The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-02-01
The Sunday School Lesson.
SERIES FOR 1885, FIRST QUARTER.
Studies in the Gospel According to Luke.


OF the Father. 1t assumes the truth of
Gods Fatherhood; it assumes the ma
tive integrity of the human soul. It de-
clares the natural inevitable penalties of
wrong doing.
The Sermon on the Mount is declara-
ton of principles SO broad, so ethical, SO
natural that it receives no condemnation
from the open sky under which it was
spoken.
The preacher has declared that
the blessed ones are those who, however
poor, or hungry, or sorrowful, or perse.
cuted, are the true imitators of God.
He has pronounced woe upon those, of
whatever outward condition, who are
recreant to truth and living contrary to
the Fathers example, He has declared
the one law by which right life can be
lived: As ye aoould that men should do
to you, do ne also to them.
We come now to our special lesson,
the application of the Sermon.
1. The Mote and the Beam
vs. Al, AZ.
Why beholdest thou the mote that is
IN thy brothers eye, but considerest not
the beam that is in thine osun ege?
That is, Why try to extract slight
piece.of wood, a mere silver, from your
brothers eye, when you have larger
piece in your own eye, piece as big as
beam, utterly blurring and obstructing
your own vision?
LIS not this carpenter g "reminiscences?
When a carpenter has a silver in
his eye his sight can be none too clear If
one who has piece of wood like rafter
or beam in his own eye were to try to
remove this painful silver. he would, as
Jesus implies, resemble certain professed
teachers of religion. Jesus would have
eye-doctors able themselves to see.
Carpenters especially would appreciate
his imagery; none could fail to under
stand his application.
2. The Tree Known by its
Eruit,-vs. 1915.
Jesus here appeals to the experience of
of the husbandmen. They know tree
by its fruit. An unrepealable law forbids
that thorn bushes shall bear figs or
bramble- bushes grapes. On an adjacent
hedge thorn bushes, fg-trees, bramble-
bushes and grape vines may have been
| growing in a tangled mass. But every
bush and vine and tree would, as the
husbandmen knew, bear fruit after its
kind,-this fruit and no other. By this
parallelism Jesus teaches that human
acts will correspond to the chosen root
principles of human character.
Jesus again appeals to those who have
had experience in mercantile life. a
good man out of the good treasure of
has heart bringeth forth that vhich is
good. The inner life is store-h house.
To the good it is treasury filled with
! valuables. AS a wealthy man brings
from his secret storehouse the precious
treasures that any occasion may demand,
so the coed man draws from his treasury
the good thoughts, the right impulses,
the deeds of mercy, the revulsion from
evil, the uplifting aspiration, which any
exigency of his life may demand. Like
the heart of the evil man is storehouse
of evil. Out of his inner store he will
bring his evil thoughts and deeds.
3. Building on the Rock and
on the Earth,-vs. 46--49.
Jesus, in the final application of his
sermon, brings from his carpenter ex-
perience another illustration. He will
show those who hear his words and obey
them what they are like. They are like
man who, when building house to
live in, digged deep and founded the
structure on the bed rock. The rains
will vainly beat on that house; the floods
will vainly assault it. The rock caunot
be moved; the house will stand. On
the other hand the man who hears the
words of Jesus to disobey them. even if
he habitually calls Jesus Lord, Lord"
is like man who builds his house on
the surface soil, the ever-changing sand.
No matter how fine and strong the house,
when the rains come and the floods as
sault, it will fall; it's foundation will go
out from under it.
Therefore TO say Lord, Lord" in a
profession Of faith. while the heart is
selfish, is to build character on evil;
and evil. because God is opposed to it, is
vanishing shadow. To initiate God,
in right doing and in charity. is to build
on the immutable rock which underlies
even the throne of God.