience (Acts 9:1-8), preached this\ntest of personal experience throughout the Roman Empire.  Ever since\nthose early times there has been the same urgent appeal for men to\ncome to a knowledge of God through Jesus Christ and to make the test\nnot only historical, but one of personal experience.\n\nThe \"Threefold Self-manifestation of God.\"--Christ in instructing His\ndisciples after His resurrection, said, \"Go ye therefore and teach all\nnations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and\nof the Holy Ghost\" (Matthew 28:19).\n\nIn the Old Testament we have the manifestation of God as the one\nliving God of all. He was specially known as the God of Israel in\npreparing that nation for the great part it had in the divine economy.\n\nIn the New Testament Christ is recognized by His followers--and so\ntaught Himself--as the personal manifestation of God, to whom divine\nhonour was and is to be given. Christ told His followers that He would\n\"pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may\nabide with you forever\" (John 14:16). This Comforter (16:7-15), the\nHoly Spirit, would guide them into all truth.\n\nThe Holy Spirit, upon whom they were to wait for His manifestation\n(Acts 1:8), came in wonderful power on the Day of Pentecost (Acts\n2:1-4), thus beginning the great work which was to spread around the\nworld. When Paul and Barnabas were ready for their large missionary\ntask, the Holy Spirit called them to it (Acts 13:2). The early Church\nfelt the presence of that mighty indwelling Holy Spirit. \"As God\nHimself had come in the Son so it was felt that He had come in the\nSpirit. The one God of all known to the fathers, had manifested\nHimself in the divine human Christ, and in the invisible Spirit of\ntruth and life. Both was His and yet each was truly Himself.\"\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nWho is God? How shall we think of Him? Give some of the wrong\nconceptions of God. What can be said of the right conceptions of God?\nWhat is the Christian conception of God? How can we know what God is\nlike? What is God's attitude to the universe and to man? What do we\nmean when we say, that \"God is a Spirit\"? How is God personal? What\ncan be said of the character of God?  How is God manifested, in\nChrist, and in the threefold manifestation?\n\n\n\nSTUDY III\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN MAN\n\n\nScripture references: Genesis 1:26-28; 2:7; 9:6; Job 33:4; Psalm\n100:3; 8:4-9; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Acts 17:26-28; 1 Corinthians 11:7;\nEphesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10; 1 Corinthians 15:45; Hebrews 2:6,7;\nEphesians 6:10-18; 1 Corinthians 2:9.\n\n\nWHAT IS MAN?\n\nWhat Shall We Think of Man?--Who is he?  What is his place on the\nearth and in the universe?  What is his destiny? He is of necessity an\nobject of thought. He is the subject of natural laws, instincts and\npassions. How far is he free; how far bound?  How is he linked with\nthe physical and the spiritual worlds? These and a host of other\nquestions press upon us for answers, when we begin to think about man\nand his destiny.\n\nTaken in detail the inquiries lead investigators in many different\ndirections and result in many contradictory systems of thought. Taken,\nhowever, in a general practical way all questions about man may be\nconsidered from two standpoints; the physical and the spiritual. The\ndanger is in making the physical alone interpret the spiritual and in\ndeclaring that \"man is simply a ripple on the sea of human events and\nhuman life, merely on episode marking a particular stage in the\ncooling of a nebula.\" This method of interpretation leads to the\nruling out of any personal responsibility on the part of man for his\nthoughts or actions, the obliteration of the distinction between right\nand wrong and the denial of a personal God and personal immortality.\n\nThe right standpoint from which to consider the many questions about\nman, as he appears upon this earth, is that of a personal spiritual\nbeing with a physical body. There is here no denial of the physical\npart of man, but it is made subordinate to the spiritual. Man is\npersonal and responsible for his thoughts and conduct; upon this\nconception of man is founded human society and the state. Man is\nspiritual, knowing the distinction between right and wrong, capable of\nknowing God who is The Personal Spirit and looking forward to a\npersonal immortality.\n\nThe Christian Thought of Man recognizes him as a personal spiritual\nbeing with a physical body; he has large responsibilities, and a great\ndestiny to attain--if he so wills.\n\nThere are six heads under which the Christian conception of man may be\nconsidered:\n\n1. Man is mortal (Psalm 90:5,10; Ecclesiastes 12:5). The physical part\nof man is quite definitely limited in years. His body is formed of the\nsame elements as that of any other animal and is subject to the law of\ndecay and death. This linking of man with, what we call, the material\nuniverse is asserted at the very opening of the Bible (Genesis\n2:7). Man is a member of a race of men with all that this membership\nimplies (Acts 17:26).\n\n2. Man is immortal (1 Corinthians 15:53,54).  The physical body is the\nhouse of the spirit of man.  All the appeals in the Scriptures are\naddressed to this personal spirit of man (Matthew 6:25,33; John\n14:1-4). There is in the New Testament a great forward look to the\nthings that shall come to pass after the passing away of the physical\nbody (Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 21,22).\n\n3. Man is a moral being (Romans 2:14,15). There is a law of conscience\nimpressed upon man when he comes into the world, which makes him a\nmoral being capable of distinguishing between right and wrong.  Man\nknows when he sins against the law of his conscience.\n\n4. Man is a responsible being (Romans 2:1-11).  He is self-conscious\nand self-determining. He knows himself as himself and he can determine\nhis actions; it is these characteristics which make him responsible\nfor his sins. He has the power of choice and in willing to do right or\nwrong he brings the consequences of his doing upon himself.\n\n5. Salvation for man is through Jesus Christ.  Man sins and violates\nhis moral nature; he feels the responsibility for his sin; he desires\nforgiveness for his sin and to be freed from its power over his\nspiritual nature (Romans 7:23,24). But he finds no earthly help. Such\nhelp can come to man only through a spiritual being who, subject to\nall the assaults of sin (Matthew 4:1-11), has triumphed over them all\n(Romans 8:1-4; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus Christ, the manifestation of\nGod the Father, is the Spiritual Being through whom man can receive\nforgiveness for sin (Luke 5:23,24; Acts 2:38; 13:38,39; 16:30,31).\n\n6. Large possibilities are everywhere asserted for man in the\nScriptures. This earthly life is looked upon as the beginning of a\ngreater and fuller life (1 Corinthians 13:9,12). Yet in doing the will\nof God man may even here enter upon a life full of joy (Hebrews\n12:1,2).\n\n\nMAN MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD\n\nThe Statement of the Case.--In Genesis 1:26 we are told that God said,\n\"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.\" In Genesis 2:7 the\nnarrative relates, \"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the\nground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man\nbecame a living soul\" (see Psalm 8:4-8). These passages have a great\nrepresentative character and the truth expressed in them has lived and\nwill live under all theories of the appearance of man upon this\nearth. In the Bible man is shown as the latest and highest creation of\nGod, the last and best of His work in the animal world, but with a\ndifference that is world-wide between him and the brute creation.\nHere is an animal, coming up out of the dust, endowed with spiritual\nqualities which place him not only at the head of the animal kingdom,\nbut dominating it. The most radical evolutionist must admit that man\nis the last in the list of uplifts in the animal world, that he has\nqualities which elevate him far above it and by which he dominates\nit. Somewhere back there, again, he must admit that there came a\nchange and the dust-born animal was changed into a God-born soul. The\ngreat truth then remains, man is an animal but endowed with a growing\nmarvellous self-conscious, self-determining personality. As the Bible\nis a progressive revelation, showing us more and more the greatness of\nspiritual truths, it represents man as starting from no high plane of\ncivilization and as a learner through the ages. Man is even now in the\nprocess of making; he has not yet come to his best estate.\n\nThe Image of God.--What is the likeness of God?  \"God is Spirit\" (John\n4:24) and that part of man which counts is his spiritual kinship to\nGod.\n\nMan's intelligence, moral nature and will constitute \"the image of\nGod\" in him and make it possible for him to come into communication\nwith God and to occupy his unique place in the universe. Only a person\ncan understand a person.\n\n\"Man is dear to God because he is like Him. Vast and glorious as it\nis, the sun cannot think God's thoughts; can fulfill but cannot\nintelligently sympathize with God's purposes. Man, alone among God's\nworks, can enter into and approve of God's purpose in the world and\ncan intelligently fulfill it. Without man the whole material universe\nwould have been dark and unintelligible, mechanical and apparently\nwithout any sufficient purpose. Matter, however fearfully and\nwonderfully wrought, is but the platform and material in which spirit,\nintelligence and will, may fulfill themselves and find development.\"\n\nThe Bible seeks to show men in how many ways they resemble God and to\nurge them to be worthy of their likeness to God. There is a certain\nphilosophy on the other hand, sometimes called \"the dirt philosophy,\"\nwhich seeks to show men in how many ways they resemble the brute and\nto urge them to live the life of the brute.\n\nBut a great practical question which demands an answer of us--as we\nlook out upon the world of men taking them as they are--is, Did God\nmake the evil man \"in His likeness\" as well as the good man?\n\nThe Good Man.--The best things bear the stamp of their maker. If a\ngood judge of pictures is taken into some famous art gallery it is not\nnecessary to point out to him the excellencies of the paintings, they\ntell their own story. There are men in the Bible who manifestly bear\nthe image of God; Abraham, Isaac, Enoch, Moses, David, John, Paul and\nothers.  There have been many men in ancient and modern times who,\nwhen some great crisis has come in the state or church, have conducted\nthemselves as men born in the image of God; men who have sacrificed\ntheir own interests to be loyal to the truth. We all recognize such\nmen as God-born.\n\nThe Evil Man.--The difficulty is however to recognize any image of God\nin a certain class of evil men who have low instincts and desires; men\nwho lie, cheat, steal and break every commandment of God and man.\n\nDid God make the worst and the lowest of men?  If we are to consider\nfairly the question of the making of man in the image of God we must\nnot shun this problem, which the vilest of men and the most degraded\nsavage presents. What can be seen in these men that reminds us of \"the\nlikeness of God\"? We are to judge men, however, by what they are\ncapable of and are, at their best, rather than at their worst.  The\nart world regards Michael Angelo's statue of Moses as one of the\ngreatest creations of the sculptor's genius. Suppose, however, some\none should maliciously deluge this masterpiece with ink, smash it into\nfragments with a huge hammer, and then ask as he looked upon the\nmarred and blackened bits of marble, \"Is that a masterpiece of Michael\nAngelo's genius?\"  So we look upon a man who has been marred and\nbroken by sin and ask the question, \"Was that man created in the image\nof God? Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright;\nbut they have sought out many inventions.\" Trace back the cause of the\ndegradation of the individual or society or state and we always find\nthe root to be in some transgression of a righteous law of God.\n\nThe Bible uniformly asserts that God is not the author of sin or man's\nfall into evil ways, but that he has sufficient light to follow right\nways, if he will.  But that an evil man has this marvelous heritage of\nbeing God-born is shown by the fact that even when he has marred \"the\nlikeness of God\" in him, by sin, beyond human recognition there is\nstill a possibility of its being restored. Jesus Christ said, \"For the\nSon of man is come to seek and save that which was lost\" (Luke 19:10;\nMatthew 15:24; Luke 15:4); the most evil men came to Him and,\nconfessing their sins, were brought back into sonship with God. The\nincentive to Christian work, in the slums of the cities, amongst the\nmost degraded savages and everywhere, is the finding of men broken and\nmarred by sin and the possibility of bringing them back to God.\n\nGod disapproves the sin but loves the sinner. \"God commended His love\ntowards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us\"\n(Romans 5:8-11).\n\n\nTHE CHIEF END OF MAN\n\nThe Bible declares the divine origin and the divine destiny of man,\nand that he was made in the image of God and for His glory.\n\nA Threefold Obligation rests upon man to serve and glorify God,\n\n\"1. On account of his creation by God, the Father.\n\n\"2. On account of his redemption by God, the Son.\n\n\"3. On account of his regeneration and sanctification by God, the Holy\nGhost.\"\n\nThe Great Concern of Man should be conformity with the divine likeness\n(John 5:30; Matthew 6:10,33; 16:26; Romans 14:8; I Corinthians 10:31).\n\"Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing\nof your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and\nperfect will of God\" (Romans 12:2). It is only when man succeeds in\nbringing his will to do God's will and makes God's plan his plan of\nlife that he comes to his best and highest estate. The world is full\nof sin and misery, and there are many burdens heavy to be borne,\nbecause man insists upon having his way instead of seeking God's\nway. Many great civilizations have gone down and many forms of society\nhave been disrupted because, in them, man strove to set up his glory,\nrather than God's glory, as the standard to be striven for. Man has\nrepeatedly attempted to attain to \"the dominion\" promised him only to\nfail because he has desired such \"dominion\" to spend it upon\nhimself. God desires to crown man with glory and honour and to do\nexceedingly large things for him, the Scriptures are filled with great\npromises, but man only grasps at the shadow of power, when he might\nhave the substance. All great inventions and discoveries but point to\nstill greater ones, when man shall be fitted by spiritual grace and\ngoodness to be intrusted with them. The kingdom of heaven must come in\nman's heart before any great material or spiritual advancement can\ncome in the world. Education, commerce, art, science, in all their\nmajesty of strength, can never do what the Christian religion can do\nfor men when it shall succeed in getting them to seek to be conformed\nto \"the divine likeness\": this is a truth too little emphasized, but\nit is fundamental and necessary to any real progress in the\nworld. \"There is a higher law for life than self-will and unregulated\nimpulse; the real world goes deeper than things of sense; this\ntemporal life is related to eternity; and God is the central verity of\nall.\"\n\n\nTHE PERFECT EXAMPLE\n\nGod's Measure of a Man.--What is the standard by which man is to\ncompare himself? Great things are expected of a man but how is he to\nwork them out?  These are fair questions.\n\nJesus Christ has two titles in the New Testament, \"The Son of God\" and\n\"The Son of Man.\" If we want to know what God is like we look into the\nface of Jesus Christ. If we want to know what man ought to be we look\ninto the face of Jesus Christ (John 14:5-9; Matthew 5:48).\n\nJesus Christ is the Perfect Example.\n\nHe is the Perfect Example of a Physical Man.--The test here is bodily\nendurance and perfect control over the body. Look at Jesus Christ and\nnote His physical endurance tests. He was forty days without food\n(Matthew 4:2); this is not a weakling's task.  A man must have a\nstrong body to endure through such a starvation period. For a man to\nbe crucified upon a cross, after being scourged, was to undergo the\nmost terrible agony; yet Christ so had His body under control upon His\ncross that He could speak forgiveness for His enemies and commend His\nmother to the care of a disciple. \"How can I start a religion?\"  said\none great Frenchman to another. \"Go and be crucified,\" was the\nreply. If we want to behold the perfect physical man, who had His body\nin complete control and made it do His will, we must look to Jesus\nChrist. How many sins come to man through a weak physical control!\n\nHe is the Perfect Example of an Intellectual Man.--What man can\ncompare with Jesus Christ in the power of His intellect? He stands\nready before all to state and defend His precepts and principles. He\nso spoke to the people that they listened with growing conviction.\n\"Never man spake like this man.\"  Difficult questions were brought to\nHim, questions which would make the wisest judges hesitate in their\nanswers, and at once He gave His replies which stand unimpeached\nto-day for marvellous wisdom and power.  Living in an age long before\nmodern science had its birth, He handles Nature as her Master and\nmakes no mistake. His words to-day are a power in the court, in the\nsenate and the marts of the world, as well as in the pulpit. He is the\nperfect intellectual man for our example.\n\nHe is the Perfect Example of a Moral Man.--Many intellectual and\nphysical giants fail upon the moral test; but in Christ we find no\nmoral flaw. He is the standard of moral perfection. He is the perfect\nmoral example for all men.\n\nHere is the foundation for physical and intellectual progress, but\nwithout a true moral foundation they will both fail.\n\nNo man ever so ministered to men as Jesus Christ.\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nWhat is man? What shall we think of him? What is the Christian thought\nof man? Give the five points in the Christian conception of man. Man\nmade in the image of God; give a statement of this case. What is the\nimage of God? Did God make the good man, the evil man? What is the\nchief end of man? What threefold obligation rests upon man to serve\nand glorify God? What should be the great concern of man? What can be\nsaid of God's measure of a man? What can be said of Jesus Christ as\nthe perfect physical, intellectual and moral man?\n\n\n\nSTUDY IV\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOW MAN\n\n\nScripture references: Luke 10:29-37; Matthew 7:12; 5:16; Luke\n12:13-15; 1 Corinthians 13; Matthew 7:3-5; 5:42-49; John 21:21, 22.\n\n\nMAN AND OTHER MEN\n\nThe Question of Relationship.--One of the most important questions is\nthat of the relation which a man shall hold to other men.\n\n1. It is fundamental in every system of philosophy and religion. The\nanswers, which are given, show their widespread practical bearing in\nthe social, industrial and political spheres, as well as in the\nreligious.\n\n2. It is imperative from the fact it demands a reply which becomes at\nonce the basis of action. A man, amongst men, is under the necessity\nof deciding how he will conduct himself towards his fellow men.\n\nThere are many divergent opinions, in regard to the relation which a\nman should sustain to his fellow man, which lead to widely divergent\ncourses of action and largely affect the world for good or ill.\n\nJesus Christ was outspoken on this matter. His words (Luke 10:29-37;\nMatthew 22:36-40) go at once to the heart of the question and give its\nonly possible solution.\n\n\nTHE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN\n\nThe Inequalities in the Lives of Men are many and far reaching. They\ndivide men from each other and tend, if brooded over, to make them\nlive lives apart, with a lessening sympathy and a growing hostility.\nThey pertain to race, education, business and society. They may be\nnatural, or artificially induced.\n\nThe great inequality to-day, however, upon which men place an acute\nemphasis is that of wealth or the lack of it. A man once came to Jesus\nand said, \"Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance\nwith me\" (Luke 12:13); there is the same demand to-day. Men are not\nseeking to share the responsibility of a self-denying service to their\nfellow-men, such as Jesus gave; neither are they greatly desirous of\nadvancing the cause of righteousness in the world, but they are too\nlargely looking to the betterment of their material condition. It is\nthis state of affairs which often spurs men on to accumulate wealth by\nthe oppression of their fellow men. Many men work and plan for certain\ngreat results in financial matters (as though these were the supreme\nthings), only to be disappointed and in consequence lose their\ninterest in life. It is the making of the struggle for material\nbetterment the chief thing in life which causes strikes, lockouts and\nmost of our modern industrial troubles. Here we find also the cause of\nheart-burnings and jealousies and deep-seated hatreds.\n\nIt is said that out of these struggles between competitors, and\nemployer and employee, there is coming a better understanding between\nthe contending parties and also new adjustments which will do away\nwith these destructive strifes. This may all be true, but so long as\nmen seek simply and only for material betterment, ignoring the\nspiritual and moral in their lives, any readjustment of hours of\nlabour or scale of wages or agreements will only be of a temporary\ncharacter, for the real cause of the whole trouble is left untouched.\nOne of the ablest writers upon \"The Social Unrest\" says, \"At the heart\nof the larger labour movement is the race longing for a society in\nwhich at least the spirit of equality shall be realized. Most radical\nremedies are only means to this end. Beyond, and deeper than all the\nmachinery of social reconstruction, is this master passion of\ndemocracy.\" But this same writer also, after a survey of the whole\nquestion, declares that before this equality can be realized there\nmust come a character founded on love.\n\nCause and Remedy.--Selfishness is often the real cause of the sting of\ninequality and of the keeping of men apart; until this is eradicated\nand replaced by the master passion of love--employer for employee and\nemployee for employer--no agreements and no legislation, between the\ncontending forces will serve the purpose. It was the master passion of\na supreme love which produced the first social equality society (Acts\n4:32-37); it was selfishness which broke it up (Acts 5:1-13). This\nselfishness is also at the root of the arrogance which causes men to\ndespise men of an inferior race, culture or social position and seeks\nto use them for purposes of gain.\n\nPerfect equality amongst men, however, outside of equality before the\nlaw and God, hardly seems a realizable thing; certainly all men cannot\nbe of the same age and of the same stature at the same time; there are\ngifts of talent; there are different races, but where supreme love is\nit takes out the sting of a sense of an inferiority and the jealousy\nand hatred of superior gifts; under its benign influence the rich and\nthe poor, the talented and the untalented, work together as brethren.\nThe brotherhood of love is the only true brotherhood and the only\nsolution of this vexed question.\n\n\nTHE TRUE RELATION OF MAN TO MAN\n\nWho is My Neighbour?--The answer which Jesus gave to this question\n(Luke 10:29), which a certain lawyer asked of Him in order to justify\nhimself, shows the true relation of man to man.\n\nThe lawyer doubtless supposed when he put this question to Jesus that\nhe would silence Him. The Jews in their proud isolation considered\nthemselves the chosen people of God and despised other races, even\nlooking with a certain contempt upon their Roman conquerors. How would\nthe Jewish Messiah, if not put to silence, answer a question like\nthis? Doubtless the reply would be that only a Jew could be neighbour\nto a Jew. The race spirit is a strong one and men born to a certain\nnationality have many stout binding ties of speech and customs, which\nare not easily broken.\n\nMark, however, the large mindedness of Jesus. He breaks at once\nthrough race ties and without so much as mentioning the Jew, he takes\nthe Samaritan as the example of a good neighbour. Now the Jews and the\nSamaritans had no dealings with each other, their animosity was well\nknown; at this distance of time we can hardly realize how startling a\nthing it was to take a Samaritan as an example of a good\nneighbour. But it is right here that Jesus begins to show us the true\nrelation of man to man and that this relation is superior to race,\ncaste, language, social distinctions, customs and organizations.\n\nMy neighbour, then, is not only the man who lives next door, or is in\nthe same business, or belongs to the same church or labour\norganization, or political party, but all men are my neighbours and I\nam to seek to do them good (Luke 10:30-37). This definition of\nneighbour does away with all clannishness and exclusiveness, and man\ncomes face to face with his fellow man as a man.\n\nHow Shall I Treat My Neighbour?--A number of answers may be given:\n\n1. Investigate the claims of my neighbour when I see him in a sad\ncondition. The good Samaritan did this at considerable personal risk,\nfor he could be by no means sure that the robbers would not return and\nrob him. Too many men, when they see their neighbours in want, pass by\non the other side, as the priest and Levite did. Adversity has been\ndescribed as \"a deep pit, into which a man has fallen, which is\nsurrounded by his near-sighted friends.\"\n\n2. Sympathize and succour my neighbour in trouble and do what is\nneeded to help him get upon his feet.\n\n3. Interest myself in the well being of my neighbour after the\nimmediate and acute necessity for aid is past. There are many who are\nwilling to aid when a pressing call comes, but who are unwilling to\nkeep up that aid through the convalescing stage; here is where the\nsummons comes to be not weary in well doing to one's neighbour.\n\nOutside of money help and aid in times of disaster and sickness there\nare many who are lonesome for words of cheer and acts of kindness on\nthe part of those with whom they daily come in contact. There is a\ndeeper meaning in the parable than that which relates to physical\npain. There is a suffering of the soul and a mental trouble which\nbeseech the kindness of the Christlike neighbourly touch.\n\n4. There is also the larger work, which is fundamental, of bringing\none's fellow man into the fellowship and communion of Jesus Christ;\nthis is the greatest benefit which any Christian man can confer upon\nhis brother-man (John 1:40-42,45).\n\n\nCHRIST'S LAW OF LOVE\n\nStatement of the Law.--\"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself\"\n(Matthew 22:39). A certain lawyer asked Jesus, \"Master, which is the\ngreat commandment of the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the\nLord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all\nthy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is\nlike unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.\"  The kingdom\nof God will come when this commandment is fully obeyed by men.\n\nExposition of the Law.--It would seem as if a law so plainly stated\nwould need no explanation or exposition.  But before men can rightly\nlove each other they must have certain principles and a certain\ncharacter.  It is not desirable that evil men with depraved thoughts\nand bad lives love us as they love themselves; for they love that\nwhich, if accepted by men, would lead to deep corruption of character.\n\nJesus Christ well put it that God must first be loved, with all the\nheart, soul and mind, before a man is ready to love his neighbour as\nhimself. This loving of God, first, implies an acceptance of the\nstandpoint of God in regard to man and the looking upon one's fellow\nman as God looks upon him. This standpoint of God is best seen in the\nwords and acts of Jesus Christ. A man in order, then, to love his\nfellow man aright must be thoroughly imbued with the principles of the\nMaster. A man must look upon other men as having souls of eternal\nvalue. A man who would do as Jesus would have him do must first have\nHis spirit of self-sacrificing love (Matthew 23:8-12; John 17:19;\nPhilippians 2:5-7; Isaiah 53:3; John 13:12-15).\n\nApplication of the Law.--The beauty of this law of love is that it may\nbe universally applied. There is no condition of man that it cannot\nmeet and satisfy.  The crying wrongs of the home, society, the\nindustrial world, the state, arise out of its neglect and\ncondemnation.  Men seek to make good their claims for things which\nthey think belong to them, they fight for them, gain them or lose\nthem, fight again or are fought, and in consequence race hatred, class\nand industrial hatred embitter the hearts of men.\n\nThis law applied to the life of the individual, sweetens it in its\nlowest depths and makes the strongest kind of a character. Paul is an\nexample of an able yet impetuous man, who let the gospel of the love\nof Christ have its supreme way with him. We find in him no shrinking\nfrom difficulties or death itself (2 Timothy 4:6-8). In the midst of\nsore trials he wrote that remarkable classic (1 Corinthians 13) upon\nlove which has been the help and stay of many a burdened soul.\n\nThis law applied in society is its only saving power.  It is this\nChrist love which sends men into the slums of the cities to work for\ntheir fellow men. It is this love that is the moving power of the\nmissionary of the cross, when he goes into the heart of heathendom. It\nis this love that has brought into the world all the reforms that are\nworth having and caused it to care for its sick and its poor.\n\nIt is to be deplored that in some quarters we should hear voices\ntalking about the inability of the Church to cope with the modern\nconditions of life and that these voices should be calling for new\ninstitutions to take its place. So long as the Church recognizes its\nduty to preach and practice the love of God to man, man to God, and\nman to his fellow man, no institution can take its place; for it has\nin this preaching, and the application of it, the supreme remedy for\nthe ills of mankind. Where there is no love or regard of man for his\nGod or fellow men all agreements and all laws however stoutly made,\nwith and for contending parties, have in them a fatal weakness.\n\nIt is love that sent Jesus Christ into the world (John 3:16,17) and it\nis its proclamation, and acceptance as the ruling power of life, that\nhas caused all the real advancement in civilization since His advent.\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nWhat can be said of the question of the relationship of man to other\nmen? What can be said of the inequalities in the lives of men and the\ngreat inequality? What is the cause and remedy of the sting of\ninequality? Who is my neighbour?  How shall I treat my neighbour? What\nis Christ's law of love? Give the statement, exposition and\napplication of the law.\n\n\n\nSTUDY V\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN FAITH\n\n\nScripture references: Hebrews 11; Matthew 9:29; 17:20; Mark 10:52;\n11:22; Acts 2:38; 3:16; 10:43; 16:30,31; Romans 1:17; 5:1; 10:17;\nGalatians 2:20.\n\n\nFAITH AND PRACTICE\n\nBelief Controls Action.--\"As the man is, so is his strength\" (Judges\n8:21), \"For as he thinketh in his heart so is he\" (Proverbs\n23:7). \"According to your faith be it unto you\" (Matthew 9:28,29).\n\"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of\nlife\" (Proverbs 4:23).\n\nThe Scriptures place stress upon the fact that a man's actions are\nlargely dependent upon what he believes or disbelieves rather than\nupon his environment (Proverbs 4:23; Romans 10:10; Acts 8:21; Matthew\n9:4; 12:34; 15:11,18-20; 23:25).\n\nThere is the will to believe and there is the will not to believe\n(Matthew 15:28; 16:24; Luke 9:23; John 5:40). Man grows from the\ninside out. What he believes in his heart will sooner or later\nmanifest itself in his acts. If a man thinks evil in his heart and\ncherishes that evil, while outwardly his life is moral and upright, it\nis only a question of time when the inner badness will break through\nthe thin crust of outer goodness. The real battle of life is in a\nman's soul and if a man sets himself to win this battle he need have\nno fear of outward evil circumstances; he will have to set no guard\nupon his words or acts for he will speak and act from a pure and\nupright heart.  It is not what he disbelieves, but what he believes,\nhis conviction of truth, that makes him strong.\n\nHence the necessity for the vigorous and living faith which Christ\nurged upon His followers (Mark 11:22-24; Matthew 17:19,20; Luke 8:\n24,25), a faith that could not be daunted by mountains of difficulty\nor great storms of afflictions.\n\nJesus came into the world with a positive program.  He had a\nconstructive gospel to preach to men. His disciples after His death\nfollowed in the footsteps of their Master and carried out His\ncommands.  The result was that faith was translated into action; the\nold world was changed and myriads of men gave in their allegiance to\nthe Christ. The positive setting forth of the Christian faith always\nbrings definite results.\n\n\nBASIS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH\n\nThe Christian Faith is Founded Upon the Fact and Experience of Jesus\nChrist.--Without Him there would have been no such faith.\n\n1. The fact of Christ. This faith bases itself primarily not upon\nreason or feeling, but upon Jesus Christ, a historical person, and\nwhat He said and did while upon this earth in bodily form. The early\ndisciples and preachers declared themselves to be witnesses. They were\nsent forth as witnesses (Matthew 28:18-20; John 15:27; Acts 1:8; 2:\n32). The speeches of Peter (Acts 2:14-40; 3:12-26; 4:8-12), Stephen\n(Acts 7:1-56) and of Paul (Acts 13:16-41; 22:1-21) are recitals, of\ncertain well attested occurrences, which have for their chief point\nthe setting forth of the fact of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as the\nSaviour of men and hope of the world (Acts 2:38,39).\n\n2. The experience of Christ. By this is meant the experience which men\nhave who receive Christ as their Saviour and Lord. There is a\nhistorical Christ; and there is a spiritual Christ who enters into a\ncommunion of happiness and joy, with believers in Him.  Jesus Christ,\nwhen on earth in bodily form, promised the coming of the Holy Spirit\nwho should glorify Him (John 16:13,14); He also declared to His\ndisciples, \"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world\"\n(Matthew 28:20). Wherever this gospel of Jesus Christ is preached and\nmen under its power truly repent of their sins and accept Him as their\nSaviour, as in the past so now, men may enter into personal relations\nwith their risen and glorified Lord (Acts 2:40-42; John 7:17; Acts 8:\n5-7; Romans 8:1-10; Colossians 1:27; Acts 26:15-19).\n\nEssential Elements.--In the Christian faith there are six component\nelements.\n\n1. Belief in God as The Spirit, \"infinite, eternal, and unchangeable\nin His being, wisdom and power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth\"\n(John 4:24; Exodus 20:2-7; Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 44:6; John 17:3; 1\nCorinthians 8:4,6; Psalm 19; 104:24).\n\n2. Belief in man, as a child of God, whose spirit is destined to live\nforever (Genesis 2:7; 2 Corinthians 5:1; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Matthew\n6:25; 5:29,30).\n\n3. Belief in sin which taints and corrupts the heart of man, making it\nfinally, if unchecked, the dwelling place of all evil. The effects of\nsin are everywhere plainly manifest. Men not only sin through\nignorance and carelessly but willfully. The worst sins are those which\nare of the spirit, anger, pride, malice and envy (Isaiah 53:6; 64:6;\nRomans 3:23; 1 John 1:8; Romans 1:18-3:23; 8:7).\n\n4. Belief in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Saviour of men, who\ncan cleanse the heart of man and save him from his sins. Jesus Christ\ncame not only to reveal God, the Father, to man but also to purge his\nheart from evil. \"He is the propitiation for our sins\" (1 John 2:1,2;\nRomans 8:34; Hebrews 7:24,25; Matthew 20:28; Romans 3:24,25; 5:8; 8:3;\nGalatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Matthew\n9:2-6).\n\n5. Belief in the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians\n6:11; Ephesians 3:16; Galatians 5:22) who \"testifies of Christ, as the\nSaviour of sinners, unites us to Him by faith, and makes us partakers\nof all His benefits.\" Jesus said, \"When the Comforter is come, whom I\nwill send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which\nproceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me\" (John 15:26).\n\"The Spirit of truth ... will guide you into all truth.... He shall\nglorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you\"\n(John 16:13,14; 14:26; 1 Corinthians 12:3; Titus 3:5,6; Matthew 28:\n19; John 3:5,6).\n\n6. Belief in the resurrection and the life to come, the issues of\nwhich are declared to be eternal. \"The hour is coming in which all\nthat are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth;\nthey that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that\nhave done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation\" (John 5:28,29;\nMatthew 25:31-46; 25:1-13). The great rainbow of promise that spans\nthe future, for those who trust in Christ, is in the fact that He\nsaid, \"I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me,\nthough he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and\nbelieveth in Me shall never die\" (John 11:25,26; I Thessalonians 5:23;\nJohn 6:47; 14:2,19). The resurrection body \"will be spiritual,\nimmortal, incorruptible, and like unto the glorious body of Jesus\nChrist\" (Philippians 3:20,21; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23,35-57).\n\nDefiniteness.--There is a marvellous directness and definiteness in\nthe statements of the New Testament writers, in proclaiming the\nChristian faith, because they believe that they are dealing with the\ntremendous facts of life and destiny. God has manifested Himself and\nspoken in Jesus Christ as He has never manifested Himself before. \"God\nwho at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the\nfathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His\nSon, whom He hath appointed heir of all things\" (Hebrews 1:1,2). The\neternal things of God, kept secret from the foundation of the world,\nare now made known to man; why should he not, in spite of any\npunishment or threatened ignominious death, proclaim these truths\ndefinitely and plainly to his fellow man (Acts 4:13-20)?\n\nThe keynote of all of Paul's work is sounded in a very definite and\ndirect way in his first Epistle to the Corinthians (2:2,5) where he\nsays, \"For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus\nChrist and Him crucified.... That your faith should not stand in the\nwisdom of men but in the power of God.\" Paul consistently maintains\nthroughout his Epistles that the sole basis of salvation is the grace\nof God through Jesus Christ, to be appropriated by faith on the part\nof man.\n\n\nTESTS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH\n\nEffects Upon Men and Institutions.--Jesus Christ was ever urging His\ndisciples to test His words and principles. He declared the difference\nbetween true and false prophets could be known by their fruits.  He\nsaid, \"Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?  Even so\nevery good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth\nforth evil fruit ... wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them\"\n(Matthew 7:15-20). When Thomas expressed doubt of His resurrection,\nChrist gave him ample opportunity to test its reality (John\n20:24-29). Christ's challenge to the world is, \"Try Me!\" \"Come and see\nwhat I can do!\"\n\nWhat kind of men has the Christian faith made?  What kind of\ncommunities has it produced? Two pertinent questions are asked in a\nrecent book of sermons, What would be the effect upon this world if\neverybody was a consistent Christian? What would be the effect upon\nthis world if everybody was a consistent infidel? \"The argument is a\ncrushing one, for of a truth Christianity can stand such a test with a\nglory that would astonish even the most ardent enthusiasts. And it is\nthe one test, let it be admitted with sorrow, that a reviling world is\nnot willing to have it judged by.\"\n\nA Saving Faith which meets men at their extremity of need and gives\nthem a new heart. It is not only a faith that did save men when Christ\nwalked the earth and healed the sick, giving sight to the blind and\nraising the dead, but it is a faith which saves men now. Christ is\nstill performing His miracle of cleansing the hearts of men of\nevil. He is saying, \"Come unto Me,\" and men are coming as of old. The\nquestion whether He can save now is being put to the test every day\nand every day it is being answered in the regeneration of\nmen. Wherever this gospel is preached amongst the wealthy and learned\nor the poor and ignorant, it shows its splendid fruitage as it did of\nold.\n\n\nUSES OF CHRISTIAN FAITH\n\nTo Make Plain the Great Cause of All as Father.--We live in an immense\nuniverse, in the midst of giant forces of which, after science has\nmade its most searching investigation and said its last word, we know\ncomparatively little and that little imperfectly. No set of men is\nmore ready to admit this state of affairs than that which has made the\nclosest scrutiny of the phenomena of nature. There is a host of\nquestions to which the most painstaking investigation on the part of\nthe philosophers can afford us no answer.\n\nWithout this Christian faith which tells us of a revelation from God\nand His plan and purpose for man we should be helpless, ever seeking\nfor light in this universe which we could not find. Then again we\nmight believe in a first great cause of all things, but without a\nrevelation we could not know God as the Creator of all things and as\nour Father who cares supremely for us--made known in the manifestation\nof Jesus Christ.\n\nBy faith in Christ we are brought into communion with God the Father.\n\nTo Show the Importance and Value of Human Life.--How could man know\nthat he was more than an atom in a whirlpool of atoms, his life of\nsense but a transitory thing, if it had not been for the Scriptures\nwhich seek to impress upon him the value of his life in the sight of\nGod (John 3:16,17; Matthew 16:26)?  Without the pale of the Christian\nfaith men hold life but cheaply, they squander it and waste it in sin;\nthey too often say, \"Let us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we\ndie\"--forever passing out of existence.  The Christian faith holds\nhuman life as a very precious thing, something to be cherished with\ninfinite and loving care, for the spirit in man is to live forever.\nHere is a new significance given to life which, when the individual\naccepts it, gives him new and great ideals, which lift him to a higher\nlevel of living.\n\nBy faith in Christ we are brought into proper fellowship with our\nfellow men, and their lives are made precious in our sight.\n\nTo Show the Way to Happiness and Joy Through Jesus Christ.--If there\nis one thing more than another which man is seeking it is happiness,\nbut it is the kind of happiness which frequently destroys the body and\nsoul--still he seeks it. Many men seek happiness through relaxation of\ntheir moral nature.\n\nChrist came preaching the happiness of a conqueror, the victor who\nsings the song of rejoicing over some victory won; He set forth a joy\nwhich celebrated a conquest over evil desires and made a man noble and\npure in his thoughts and aspirations. Jesus did His work for the joy\nthat was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). The Christian faith was never\nintended to make a man gloomy or downcast, but to put joy in his heart\nand a song upon his lips. No one has more right to a cheerful\ncountenance than the sincere Christian, for he can be sure that he\nknows the way of happiness here and nothing can come to him hereafter\nsave peace and glory in the redeemed life.\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nHow does belief control action?  What is the basis of Christian faith?\nGive the six component elements of the Christian faith. What can be\nsaid of the definiteness of the Christian faith? Give some of the\ntests of Christian faith.  Give three uses of Christian faith.\n\n\n\nSTUDY VI\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN'S BOOK\n\n\nScripture references 2 Timothy 3:16,17; 2 Peter 1:20,21; John 5:39;\nRomans 15:4; 2 Samuel 23:2; Luke 1:70; 24:32,45; John 2:22; 10:35;\n19:36; Acts 1:16; Romans 1:1,2; 1 Corinthians 15:3,4; James 2:8.\n\n\nWHAT IS THE BIBLE?\n\nWhat is the Bible? How shall we regard it?  Where shall we place it?\nThese and many questions like them at once come to the front when we\nbegin to discuss the Bible as a book. It is only possible in this\nbrief study, of a great subject, to indicate the line of some of the\nanswers.\n\nIt is not Like Other Books.--Although its last paragraph was written\nand the canon completed many hundreds of years ago, it is still one of\nthe freshest and newest of books and its moral precepts and\nadmonitions are far in advance of the world's practice.  It has an\nadaptability to all sorts and conditions of men and a flexibility in\nmeeting the most radical changes of thought, which is possessed by no\nother volume. It has been attacked and denounced and seemingly\ndemolished only in the end to lead its critics captive and to come\nforth from the fray stronger than ever.\n\nIt is a God-filled and God-inspired book. It is the most lasting in\nits popularity of all books.\n\nIt is Like Other Books in that it is cast in the mold of the\nliterature of a certain people. We find here all the forms of\nliterature, history, philosophy, poetry, letters, etc. There is much\nplausibility in the plea for the study of the Bible as literature for\nit is the best of its kind.\n\nIt Leads the World's Thought of Righteousness and Purity of Life.--The\nTen Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17), The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) and\nThe Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-7:29) set forth the highest\nethical standards known to man.\n\nIt is the Record of a Revelation from God.\n\nThe theme is, \"the entrance of God into the spiritual life of man.\"\nThis makes it superior to all other books and invests it with a unique\ncharacter which commands our most earnest attention. God, who is\nspeaking to men through this book, says, \"Thou shalt have no other\ngods before Me.\" God is not only the God of the Israelites but of all\nnations and peoples.\n\nThe great men, whose life stories are given in the Bible, were God\ncalled to, and God guided in, their work of uplifting the world. We\nhave only to look at the record to see how the initiative is declared\nto have been taken by God. Here is the roll call, Abraham (Genesis\n12:1-3), Moses (Exodus 3:14), Joshua (1:1-6), Samuel (1 Samuel\n3:4-21), David (1 Samuel 16:3,11-13), Isaiah (1:1), Ezekiel (1:1),\nJeremiah (1:2) and all the prophets, John the Baptist (Luke 1:13-17;\nMatthew 3:1-12), Peter, John and Paul (Acts 1:8; 2:1-4; 13:1,2).\n\nThe Old Testament shows the looking forward to the Christ and the New\nTestament records His coming as the Spiritual Light of the world. No\nother book or set of books announce \"the entrance of God to the\nspiritual life of man\" through Jesus Christ (John 1:1-18), who came\nspeaking of the new spiritual birth of man (John 3:1-21).\n\nThe only key to the understanding of the Bible is this plan of God to\nenter into the spiritual life of man.  We may easily look in the Bible\nfor what is not there and read into its pages what is in our own\nthoughts or read out of them that which we do not wish to see, but\nback of all we must acknowledge this peculiar purpose of God.\n\nBack also of all theories of revelation and inspiration--and giving\nrise to them--stands the great thought of God for the spiritual\nredemption of men.  For this end He enters into covenant with the\nIsraelites, He sends them prophets and teachers, and at last He sends\nHis Son. Continually God is calling to men, \"Be ye holy for I am\nholy.\"\n\n\nSTRUCTURE\n\nIn any book, after the consideration of the theme, we look for the\nform and the plan. In order to study a book to the best advantage, the\ndifferent parts and their relation to each other and to the whole must\nbe made plain. The Bible readily lends itself to an investigation of\nits structure.\n\nThe Bible is One Book with one thought running through it, God's\npurpose to redeem man, and may be so read and studied.\n\nThe Bible is Composed of Many Books written by different authors in\ndifferent languages, at different times. Some of the books were\ncirculated separately before they were gathered either into the canon\nof the Old or New Testaments. The gathering together of the books and\nthe placing them in the order that we have them now was a slow\nprocess, but all in the order and interest of a progressive revelation\nof God and because of a common sympathetic subject.\n\nThe books take different forms and have different classifications,\nsuch as books of the law, wisdom, history, poetry, etc. In studying\nany book it is necessary to attend to its classification; there has\nbeen much misunderstanding of the Bible books because of the\ninterpretation of a book of poetry as history or the holding the free\nstyle of a letter to the hard and fast standards of a carefully worded\ncourt document.  The standpoint of the author of a book, and some\nconsideration for the age in which he lives, must always be taken into\nconsideration; in this way a book, which may seem to us now to be\nbehind the age in its thought, will be seen to be far ahead of the age\nin which the author lived and making and marking an important epoch in\na progressive revelation.\n\nEach Bible book has a well considered plan, a special aim, a\nhistorical setting and a practical value. For instance, in Genesis we\nhave a book of beginnings; a broad explanation of the origin of the\nworld, man, sin, salvation; and the revelation of God as Creator,\nPreserver, Lawgiver, Judge and Merciful Father. After the introduction\nthe book, if we look into the book itself, is divided into ten parts\nwith the recurring formula, \"These are the generations of.\" This book\ncannot be overestimated from a religious standpoint. The fact of a\nCreator is the fundamental teaching of its cosmogony. God, one God, is\nhere clearly distinguished from a host of heathen gods. He is over and\nabove matter, everything in the universe is subject to Him.  Again in\nthis book we have the early history of the human race shown in large\noutline and also the story of the fathers of the Jewish race from the\ncalling of Abraham to the death of Jacob. Behind any theory of the\nconstruction of Genesis the great representative truths stand\nfirm. Every Bible book can be considered and its plan and purpose\nshown in this way.  Even a small book like Ruth, which seems to be\nonly a little pleasant story, has an important part to perform.\nWithout it the times of the judges would present only a very somber\npicture, but with it we can see that in those dark and troublous times\nthere were noble, God fearing men like Boaz and true women like\nRuth. We could not spare a single book of the New Testament, for with\none lacking something would be wanting in the picture of early\nChristianity.\n\nThe Bible is Composed of Groups of Books Which Relate to Special\nEras.--They show God revealing Himself and also dealing with the\nchosen nation, under different forms of administration; they indicate\nthe steps leading up to Christ and His appearance on the earth.\n\nFirst Era, the Time of Beginnings (Genesis 1-11:32). This extends from\nthe creation of the world to the call of Abraham. We have here set\nforth the connection of the world with God, the beginning of life and\nbeginning of sin, which rendered salvation necessary.\n\nSecond Era, the Theocracy. The record is found in the books of\nGenesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth\nand 1 Samuel.  This period is known as the Theocracy because it marks\nthe direct rule of God over His people. It lasted from the covenant of\nGod with Abraham to the anointing of Saul as king. We here see the\nbeginning of the chosen family, and nation, what laws and precepts\nwere given it and what fortunes befell it. This training time shows\nGod's high standards in the laws and precept given this Israelitish\npeople.\n\nThird Era, the Monarchy. The record is found in the books of 1 and 2\nSamuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Psalms, Jonah, Amos, Hosea,\nMicah, Joel, Isaiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk and Jeremiah.  We have\nhere the story of the rise, glory, division and fall of the Jewish\nmonarchy. The people desired a king and the king sought to rule by his\nown will rather than the will of God. We note God's desire to make\nthis nation a \"Holy Nation\" and its sin and failure.  The function of\nthe prophets was to declare the sin of the nation, to set the right\nway before it and seek to lead it back to God, but the nation would\nnot heed the voices of the prophets, hence the fall of the\nmonarchy. The coming of the perfect king and kingdom under the Messiah\nis prophesied. The work and place of Christ is foretold by the\nprophets.\n\nFourth Era, the Captivity. The record is found in the books of 2\nChronicles, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel and Obadiah. The people\nrejecting God are taken into captivity. In this captivity the people\nturn to God in their affliction, their worship is purified and the\nhope of the coming of the Messiah grows very strong.\n\nFifth Era, the Restoration. The record is found in the books of Ezra,\nNehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. The people purified by their\ncaptivity and uplifted by their hope of the coming Christ are restored\nto their own land.\n\nSixth Era, the Christian. The record is found in the books of the New\nTestament. The Christian era is ushered in by the coming of Christ and\nthe fulfillment of God's promises. The mission of the Jewish nation\nfinds its fruition in Christ and the coming of the Saviour of all\nmankind.\n\nIt will be seen from this very brief summary of the eras how God\ngradually revealed Himself and His plan for the spiritual\nenlightenment of all men. The necessity also of studying each book,\nnot only in its own plan but in its group place, in order to find its\nmeaning, cannot be too earnestly commended.\n\n\nCREDIBILITY\n\nIt is natural that a book demanding our belief in such great things\nshould be asked for its credentials and that these credentials should\nbe subjected to the most searching investigation. The Bible has\nnothing to fear, however, from the keenest scrutiny of any scholar who\nhas only the desire to get at the truth.  The trouble begins when a\ncritic, who is hostile to its spiritual truth or who has a theory to\nmaintain, takes a part in the investigation; even then the truth is\nsure, in time, to assert its rightful claim (Acts 5:39). The fact of\ndifferent interpretations of the same set of facts in different times,\nbut leading to the same practical results, must also be taken into\nconsideration. All men do not receive the same truth in the same way\nwhile they may be one at heart in the fundamentals (1 Corinthians\n12:4-14).\n\nThe Bible welcomes any and all searching of its claims; it stands out\nin the open; it has won its way amongst mankind not by the might of\nthose who advocate its claims, but by the power of the truth within\nits pages.\n\nSome of the arguments for the credibility of the Bible are here given.\n\nThe Argument from History.--Back of all questions of authorship, date\nand composition of the books of the Bible, is the one great question,\nAre the records true to the facts? Is the Bible, in plain words, true\nhistory?\n\nThe writers of the New Testament use the historical argument. They\nspeak of the things most surely believed amongst us and of the\ntestimony of eyewitnesses (Luke 1:1-4; John 19:35; 21:24,25).  The\ndisciples were not to go forth preaching a subtle philosophy, but were\nto be witnesses of certain facts and were to testify of the things\nwhich they had seen and heard (Acts 1:8). Peter's speech upon the day\nof Pentecost is a recital of facts. Paul's argument for the\nresurrection of Christ is based upon the testimony of eye-witnesses (1\nCorinthians 15:1-20). If God has manifested Himself in the person of\nJesus Christ we need to know it through the best of testimony in\nregard to the fact. The record of the New Testament is made to this\nend.\n\nThe writers of the Old Testament profess to give us statements of\nfacts in regard to God's dealings with the Israelitish people. The\ncritical dealing with each of the books of the Old Testament is all to\nthe intent whether it fairly represents a historical situation. The\nolder scriptural narratives show of the doings of other nations than\nthe Israelites, they describe situations in times long past, where\nowing to broken and imperfect records, it has been difficult to get at\nthe exact facts.  Unfortunately in some quarters the tendency has been\nto cast doubt upon the Old Testament writings where the statements\nwere not corroborated by a research in the archives, often very\nimperfect, of other nations.  But happily this state of affairs is\nbeing changed and confidence in the historicity of the Old Testament\nrecords is being greatly strengthened by the investigations of the\narchaeologists in the ruins of the great empires of Egypt, Assyria and\nBabylonia with which Israel came so closely in contact. Until recently\nthe Old Testament stood alone in its assertion of a comparatively high\ncivilization antedating Moses and Abraham, but now we know from\nexcavations made in Nippur and other buried cities that the contention\nof the Bible is true to the letter. The situation in Egypt and\nPalestine about the time of the Exodus is made plain by the\nTel-el-Amarna tablets. The history of first and second Kings is not\nonly corroborated but amplified by the monuments. Much yet remains to\nbe done along this line, some views may have to be changed, but the\nperiod of destruction has passed and that of construction has begun.\n\nThe Argument from Prophecy.--The Old Testament prophets were not only\nthe preachers of righteousness for their own times and their own\nnation, but they had a mission to other nations and times as well.\nTheir ruling idea was the establishment of God's kingdom upon\nearth. They taught the unity, spirituality, holiness, justice and\ngoodness of God. They made predictions in regard to Egypt, Babylon,\nAssyria, Syria, Moab, and their cities, when they were at the height\nof their power; these predictions were remarkably fulfilled. They\nforetold the captivity and restoration of Israel. Their great subject\nwas the expectation of the Messiah and the Messianic Kingdom.  The\nprophecies in regard to the Christ became more and more explicit as\nthe time drew near; they declared His mission, His prophetic power,\nHis kingly office, His priestly activity, the circumstances of His\ncoming through a man, a nation, and in a definite place.\n\nThe Arguments from Vitality, Adaptability and Growth.\n\n1. Vitality. The religions of Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Rome died\nwith the nations which gave birth to them. The religion of the Bible,\nshows its divine author in its vitality and power to outlast the\nreligions with which it has come in contact. Empires, systems of\nthought, mighty kings, great men rise and have their day and pass\naway, but this book lives on.  Here is a vitality which persists in\nspite of any and all adverse circumstances and influences.\n\n2. Adaptability. The Bible is at home with all races in all climes. It\nadapts itself to all conditions of life, the most humble and the most\nexalted. The Asiatic, the African, the European, the American accept\nit as their book. It finds men, as men, in the deepest needs of their\nnature and shows them the all loving Saviour.\n\n3. Growth. The multiplying power of the book is shown by its\ntranslations into hundreds of languages and dialects. It makes its own\nway into the remotest quarters of the globe and is found wielding its\npower in the hut and the palace. More popular than any book that has\never been published, its sales, of millions of copies a year are ever\nincreasing, because it comes with a message from God direct to the\nheart of man.\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nWhat is the Bible? How is it not like and how is it like other books?\nHow is it the record of a revelation from God? What can be said of its\nstructure? What can be said of its books, of its groups of books? What\ncan be said of its credibility? Give the arguments from history,\nprophecy, vitality, adaptability and growth.\n\n\n\nSTUDY VII\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN PRAYER\n\n\nScripture references: Matthew 6:5-15; Luke 11:1-13; John 17; Matthew\n26:41; Mark 11:24,25; Luke 6:12,28; 9:29; 1 Thessalonians 5:17,25; 1\nCorinthians 14:13,15; Psalm 19:14; 50:15, Matthew 7:7; 1 Timothy 2:1;\nEphesians 3:20,21; John 16:23; 14:14; James 5:16.\n\n\nTHE PROVINCE OF PRAYER\n\nDefinition.--Prayer is the communion of man with God. It is not first\nof all the means of getting something from God, but the realization of\nHim in the soul.  \"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His\nrighteousness\" (Matthew 6:33). The glory of a man is in his\nuprightness of character, the purity of his spirit and his nearness\nand likeness to God. Man becomes like that which he thinks about the\nmost often and with which he most frequently communes in the secret\nrecesses of his heart. Prayer is not merely, then, a matter of stated\ntimes and seasons, although these should be observed, but a constant\nwalking with God and a realization of His presence at all times and in\nall places (Luke 18:1; Romans 12:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:17). The man\nwho thus communes with God will lay before Him his plans and purposes\nand will ask for direction and guidance in them; he will expect help\nfrom God as a partner in all his enterprises; he will grasp the power\nunseen to work great things in the seen. There will be special needs\nand occasions when a man, in harmony with God (James 5:16), will\nrequire special help and for this aid from God he will make strong and\nearnest petitions to Him. \"Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will\ndeliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me\" (Psalm 50:15; James 1:17;\nPsalm 19:14; Ephesians 3:20,21).\n\nThe Different Kinds of Prayer.--They are adoration, thanksgiving,\nintercession, petition and praise (1 Timothy 2:1).\n\nThe Different Places of Prayer.--1. In the public assemblage (Psalm\n122:1,2; Acts 3:1; Hebrews 10:25). 2. In the social and family\ngathering (Matthew 18:19,20; Acts 1:14; 2:46; 12:12).  3. In private\n(Matthew 6:6; Mark 1:35; Psalm 55:17; Daniel 6:10).\n\nThe Approach of Man to God.--\"All men pray at some time or other,\nwhether fitfully or constantly, in weakness or in strength, in sorrow\nor in joy. Some men pray because it is their chiefest delight to do\nso, and some pray because necessity drives them to it; but they all\npray. Prayer is a constant element, and the impulse to pray is ever\npresent to human nature.\"  Man has been called \"a religious and\npraying animal,\" because of this universal desire of men to come into\nsome touch with the power over them. This tendency is shown in lands\nwhere the true spiritual knowledge of God is lacking and where men\ndeify and adore objects of nature. The sun, the earth, the stars,\ntrees, mountains, waters, winds and carved images have all been made\ndivine objects of adoration and prayer, because of the desire of man\nto find or place the supernatural in them. Paul said to the men of\nAthens when he saw the altar to the \"Unknown God\": \"Whom therefore ye\nignorantly worship Him declare I unto you\" (Acts 17:23). All the\nresearch of natural science is to find out what is the Ultimate Power\nbehind all the phenomena of nature. Man by his very nature seeks to\napproach God. He is driven by an inward impulse to come to Him. Hence,\nwhere men do not have the true light by which to approach God or\nreject it there are found all sorts and kinds of caricatures of\nreligion.\n\nWhat are the proper means of approach to God through prayer?\n\n1. Right knowledge and faith. \"He that cometh to God must believe that\nHe is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him\"\n(Hebrews 11:6). \"This is life eternal that they might know Thee the\nonly true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent\" (John 17:3). God\nis above all and in all.  There are no other gods before Him. He is\nsupreme, manifested as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We come at once\nhere to the Great Personal Power, beyond whom there is no greater. We\ndo not look upon Him as a cold abstraction or blind force, but as a\nloving, kind Father. He desires to do more for us than we can ask or\nthink. No man prays to God in the right way who does not first of all\nhave a proper conception of God.\n\n2. Right attitude of the heart. \"If I regard iniquity in my heart the\nLord will not hear me\" (Psalm 66:18). Again the prayerless prayer of\nthe Pharisee began with \"I\" and the burning of incense before\nhimself. No man, cherishing something in his heart which he knows to\nbe contrary to the will of God or who only seeks to foster and advance\nhis own selfish interests, will come, or desire to come, or can come\ninto a very close communion with God. A wrong attitude of the heart\nkeeps many men from the enjoyment of God's presence, and makes them\nchoose to remain away from His sanctuary. No matter what the sin,\nhowever, if a man truly desires to get it out of his heart that man\ncan come at once into close touch with God (Isaiah 1:15-19; Psalm 51;\nRevelation 7:14).\n\n3. Right subjects of prayer. The advancement of the Kingdom of God and\nthe spiritual interests of man come first. Too many prayers move in\nthe narrow circles of self and purely physical wants; they take no\nwide sweep out over larger interests. God knows that we have physical\nneeds that must be supplied (Matthew 6:26). Jesus said, \"Is not the\nlife more than meat and the body than raiment\" (Matthew 6:25)?  And by\nHis urgency He would have our prayers rise higher than our physical\nwants into an infinitely larger sphere. Then God will more than bless\nus and take care of those things about which we are now so anxious\n(Matthew 6:26-34).\n\n4. Persistency (Matthew 11:12). It is difficult to deny a persistent\nman who, when thwarted in one way, begins to plan and act for the\nobject which he seeks in another way and who will not be put off.\nChrist commended the way of the persistent man to those who sought God\nin prayer. He gave examples of the widow who continually importuned an\nunjust judge until he listened to her plea and gave her justice (Luke\n18:1-8), and of the man who would not take \"no\" for an answer when he\nwanted to borrow bread from a neighbour at midnight (Luke 11:5-8). He\nsaid, \"Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find;\nknock, and it shall be opened unto you\" (Luke 11:9). Men who do not\npersist in their praying will fail to receive the higher blessings and\nthe larger benefits which otherwise God would gladly bestow upon\nthem. If men know how to give good gifts to their children when they\nask for them, then much more God knows how to grant the best things to\nmen when they ask Him. \"The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and\nthe violent take it by force\" (Matthew 11:12).\n\nThe Approach of God to Man.--How does God come near to man?  Does He\nhear when men pray to Him? Can He and will He answer prayer?\n\nThese questions are all simply and plainly answered in the\nScriptures. There is no doubt expressed here that God comes near to\nmen and will hear and answer when they pray to Him. \"The Lord is nigh\nunto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth\"\n(Psalm 145:18; 139:7-12; Ephesians 3:20).\n\nChristian experience answers these questions in the same affirmative\nway. Multitudes of Christians testify that God comes near to them and\nthat He hears and answers their prayers; there are many recorded and\nremarkable answers to prayers.\n\nIt is only when the testimony of the Bible and the experience of\nChristians are set aside that difficulties appear which seem very\nformidable.\n\nOne of the chief objections urged against God hearing and answering\nprayer is the discovery of the widening sphere of what is called\nnatural law in the ordering of the universe. Where God was formally\nlooked upon as directly controlling in certain things, it is pointed\nout that we now can plainly state the causes and the working of the\nlaws which produce certain results. According to one theory God is\nshut out of His universe; and according to another, He is shut up in\nHis universe; on either hypothesis the direct control is out of His\nhands. Hence, \"why pray?\" when our prayers even if they reach God\ncannot be answered.\n\nThis objection from the domination of law annuls the freedom of\nGod. It is like looking at a great piece of complicated machinery, and\nhaving it explained how part depends upon part and, because the\ndependence is plainly shown, being asked to believe that the maker and\ncontroller is under its power. We are asked to-day to concentrate our\nattention upon the levers, the springs and the pulleys and all the\nmachinery of the universe rather than upon the first great Cause and\nRuler of all.\n\nIt is assumed in this objection that much more is known of the laws\nand forces which govern the universe than really is. Prof. John Fiske\nsays in his lecture on \"Life Everlasting,\" I once heard Herbert\nSpencer say, \"you cannot take up any problem in physics without being\nquickly led to some metaphysical problem which you can neither solve\nnor evade.\"  Again he says, \"The more things we try to explain, the\nbetter we realize that we live in a world of unexplained residua.\"\n\nWidening knowledge is throwing back into the lumber room many much\nvaunted theories of origins.  Many wrong conceptions of the order of\nnature have in recent years been radically changed. It is freely\nacknowledged to-day by the foremost men of science that no man fully\nunderstands the order of nature.  Under the present limitations of\nhuman knowledge God cannot be shut up in or out of His universe.\nFurther research may show that such shutting up to be impossible; for\nin the end we are to depend not upon our ignorance but upon our\nknowledge of the universe for God's free control of all things.\n\nAlready the light begins to dawn when it is seen that all the natural\nforces and matter itself are beginning to reveal their origin and\ncontrol in one Great Master Force. But in this we but return to the\nbiblical statement \"In the beginning God\" (Genesis 1:1).\n\nWe are perfectly justified in believing, in the intelligence of God\nwhen we see so many evidences of intelligence in the world, and the\nfreedom and personality of God, when we note the freedom and\npersonality of man; for however we may argue that man is not free or\npersonal we believe that he is and act upon this belief in all the\npractical affairs of life. The created thing is not greater than its\ncreator or the law greater than the lawgiver. God is greater than the\nuniverse or man. God as all powerful, and as intelligent and personal\ncan be approached by man and comes near to him through his communion\nin prayer with Him.\n\nIt is perfectly possible for God, in His providential wisdom and\npower, to answer the prayers of His people. It is an every-day\noccurrence for man to deflect the beams of the sun and make nature's\nlaws do what they would not have done if left to themselves. We know\nmen to be personal and to be changed by petitions to their mercy and\nentreaties to use their power in certain directions. We believe that\nGod, infinitely greater than man, can be entreated and will use His\npower for the benefit of the petitioner. It is not unreasonable for\nmen to pray for material and spiritual blessings. While the sphere of\nprayer may be narrowed in certain directions by what we know of\nnature's processes, it has been greatly widened in other directions.\n\n\nTHE MODEL PRAYER\n\nThis is the Lord's Prayer which Christ gave His disciples when He\npreached the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:9-13) and when one of His\ndisciples said to Him, \"Lord teach us to pray\" (Luke 11:2-4).  \"It is\nthe prayer of prayers. It is the best and most beautiful, the simplest\nand yet the deepest, the shortest and yet the most comprehensive of\nall forms of devotion. Only from the lips of the Son of God could such\na perfect pattern proceed. It embraces all kinds of prayer--petition,\nintercession and thanksgiving; all essential objects of prayer,\nspiritual and temporal, divine and human, in the most suitable and\nbeautiful order.\"\n\nIt has been divided, and this is the natural division, into three\nparts, an address, six petitions and a doxology.\n\nThe Address.--\"Our Father who art in heaven\" (Matthew 6:9). This\nphrase \"Our Father\" shows the paternal relation which the Almighty\nsustains to us in Christ and the filial relation which we bear to Him\nthrough faith in Christ. It also reminds us that since we have a\ncommon Father in God, we are all brothers in Christ. The phrase, \"Who\nart in heaven\" shows us our heavenly origin and that our home is in\nour Father's house. We use the word \"our\" before Father and by it mean\nto embrace in prayer all the children of God. In using the word,\n\"Father\" we at once say we believe in a personal good God at the heart\nof all things and controlling all, one who loves and cares for us\nsupremely (Galatians 3:26; Ephesians 2:19; Psalm 103:13; Matthew 7:11;\nJohn 1:12,13; Romans 8:14,15).\n\nThe first three petitions refer to God.\n\nFirst Petition.--\"Hallowed be Thy name\" (Matthew 6:9). God's name\nstands also \"for His word, His day and His commandments.\" God's name\nis hallowed when we think and speak of Him with reverence and\nlove. Any man who speaks of God's name with contempt or takes it in\nvain at once shows his position in regard to God. The character of a\nman and of a community is shown by the respect or disrespect in which\nGod's name is held. Hence in praying \"Hallowed be Thy name\" we pray\nnot only that God may be rightly worshipped but for the upbuilding of\nthe character of men and communities. \"Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord\nof hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory\" (Isaiah 6:3; John\n17:3; Matthew 5:16; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Exodus 20:7).\n\nSecond Petition.--\"Thy Kingdom come\" (Matthew 6:10). \"This is the\nspiritual kingdom of grace and glory.\" The supplication is here for\nthe reign of righteousness in all hearts throughout the world; this\nincludes the building up of the home church, and home and foreign\nmissions. It expresses the desire for the conversion of all nations\nand bringing them under the dominion of our Lord (Revelation 11:15; 1\nCorinthians 15:28; Matthew 9:37,38; 6:33; 13:31-33; Luke 17:21).\n\nThird Petition.--\"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven\"\n(Matthew 6:10). The will of God concerning us is that we should be\nholy as He is holy (Leviticus 11:44) that we should be perfect as He\nis perfect (Matthew 5:48) and that we may believe on His Son (John\n6:40). In proportion as God's will is done on earth, evil, want,\nmisery, oppression, hate, jealousy, vanity and evil speaking will\ndisappear from the earth. We might then, when His will is done on\nearth as it is in heaven, shut up our jails, dismiss our police force,\nclose our courts, and reduce taxes to a minimum. When we offer this\npetition we are asking for large things.\n\nThe last three petitions refer to man and his needs.\n\nFourth Petition.--\"Give us this day our daily bread\" (Matthew\n6:11). This supplication calls our attention to the fact that we are\ndependent upon God for daily food and that we are to ask Him to supply\nour bodily wants. Daily bread includes food, raiment and shelter and\nall that belongs to our temporal necessities.  The answer to this\nprayer may be in health, bodily and mental strength to procure daily\nbread, but nevertheless it comes from the hand of God and He should be\nthanked for it as well as asked for it (Deuteronomy 8:10; Psalm 145:\n15,16; Proverbs 30:8).\n\nFifth Petition.--\"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors\"\n(Matthew 6:12). The word debts here means sins. In asking for\nforgiveness of sins, we acknowledge that we have sinned and are in\nneed of forgiveness. We pray the Father to forgive us and seek in this\nway to be reconciled to Him. But it is through Jesus Christ that the\nFather forgives men their sins. \"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh\naway the sin of the world\" (John 1:29; 1 John 1:7-9; John 3:16-19;\nEphesians 1:7). In repeating the latter clause of the petition, \"as we\nforgive our debtors\" we acknowledge that we have not only sinned\nagainst God but also against our fellow men and that they have sinned\nagainst us and caused us to cherish enmity in our hearts. If we desire\nGod's forgiveness we must forgive our fellow men and be reconciled\nwith them before we can expect to come to God and receive His full\nforgiveness for our transgressions.  \"Be not overcome of evil but\novercome evil with good\" (Romans 12:20,21). \"If ye forgive men their\ntrespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if ye\nforgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive\nyour trespasses\" (Matthew 6:14,15; 18:21,22; Luke 17:3,4).\n\nSixth Petition.--\"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from\nevil\" (Matthew 6:13). In this petition we acknowledge our weakness and\nproneness to go astray. We seek for God's strong power to guard us\nfrom and in all temptations of the flesh and spirit.  We ask for final\ndeliverance from the power and effects of all evil. We look forward to\nan abode with God where no evil can come to us. \"The Lord shall\ndeliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto His heavenly\nkingdom\" (2 Timothy 4:18; Psalm 31:5; 1 Peter 5:8; 1 John 5:4; 2:15;\nMatthew 26:41; 2 Timothy 4:7,8).\n\nThe Doxology.--\"For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory\nforever. Amen\" (Matthew 6:13). This is an ascription of praise showing\nthat in God is vested all power and glory, that there is no kingdom\nabove His kingdom and that He is supreme over all. Before Him must\ncome all things for judgment.  He alone is to be worshipped, for in\nHim is all power and truth and goodness. \"Thine, O Lord, is the\ngreatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the\nmajesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine;\nThine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all\"\n(1 Chronicles 29:11,12; Psalm 115:1; Ephesians 3:20,21).\n\n\nANSWERS TO PRAYER\n\nNothing could indicate more plainly that God cares for and loves men,\nand is not indifferent to their wants, than the great stream of prayer\nflowing through the Bible. He is not a God afar off, neither has He\nwound up the universe as a great machine and left it to its fate. He\nis in touch with His people. He hears them when they cry to Him. He is\nlong-suffering, merciful and righteous. Happy is the man who loves God\nwith all his heart and who seeks constantly to commune with Him.\n\nNotable Instances of Prayer, and the response of God, are shown in the\nfollowing passages of Scripture.  Abraham (Genesis 20:17), Jacob\n(Genesis 32:24-31), Moses (Numbers 11:2), Samuel (1 Samuel 12:18),\nElijah (1 Kings 18:37-46), Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:2-6), Ezra (9:5-15),\nDaniel (9:3-27), Jesus Christ (Matthew 6:6-15; John 17), The Apostles\n(Acts 1:14; 4:31), Peter (Acts 12:5-11), Paul and Silas (Acts\n16:25-32), Prophets and teachers at Antioch (Acts 13:1-3) and Paul and\nthe elders at Ephesus (Acts 20:36).\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nThe province of prayer; give a definition of prayer.  What are the\ndifferent kinds and places of prayer? What can be said of the approach\nof man to God? What is right knowledge of God? Right attitude of heart\nto God?  Right subjects of prayer? What has persistency to do in\npraying to God? What can be said of the approach of God to man? How\ndoes the Bible and Christian experience testify of this approach of\nGod to man? What is the great outside difficulty urged against God's\napproach to man and what can be said of it? What is the model prayer?\nGive the divisions of the model prayer and explain them. What can be\nsaid of answers to prayer?\n\n\n\nSTUDY VIII\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN SERVICE\n\n\nScripture references: Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 10:1-17; Matthew\n25:14-30; 23; 13; John 13:4-17; Hebrews 12:1-3; Matthew 5:16; 1\nCorinthians 3:13-15; James 2:14-26.\n\n\nTHE CALL TO SERVICE\n\nAll Christian belief must culminate in service or else the belief\nitself will wither away. Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount, \"Let\nyour light so shine before men that they may see your good works and\nglorify your Father which is in heaven\" (Matthew 5:16); again, in\ngiving His parting instructions to His disciples, He commanded, \"Go ye\ntherefore and teach all nations\" (Matthew 28:19,20). \"Faith, if it\nhath not works, is dead\" (James 2:17).\n\nThe New Testament rings with an optimistic trumpet call to service;\nthere is not a single pessimistic note sounded. A man expresses his\nbelief and he at once goes to work. To the fact that men were so\nwilling to lead a strenuous Christian life in those early times is due\nin large measure the marvellous spread of the gospel faith.\n\nThe Object of the Call was not a cause but a Person (Acts 1:8;\n2:22,36,38; 4:12; 10:43; 16:31); to set forth Jesus Christ as the\nSaviour of men. The world was full of evil. Society was corrupt. The\nstate was bad. There were many giant wrongs crying out for the\nreformer. The apostles might have devoted themselves to the causes of\nsocial and political reform with splendid success.  They might have\nbought only a gradual and purely friendly approach to the people whom\nthey wished to influence, as we often do now, with some success, but\nthe New Testament writings show that they believed that in the person\nof Jesus Christ they had a more powerful remedy for bad social and\npolitical conditions than any other which they could urge. In Christ\nthey found a supreme object of service; for Him they were willing to\ngive up houses, lands, position, even life itself (2 Timothy 4:6-8);\nfor only through Him, they preached, could the world be truly\nreformed. Why then potter with temporary and minor remedies when the\npermanent and great remedy was at hand? Times have changed since the\napostolic days, but for any lasting good in reform work Christ is\nstill the great remedy. He must be at the centre of all social,\npolitical and temperance betterments or they are destined to fall\nshort of the largest success.\n\nThe Place.--Where shall men serve the Christ?\n\n1. In the heart; there is a goodness of conduct on the part of some\nmen which has no relation to their heart's desire and is simply a\ncloak worn for appearance's sake. With this sort of goodness Jesus had\nno sympathy and denounced it as hypocrisy (Matthew 6:1-34; 23:27,\n28). Christ's service must commence with an inward conformity to the\nlaw of God.  This necessity for a new heart is very clearly brought\nout in His conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:1-21).\n\n2. In the home. Jesus said to a man whom He had healed, \"Go home to\nthy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for\nthee\" (Mark 5:19). Anything that strengthens the home strengthens\nsociety and the state. Good homes are essential for the bringing up of\nchildren and the making of right characters. But it is in the home\nthat the real testing often comes of a professed Christianity; if a\nChristian life can be lived and manifested here it is quite sure to\nstand the outward strain.\n\n3. In the community. The disciples of Christ were commanded to begin\ntheir first service in Jerusalem (Acts 1:4,8), where Jesus had been\nthe most persecuted and was finally crucified. It was no easy task for\nthem to begin to preach Jesus, where they were the most looked down\nupon. But the command was justified when the day of Pentecost came\nwith the marvellous moving power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2).  There\ncan be no clearer teaching from this than that a Christian man should\nbegin to serve Christ, testify for Him and work for Him in the\ncommunity in which he resides no matter what the adverse conditions\nare.  Here is the sanction for home missions.\n\n4. Abroad. \"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every\ncreature\" (Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:18-20). The field of service\nbroadens out from the heart until it takes in the whole world and\nevery class and condition of men. Man under the guidance of Christ is\nled not only to think of saving himself, his home, his community, but\nall homes and communities however remote they may be from his\nown. Here is the sanction for foreign missions.\n\nThe urgency of the call is everywhere manifest in the New\nTestament. In the three years of His ministry Jesus Christ is\nincessant in His labours, calling upon men to turn to Him (Matthew\n11:28-30). He urges watchfulness, prayerfulness, and earnestness in\nseeking to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 11:12; 25:13; 26:41; Mark\n14:38; Luke 11:9,10). Paul declared, \"Woe is me, if I preach not the\ngospel\" (1 Corinthians 9:16), and he urges Timothy to \"preach the\nword\" and to be \"instant in season and out of season\" (2 Timothy\n4:1,2).\n\nA conflict is going on in the world and those who believe in Christ\nare besought to take every possible opportunity and every means to\nadvance His gospel and cause men to accept Him as their Saviour\n(Ephesians 6:10-18).\n\n\nTHE PATTERN OF SERVICE\n\nThe world of men is frequently more easily moved by the force of\nexample than by precept.\n\nChrist declared Himself to be the great exemplar of the Christian\nlife. He said, \"I have given you an example that ye should do as I\nhave done to you\" (John 13:15; 12:32; 1 Peter 2:21). He practiced what\nHe preached.\n\nPersonal Work.--In winning persons to the new life there is an\nadmitted need of a work of the individual for the individual, but it\nis a task from which many draw back. Yet it is right here that the\nmost effective service may be accomplished. Every man who receives\nChrist becomes in a certain sense a trustee to enlist others in His\nservice and to give to them the light of life. Christ said to His\nfollowers, \"Ye shall be witnesses unto Me\" (Acts 1:8).\n\nJesus was no recluse, He went out amongst men and sought them (Mark\n10:45) in the market-place, in the fields and by the lakeside.\nEverywhere He entered into personal conversation, with those whom He\nmet, about the kingdom of God; now it was with Nicodemus (John\n3:1-21), then again with the woman of Samaria (John 4:4-26) and\nothers. This personal work of Christ with individuals shows the\nimportance He attached to the winning of persons one by one to\nHimself. Many of the most important teachings are brought out in His\npersonal conversations.\n\n\"The win one movement\" which has been inaugurated in certain churches\nis very important. It had its incentive in the narrative of John\n(1:40-51), who tells us how Andrew won Peter and Philip won Nathanael\nby personal appeals to follow Christ. If all the followers of Christ\nin all the churches would each win one soul for Christ every year\nthere would be no more complaints about decadent churches.\n\nTraining Others for Service.--Personal work has its limitations in the\ntime and strength of the individual who does it. Jesus thoroughly\nunderstood this fact and at the outset of His ministry began to train\na band of followers who would carry on His work after His\nresurrection. Not only did He train a select company of twelve but\nalso other men. We read in Luke, the ninth chapter, that He sent out\nHis twelve disciples to do the work which He had been doing, and in\nthe tenth chapter we are told that \"other seventy\" were also appointed\nto carry on a similar work. Careful instructions were given the\nseventy as to what they should do. The need (Luke 10:2) and the danger\n(v. 3) of the work were impressed upon them. They were instructed how\nthey were to approach the people, what they were to teach and what\nthey were to do in case they were rejected (vs. 4-11). They returned\nfrom their journey with great joy over its success (v. 17).\n\nThis multiplication of self through the inciting and training of\nothers to do work in which the individual is interested often leads to\nfar-reaching results. There are many people who desire to advance a\ncause and are willing to devote themselves to it, but they have no\npower to set about it themselves. There is any quantity of this usable\nand helpful material, in our churches, ready to be made of service for\nthe Master.  Here is the waste that every professing Christian is not\nset to advance the kingdom of God. It is not only what a Christian may\ndo himself, but what he can get others to do, which counts.\n\nTeaching.--Many men go wrong from erroneous thoughts about God and the\nimportance of a right character.  Too frequently those who have come\nto a saving knowledge of Christ are content to rest satisfied with\nit. No effort is made to instruct others in a belief which has helped\nthem. The church believes in a teaching ministry, but has not yet come\nto fully believe in a teaching laity. The laity for the most part\nassumes a receptive attitude. Our Bible-schools might be doubled in\nnumbers and effectiveness if Christian men and women, well qualified\nfor the task, could be induced to respond to the strong demand for\nmore teachers. There is no reason why Bible instruction and Christian\nteaching should be wholly confined to Sunday. It is time that the\nchurch made an aggressive move upon the week-days and began the\nestablishment of night schools (for a definite term) for the\nsystematic study of the Bible for adults and short after day school\ncatechetical classes for children.  These classes could and should be\nmade auxiliary to the Sunday Bible-school. In them there would be time\nfor that larger instruction which is so much needed and for which no\nopportunity is found under the present arrangement. Besides, much\ntalent not available upon Sunday, at the time of the session of the\nBible-school, might be utilized. This is an age of clubs organized for\nthe study of ancient and modern secular literature, where careful and\nscholarly papers are read upon subjects given out long in advance.\nThis study-club idea ought to be utilized by the church for the\ninvestigation of the best literature which the world knows, namely,\nthat found in the Bible.\n\nJesus said, \"Go teach\" (Matthew 28:19,20), and He Himself taught the\npeople in large and small groups (Matthew 5:1,2), on a mountain, in\nthe synagogue (Matthew 4:23; Mark 1:21), by the seaside (Mark 2:13),\nin the temple (Matthew 26:55), as He walked through the fields and\nwhen He went to feasts and social gatherings. He had ever in mind His\nteaching mission. He set an example of persistent and painstaking\ninstruction of the people under bitter opposition and in adverse\ncircumstances. He said, in encouraging His disciples to persevere in\ntheir teaching, \"Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant\nis not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted Me they will\nalso persecute you; if they have kept My saying they will keep yours\nalso\" (John 15:20).\n\nWorks of Mercy and Love.--Jesus was the supreme embodiment of mercy\nand love. Possessed of almighty power He used it not for honour or for\nselfish purposes, but to heal and help men (Matthew 11:5; 9:36; 14:14;\n15:32; 20:34; Mark 1:41; 6:34; Luke 7:13). Modern philanthropy had its\norigin in Him. All the modern state institutions for the care of the\npoor, the blind, the crippled, the sick are in existence to-day\nbecause of the teaching and example of Jesus Christ. Before He came to\nearth and taught men how to be compassionate towards the unfortunate\nones there were no such institutions.\n\nWherever Jesus went, when He was in bodily form upon this earth, the\npeople thronged Him for the healing touch. This is another way in\nwhich the followers of Christ may reach men, namely through the\nhealing touch. In the fierce struggle in the world, for a living and a\nposition, many men are worsted and trampled upon; such men need the\nbrotherly help of those who have been with Christ. There are many\nsick, discouraged and poor; here is a large field for this service of\nmercy and love.\n\nSuffering.--There is a ministry of suffering in taking and bearing the\nburdens of others. \"For it became Him (Christ), for whom are all\nthings and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory,\nto make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering\"\n(Hebrews 2:10). This suffering of Christ is represented by the New\nTestament writers as having an object in the salvation of man and\nbringing him to glory (Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 1:5-7; Hebrews 2:9;\n1 Peter 1:11; 4:13; 5:1; Philippians 3:10).\n\nIsaiah said of Christ, \"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was\nbruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon\nHim; and with His stripes we are healed\" (Isaiah 53:5). We are urged\nto follow the example set by Christ (Philippians 2:5-11) in His\nhumility and suffering for a great purpose.  \"In every age Christ's\nsufferings attract to Him the hearts of men; for they prove the\nboundless extent of His love, His absolute unselfishness, and His\nloyalty to truth and principle even unto death. Thus they have power\nwith men.\" In following Christ, and placing Him in a right light\nbefore men, Christians must have a devotion to Him which will endure\nand stand steadfast through suffering. It is often only through the\nsacrifice of self that the best things in life are attained. \"If so be\nwe suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together. For I\nreckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be\ncompared with the glory which shall be revealed in us\" (Romans\n8:17,18).\n\n\nTHE JOY OF SERVICE\n\nJesus is represented as doing His work through love (John 3:16), and\nfor the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2).\n\nThe Search for Happiness.--How can I be happy?  This is the great\nquestion with multitudes of people.  Men seek joy with the same\neagerness that they dig for gold. Yet this world is a sad one, full of\ncare, sickness, anxiety and sorrow. Many are the railers at fate and\ncircumstances which keep them from realizing the object of their\nsearch.\n\nThe failure to find happiness arises in large part from going wrongly\nabout it. Men seek happiness through relaxation and the lowering of\nthe moral standards. Men ask, why should we obey this or that law of\nGod, man or our moral nature, if it bars the way to our enjoyment?\n\"Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die\"; and eating and drinking\nthey go out into a wild and barren land of sorrow. Again men seek\nhappiness through the abundance of things; as if a human soul, born in\nthe image of God, could be satisfied with mere things.\n\nThe Conditions of Christian Happiness.--Christ, as the Great Pattern\nof life, showed that true happiness must be attained through the\nmastery of the situation, the victory over temptation (Matthew\n4:1-11), and the hardest and most adverse circumstances of life\n(Hebrews 12:3; Philippians 2:8-10; 2:1,2; Matthew 16:21-27). There is\nno greater joy than that of the victors in a hard fought\nbattle. Heaven is for conquerors (Revelation 15:2,3; 17:14). It is the\nman who has gone down into the tumult and uproar of the arena of life\nand fought and conquered in some good cause who tastes the supreme cup\nof happiness.  The master words of the Christ were, \"fight,\" \"watch,\"\n\"pray\"; here is the entrance to the Utopia so long sought by men. The\nman who has no control over his appetites, passions and temper, and\nwho cannot endure hardness in a service in which he is interested, can\nnever know what genuine joy is. Read the roll call of the heroes in\nthe eleventh chapter of Hebrews.\n\n1. A great object in view. There can be no greater object than to\nserve Christ in all the relations of life (Matthew 6:33; 10:38; 8:22;\n16:24; 19:21).\n\n2. Harmony with the will of God (Matthew 6:10).\n\n3. Endurance. Paul exhorts Timothy, \"Thou therefore my son, be strong\nin the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast\nheard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful\nmen, who shall be able to teach others also.  Thou therefore endure\nhardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ\" (2 Timothy 2:1-3). It was\nthis quality of endurance in service which Jesus sought to set before\nHis followers in the strongest light (Matthew 10:22; 24:13).\n\nHere then are the elements of the greatest human happiness and a\ndivine joy. It is only as the human heart is thus prepared for the\nreception of the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit that He can be\nreceived in His glory, which He desires to impart to men and to bring\nthem into joyous fellowship with the Father and the Son.\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nWhat is the call to service? What is the object of the call? Where\nshall men serve the Christ? How shall men serve the Christ in the\nheart, home, community, abroad?  What can be said of the urgency of\nthe call to service?  What is the pattern of service? What can be said\nof personal work, training others for service, teaching, works of\nmercy and love, suffering? What is the joy of service?  What can be\nsaid of the search for happiness? What are the conditions of Christian\nhappiness in service?\n\n\n\nSTUDY IX\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN CHURCH\n\n\nScriptures references: 1 Corinthians 3:11; 3:6-9; Colossians 1:18;\nActs 2:47; Ephesians 5:23-27; Matthew 16:16,18; 18:17; Acts 5:11,12;\n13:1,2; 14:23; 16:5; 1 Corinthians 11:18-34; 12:28-31; 1 Thessalonians\n1:1; 2:14; 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 12:22,23; Revelation 1:4,11,20;\n2:7,11; 22:16; 22:12-15,17.\n\n\nTHE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH\n\nWhat is the Christian Church?--One of the best definitions is as\nfollows: \"The church consists of all who acknowledge the Divine Lord,\nJesus Christ, the blessed Saviour of mankind, who give credit to His\ngospel, and who hold His sacraments, the seals of eternal life, in\nhonour.\" Another definition is: \"The church is a holy kingdom\nestablished by God on earth, of which Christ is the invisible King.\"\nThere are some organizations calling themselves Christian churches\nwhich have substituted certain philosophical doctrines in place of the\nprinciples of Jesus Christ, but it is a fact of history that in\nproportion as the Divine Lordship of Christ has been exalted the\ngreater has been the growth of the church. The church has been able to\nmeet the needs of the people as He has been lifted up (John 12:32)\nthat men might turn to Him for light and life (John 1:4; 8:12; 12:46;\nMatthew 11:27-30).\n\nThe Head of the Church is Jesus Christ. When Simon Peter made the\ndeclaration, \"Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God,\" Jesus\nsaid unto him, \"Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood\nhath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven. And\nI say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build\nMy church\" (Matthew 16:16-18; Ephesians 2:20). \"The question is, What\nis this rock? The Romanists say, 'It is Peter'; but Christ did not so\nsay. His statement was, 'Thou art Petros and on this petra I will\nbuild My church.' The words are cognate but not identical; the former\nis masculine and the latter feminine; petra is a rock; Petros is a\nstone hewn out of the rock.\"  When Christ uttered these words He was\non His way to Jerusalem where He was to be crucified. In the face of\nthe cross, the Master was preparing His disciples for a great trial\nand the time when, in bodily presence, He should depart from the\nearth. It was necessary that He should now speak plainly in regard to\nHimself and His mission.\n\nPaul, in writing to the Colossians, said of Christ, \"And He is the\nhead of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first-born\nfrom the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence\"\n(Colossians 1:18; compare Ephesians 1:22,23).\n\nHowever Christian churches may differ from each other in form of\ngovernment and in other matters they are united in the great essential\ndoctrine of the Headship of Christ, this is their strong bond of\nunion.\n\nA Divine Institution.--The Christian church was not organized by any\none man or a company of men, but was given to man as an expression of\nthe compassion of God (John 3:16-21), that in it men might associate\nthemselves together for the proper worship of God and that they might\ndraw near to Him (Hebrews 10:19-25).\n\n1. The beginning of the organization of the church was in the upper\nroom, where Jesus partook of the last supper with His disciples\n(Matthew 26:20-30). Here He showed the significance of His death\n(v. 28), His relation to the Father (John 14:9), and the coming of the\nHoly Spirit (John 14:16,17; 15:26,27). In the last instructions given\nby Jesus, and His prayer (John 14:1-17:26) we have a body of teaching\nwhich constitutes the basis of the faith of the church.\n\n2. The completion of the organization of the church was in the descent\nof the Holy Spirit upon the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-24,32,36-41),\nwhich the disciples had been commanded to await in the city of\nJerusalem (Acts 1:6-8,14). Those who accepted the word which had been\npreached through the Holy Spirit were baptized (2:41). \"The Lord,\" not\nmen, \"added to the church daily such as should be saved\" (Acts 2:47).\n\nOrdinances and Faith.--The church, with its ordinances of the Lord's\nSupper and Baptism, its faith in God the Father, in His Son Jesus\nChrist and in the Holy Spirit, now begins its victorious career.\n\nHuman Elements.--The divine institution of the church has been subject\nto the admixture of human elements, there was a traitor amongst the\ntwelve apostles. The organization and the doctrines have been tampered\nwith in the interest of human ambitions and the pride of human\nphilosophy, but no institution has shown itself so adapted to satisfy\nthe great needs of men of all conditions of life, to purge itself when\nthe human elements proved too great a burden, and to outlast all\nman-made organizations.\n\nAuthority and Teaching.--The church and its ministers have authority\nto teach through Christ and what He has commanded. There is a certain\nand quite definite body of truth. This body of truth, preached in the\nheart of heathendom or in the most fashionable church, in the most\nhighly civilized country, is quite sure to produce certain definite\nresults in awakening men from their sins and causing them to lead a\nnew life. \"By their fruits ye shall know them\" (Matthew 7:15-20).\n\nJesus said, \"All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye\ntherefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the\nFather, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe\nall things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway,\neven unto the end of the world\" (Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 10:22; John\n3:35; 5:32; 13:3; 17:2; Acts 2:36; Romans 14:9).\n\nPaul said, \"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,\nwhich is Jesus Christ\" (1 Corinthians 3:11).\n\nForm.--The word church, in the New Testament, is used in three senses\nto denote the differences in the form.\n\n1. The local congregation worshipping in a house (Philemon 2;\nColossians 4:15) or a certain place as, \"The church of God which is at\nCorinth\" (1 Corinthians 1:2) and \"the church of the Thessalonians\" (1\nThessalonians 1:1). This is much the most frequent use of the word.\n\n2. The entire community of Christians throughout the world or some\nportions of it (1 Corinthians 15:9; Galatians 1:13; Matthew 16:18).\n\n3. The total company of the redeemed, the bride of Christ (Ephesians\n5:23,25,27,30; Hebrews 12:23).\n\nThe Life of the Early Church, as we have seen, had its origin in Jesus\nChrist. Those who came into the church, did so because of their belief\nin Him and acceptance of Him as their Saviour.\n\n1. The organization was simple; each church looked to Christ as its\nhead (1 Corinthians 1:2-18,30; Ephesians 5:23).\n\n2. The officers were appointed for certain necessary duties (Acts\n6;20:17-23; Titus 1:5-7); it was the Lord who called men into certain\nvocations for the edifying of the church (Ephesians 4:11,12; 1\nCorinthians 12:27,28).\n\n3. The time of meeting was upon the first day of the week (Acts 20:7;\n1 Corinthians 16:2), thus commemorating the resurrection of the Lord\n(John 20:1,19; Luke 24:1; Mark 16:2; Matthew 28:1).\n\n4. The aim was to build up pure and godly lives (Titus 2:1-15) and to\nbring all men into fellowship with the Master. There was an intense\nenthusiasm for the faith and propagation of it. There was an\nextraordinary religious elevation and purity of conduct.  The churches\nset themselves to eradicate the selfishness in man, out of which all\nforms of injustice sprang and aimed to affect the moral renovation of\nthe individual and of society. There were abuses which arose out of\nthe former lives of believers; it is surprising, considering the evil\ninfluences surrounding the early churches, that they were so few.\n\n5. But there arose in the midst of a gross heathenism, with all its\ngreat immoralities, a rapidly growing community, which demanded purity\nof life and conduct from its communicants and supreme allegiance to\nChrist, the Lord and Saviour; how strong it was is shown by the fact\nthat the Roman Empire tried to stamp it out, failed, and was taken\ncaptive itself by the religion it had despised.\n\n\nTHE WORK OF THE MODERN CHURCH\n\nThe Chief End of the Church is to carry on the work which brought\nChrist into the world (Luke 19:10; 17:33; 15:1-24; 24:48; Acts\n1:8). All things should be made to serve this purpose.\n\nThe Activities and methods of work have a wide range. What is highly\nsuccessful in one community may prove, however, a failure in\nanother. The means, which produce large results at one time, tried\nagain in the same place, at another time, sometimes show small or no\nresults.\n\nThe problem of each church and community needs to be studied, that\nmeans may be properly adjusted and adapted to the ends sought to be\naccomplished.  It is remarkable how Jesus adapted Himself to the times\nand circumstances. He said to Peter and Andrew, \"Follow Me and I will\nmake you fishers of men\" (Matthew 4:19); He spoke to them in a\nlanguage they were able to comprehend; to fish for fish meant care,\nunderstanding of their habits and much toil to accomplish the desired\nresults. In the conversations with Nicodemus and the women of Samaria\nJesus arrives at the same end but uses entirely different means. The\nletters of Paul fit exactly the needs of the churches to which they\nare addressed.\n\nIt is the really earnest spirit desiring to bring men to Christ which\nwill produce the largest results; this spirit appeals to men and\ncompels them to listen; hence it is the cultivation of this spirit\nwhich is most earnestly commended. Mere machinery of effort is doomed\nto failure, but when the living spirit is in the wheels and is\nadequate to the moving of them, the results are sure to be large. The\ndisciples of Christ knew all the facts about Christ's life, death and\nresurrection, but they were not equipped for their great work until\nafter they had spent much time in prayer and the Holy Spirit had come\nin power; then they became mighty men in the upbuilding of the church.\n\nWorship.--\"Men not only need to be urged to be true to their\nconsciences, but their consciences need to be informed.\" One of the\ngreat functions of the church is to teach men how to worship God\naright; to do this they must have right thoughts about God.  Jesus\nsaid, \"God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in\nspirit and in truth\" (John 4:24). Men must be led in their worship by\na proper exposition of the Scriptures, by prayer and by praise. The\nplace of the church in this matter is clearly defined in the New\nTestament, it can be taken by no other institution; and no other\norganization has so high a mission as this, to bring man into harmony\nwith God.\n\nFellowship.--Man is a social being and he seeks contact with his\nfellow men. Many of the worldly ways in which this fellowship is\nsought are ways which lead to the wrecking of man, body and soul, or\nto the obliteration of all the finer feelings. The mission of the\nChristian Church is to strengthen the social bond by seeking to\ncultivate all the better impulses and finer feelings in man, and to\nplace society on a firmer footing in love, purity and righteousness (1\nJohn 1:3; 1:5; Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 1:9).\n\nBible Study.--Christianity is a book religion as well as one in which\nGod enters into spiritual communion with man. The Church has ever\nacknowledged its duty to teach the Scriptures, for in them it finds\nthe truths which it desires to inculcate (John 5:39).\n\nEvangelization.--Beyond the bounds of the Church there are those, near\nand far away, who need to be taught about the gospel of Jesus\nChrist. More and more the church is feeling the responsibility for the\nwelfare of individuals and of society and of the state.  If there are\ngreat evils and giant wrongs which need to be remedied, they have\ntheir origin in the evil in men's hearts. For the cure of bad hearts\nthere is no remedy in all the world save that given by Jesus\nChrist. Hence the activity of the church in seeking to evangelize men\nnot only at home but throughout the world.\n\nThere are three things which every church needs to realize in order\nthat this work may be prosecuted with the utmost vigour and\nenthusiasm.\n\n1. A clear conception of what the church is and its relations to God\nand man.\n\n2. The opening of the eyes to the fact of sin in the world and its\ndestructive power upon the soul of man, here and hereafter (1 John\n1:8; Romans 5:12; John 8:34; Matthew 18:7-11).\n\n3. That the only real help or salvation of man's soul is through our\nDivine Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. \"Neither is there salvation in\nany other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men,\nwhereby we must be saved\" (Acts 4:12; 16:30,31; Philippians 2:10; 1\nJohn 2:12; Romans 10:13; 1 John 1:7,9; Matthew 9:6).\n\nThe Equipment for the carrying on and extension of this work cannot be\ntoo good. The cause frequently lags from making it one of the\ninterests of life and not the chief care. Every church building should\nexpress in usefulness and beauty, in all its appointments, man's\nthought of a temple erected to the great and living God.\n\n\nTHE HOPE OF THE CHURCH\n\nThe Establishment of the Kingdom of God Upon Earth.--The prophets of\nthe Old Testament had two great thoughts which they continually\npresented, namely, the coming of the Messianic King and the\nestablishment of the Messianic kingdom. Isaiah said, \"Unto us a Child\nis born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His\nshoulder and He shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God,\nThe Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of His\ngovernment and peace there shall be no end\" (9:6,7).\n\nWhen John the Baptist came, he proclaimed the coming of this King and\nkingdom (Matthew 3:11,12; John 1:1-28) and when he saw Jesus he said,\n\"Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. This\nis He of whom I said, After me cometh a man who is preferred before\nme: for He was before me\" (John 1:29-33). \"And I saw and bare record\nthat this is the Son of God\" (v. 34).\n\nJesus spoke much about His kingdom, the kingdom of heaven and the\nkingdom of God. He sought to explain by many parables and by direct\ndiscourse what this kingdom was like; it is mentioned by name many\ntimes in the New Testament (Matthew 13:11,19,24,31,33,44,45,47, 52;\n22:2; 25:1). He claimed that He was the Messianic King (Matthew\n26:63,64; 27:11,37; 26:53,54; 16:16,17; John 14:9; Luke 22:67,69; John\n18:37; Mark 14:61,62), and the Son of God. He declared that before Him\nall nations should come to be judged (Matthew 25:31-46). As in the Old\nTestament so in the New Testament the world-wide character of this\nkingdom of God is plainly shown.\n\nThere are Four Conceptions of the Kingdom of God set forth in the\nBible. 1. The reign of God over all His creatures. 2. The reign of God\nover men and nations. 3. The reign of God over Israel.  4. \"The reign\nof God as Divine Love over human hearts, believing in Him and\nconstrained thereby to yield Him grateful affection and devoted love.\"\nIt is this fourth conception which is most prominently set forth in\nthe New Testament. The special work of Christ on earth was to reveal\nthe supreme rule of Divine Love.\n\nThe Church and the Kingdom.--It is the care of the church to forward\nthe establishment of this kingdom of Divine Love everywhere, in the\nheart of the individual, in society, in the business world and in the\nnational life. For this we pray, as Christ taught us, \"Thy kingdom\ncome. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven\" (Matthew 6:10).\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nWhat is the Christian Church? Define it. Who is the Head of the\nchurch? How is the church a divine institution? What can be said of\nthe beginning and completion of the organization? What are the\nordinances? What can be said of the human elements? Where is the\nauthority and ground of teaching? What can be said of the forms?  What\ncan be said of the life of the early church? What is the chief end of\nthe church? What can be said of the activities of the modern church?\nWhat of the worship?  What of the fellowship? What three things are\nnecessary to keep clearly in mind, in the work of evangelization?\nWhat ought the church equipment to be? What is the hope of the church?\nWhat are the four conceptions of the Kingdom of God? What is the chief\nconception? What can be said of the church and the kingdom?\n\n\n\nSTUDY X\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN HOME\n\n\nScripture references: Ephesians 6:1-9; 5:25-33; Colossians 3:17-25; 1\nCorinthians 7:12-17; Mark 10:2-12; 7:9-13; 5:19; 1 Timothy 5:4; Luke\n15:6; Titus 2:1-15; Exodus 20:12,17; Deuteronomy 6:1-9.\n\n\nTHE HOME\n\nWhat is a Home?--It has been answered that, \"It is the unit of\nsociety.\" It has also been pointed out that this unit must be kept\nclean, pure and right, in all its relations, or society and the state\nwill suffer grave consequences. Certainly, in the past, the\ninstitutions of society and state have been seriously weakened only\nwhen the moral decay of the family has first set in. There are many\norganizations which have for their special care the fostering of the\nsocial and political life, while the strengthening of home ties has\nbeen sadly neglected.\n\nTo the individual the good character of the home is of the utmost\nimportance, for his growth in all the finer things which pertain to\nmorality and spirituality.\n\nThe Difference in Homes.--One ideal of a home begins and ends with the\nexternals; a great house, a splendid service and fine furnishings.\nEverything is here made to bend to the more or less perfect\nrealization of this material ideal. When all is attained that is\npossible in this direction, and this end, and only this end, is sought\nof outer adornment, it is found that the essentials of a true home\nlife have been missed.\n\nAnother ideal seeks for the cultivation of love between husband and\nwife, and all the members of the family. Care and forbearance are\nurged and commended in speech and action. There are set forth a mutual\nkindness, a careful consideration of the feelings and a helpfulness in\nbearing burdens, which exalt the soul and make life worth\nliving. According as this ideal is striven for, and attained, will the\ntrue home be realized.\n\nMany a man has wrecked his business, betrayed his friends and gone\ndown to a dishonoured grave in the struggle to surround his family\nwith luxuries which he could not afford, but no man ever sincerely\ntried to cultivate the graces of love and kindness in himself and in\nhis family, who did not succeed, in a large measure, in realizing the\ngreat purpose of the home.\n\nThe True Home may be found, and is found, in great houses and in small\nhouses, where there is large wealth and where there is dire\npoverty. It is not dependent upon circumstances but independent.\n\nThe great essential is love for those things which make a beautiful\nand strong character. Low standards of truth and morality in the\nfamily tend to reproduce themselves in exaggerated forms in the social\nlife of the community. Individuals, coming out of families where there\nis no love for the good and no regard for righteousness, often become\na serious threat to peace and good order. No educational system can do\nvery much for children with an evil family environment. On the other\nhand the world is full of examples of men, trained up in righteousness\nby their parents, who have strictly kept to the path in which their\nfeet were started.\n\n\nTHE IDEAL CHRISTIAN HOME\n\nJesus honoured the home. His birthplace was mean (Luke 2:7) so far as\nexternal things go. The house and the city, where His parents lived,\nshowed plainly the poor estate of the family which, while it was of\nnoble lineage, was greatly reduced in circumstances. Jesus Himself\nlearned and practiced the trade of a carpenter. In living in this home\nat Nazareth for thirty years of His life Jesus showed that it was\npossible under hard outward conditions to live a noble life and to\ncultivate and practice those virtues and qualities which were\nafterwards so greatly to bless the whole world.\n\nDuties of Husbands and Wives.--The beginning of every Christian home\nis in a supreme affection between two, a man and a woman. \"For this\ncause,\" Christ said, \"shall a man leave his father and mother, and\ncleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh, so that they\nare no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined\ntogether, let not man put asunder\" (Mark 10:7-9). He honoured and\nsanctioned the marriage relation by His presence at the marriage in\nCana (John 2:1-11). In the first century divorce was very common;\nHillel, the Jewish teacher, held \"that the bond was so loose and\nflexible that if a wife burnt her husband's food while cooking it, he\nwas justified in procuring a writ of divorcement from her.\" Jesus\ndenounces this practice and declares (Matthew 5:31,32; Mark 10:2-12)\nthat there is only one cause that justifies divorce.\n\n1. Love to one another. In the various vicissitudes of married life,\nand in the bringing up of children the bond which needs to be\nstrengthened, and the duty which needs to be urged, is that of love.\nLove can alone carry husband and wife over the more difficult places\nof life. Paul says, \"Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also\nloved the Church and gave Himself for it\" (Ephesians 5:25-33;\nColossians 3:18,19). \"Let every one of you so love his wife even as\nhimself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband\" (Ephesians\n5:33). No stronger language can be employed than Paul uses in urging\nhusband and wife to love each other with a whole heart, yet he\nprovides for cases where one or the other party in the married\nrelation is not a Christian, and where a strong love may be absent (1\nCorinthians 7:12-17). He further says, \"Unto the married I command,\nyet not I, but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband; but\nand if she depart let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her\nhusband: and let not the husband put away his wife\" (1 Corinthians 7:\n10,11). But a supreme love settles all troubles (1 Corinthians,\nchapter 13).\n\n2. Forbearance and kindness towards children.  \"Provoke not your\nchildren to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of\nthe Lord\" (Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 3:21). When Christ was upon\nearth, \"a father had the power of life and death over his offspring. A\nweak and sickly child might be abandoned to death; and this was\napproved by such eminent authorities as Plato and Aristotle.\"  Jesus\ndeclared for the rights of the children. He not only opened His arms\nfor them, but He gave them a new standing in the world (Mark 10:\n14-16; Matthew 18:5). He said, \"See that ye despise not one of these\nlittle ones; for in heaven their angels do always behold the face of\nMy Father, which is in heaven.\" (Matthew 18:10).\n\n3. Hospitality. True Christian love will extend itself beyond the\nbounds of the household, and seek to do those outside of it good by\ndrawing them within its charmed circle. This hospitality should be\ngiven not only to those who can return it again, but also to those\nfrom whom no return can ever be expected (Matthew 5:46). \"Use\nhospitality one to another without grudging\" (1 Peter 4:9; 1 Timothy\n3:2; Titus 1:8; Hebrews 13:2). \"But when thou makest a feast, call the\npoor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for\nthey cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the\nresurrection of the just\" (Luke 14:13,14,11,12; compare Matthew\n25:35,42). In the midst of our splendid charitable boards, which do\nsuch a needed work, individual charity and hospitality should not be\nforgotten and put out of its rightful place.\n\n4. Commending the home to God. In writing to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:5)\nPaul calls to mind the unfeigned faith that is in Timothy, which dwelt\nfirst in his grandmother Lois and then in his mother Eunice. Paul\nhimself was brought up by devout parents. The Bible has many instances\nof men, like that of Samuel, who have been trained for great parts in\nthe world in a religious household. The old proverb has it, \"Like\nfather, like son.\" If God is honoured by the parents and the home\ncommended to Him, the children will be quite sure to honour Him\nalso. Bring up your children \"in the nurture and admonition of the\nLord\" (Ephesians 6:4). Have them ready to meet Christ at any time\n(Mark 13:34-37).\n\nDuties of Children.--1. Honouring parents. \"Children obey your parents\nin the Lord, for this is right\" (Ephesians 6:1,2,3; compare Exodus\n20:12; Colossians 3:20). The first necessary lesson in every human\nlife is to learn the lesson of obedience; if this is not well studied\nand practiced in the home, the child, when he grows up and goes out\nfor himself, will be quite sure to have a hard time of it and receive\nsome severe buffetings. Those who break the laws of society and the\nstate are those who have first broken the commandment to honour father\nand mother.\n\n2. Care of parents. Children, when grown up, are sometimes apt to\nforget the love and care bestowed upon them when they were\nyoung. Their parents become old and feeble and are often unable to\nlook out for themselves. In Jesus' time there was a bad custom of\nrepudiating parents who for any cause needed to be helped. The\nchildren had only to say \"Corban,\" that is, that their goods were\ndedicated to a sacred purpose, to secure release from their filial\nobligations. Christ denounced this custom in the strongest terms and\ndeclared that the children ought to honour their parents by caring for\nthem. Thus He became an advocate for the rights of parents as He had\nof the rights of children (Mark 7: 11, 7-13; Matthew 15:3-6). When in\nHis last agony, on the cross, Jesus provided a home for His mother\n(John 19:26,27).\n\nDuties of Dependents and Servants.--Jesus commended the honourableness\nof service. He washed the disciples' feet (John 13:4-16) and then told\nthem that He had given them an example of the kind of service which\nthey should render to each other.  He took upon Himself the form of a\nservant, hiding His glory, that He might accomplish His great work\n(Philippians 2:6-9). Paul exhorted servants of the household to be\nobedient, serving, \"not with eye service, as men pleasers; but as\nservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart\" (Ephesians\n6:5-8; Colossians 3:22-25; 1 Corinthians 9:19).  Masters are told to\nbe just towards their servants, remembering that they have a Master in\nheaven (Colossians 4:1). When the runaway slave, Onesimus, is sent\nback to his master, by Paul, he is commended to Philemon as a brother\nbeloved (Philemon 16).  We should hear but little of strikes and\nlockouts if employers and employees would only take these principles,\nlaid down in the New Testament, for the guidance of masters and\nservants, for their rules of conduct towards each other and seek to\ncarry them out.\n\nDuties of Young and Old.--\"That the aged men be sober, grave,\ntemperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women\nlikewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false\naccusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they\nmay teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love\ntheir children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good,\nobedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blasphemed.\nYoung men likewise exhort to the sober minded\" (Titus 2:2-6).\n\n\nTHE ATTACK UPON THE HOME\n\nThere are many influences at work which seek to minimize the\nimportance of the home life and to undermine it.\n\nThere are four quite well defined lines of the attack upon the life of\nthe family.\n\nThe Assault Upon the Marriage Relation.--The moral leper advocates\nthat marriage be dissolvable at will, not by mutual consent alone, but\nwhen either party to the contract desires its conclusion. The church,\nin its different branches, stands as a unit against this iniquitous\nproposition. But how far the civil power has yielded, by the pressure\nwhich has been brought to bear, is made manifest by the fact that in\nthe different states of the Union there are now recognized by the\ncourts forty-six legal causes of annulling a marriage. Our courts are\ncrowded with divorce cases and the suits which grow out of them in\nregard to property and the care of children. That the odour of\nscandal, going up from such cases is bad, is unquestioned. That the\ninfluence, of such proceedings upon the morals of the country, is evil\nis also sadly admitted. A blow struck at marriage is one which is felt\nnot only by the family but by society and the state. The fall of the\nRoman empire was preceded by an extraordinary laxness of the marriage\ntie. It is time the church bestirred itself to oppose more strongly\nthe theory and practice of the moral leper.\n\nThe Assault Upon the Quiet of the Home.--In the modern stress and\nstrain of life there is need of a quiet place in which to rest, to get\nacquainted with God, to know one's family, to live to the best things\nand to get ready again to engage enthusiastically in the daily battle\nof life. The home is designed to furnish such a place of rest, when\nthe work of the day is done; it is here, in a Christian home, that\nthere should be an atmosphere of supreme love and care. It is,\nhowever, when night comes that all the attractions, which appeal to\nthe love of excitement, put forth their most strenuous efforts to draw\nto them the inmates of the home. There are amusements and amusements;\na person, however, who looks only to be amused seeks by and by those\nof the strongest flavour and those which border very closely on the\nforbidden land. The love of excitement grows upon what it feeds and\nsoon, to the habitual pleasure-seeker, the quiet atmosphere and love\nof the home no longer appeal; he has begun a chase for excitement and\npleasure which will never satisfy him. Multitudes of wrecked homes and\nburned out characters, show the disastrous work of this assault upon\nthe quiet of the home.\n\nThe Assault Upon the Purity of the Body.--We are told by Paul that our\nbodies are temples of God and members of Christ and therefore they\nshould be kept pure and clean (1 Corinthians 3:16,17; 6:15,16).  Yet a\ncertain class of so-called reformers are seeking to teach men that to\nsit in a saloon drinking the beverages there served out, and which\ndefile the purity of the body, makes for manhood.\n\nThe modern saloon, which destroys the purity of the body, is one of\nthe most successful of all agencies for the demoralization and the\ndestruction of the home.  Once it has fastened its hold upon a man,\nthe time which he should spend with his family is spent in defiling\nhis body in this place; the money which should be spent, in clothing\nand feeding his wife and children, is squandered here; until the home\nloses its hold upon him and he selfishly indulges his appetite, no\nmatter who suffers. We are faced with actual conditions and no\nsubstitutes of better kept saloons or purer beverages can help very\nmuch. It is a travesty of the truth to call a saloon a working men's\nclub; it is his destruction.  What is actually needed is a reform\nwhich will send men, who frequent saloons back to their homes. The\nreal problem is not how to reform the saloon, but how to make the home\nbetter so that father, mother and the children may take delight in\nspending their evenings there. The policy of some social\norganizations, which work in the slums of our great cities, seems to\nbe by providing great public dance halls and fostering the saloons to\ndraw the people still further away from the home life and to make it\nharder to maintain it.\n\nAfter all the only real remedy for the saloon habit is\nChristianity. It is only when Christ comes into the heart of a man\nthat he begins to care for his home and to spend his evenings\nthere. The Church, then as possessing the lure for the home, ought to\ntake more seriously to this work in the slums. But the trouble is that\nthe slums do not receive very pleasantly those who seek to cleanse\ntheir hearts and bodies, but they do take kindly to the agencies, and\noften throng them, which look kindly on those things which really keep\nthem down, and insure them miserable homes. Still it remains true that\nthe teaching of Christianity, even when received with hostility, is\nthe only leavening power for better things in the slums. It is one of\nthe hard things to cleanse a man's body before his heart is made\nclean, but let his heart be purified, and the purity of the body will\nfollow; then the first thought of that man will be for his home and\nits betterment.\n\nThe Assault of Freedom of Speech.--In no place is there more need of\nkindliness of speech and manner than in the home, yet in no other\nplace is there more plain speaking. The mask of pleasantness, which\nmay be worn all day in business or social relations, may be in the\nhome laid aside; and the character revealed and the vigour of language\nused may easily drive away every vestige of happiness. When people\nlive together under the same roof the feelings become very tender and\nare easily hurt. What is said outside may be thought little of, but in\nthe home it is different.  \"Take us the foxes, the little foxes that\nspoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes\" (Song of Solomon\n2:15).\n\nIncompatibility of temper is a reason sometimes given for the breaking\nup of a home, but the real reason is an undue familiarity and freedom\nof speech.  Because persons live together in families there should be\nno license to say everything and anything, no matter who is hurt.\n\nHome happiness is a tender plant, it needs much care and watching, but\nwhen it blooms the flowers are of a rare beauty of form and their\nfragrance exceeds that of all others.\n\n\nTHE PRESERVATION OF THE HOME\n\nHow may the home be preserved and made to serve its great end? There\nare three ways, amongst a greater number, which are here indicated.\n\nPersonal Care.--All betterment of the home must begin with the\nindividual and every individual has a chance to exercise this care as\nhis lot is cast in some family. Thought, time, money, all need to be\nemployed in working out in a practical way the ideal of the true home.\n\nPlacing the Home Under the Care of God.--There is a need of the\nreinstatement of the custom of family worship; the place and time\nwhere and when the family is commended to God and placed under His\ncare. As children of the great household of God we need constantly to\nkeep in touch with our Father.\n\nThe Obedience of the Golden Rule, as it is stated in a new form: I\nwill not do unto others that which I would not have them do to me. I\nwill not think of others that which I would not have them think of me.\nI will not say of others that which I would not have them say of me.\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nWhat is a home? What is the difference in homes?  What is the true\nhome? What can be said of the ideal Christian home? Duties of husbands\nand wives; what are the four lines? Duties of children; what are the\ntwo lines? What are the duties of servants and dependents; of the\nyoung and aged? What can be said of the attack upon the home; the\nmarriage relation, the quiet of the home, the purity of the body,\nfreedom of speech? In what three ways may the home be preserved?\n\n\n\nSTUDY XI\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN BUSINESS WORLD\n\n\nScripture references: Proverbs 22:29; Romans 12:11; Psalms 24:1;\n50:10-12; Haggai 2:8; Psalm 49:6,10,16,17; 62:10; Matthew 13:22; Mark\n10:23,24; Job 31:24-26; Proverbs 3:9; Matthew 25:14-30; 24:45-51;\n6:19-21; Luke 12:16-21.\n\n\nTHE IDEAL IN THE BUSINESS WORLD\n\nThere is often a wide difference between the methods actually employed\nin doing business and when they should be. Good men who are in the\nthick of the battle of competition and rivalry with other firms in the\nsame line of trade, are the quickest to admit this fact. They would\ngladly see things managed so that every employee should be satisfied\nwith his wages and hours of work and every competitor and customer\ngratified by the treatment he receives.\n\nBusiness as a Fight.--\"The truth is,\" says a recent eminent writer on\nthis subject, \"modern business is a fight. At bottom it is a question\nof strength and courage.\" In this fight there are all sorts of men\nengaged; men, who are honourable and upright and who fight fairly,\ntaking no mean advantage, yet nevertheless fighting strongly for\nplace, power and wealth.  Over against this company of men are those\nwho are fair only when they are compelled to be fair and who contend\nwith any means, good or bad, for the objects which they seek to\nattain. It is this latter class which upsets trade, causes great\ncommercial and banking houses to fail, and casts suspicion upon all\ncorporations, by the sale of watered and fraudulent stocks.  It is\nthis idea of business as a struggle which causes working men to strike\nsometimes rightly, against great abuses, and sometimes wrongly, over\nminor matters which might easily have been adjusted if they had been\ntaken up in the right way.\n\nBusiness as a Service.--So long as the ideal of the business world is\nthat business is a fight, little can be done to improve the present\nconditions under which capital and labour work and suffer. There is\nnothing which is so costly as war, nothing which is so far-reaching in\nits disastrous effects and which leaves such a trail of misery behind\nit. Industrial war is no exception to the rule.\n\nBut why look upon business as a fight? Already a new ideal is before\nthe world, that of service. This is what business really is, it\ncarries things from the place where they are abundant to where they\nare not, it seeks to feed, to clothe, to house all mankind and to\nfacilitate travel and commerce. Upon the earth, and in it, enough of\nall things has been provided for all the inhabitants--the table spread\nby God has been bountifully furnished--if only there were a proper\ndistribution no one need want. It is this matter of unwillingness to\nunselfishly serve others which slows down commerce to-day. When,\nhowever, men shall cast aside all other ideals save that of being of\nthe largest service to their fellow men we shall have a new order of\nthings. Men will no longer seek to accumulate for themselves alone and\nthe labourer will work with his full strength and a glad enthusiasm.\n\nNo man ever did his best work without some great ideal before him\nwhich refreshed and quickened all his energies. If the business man\nwould save himself from becoming sordid, and the poorest paid working\nman from becoming sullen and hardened, they should keep ever before\nthem this vision of service.\n\n\nOWNERSHIP\n\nIf the ideal of service is accepted in the business world as true,\nthen the question arises, What or whom shall man serve? Shall it be a\nthing, silver, gold, house or land? Shall a man serve another man as a\nman? Whatsoever a man serves he becomes subject to. He is dominated by\nit and his thoughts go no further. Every man is tempted to serve the\nlower instead of the higher. Jesus was tempted (Matthew 4:1-11) by\ncertain seeming great and temporal advantages to relinquish His\nservice of His Father, but He made it clear once and for all that the\nsupreme object of service should be God (Matthew 4:10), \"Him only\nshalt thou serve.\" Paul also exhorts all men, in all occupations, to\nkeep in mind first of all the service of God and of Christ, and to do\nwhatever they do to God. Then if they administer great or small\naffairs, if they are masters or servants, they will seek to please God\nand, having this higher ideal, will do far better work, than they\notherwise would, in every sphere of life (Ephesians 6:7; Colossians\n3:17,23; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 2 Corinthians 8:5).\n\nGod, the Owner of All.--God as sovereign, and over and in all, is the\nproper object of service (Exodus 20:3,4,5) for the business\nman. Nations have parceled out the earth amongst themselves and claim\nownership. Men hold the titles of lands under the laws of the\nnations. Men dig, plant and reap and call the products of the soil\ntheir own. But back of the titles of men, and the claim of nations,\nGod is the great proprietor.\n\n\"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the world and they\nthat dwell therein\" (Psalm 24:1; 1 Corinthians 10:26). \"For every\nbeast of the field is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills\"\n(Psalm 50:10-12). \"The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine, saith the\nLord of hosts\" (Haggai 2:8).\n\nMan is a Tenant at the Will of God.--No man really owns the goods in\nwhich he deals or the lands to which he holds the deeds. He may be\ncalled away from the temporary ownership at any time. It was asked,\nwhen a certain very rich man died, \"How much did he leave?\" The reply\nwas, \"He left it all, he took nothing with him.\" \"For we brought\nnothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out\"\n(1 Timothy 6:7; Psalm 49:17; Job 1:21). Christ emphasized the\nuncertain tenure upon which all property is held by the parable of a\ncertain rich man who had much goods laid up, who congratulated himself\nupon this fact and proposed to pull down his barns and build greater,\nsaying to his soul, \"Take thine ease, eat drink and be merry,\" but God\nsaid, \"Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then\nwhose shall those things be which thou hast provided\" (Luke 12:16-21)?\n\n\nTRUSTEESHIP\n\nMan as a Trustee.--There is no truth more clearly brought out and\nstated in many ways in the Bible than that man is in the position of a\ntrustee. Jesus used the parable of the talents to illustrate this\ngreat truth (Matthew 25:14-30). It is plainly taught in this parable\nthat man is under obligations to God. No man ever brought himself into\nthe world. No man ever originated his own talent; some men have been\nendowed with what seems to be greater possibilities than others. To\none man has been given the talent for administration, to another that\nof a ministering spirit, to another mechanical genius, to another that\nof wealth and to another the power of song or speech.  But whatever\nthe talent given, great or small, it is distinctly set forth in the\nNew Testament that it is given in trust and is to be used in the\nservice of Him who has bestowed it.\n\nThe business man is expected, by his Lord, to buy and sell, not for\nhimself alone, but as a trustee. In this office it is of great\nimportance that a man be found faithful to the confidence reposed in\nhim (1 Corinthians 4:1,2; Luke 16:2,11; Romans 14:12; Luke 19:11, 27).\n\nA man in a trusteeship, if he is honest, will not waste or squander\nthe property entrusted to his care.  He will treat fairly and honestly\nall men who work for him. The men working for him will feel that they\nare also trustees seeking to use their skill and time, so that the\nbest interests of God and man may be served.\n\nMan's Right to Hold Property and Do Business is recognized by\nChrist. In the parable of the pounds (Luke 19:12-26) He commends those\nwho used the money in trading to gain more and were ready when \"the\nnobleman\" returned to render a good account.  He condemns the man who\nhaving received one pound made no effort to increase it. He says, \"If\nye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit\nto your trust the true riches\" (Luke 16:11).  He made no demand of His\ndisciples, so far as the record shows, to give up their property. The\ncase of the young man of great wealth (Mark 10:17-27), who would\nfollow Christ, and of whom Jesus required that he should divest\nhimself of his property, is fully in accord with Jesus' teaching\nconcerning wealth and the holding of property. The key to the whole\nmatter, on this point, is found in what Jesus says of this very case,\n\"How hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the\nkingdom of God\" (Mark 10:24). This young man did not possess his\nwealth but his wealth possessed him, he was the servant of his money.\nJesus' teaching is that a man should hold money in trust. Jesus warned\nmen of the risk of possessing property, lest it become their\nmaster. Money, considered simply as money, is a hardening influence\nand in the restive desire to get more the best things in men are quite\nsure to be eliminated (Matthew 13:22).  \"The danger lies in the power\nof money to gather affection and to absorb trust, thus displacing God\"\n(Matthew 6:19,20,24; Luke 18:24; 12:15).\n\nThe Reckoning.--There comes a time when every trustee is called upon\nto render an account of how he has administered the business entrusted\nto his care (Matthew 25:19; Luke 19:15). This time may be long\ndelayed, and in the meantime many abuses may grow up, and it may\nappear that no accounting will ever be demanded; these conditions are\nplainly pointed out by Jesus in the parables of the vineyard (Luke 20:\n9-16) and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30), but it is also made equally\nclear that in the end every man's work shall be judged.\n\nIn this reckoning there can be no making of things appear as they are\nnot. There can be no juggling with the accounts. Every business man\nmust show his books (Revelation 20:12) and how he has dealt with that\nwhich was entrusted to his care (1 Corinthians 3:11-15; Romans 2:16;\nMatthew 25:31-46).\n\nIt is the looking forward to the time of reckoning which makes men,\nwho are in offices of earthly trust, pay careful attention to the\ninvestment of funds and painstakingly investigate the security\noffered. Jesus would have every man equally careful in the investment\nof his time, labour, talent and money for he will surely be called\nupon to give an account of his stewardship.\n\nIn the uncertainty of the time of reckoning every business man is\nexpected to be ready for an investigation at any time when the\nexaminer shall appear (Matthew 24:42-51; Mark 13:34-37; 1\nThessalonians 5:6).\n\nThe Profit of business done, as a service in the sight of God, is\ndeclared to be sure and large. Whatever sacrifices may have to be made\nwill be more than amply repaid (Matthew 19:27,29; Luke 19: 16-19).\n\nIt is a well-known fact that, in the business world at large, there is\na very great percentage of failures and too many mark not only wrecks\nof business, but of characters. The reason often given is that the eye\nis fixed too frequently and earnestly on immediate and large profits\nfor self. But no man ever yet made a failure who openly and honestly\nsought in his business to be of service to God and his fellow\nmen. Real failure in business is a failure in character. A business\nman may be carried down by unexpected circumstances or the fall of\nother firms but, if he keeps his character intact, he is no failure;\non the other hand a man who has taken a selfish advantage of others\nmay be made rich in goods, but he is a rank failure in character.  The\nstandard of character in business is after all that by which the small\nor the large dealer in any kind of goods is judged, and by business\nmen themselves; business transactions are constantly being raised to a\nhigher level by the enforcement of this standard.\n\n\nPRINCIPLES\n\nIf employers and employees are ever to be brought into harmony,\nstrikes and lockouts abolished, the industrial forces attain to their\nhighest efficiency and the products of the world distributed with the\nutmost facility, it must all come about not by the invoking of courts\nof law, but by the bringing in of a new sentiment and the adoption of\ncertain principles. A sentiment is at the base of the present troubles\nand, until it is changed, they will be likely to continue and the\nworld at large will suffer the consequences. So long as men think only\nof the inequalities of life--and there are glaring inequalities--the\nunfair distribution of wealth and the comparatively obscure positions\nwhich they hold, they will be discontented and will fight to better\nthemselves, no matter who suffers. The spirit of discontent and\ncontention finds lodgment in the heart of the humblest working man, up\nthrough all grades, to that of the richest employer, for no man,\nhowever wealthy, ever thinks he has enough of this world's goods;\nthose who have the most are often the most eager in grasping for\nmore. Courts of law can only regulate the more flagrant outbursts of\nthe prevailing sentiment, they do not and cannot remedy the causes.\n\nWhat are some of the principles which are destined to help the\nindustrial world out of its difficulties?\n\nThe Observance of the Golden Rule.--\"Therefore all things whatsoever\nye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them\" (Matthew\n7:12). Just before giving this rule Jesus was speaking of a man whose\nchief object was to serve God (Matthew 6:33) and in the beginning of\nthe Sermon on the Mount, He showed the blessedness of the character\nwhich was to be sought (Matthew 5:1-16), before this rule could be\nrightly carried into practice in any life. \"Thou shalt love thy\nneighbour as thyself\" (Matthew 22:39) is in the same line of thought\nas this rule, but, and here is the point, we do not want certain men\nto love us as they love themselves, the thief, the gambler, the\ndrunkard, and we do not want them to do to us as they do to\nthemselves.\n\nIn order then that this rule be rightly observed there must be first\nan avowed allegiance to God. \"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God\"\n(Matthew 22:37) precedes the command to \"Love thy neighbour.\" It is\nonly when men love God aright and obey His commandments that they can\ncome into proper relations with their neighbours.\n\nHence, in seeking God first and obeying the Golden Rule, the whole\noutlook of employer and employee will be changed, the attention will\nnot be fixed upon the inequalities of life or the making of a fortune,\nbut upon the desire to be of service; each man will look into his work\nto improve it and seek to help his neighbour; whatever the\ncompensation, he will seek to do his best, serving as in the sight of\nGod. \"A just consideration of the rights of others is the very\nbeginning and end of true social economy.\" It is difficult to enforce\nany law which works against a public sentiment, but let the latter be\nin favour of the former and the law will enforce itself. Let the\nsentiment in the industrial business world be in favour of a supreme\nservice and the difficulties and trials of strikes and lockouts would\ndisappear; the energy, time and money now spent in fighting could be\nturned to the benefit of employer, employee and consumer.\n\nCooperation.--Jesus never set class over against class.  He mingled\nwith the wise and the unwise, the rich and the poor. He sought to draw\nmen together in a common brotherhood; this brotherhood was not\ncomposed of employers or of men who worked at a certain trade but of\nthose who sought to build up the kingdom of righteousness.\n\nThere is cooperation to-day amongst men but it is the coming together\nto build up some trade and make it strong that it may contend more\nstoutly for its rights. There have been various attempts for the\nfederation of unions, but they have too often been for the purpose of\ncoercing a like federation of employers' unions into taking a desired\ncourse of action.  The world awaits a cooperation of all men in the\nbusiness world upon the basis of love for each other and seeking for\nthe best interests of all concerned.  This again is a sentiment but it\nis one which must work against the prevailing sentiment of selfishness\nand looking out for self alone, if ever a better state of things is to\nbe brought about.\n\nThe Acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Great Example and Leader.--No\nman was ever so marvellously endowed with power as Jesus, yet that\npower was used for the good of mankind. He said \"All power is given to\nMe in heaven and in earth\" (Matthew 28:18). He made it a proof of His\nbusiness on earth that the blind received their sight, the lame\nwalked, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, the dead were raised\n(Matthew 11:2-6).\n\nThe man who follows Christ is the one who makes his business minister\nto the wants of men and helps them to better conditions, whether he be\nruler or ruled.\n\nThe glory is that, to-day, there are many men who are trying\nconscientiously, in the ranks of the employers and employees, to carry\nout the Golden Rule, cooperate with their fellow men and to follow\nChrist in His business of ministering to men.\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nWhat can be said of the ideal in the business world; fight or service?\nWhat can be said of the ownership of property? Who is the owner of\nall? Who is a tenant at the will of God? What can be said of man as a\ntrustee?  What can be said of a man's right to hold property? What can\nbe said of the reckoning? What of the profit? What are some of the\nprinciples which can help the business world out of its difficulties;\nthe observance of the Golden Rule, cooperation, the acceptance of\nJesus Christ as the Great Leader and Example?\n\n\n\nSTUDY XII\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN SOCIETY\n\n\nScripture references: Matthew 13:31-33; 5:21-24; Mark 8:1-9; John\n2:1-11; Luke 5:29; 14:13; 1 Peter 2:17; Galatians 6:9; Matthew\n11:28-30; 12:50; Luke 15:5,6,8-10; John 17:11-15; Luke 5:29,30; Mark\n1:28-33; Matthew 6:33; Luke 12:13-15.\n\n\nTHE SOCIAL CIRCLE\n\nThe Word Society is used to designate the set of people with whom we\nare on more intimate terms of acquaintanceship--whom we call\nfriends--and those whom we do not know so well, and whom we call\nacquaintances. The term society may also have other definitions, such\nas,\n\n\"1. A collective body of persons composing a community, or the\naggregate of such communities.  2. A body of persons associated for a\ncommon object. 3. The more favoured class or classes, or the\nfashionable portion of the community.\"\n\nThe Extent of the social circle of any man or woman is largely\ndependent upon personal choice.  There are persons who are exclusive\nin their preferences and who seek only the society of those of the\nsame rank, wealth or profession as themselves. Hence the different\nclasses in society at large. The pride of the poor often equals the\npride of the rich in this matter.\n\nThe Character of a social circle is also dependent upon the\nconvictions and opinions of those who compose it. There is a social\nconscience which is very lax in one group and will allow almost any\ndeparture from the moral law, but in another group it is very strict\nin its requirements. The social conscience is constantly weakened in\none case by persons joining the first group, who are weak in moral\nprinciple; and as constantly strengthened by those, joining the second\ngroup, who are strong in the things which make for a right life.\n\nThe Example of Christ.--When Christ came upon earth He found that the\nrich and educated classes had largely withdrawn from all intercourse\nwith those whom they considered beneath them. He also saw that the\ntone of society was arrogant and that of moral restraint there was\nnone at all or it was exceedingly weak. The situation was such that\nmany men despaired of anything better and were secluding themselves\nfrom intercourse with their fellow men. John the Baptist felt that he\ncould not stem the tide of evil in society and retired to the desert\nto deliver his message.  Those who contend for the regeneration of a\ncorrupt society, and who are decidedly in the minority, always are\nprone to step outside and seek to do their work there, and sometimes\nit may be the best to do so.\n\nJesus however entered into the midst of society.  He went to feasts\n(Luke 5:29,30; 7:36; 19:5). He was present at a wedding (John 2:\n1-11). He said that the kingdom of God was like unto ten virgins who\nprepared to attend a wedding (Matthew 25:1-13).  So constantly did He\nenter into social intercourse with men that the Pharisees and the\nscribes criticised Him severely for it (Luke 15:2) but Jesus justified\nHis course in being \"social to save\" by the three parables; the lost\nsheep, the lost coin and the lost boy (Luke 15:1-24). He gave a great\nfeast at which about five thousand men were present besides women and\nchildren (Matthew 14:15-21). He told what garments a guest should wear\nat a wedding, what seat he should take and who should be invited\n(Matthew 22:11-14; Luke 14:7-24). He did not wait for men to come to\nHim, but He went out to meet them by the seaside, and in the city. He\nsent His disciples out also that He through them might do as wide a\nwork as possible.  There is no trace of the recluse in Jesus. He\ndesired to meet people of all classes and mingle with them.  At the\nlast He gathered His disciples about Him, in an upper room, and\ninstituted a memorial supper as the chief ordinance of His church\n(Luke 22:19; Matthew 26:26-30).\n\nEverything that Jesus did in meeting people in a social way had a\npurpose and that was to level up society and cause it to conform to\nthe principles of the kingdom of God. Wherever He went He led the\nconversation to the better things of this kingdom.  The man who quotes\nJesus and His relation to society, as a justification of attendance\nupon numerous social functions, ought also to carry out the purpose of\nJesus in bringing others to a better life; he ought also to lead the\nconversation to the same topics. If society sways any man from the\nright purposes of life, and he finds that he cannot breast its\ntemptations he should remain out of it or increase his spiritual\nstrength.\n\nThe Christian Society, composed of a body of persons associated for\nthe common object of exploiting Jesus Christ and His principles, at\nfirst was almost wholly social. The early Christians met in each\nothers' houses. They partook of meals in common after which they\nobserved the Lord's supper. The basis of organization was the\nfraternal equality of believers.  The barriers between the rich and\nthe poor, the learned and the unlearned, seemed to drop of\nthemselves. No pressure was brought to bear to force men together in\nthis fraternal organization, but they were united by a common love for\nJesus Christ, their Lord, and like Him they were at home in all social\ncircles.  No law, no urgency of appeal, no pressure, can to-day\nabolish class distinctions or the conflict between capital and\nlabour. It is only when men's hearts are filled with love for Christ\nthat they cease to antagonize and begin to care for each other and a\ntrue social bond is formed.\n\n\nSOCIAL INSTITUTIONS\n\n\"There is no problem of importance to humanity which has not some\nrelation to the Gospel of Christ.\"\n\nThere is a social question and it is a live question.  It is closely\nrelated to the wrongs and inequalities of life, in wealth, in position,\nin privileges and in opportunities. There is a social impulse which\ncauses men to get together in smaller and larger groups and through\nthese groups to found institutions which will aid in abolishing the\nwrongs and in lessening the inequalities.  It is in and through social\ninstitutions that the larger life of the individual is expressed and\nhe is able to bring about certain results, working in connection with\nother individuals, which he alone could not bring to pass. In the\nsocial organism there is specialization of work, one member performing\none function and another another and all working in harmony for a\ncommon purpose (1 Corinthians 12:14-27).\n\nThere are three great social institutions through which men seek the\nlarger life, the family, the church, and the state. They exist in some\nform, elementary and crude it may be, wherever man is found.\n\nChristianity entering into all human relations, has much to say about\ntheir construction and specific powers and duties. Its mission is not\nonly to regenerate the heart of the individual but to penetrate and\ntransform society. \"Its work is to leaven the whole mass of human\ninterests with a divinely purifying power. It touches every act and\nevery relation of humanity with a life from above, and interpenetrates\nall that a man can do with a new spirit and a heavenly light. It\naffects governments, moulds education, rectifies manners, sweetens\nfellowship, makes the common ways of men better, healthier, happier,\nas well as holier.  Its endeavour is to realize a divine society not\nhereafter only, but upon earth; to have the kingdom of God come not in\nthe skies alone or in the future merely, but here and among men.\"\n\nThe Family.--This is the earliest and most primitive social\ninstitution. We are all born into some family, however imperfect its\nform. Upon the family depends in large measure the good or bad\ntraining of the children; here they receive their earliest impressions\nand what they are taught in the family often dominates all other\ninstruction. If the bond between husband and wife is not regarded as\nbinding and sacred the institution of the family becomes corrupt and a\nmenace to the good order of society.\n\nJesus spoke in no uncertain way about the sacredness of the marriage\nrelation (Matthew 19:3-9; 5:32) and the obedience which children owed\nto their parents (Matthew 15:4-6).\n\nThe Church.--Man has been called \"a religious animal.\" His desire to\nworship is instinctive. He seeks the care and protection of a stronger\npower than himself. Even a man who says he has no religious opinions\nwill often be found, when questioned, to hold most strongly to things\nwhich he believes. Individuals, then holding to certain religious\nbeliefs, naturally come together and form groups in which they worship\nin common. This is the social impulse applied to worship, because man\nlikes to do things in connection with his fellow men.\n\nChrist sought to direct men to the proper object of worship (John 4:\n23,24; 14:6-11), the way to pray (Matthew 6:5-15), the way to enter\ninto life with God (John 3:1-21) and the character which was required\nof those who desired to lead the divine life (Matthew 5:1-16; chapters\n5-7). Men who believe in the principles of Jesus Christ associate\nthemselves together in a Christian church.\n\nThe Government.--Everywhere we find men uniting for mutual protection\nagainst their enemies, the guarding of property, the settling of\ndisputes between individuals, the administration of justice and the\nexercise of other powers. This government may take different forms\nfrom the one man power in a monarchy to that of the most liberal\ndemocracy. The necessity for some form of government seems plain.\n\nChrist recognized the duties which a man owed to the state when He\nsaid, in answer to the lawyer's question, \"Is it lawful to give\ntribute unto Caesar, or not?\"  \"Render therefore unto Caesar the\nthings which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.\"\nHe saw the corruption in the government of His times as plainly as any\none, more plainly in fact, but He was showing the necessity of the\nfunctions of government. He submitted to the decree of the state\ncondemning Him to death although He knew it to be unjust, and that the\npower was not with Pilate (John 19:10,11; Matthew 26:52,53).\n\nWhat Jesus sought to do was to usher in a new kingdom of\nrighteousness. He taught His disciples to pray for the coming of this\nkingdom upon earth.  \"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as\nit is in heaven.\" He was continually speaking of this kingdom (Matthew\n13:24-52). He declared that all nations should come to Him finally to\nbe judged (Matthew 25:31,32). One great theme of the prophets of the\nOld Testament was the righteousness, purity and justice of the new\ngovernment which God desires to set up amongst men.\n\nSocial damage comes to men and great evil is done to individuals when\nsocial institutions are not patterned after the plans given by Christ;\nthese are divine institutions when they seek to approach to the divine\nideal.  Much of the unquiet and restlessness of the masses of men\nto-day and the great wrongs in the world are due to the tampering with\nthe marriage relation, the substitution of the worship of wealth and\nworldly power for God, and the seeking of government positions, not to\nbe of service to men under God but to rule over men.\n\nSocial health and vigour will come in the family, church and\ngovernment when men turn again to God and obey and serve Him through\nthe social institutions with supreme love and enthusiasm for His\nservice.\n\n\nSOCIAL AIMS\n\nIn Socialism.--There are many schemes presented to-day under the broad\nterm of Socialism which have for their proposed end the betterment of\nthe people, the abolishment of all wrongs and the bringing in of a new\norder of things; where every man shall do a minimum amount of work and\nreceive a large return for what he does. These plans vary from the\nmildest of reforms--and from \"the public collective ownership of land\nand capital and the public collective management of all industries\"\nwith the recognition of certain private rights--to the taking of all\nland and capital absolutely from private control, the abolishing of\nthe right to hold private property, the giving up of the marriage\nrelation, the suppression of the church and the renunciation of the\ngovernment.\n\nThe trouble with extreme schemes of this sort is that they seek in the\nend to abolish the individual and private rights, even in\nmarriage. But all social and moral health and wealth is but the\naggregate of individual health and wealth. No community and no class\nof men are better than the men who compose them. If there are evils in\nthe present system they would continue, in a magnified form, in the\nnew. There is here the old political fallacy, made over into a new\nsocial fallacy, that by mere putting of the ballot into every man's\nhands the government would be purified of all its evils. We must begin\nwith the individual to purify him before the state or society can be\nmade much better. It is the levelling down, the bringing the better\nworking man to the rate of work and quality of the poorer, which is\nsought, rather than the levelling up. The common goods scheme was\ntried early in the career of the Christian Church and it failed to\nwork because of the element of selfishness which came in (Acts 2:\n44,45; 4:34; compare 5:1-11); this has been the cause of the breaking\nup of numerous social and communistic settlements and communities.\n\nIn Christianity.--When the precepts of Christianity have been accepted\nand lived up to by any man or company of men, they have never failed\nto stand all the social tests which have been applied to them.  They\nseek the regeneration of the individual and the purification and\nusefulness, for him, of all the social institutions. They endeavour to\nabolish evil desires and practices in the individual and all social,\nindustrial and political wrongs. They give full play to all man's\npowers in private and in public matters. They have never been proved\ninadequate to their task, but they have found much refractory material\nwith which to deal.\n\nThey level up not down and seek for every man a new moral and physical\nlife; they present before him the very highest ideals of life and\nservice.\n\nIt is a fact that it is only where their light shines that the working\nman has anything like decent wages or hours of labour. In China, India\nand Africa we find the labourer gets little or nothing for his toil.\n\nIt is only in Christian countries that we have anything approaching\ntrue social equality, in others no man may rise out of his caste or\nclass. Take the United States and we find that a number of our\npresidents have come from the poorest families and most of our\ninfluential and wealthy men have risen from the ranks of the common\npeople.\n\nIt is the lack of Christian principles in individual, industrial and\npublic life which is at the bottom of the present day social unrest.\n\nIn Christ, the Social Reformer.--When He came upon the earth and\nbefore His time all labour was performed by slaves without pay and\nwith but a dole of food. The mighty buildings of Egypt, Assyria,\nBabylonia, Greece and Rome were all built by the unrequited toil of\nslaves. Such would have continued to be the state of things had not\nChrist said, \"The labourer is worthy of his hire\" (Luke 10:7; Matthew\n10:10). That a working man should receive wages or any pay for his\nlabour was revolutionary in that time for \"Plato, Cicero, Lycurgus\nheld that it was a disgrace to touch the implements of toil.\" Christ\ndignified labour by toiling at the bench as a carpenter. If ever\nlabour is to gain any real advantage it must be through taking Christ\nas a leader (Matthew 11:28).\n\nHe taught that the true bond of social equality was a moral and\nspiritual one (Luke 8:21; Matthew 23:8; Philippians 3:13-15; 4:8).\n\nIn the Social Settlement.--What is a true social settlement?  This\nquestion is not so easily answered.  There are all kinds and sorts of\nsocial settlements.  Some minister to the health of the community in\nwhich they are situated and some do not. The saloon has recently put\nforth its claim to the doing of social service, but no one ever\nslandered a saloon keeper by affirming that he had anything in view\nsave a selfish motive. Whatever little social service he may render is\nmore than counterbalanced by the social havoc wrought by his\ntrade. Again there are social settlements where the principal thought\nand effort seems to be to provide somewhat questionable vaudeville\nentertainments and frequent public dances; the leaders say they are\ncompelled to adopt these features to hold the people; here comes in\nagain the question of social damage to the community in which they are\nsituated.\n\nThe true social settlement, with all its features of mental and\nphysical culture, is one which places Christ at the front of all its\nwork and keeps Him there.  It is Christ and Christ alone who can\nreally help the individual and the community and there are numbers of\nsocial settlements where Christ is kept at the head of the work.\n\nThe church has changed its methods very much during the past few\nyears. Seldom is a church now built which does not have its well\nappointed kitchen, dining-room and parlours and other social\nequipments.  It is according as a church uses these adjuncts, whether\nthey really help it, or not, to do its work. The church is powerful as\na force for social betterment not as it does or does not open its\ndoors to lecturers, plan social entertainments, give dinners and hold\nfestivals--these may be helps--but in so far as it sways the inner\nlife of the community. This inner life, influenced in right ways,\nfinds expression in a better individual, home and community\nstandard. This standard makes for the uplifting of the social state\noutside as well as inside the church. The principle is, not social for\nthe sake of being social, but \"social to save.\" It is quite certain\nthat unless the church sets up its ideals in the community, a worldly\ncommunity will set up its ideals in the church. The more spiritual a\nchurch as a social settlement is the stronger the social bond becomes\nbetween rich and poor, the learned and the unlearned.\n\n\nBROTHERHOOD\n\nThe Christian Social Brotherhood is not a brotherhood of a class but\nof all classes and conditions of men.  To-day the popular idea of\nbrotherhood is the association of men of a certain trade. There is a\nstrong tendency for social groups to be formed, which are exclusive of\nall who do not conform to a certain standard in the industrial world\nand inclusive of all who do. The members are looking for protection\nand mutual benefit.\n\nChrist said of His brotherhood, \"One is your Master, even Christ and\nall ye are brethren.... One is your Father which is in heaven\"\n(Matthew 23:8,9).  We find here the great principle laid down that\nthere can be no true brotherhood without a common fatherhood.\nChristians are brothers because they have a common \"Master\" and\n\"Father\" hence they seek to do good not only to the members of the\nbrotherhood but to all men, because God is the Father of all. It is\nthis thought that is to bring men up out of their selfishness.  The\nemployer and employee will strive to do all they can for each other\nwhen deep down in their hearts they believe they are brethren in\nChrist; we shall hear no more then of injustice upon either side.\n\nThe church of Jesus Christ holds the only solution to the peaceful and\nhappy settlement of the social unrest.\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nWhat can be said of the social circle, what does the word society\nsignify? What is the extent of any social circle, the character? What\ncan be said of the example of Christ in society, the Christian\nsociety? What can be said of social institutions; the family, the\nchurch, the government?  What can be said of social aims; Socialism,\nChristianity, Christ, the social reformer, the church as a social\nsettlement? What can be said of the Christian social brotherhood?\n\n\n\nSTUDY XIII\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN STATE\n\n\nScripture references: Matthew 22:17-22; 17:24-27; Acts 23:5; John\n6:15; Matthew 4:8-10; John 18:36-38; Mark 14; 61,62; John 18:33;\n19:19; Isaiah 9:6,7; 60:3; Zechariah 9:10; Daniel 7:14; Matthew 26:64;\n26:53,54; 16:16,17; 25:31,32.\n\n\nCHRIST AND THE STATE\n\nThe Relation of Christ to the State.--He was an intense patriot. He\nloved His country. The names of His great countrymen, Abraham, Isaac,\nJacob, Joshua and David, were ever on His lips. He offered Himself as\nthe national Messiah (Matthew 21:1-17), He was rejected (John\n18:38-19:16; Luke 23:27-30; 13:34) and crucified (John 19:18), after\nHe had been unjustly condemned to death both by the Jewish and Roman\nauthorities. Upon the cross and over His head was placed the\ninscription, \"Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.\"\n\nWhat Jesus Taught About the State.--The ancient idea of the state was\nthat it was everything and the individual nothing. The first question\nwas, \"Is the state strong and prosperous?\" The happiness or\nunhappiness of the individual was not considered. The purity or\nimpurity of the life of the individual was of little consequence. The\ncitizens existed for the state and to serve it and its ruler. This\nidea has lingered long and is not entirely yet extinct.\n\n1. Jesus discovered the individual in the state. He taught that the\nsoul of one man is worth more than the whole world (Matthew\n16:26). Jesus put the individual first and the state second. This\nteaching was entirely new and revolutionary. Christ's principle was\nmake the man, the unit, right and the state will be right. He insisted\nthat the test of the state is the kind of individuals it produces\n(Matthew 7:16). \"By their fruits ye shall know them\" (Matthew 7:20).\nFormerly the state was thought of as an institution to minister to the\ncomfort or happiness of the ruler or ruling class. Christ reversed\nthis when He declared that rulers existed to serve the state. He said,\n\"Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them,\nand they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not\nbe so among you, but whosoever will be great among you let him be your\nminister; and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your\nservant. Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to\nminister and to give His life a ransom for many\" (Matthew 20:\n25-28). He is the greatest in the state who renders the greatest\nservice.\n\n2. \"He laid the foundation of a true state.\" In the time of Christ the\ncommon people had no choice in the selection or election of any\nofficer of the state, of high or low position. Popular government in\nany form was unknown. If things went wrong people must endure\nthem. When Jesus laid the responsibility upon the individual He made a\nbasis for a popular government of some form. If things are not right\nnow in a Christian state the people have the power of protest and\nchange. It is for the people to send their representatives to the\nlegislature, to congress, to parliament, etc., and to make and alter\nthe laws when new laws or changes are needed.\n\n3. He was a civil reformer from the inside. Jesus taught the necessity\nfor the moral and spiritual regeneration of men before much could be\ndone by the state in weeding out its evils. He saw plainly the folly\nof trying to transform the character of the state solely by the\ncoercive power of law. \"Satan tempted Him to take the short\ncut,--seize power over men and then change the character in men\n(Matthew 4:8).  To have become the kind of a king the Galileans\nproposed in John 6:15 would have frustrated His mission. He sought in\nsociety and politics what He sought in each man's life (Matthew 12:36;\n23:26; Luke 6:45; John 10:10). Jesus was a true reformer.\"\n\n4. Jesus taught obedience to the state and Himself strictly observed\nwhat He taught. He paid His taxes (Matthew 17:24-27). He declared that\nit was lawful to give tribute to Caesar (Matthew 22:15-21).  When He\nwas unlawfully arrested, on a trumped up charge, He made no resistance\n(John 18:1-9); this was not because He was not able to do so, for He\ncould have summoned more than twelve legions of angels to aid Him\n(Matthew 26:53). Jesus thoroughly understood the corruption of His\ntimes, and the character of the rulers. He said of Herod, when it was\ntold Him that he would kill Him, \"Go ye and tell that fox, Behold, I\ncast out devils and do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I\nshall be perfected\" (Luke 13:32,33). He obeyed the law for a purpose\nand the bringing in of a new order of things--the abolition of force\nand the substitution for it of service in the kingdom of God. He\nsuffered the Just for the unjust. He was a Martyr for His country. He\ndied that it might live in a new order of men, under the banner of\nChristianity.\n\n5. He taught the right principles upon which the universal state\nshould be founded. Up to and at the time of Christ nations were\nseparated from each other not only by natural boundaries of rivers,\nseas, plains, mountains, languages and racial differences but by\nreligions.  One people worshipped one set of gods, while another\npeople bowed down to other gods.  Jesus set forth the large ideal of\nuniting all races and all peoples in one great spiritual kingdom (John\n18:37; Matthew 28:19,20; Acts 1:8; 17:24-27).  It is only as different\npeoples and nations are united in a common religion that there can be\na proper political federation or union (John 4:20-24; 10:16).  Jesus\ntaught His disciples to pray that God's kingdom, a reign of\nrighteousness, justice and peace, might come, not to one people only,\nbut to all peoples.  This prayer, \"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done\nin earth as it is done in heaven\" (Matthew 6:10) means that the earth\nand no one restricted part of it is to be occupied by the kingdom of\nGod. Jesus looked beyond the Jewish state and the Roman state and saw\nthe beginning of a kingdom of God which would embrace all nations. It\nis this kingdom which is to permeate, purify and control the\ngovernments of the earth.\n\n\nTHE AUTHORITY\n\nThe Source of Authority is in God. \"There is no power but of God; the\npowers that be are ordained of God\" (Romans 13:1; Daniel 2:20,21;\n4:32; Psalm 2). God is sovereign. He is the final basis of all\nauthority. \"Government has authority delegated to do its duties, but\nit has no inherent authority to do anything. God has inherent powers;\ninstitutions have that which is conferred upon them by law. Each one\nwho exercises authority must derive it directly or indirectly from\nGod\" (Matthew 18:18; Daniel 7:13,14; Isaiah 9:6,7; Luke 10:22; John\n3:35).  This is one of the fundamental principles of the Christian\nstate. This authority may be delegated to men and may be used rightly\nor it may be abused.\n\nIn the Old and New Testaments it is distinctly taught that all\nnations--Christian and unchristian--are directly accountable to God.\n\nThe Sanction of Authority is in the righteousness and justice of\nGod. \"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right\" (Genesis 18:25;\nPsalm 58:11; 67:7; 97:6; 9:8; 50:6; Proverbs 16:11,12; Romans\n3:21,22)?  The Old Testament prophets looked forward to the perfect\nstate wherein righteousness and justice should rule. Sovereignty over\na state may be initiated by force but it can never be made the\npermanent basis on which sovereignty rests. \"States have been\ndefrauded of their birthright with scarcely the grace of a contract\nfor a mess of pottage, but the possession may be kept only by a return\nto justice.  The strongest is not strong enough to be always master,\nunless he transform his strength into right and obedience to duty.\"\n\n\nTHE LAW\n\nReign of Law.--The philosopher, the natural scientist and the\nChristian theologian all believe that we live in a universe governed\nby law. Certain natural scientists may believe that the law is\nimpersonal in its origin, but the Christian theologian believes that\nthe origin of law, and the carrying it out, is \"the expression of the\nwill of a personal God.\"\n\nLaw has been defined, as the necessary relations which pertain to the\nnature of things. When men come to associate themselves in a state\nthey find it necessary to define and formally set forth their\nrelations by certain enactments for the general good, which are called\nlaws. But these laws naturally will be the expression of, and will\nrise no higher than, the social conscience of the people.\n\nThe revealed will of God in regard to men and their political\nrelations to each other, as given in the Scriptures, presents high\nideals, which, if realized, go to make the perfect state (Micah\n6:8). The Old Testament prophets were continually presenting these\ndivine ideals of the state to the people of Israel and urging them to\naccept them. Christ had much to say about the higher political\nrelations of men. Paul in his epistles also had much to say upon this\ntopic.  Moses urged not only the keeping of the provisions of the\nceremonial, but also the moral and civil laws (Deuteronomy 6:1-9;\nExodus 25:40; Joshua 1:7; Exodus 13:9; Nehemiah 9:13; Psalm 1:2;\nIsaiah 1:10-17; Jeremiah 8:7,8; Daniel 9:10,11; Matthew 5:17;\n22:36-40; Hebrews 8:10; Titus 3:1,2; Ezra 7:25).\n\nGod is the Lord of all nations and they are to be judged according to\nHis law (Psalm 2; 47:2,3; Malachi 1:14; Psalm 67:4; Matthew 28:19;\n25:32; Romans 16:26).\n\nThe End of the Law is to make a holy nation, wherein righteousness\nshall reign. The effort of the Mosaic law was to make Israel a \"holy\nnation.\" Even sanitary and dietary laws were not laid down as such but\nwere made the distinctive marks of the consecrated life of a chosen\npeople; details of ritual were prescribed to express the sense of the\nholiness of God in whose service they were exercised (Exodus 19:6).\n\"And ye shall be holy unto Me; for I the Lord am holy, and have\nsevered you from other people, that ye should be Mine\" (Leviticus\n20:26; Deuteronomy 7:6; 26:19; 28:9; Isaiah 62:12; 1 Corinthians\n3:17).\n\nThe effort of Christianity, under the leadership of Christ, is not\nonly to perfect the church, but also the state. In so far as the\nprinciples of Christianity prevail amongst the people they reflect\nthemselves in the laws of the state. In a community which is\nthoroughly Christian it is impossible for certain evil institutions to\nmaintain themselves.\n\nThe Duty of the Christian Citizen is to recognize the state, to give\nit loyal support and obedience and to seek to make its law conform to\nthe law ordained by God. No man ought to hold himself aloof from the\npolitical interests of his community or country. In many towns and\ncities where Christian public sentiment has secured the passage of\nexcellent laws for the suppression of certain evils, the evils\nflourish in spite of the good laws because they are not strongly\nsupported by that sentiment which secured their passage.\n\nNever was there a time when the highest type of Christian citizenship,\nsetting forth the ideals of Christ, was more needed than at the\npresent day. The outlook for any true national greatness must\nnecessarily be from an ethical and Christian standpoint, bringing to\nthe front the principles of love, loyalty, service and sacrifice.\n\n\nFUNCTIONS AND PURPOSE\n\nFunctions.--The Christian state is continually widening its sphere of\ncare and action over and for the individual. It not only assumes the\nprotection of life and property, but provides schools, from the\nprimary grade to great universities; it cares for the sick and\nmentally deficient; it provides food, clothing and shelter for the\ndestitute poor, it supervises the morals of the people, and enforces\nsanitary regulations. The more thoroughly Christian the state the more\nit seeks the betterment of the individual. The less Christian the\nstate the less it cares for the good of the individual and the more it\nseeks to oppress and to use him as its slave.\n\nPurpose--This is the realization of the kingdom of God on earth. The\nChristian is working for a state, where the principles of justice and\nbrotherly love shall prevail.\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nChrist and the state; what was His relation to the state?  What did He\nteach about the state? What did Jesus teach about the individual and\nhis relation to the state? In what way did He lay the foundation of\nthe true state? In what respect was He a civil reformer? What did\nJesus teach about obedience to the state? What did He teach about the\nuniversal state and the principles upon which it should be founded?\nWhat is the source of authority for the state?  Give the sanction of\nits authority. What can be said of the law of the state, the reign of\nlaw, definition, end of the law and the duty of the Christian citizen?\nGive the functions and purpose of the Christian state.\n\n\n\nSTUDY XIV\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN'S HOPE\n\n\nScripture references: 1 Timothy 1:1; Colossians 1:27; Psalm 130:5;\n43:5; Proverbs 10:8; Acts 24:15; Psalm 71:5; Romans 5:1-5; 12:12;\n15:4; 1 Corinthians 9:10; Galatians 5:5; Ephesians 1:18; Philippians\n1:20; Colossians 1:5; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2:19; Titus 1:2; 2:13; 3:7;\nPsalm 31:24; 71:14,15.\n\n\nHOPE IN THE PRESENT LIFE\n\nThat which a man ardently hopes for he strives to realize. If he\ndesires fame, office or wealth he will seek to set forces in motion,\nhere and now, which will bring him that which his soul covets. Back of\nevery man's striving there is always some hope, an ideal, which he\nendeavours to make a reality.\n\nThe man who enthusiastically believes in Jesus Christ cherishes the\nhope that every man may be brought to believe in his Lord and Master\n(Acts 26:27-29). He wants to see Christ not only rule and reign in the\nlife to come, but in this present life.\n\nThe urgency of the New Testament appeals to men is to, at once,\nbelieve in Jesus Christ, and to begin to live the Christian life (Acts\n16:31-33; 2 Corinthians 6:1-10; Galatians 2:20). The attempt was made\nby the early preachers of Christianity to bring about upon the earth a\nnew order of things. They prayed and laboured for the immediate\nconversion of men's souls and the betterment of the conditions under\nwhich men lived. A new kingdom (Matthew 10:32-42; Mark 1:14,15) was\ninaugurated with new ideals (Matthew 5:1-16), new principles and new\naspirations, which was to supersede the old social and political\norders.  It was the preaching of this kingdom of Christ, and that men\nowed their first allegiance to it (Acts 5:28,29), which provoked the\nterrible persecutions of the first centuries.\n\nChristianity has much to do with this present life, it has a panacea\nfor all its ills and evils and it has a certain definite programme to\ncarry out.\n\nThe Christian hopes and works for:\n\nThe Regeneration of the Individual through faith in Christ (John\n3:5,14-21). This is an inward change wrought in the soul by the grace\nof God. While this is a work of God, the responsibility for it rests\nwith man. God does not desire the death of the sinner. By the sending\nof Jesus Christ God has shown His love for man while yet a\nsinner. Every unregenerate man either does not desire this new life or\nelse feels that he never sought with all his heart to have God\nregenerate his soul (John 5:40; 1:4; 5:24; Isaiah 1:18).  The\nregenerate man in Christ thinks and acts from a new basis (2\nCorinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15). It is only as the love of a man's\nheart is really changed and centred upon right things that he can be\ndepended upon to walk in right ways. A man may act right, may be\nhonest and upright from prudential motives, but if his heart is evil\nthe way of the righteous will be irksome to him and he may depart from\nit at any time. The unmasking of the double life of a man, every now\nand then, shows how the heart's desire will have its way with a man\nwho does not love God.  Heart faith in Christ leads a man to follow\nand be like Him.\n\nHence we have such a large emphasis placed upon work for and with the\nindividual by Christ and His disciples.  Christ Himself called His\napostles to Him one by one and He was continually holding\nconversations of the deepest interest with individuals (John 3:1-13;\n4:6-26).\n\nThe possibilities of the work of the individual Christian for the\nindividual non-Christian man are too largely left untried. If every\nfollower of Christ should try to win one, who did not follow Him, to\nHis cause every year the good effects of such a campaign would be felt\nnot only in the church, but in every department of life.\n\nAll true reform work must begin with the regeneration of the\nindividual.\n\nThe Enlightenment of the Social Conscience.--There is such a thing as\na social conscience. It is possible to say and do things in certain\ncommunities which would not be tolerated in others. One town will not\nonly sanction the liquor business within its boundaries but will\nresist all efforts to abolish it; another town right beside it will\nhave none of this iniquitous traffic. Lawlessness and immorality find\na hearty welcome in certain cities and in others they dare not show\nthemselves. All this is due not to the perfection or the imperfection\nof the laws or to the large number or small number of men upon the\npolice force, but to an evil, an apathetic or an enlightened social\nconscience.\n\nThe progress of the gospel of Christ is often hindered or prevented by\na hostile public sentiment (Matthew 13:58; 17:20; 10:14; Luke\n10:10-12).  When Christ sent forth His twelve disciples He recognized\nthe strong opposition which their message and mission would often meet\nand said, \"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves;\nbe ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves\" (Matthew\n10:16). The disciples were taught to expect social ostracism and\nprivate and public persecution (Matthew 10:17-26). There were times\nwhen they were to flee before the gathering storm of opposition and\nthere were times in which they were to maintain their position to the\ndeath, but even if they fled (Matthew 10:23) they were not to cease to\npreach the gospel.\n\nIt is the duty and the right of Christians not only to seek for the\nregeneration of individuals, but also to protest and work against\nsocial and political wrongs and to seek to create and strengthen a\nstrong public Christian sentiment. The Church of Christ should be the\nconservator and promoter of high moral ideals in every city and town\nwhere it has a name and place and seek to extend its good influence\ninto regions where it has no standing.\n\nBetter Conditions of Living.--The Bible is always upon the side of the\noppressed and down-trodden. No laws ever enacted by any nation ever\nmade it so easy for the working man as the Mosaic ordinances; every\nseventh day (Exodus 20:9,10) was a day of rest; there were seven\nfeasts in seven months which called for many other days of rest; every\nseventh year (Leviticus 25:2-7) was a rest year; and every fiftieth\nyear (Leviticus 25:10-17) was one of rest and restitution. Christ\neverywhere championed the cause of the poor and the heavy burdened\n(Matthew 9:36; 11:28-30; 11:4,5).\n\nBut the Bible also clearly sets forth the fact that little can be done\ntowards bettering even the material conditions of living when men's\nhearts are not right towards God. If a man lets the spirit of avarice\nreign over him, no matter how much money he may have he will still\nwant more and he will not care whom he oppresses to get it. If the\nspirit of a purely worldly pleasure rules him his money will go into a\nbottomless pit and he will not care whom he makes suffer to get more\nmoney to gratify his insatiable desires.\n\nBetter material conditions of work and living can only come from the\nadoption of high moral and spiritual standards and in advocating these\nthe Christian Church to-day is the truest friend of the oppressed.\n\nThe Maintenance of Law and Order.--It is not an unusual thing for\npolitical parties to elect men to offices of trust and then to have\nthese same men refuse to enforce the laws which they have sworn to\nuphold.  In consequence we have all kinds of abuses and evils growing\nup in the body politic. Too often the political race is for the honour\nand the spoils of position.\n\nOutside the political arena stands the Christian Church and it can, if\nit will, demand that clean and upright men, whatever the issues of the\nparties may be, be placed in nomination. Here Christians may hold the\nbalance of power. If their loyalty is to Christ first of all they will\nvote for no man for any office who is known to be of an evil\ncharacter. The maintenance of law and order depends in large measure,\nin any community, upon the Christian sentiment of that community.\n\nThe Turning of the World to Christ.--The Christian's hope is that\nChrist may be Lord of and dominate the individual and the home life,\nthe social, the business and the political worlds, as well as the\necclesiastical.\n\nThe worship of God in Christ ought not to be only upon a particular\nday or in a certain place, but upon all days and in every place men\nshould lift up their hearts to Him (John 4:21-24). If He is Lord of\nall (John 1:1-14; 14:9-13) He should be Lord of all; there is no\nmatter too small and none too great to bring before Him. When Christ\nsaid, \"Go ye therefore and teach all nations ... teaching them to\nobserve all things whatsoever I have commanded you\" (Matthew 28:19,20)\nHe meant that His teachings should be dominant over all the earth and\nin every department of life. And for this we pray \"Thy Kingdom come,\nThy will be done in earth as it is in heaven\" (Matthew 6:10). It is\nonly as this kingdom shall come in power that we can expect to better\nthe conditions under which men live and work.\n\n\nHOPE IN THE FUTURE LIFE\n\nChristianity is not small in its anticipations, its desires, its\naspirations and its plans.\n\nIt speaks of a large hope for the future, so large that many men fail\nto comprehend its magnificence (John 11:23-26; Mark 16:11). It\ndeclares that while the body may be placed in the grave, the real man\nnever dies. Man in all that he thinks and does lives with two worlds\nplainly in view, the one that now is and the one which is to come.\n\nThe disciples immediately after the ascension of Christ began to\npreach and teach the resurrection from the dead (Acts 2:30-32; 3:15;\n4:10,33; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8). They used this fact of the\nresurrection as a reason for the belief in Christ as the Saviour of\nmen, a forsaking of sin and an incentive to a life of righteousness.\nThey taught, as Jesus Himself did, that this life, no matter how great\nits opportunities, was but the vestibule to a new and larger life\nbeyond the grave. It is better to sacrifice everything in this life,\nif necessary, rather than to miss the glory of the life to come\n(Matthew 5:29; 10:28; Mark 9:47). No good deed done in this life, in\nthe name of Christ, can fail of large reward in the life to come\n(Matthew 19:28,29; 25:34-40). By this emphasis, which was laid upon\nthe future life, the horizon of thought and action was marvellously\nwidened. Men were taught no longer that they were to exist for a few\nyears and then go out forever into the darkness of annihilation, good\nand bad alike, but that they were to live forever.\n\nConscious Personal Existence of the soul after death. This fact is\nconspicuously taught in the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles and\nRevelation. In the world to come people are not shades or ghosts, but\nthey have certain bodies (1 Corinthians 15:44), they know themselves\nto be and are known as the same persons who once lived on the earth\n(Matthew 17:2-4; Luke 24:36-48; John 20:24-28; 11:25,26; Luke\n16:19-31; 23:42,43). Christ said, \"But as touching the resurrection of\nthe dead have ye not read, that which was spoken unto you by God\nsaying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of\nJacob? God is not the God of the dead, but the living\" (Matthew 22:\n31,32).\n\nEternal Citizenship in heaven. The aim of Christianity is to make men\nrighteous. The abode of the blessed hereafter is one wherein dwells\nholiness, purity and truth.\n\nThere are conditions and hindrances to the entering of the abode of\nthe blessed.\n\n1. Conditions. The great prerequisite to entering into the joy of\nheaven is righteousness, perfect obedience to the law of God. But\nevery man of himself, when he enters into an honest self-examination,\nfeels that he comes far short of the perfect keeping of the divine\ncommands (1 John 1:8,9; Romans 3:23).  He needs forgiveness for past\ndisobedience, he needs help to lead a righteous life. Hence Jesus\nChrist, the divine Son of God, came that through His life and death we\nmight receive pardon for past sin and help to live the righteous life\n(John 3:16-23). What man could not do for himself Jesus Christ does\nfor him (Romans 3:20-26). The disciples of Christ were rightly\nenthusiastic in proclaiming Him as the propitiation for man's sin and\nbelief in Him, with all that it implied, as the entrance gate into the\nheavenly life.  Jesus said of Himself, \"I am the way, the truth and\nthe life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me\" (John 14:6). \"In My\nFather's house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told\nyou. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place\nfor you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I\nam, there ye may be also\" (John 14:2,3).\n\n2. Hindrances. The great hindrance to the entering of heaven is\ndisobedience of God, not only acts of disobedience but a state of\ndisobedience, where the soul of man desires to have no fellowship with\nGod or His righteousness. There is a disobedience of God through\ncarelessness, through ignorance and through willfulness; there is\nlittle hope for a man when he deliberately turns his back upon God. It\nis wonderfully shown in the Bible how God has sought to make Himself\nknown to man and to save him here and hereafter.  Every possible\nappeal has been made to man to turn to God. The Scriptures give no\nanswer of hope for a happy hereafter for those who deliberately reject\nall of God's invitations and pleadings in this world (Matthew 25:46;\nDaniel 12:2; John 5:29; Romans 2:1-6).\n\nThe Glory of Heaven.--The New Testament writers vie with each other in\nstriving to make plain the glory of heaven. John describes it, in a\nvision, as a magnificent city of gold and precious stones, wherein can\ncome no evil thing (Revelation, chapters 21,22).  \"And the city had no\nneed of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of\nGod did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations\nof them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings\nof the earth do bring their honour and glory into it\" (Revelation\n21:23,24). The real glory of heaven, however, is not in its outward\nadornment or pageantry, but in the triumph of righteousness and the\nsupreme reward of constancy to the truth of God (Revelation\n7:9-17). The holiness of God is vindicated (Revelation 4:8,9). \"The\ntabernacle of God is with men\" (Revelation 21:3,4), and every good\ndeed stands out glorified in the clear white light of eternity. Every\nsaint in heaven will feel that he has the hundredfold reward for all\nthe sacrifices he made when upon the earth for the kingdom of God.\n\nThe effort of the New Testament writers is to make the followers of\nChrist joyfully do their work here, much of which may be distasteful\nand difficult. \"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our\nfaith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,\ndespising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of\nGod\" (Hebrews 12:2). It is worth while to work for a limited future\nearthly reward; it is much more worth while to work for a heavenly\nreward which shall endure throughout eternity.\n\n\nQUESTIONS\n\nWhat can be said of the Christian's hope in the present life? What is\nthe regeneration of the individual through faith in Christ? What is\nmeant by the enlightenment of the social conscience? How can better\nconditions of living be secured through Christ? How can law and order\nbe maintained through the advancement of Christian principles?  What\nis the Christian's hope in turning the world to Christ?  What is the\nChristian's hope in the future life? What is meant by conscious\npersonal existence after death, eternal citizenship, the glory of\nheaven?","title":"Studies in the Life of the Christian: His Faith and His Service","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":39729}