News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-05-14
FOR SUNDAY READING.
A LESSON FOR THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
''ObedIence. e.''-EphesInns- VII, I-13.

Paul wrote great deal OF doctrine
in his epistles, but he also makes his let
ters very practical. Men will hardly
live the right lives unless they are in
structed in theological truth and made
to understand their relations to God,
out OF which their duties flow. On the
other hand, theological beliefs are good
= Tor nothing, except they influence every
day life. A theology which bears no
fruit in better acts is a barren tree.
Obedience Gin the Lord" is an obe-
dience which comes from tie rule of the
spirit of the Lord in the heart. Tie
spirit OF Christ i'll the breast will beget
tilial obedience. On the other hand, it
Will, OF course, insure obedience only to
such commands as are Sin the Lord" or
consonant with religious duty. When n
parent commands something directly
contrary to what the Lord commands,
the spirit of the Lord will prompt re-
fusal to comply with the evil command.
The spirit of the Lord will impel us to
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to obey parents who are Sin ihe
Lord e., Christian parents-is pc
culiarly a duty; for their commands
must be supposed to be good and ben
eficial.
The command to honor parents is ex-
alted by having promise attached to it.
| By promise for obedience, or threat
ening for the disobedient, an Injunction
is emphasized. The sanction of a re-
ward and penalty shows that God is
especially desirous that the command
shall be obeyed.
On the other hand, parents must have
| due regard for their children. Children
have rights; and, uni, IS parents regard
the rights of children, it may be difficult
to lead the children to perform their
duty toward their parents. If parents
speak to children in anger, the chill
dren will be prompted to have angry
feelings in return. The discipline and
admonition given by parents must be
given in the spirit of the Lord, if it is
expected that the children will receive
it in that spirit. Only as our admoni-
tions are administered in the right
spirit can we expect that they will be
received in the right spirit
The Servants" addressed were slaves,
and their condition was, in some re-
spects, worse than the slavery which
formerly disgraced our land. Many of
them were captives in war, or had been
sold for debt, and, being persons of re-
tinement, could feel deeply the sadness
OF their condition, while the law gave
them no protection whatever, but cruel
master could even put them to death,
The injunction of obedience does not
imply that their slavery was just; for a
mother, writing to her son in prison,
though she believed him perfectly inno-
cent and his Imprisonment entirely un-
just, might counsel him to obey the
rules of the prison, to do submissively
the hard tasks assigned him, and to
treat respectfully the most abusive of
his keepers. The apostle deals with
slavery simply as fact, saying nothing
as to its rightfulness.
But he takes away the darkness OF
their wretched condition by reminding
them that their service to an earthly
master may be service to Jesus. AS he
says in the parallel passage in Colos-
slams iii. "a: "Ye serve the Lord Christ"
The faithful servant of heather off cial
might secure an apostles release from
YDrispn onI fb1S oaor7ro Gov
a wider extension. By cheerful endur-
ance of oppression, he might show to
cruel master that there was a reality in
religion, and so win that master and
others to Christ. The circumstances of
his bondage might enable disciple to
do work for Christ which no other one
could do. So he could bear his slavery
for Christ's sake, and could even rejoice
in the hard lot which enabled him to do
a work for the one who had redeemed
him. The revelation that service TO an
earthly master is service to Christ, gives
an entirely different character to that
bondage. The slave is emancipated, not
by breaking his chain, but by enabling
him to wear the chain ioyfully.
The principle laid down is one of gen.
eral application. Nearly every person
has much heavy labor and dreary toll to
perform. The factory laborer, the
burdened housekeeper, the school
teacher, and even the well-to-do busi-
ness man is bound down to daily
routine which often becomes burden
some and tedious. But, in whatever
position we are placed, we can do some
thing for Christ; nay, each position gives
to do something for him
which could not be done under any other
Therefore, we may
thank God that he has placed us in these
tances; for, bad as they are in
they are glorious in the op-
portunities they furnish us to do work
for Christ.
The "fnally" has the sense OF, 'for
The rest e., to lay down a rule which
will cover any case which may arise.
He who is ''strong in the Lord" girded
with the Saviour's mighty power, is
ready for anything which may come.
The Christian life is rightly termed
warfare, and the enemies are not the less
to be feared because they are not pal
pable. The price of spiritual liberty is
eternal vigilance against evil passions