Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-06-04
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE
LESSON. e KS
Reflections of an Eievating Character
wholesome Food for Thought
Studying the scripturai Lesson In
diligently and Probably. 40tt


Lesson for June z.
Golden Text-"Let this mind be In yop,
which was also In Christ Jesus."-Phil.
2: 8.
Warning to the Disciples Is the title
given this lcsson-Luke %; 24-37.
pause in the passion week. Jesus Is
on his swift way to the death. He sees
the cross looming up before him. but he
stands still in the midst of his course to
give his disciples instruction. BE ready,
thus, for emergencies. Be not so welded
to program or TO method as not TO be able
to step aside for special ministering at
the moments call. We were in the midst
OF devotional duties. A touch ut the cl-
-bow-"A, sick man next door" 1t was
not the prescribed time for calling on the
sick. but something said, Go at once. The
voice was obeyed, and a returning prodi-
gal pointed the way home. He seemed
to these mortal eyes to be good for days
and perhaps weeks of life, but the next
word that came was 1.-The man next door
is dead. He passed away suddenly, MS he
was sitting in his chair by the window"
God be thanked for the quick impulse
quickly obeyed. Be ready; be alert; be
obcdient. ~
Lesson Hints. iAe
"A strife" and almost under the cross!
All, these were human, weakly human,
strongly human; Christ only was divine.
They had just been asking (which Of
them it was that should do this thing
betray him. And there, in their pickering
strife. they were all doing it. In sense
we do it still. r3 20
Accounted greater" In the Greek
seem to be greater 1t was not so much
which was really greater, but, which had
the appearance of being greater. Is not
this the occasion OF most of earth's con-
tention? Suppose we leave it with God,
where each gets what belongs to him-and
to Christ! -f
Exercise lordship" is one word in the
original-lord it, play the lord. 1t is the
worlds way, as it were, of amusing itself.
Christians ought to be engaged in some
thing more serious and substantial.
"Benefactors" these lords called them
selves, as il the world existed for them
and by them. 1t is the selfish idea of ben
efaction. The Christian conception is
something radically other. He only who
ministers and gives isibenefactor.
Two motives to such a self-sacrificing
life. One negative and as by kind of
rebound from the world. ''ye shall not be
So" !. e.. like the world, ''yeshall not be
and by the drawing of Christ's life and
example. II am among you as he that
serveth." 4Ia ~
And here is the compensation. II APP
point unto you kingdom, as my father
hath appointed unto me-" o the uplift OF
il! Men may not know it, but we are
kings and priests unto God. Ours is n
grace they know not Of, and a power to
fully sustain us, as it did the Lord Christ
himself.
THAT ye may eat and drink at my ia
ble." Are we doing it? 1t is supper time
now. There is another table on ahead,
but this is the table of which David
speaks, Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies" No
enemies up there. Eat now, and put the
enemies to confusion as they look on.
"That thy faith fail not" From the
Greek word, 'fail," here used, comes
our word eclipse. 1t was the Eclipse Of
faith" against which Peter was being
warned, /. e., that he should get his eye
off from his Lord. But o the comfort
of those words: IL have prayed for your
Have faith. et
And like warning he gives to them all.
Buy a sword-not to fight men, but to
fight the temptations about to break upon
them. Sell everything, as it were, and
throw all the strength God gives you into
the meeting of this fiery trial. Christ
is not with us now in bodily presence, but
the sword Of the Spirit is with us. Fight
on till he come.
illustrations.
Christ is still leading on, his word and
deed lifting men toward God. The last
we see of him, with mortal eyes, he is
pointing upward, and his influence, as an
uplifting power, abides. These strong
words used to characterize "The Poet"
apply yet more beautifully and affecting
~ to Christ, and the Christ life.
Son heights afar that voice is heard,
And the dim path he breaks to-day
Will sometime be trodden way;
But when the race comes toiling on,
That voice of wonder will be gone.
Be heard on higher peaks afar, 1,fh
Moved upward with the moving star,
0 men Of earth, that wondering voice
Still goes the upward way-Rejoice"
The nearer we come to the limits of the
Christ life, either in Its beginning or It's
ending, the more conscious we are made
of it's divinity. These sentences of clos
ing instructions have an unearthly, while
a very distinctly earthly, ring In them.
They tell OF spirit other than the world
ly spirit, and they mark character con-
spicuously celestial and divine. Soame
Jenyns has said in most sententious and
searching language that the man who is
not sensible of the superior beauty, sim
plicity and originality of the Gospels, as
compared with other religions, is v'as de-
fcent in taste as in faith and as bad
critic as a Christian" and that to believe
these Gospel annals to be producible
without the presence Of Goldman In the
midst divine Christ, one must be 'pos-
sessed Of much more faith than is neces-
sary to make him Christian, and remain
an infidel from mere credulity."0 7s
Next Lesson-"Jesus Cruciied'-Luke
%: 1885,.
Fortifications OF Paris.
The German chancellor Caprfvi In n