Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-02
Christian Endeavor Hour
Conducted by Grace Livingston Hill-Lutz.
For Snndar nhor

- for one peneVeth that he may eat all
things; another, who is weak, eateth herbs
3. Let not him that eateth despise him
| that eateth not: and let not him which eat
eth not judge not him that eateth; for God
| hath received him.
4. Who art thou that judgest another
! mans servant? To his own master he stand
eth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up:
| for God is able TO make him stand.
o. One man esteemeth one day above an
other; another esteemeth every day alike
Let every man be fully persuaded in his
own mind.
6. He that regardeth the day, regardeth 1t
unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not
the day. to the Lord he doth not regard 1t.
He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he
giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not
to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God
thanks.
!. For none OF US liveth to himself, and no
man dieth to himself
8. For whether we live we live unto the
LORD; and whether we die, we die unto the
Lord; whether We live, therefore, or die
We are the Lords.
O.. For to this end Christ both died, and
rose, and revived, that he might be Lord
both of the dead and living.
10 But why dost thou judge thy brother?
or why dost thou set at nouSht thy
brother? For we shall all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ
il. For 1t Is written: As live, saith the
Lord. every knee shall bow to me. and
every tongue shall confess to God.
IL So then everyone of us shall give ac-
count of himself to God.
The Lesson.
Unless hindered by some reason which I
can conscientiousy give to my Lord and
Master" How much attention have you
and ! paid to that clause in our pledge?
1t helped US to sign the pledge, made us feel
that it was possible to promise all those
solemn things, about reading the Bible
every day and always remembering to
pray, and about attending all own
church's regular services, Sabbath and
midweek. But do we do all those things
we promised? Have we failed in none?
And where We have failed, has the excuse
been adequate? Has it conScientiously been
one we would present face to face to our
Lord and Master! For instance: Last
Wednesday night you did not go to prayer
meeting In fact, you have not been going
regularly for a long time. more than one
OF you. You had headache? Yes, we'll
that is good excuse, perhaps, but what
made the headache? You had been out
Monday evening to symphony concert, and
Tuesday to a friends party, and both kept
you up very late, so that by Wednesday
you felt worn out, and you spent the whole
afternoon reading a fine-prnt novel. No
wonder you had headache. But, after all,
would you like to explain that to your Mas
ter? Well, how about the week before?
You were finishing your new hat to wear to
town the next day? And the week before
that you had your friends out from town
TO spend the evening; 1t really was the only
night possible while your cousin from Cali
fornia was there. And the week before
that you stayed in town shopping very late
and got too tired, and the week before that
1t rained and you were simply too lazy. Be-
sides, you have been eXcusing yourself
quietly on the ground that there are a lot
more members of your church and society
W n NOT 70
and some Of them much more to be ex-
peCted there than you.
You have been priding yourself upon the
fact that you are careful and conscientious
about abstaining from certain things which
you consider a Christian should not indulge
In, and you have been looking down upon
another brother who is weaker than YOU in
mat respect You have almost felt that
Goa ought TO show you more respect than
that weaker brother because you feel that
you have honored Him in this way 1t
seems almost a cause for jealousy on your
part that the weak brother should seem to
prosper In his weakness, while You who
strictly adhere to some principle which was
taught you in your childhood and fairly
despise his religion, because he does not DO
so, are plodding on unnoticed apparentlv
II that is the way any of you feel 1t is time
you took this lesson to heart 1t isn't our
doing the thing, or our not doing it, that
gets the blessing; 1t is our earnestly fol-
lowing out the sense of right that God
has put into u.s. and If that sense of right
leads us to feel that we must not eat meat
or that we may, 1t matters not so we do
what we do for the glory of God. It Is not
that you to give up your principle and
give yourself license, because the man who
does not live up to your principles seems
to be best of God! Far from It. You are
answerable directly to God for what He
has caused your conscience to knew and
feel of His wishes for your life
1t is not your business to wonder why
another brother has not been made to feel
the same thing In the same way. 1t may
be that he is wrong and you are right but
that you cannot know. You are to follow
the dictates of a conscience that YOU have
sent to the school of the Holy Spirit to be
taught and not to question why other sup
posed graduates are not going along the
same line. You cannot come at the last
day and say as an excuse for doing or not
doing something that the blame lies at
the door or another The Bible plainly tells
US that each to his own Master standeth or
falleth. This meeting should rouse US to
sense of our own shortcomings and cause
US to look less severely upon those of our
brothers and sisters In Christ We must
learn to see the fiimsiness of our own ex-
cuses before We shall be quite capable of
approaching our brothers point of view and
Judging him.
Applied Truth.
An apt Illustration is found in tie fact
that the Greek word translated ito make
excuse" Is the exact equivalent of ours
Ito beg off"
1t Is said that there was once a master
who sent his servant with letter Co"
said he, Ito such and such a town with it,
He started. but he soon came back and
said: Master, l could not deliver it."
How was that?" said the master Sir,
there is a deep river, and 1 cannot get
across" Now, that looked very much like
an excuse, but the master knew better and
said: There was a ferryboat across. Did
you call for the ferryman?" mo. sir. /
did not" Very well, then" said he, 1.-THE
blame lies with you"
So We cannot always save ourselves from
temptations which lie In our paths like
mighty barriers, often causing us to turn
back from the hidden path; but there is al
ways the bridge Of prayer, and we may
cry out to Christ to help us If we only will,
so that We may have no excuse for not fol-
lowing His commands.
The Christian Endeavor World gives the
/ following Illustration for this topic: "A
| soldier. who went to the war took with
| him some of the small instruments of his
| craft-he was matchmaker and repairer-
| thinking to make some extra shillings now
and then when in camp. He did So He
| found plenty of watches to mend, and al
| most forgot that he was a soldier. One day
when ordered off on some duty he ex-
oil or? I bau