Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-12-30
THE SUNDAYSCHOOL.
INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE
LESSON.
Reflections Of an Eievating Character
wholesome Food for Thought
Studying the Scriptural Lesson In
teliigently and Probably.
Lesson for January 2.

Golden Text.-"This is my beloved Son,
In whom am well ased."-Matt. 3: II.
Jesus and John is the subject treated in
the lesson this week, and the text may be
found in Matt. 3: TIT.
+ In order to understand the reason for
the immense sensation that Johns preach
ing caused among all classes throughout
Judea, we must remember that the Jews
were by nature a people given to deep in
terest In things religious; true, 1t was
chiefly the outer forms of religion, but
nevertheless any man who came preach
ing new doctrine, or new form OF an
old doctrine, was pretty likely to get q
much wider hearing than he would have
to-day. Then, again, the idea of the king
dom Of heaven was by no means wholly
new one, though John preached it in a
new and startling fashion. The Jews
looked for time when the Messiah
should come to establish his kingdom,
throw off the rule of Rome, and bring to
the long oppressed people peace and pros
perity. So that when John began to
preach that the kingdom was at hand, the
crowds focked to hear him; and though
the preparation that he demanded was n
spiritual rather than n political one, still
est held them But when the Pharisces
and Sadducees came he spoke to them
with terrible sternness John was not n
persuasive preacher. He did not attempt
to win these religious monopolists, but told
them just what God thought of them, as
he conceived it,
The time of settlement is at hand. What
John meant, though perhaps even he did
not fully understand it, was that when
Christ in his perfection offered himself
to those men and their countrymen, they
by their own acceptance or rejection of
him would pass judgment upon them
selves. The baptism with water which
John administered was Unto repent
ance" not in the sense that it led to re-
pentance: for it was but symbol OF n
repentance already begun. And we must
never forget what readers of the English
versions are so likely to overlook, that
repentance means not simply sorrow for
sin but amendment Of life, change of mind
and will.
The baptism of Jesus by John has many
difficult things about it. Some things may
be suggested that will remove part of The
difficulty. In the first place, this was not
baptism Of sorrow for sin; with such,
Jesus could have no part. 1t would be a
mockery for him, the one perfectly holy
being, to submit to an ordinance with such
meaning But the baptism symbolized
the change of mind the metaonia, which
John preached as the preliminary for the
coming of the kingdom. What John de-
manded of those who came to him was not
the same in each case, though the princi-
pie was the same; of each man, of each
class OF men, he demanded complete
spiritual change, n leaving of the old.
taking on Of the new. To the multitudes
ne commanded generosity; to the tax-gath-
erers, commercial: honesty; to the sol
diers, an abandonment of violence, and
obedience to orders. (See Luke 3: 10-14).
The common element was that the old
must be put off and the new put on, to
make ready for the new kingdom. Now
to such Il message Jesus himself, we may
reverently say, could yield kingly ODE
dience. He had no sin to put away, but
he had behind him thirty years of quiet
life, with its simple pleasures, its hours
of meditation. its uninterrupted commun-
ion with the Father; now was to come
great change, plunge into most alb
sorbing, exhausting life, life with scarce
ly any leisure, with an ovcrpowering
weight of responsibility, great mysteri-
Gus burden OF the sin and sorrow of his
fellow men. Was it not most appropriate
that the conservation of himself to this
hew and tremendous task, which surely
involved the most strenuous act of will
upon his part, should take the form of a
baptism unto the change of mind" unto
the new kingdom?
ITO fulfill all righteousness. 1t is use
less to attempt to explain this phrase. For
an explanation you must read the biog-
raphy Of Jesus. His whole life is its def
milton. 10 fulfill is to make full, to make
real, to make complete. Righteousness is
goodness, and so acceptableness to God.
BY his obedience to the Fathers will, by
his self-consccration to the great work of
redeeming men, Jesus in life and death
and resurrection made real, made possible,
goodness for all men. That was his work;
to be the Way by which men might jour
ney up to goodness and to God; to be the
Truth, to show them the good and guide
them towards it: to be the Life, filling the
souls of men with new and deathless en-
ergy that should bear fruit in transform
ed lives, fit for the kingdom of heaven.
Into this holy realm of duty and of unique
privilege. Jesus entered in the maturity
of his manhood by the symbolic gate of
baptism, setting forth the mighty purpose
that had ripened in his spirit, now to be-
gin its fulhllment.
Teaching Hints.
For many classes all questions of the
of Jesus and John will be
out of place. The picture itself is surely
enough for very full lesson-the preach
ing of John, the multitudcs about him,
the stern warning to the Pharisecs and
Sadducees, the coming of the gentle
stranger to the rough CARRIED prophet
perhaps in the sight of the multitude,
though of that we cannot speak with con-
idence; the baptism with its example to
us all. 1t is the meeting of the old world
and the new; in one sense more than the
Nativity the central point of human his
tory.
Next Lcsson-"Jcsus Tempted. Matt.
A.: Ill.
Help in Perplexity.
Mn1oDchthon said '''Troublp and Dnr-