The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-02-03
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL,
Lesson W.-First Quarter, For
Feb. 6, 1910.
THE INTERNATIONAL SERIES.
Text of the Lesson, Matt. vi, LIS.
Memory Verse, Golden Text, Matt.
vi, I, r. V.-commentary Prepared by
Rev. D. M. Stearns,

The kingdom that will surely come
! in Gods own time and way will be a
kingdom of righteousness and peace.
The Lord Jesus Christ and His saints
shall be the heavenly rulers Czech. xiv,
8, @; Rev. V, 8. 10D, and Israel. right
eouS nation, the earthly center bring
! ing blessing to all the earth lisa IL,
81; xii, /. 2 6. u. In order to enter
the kingdom one must have the right
eousness described in the last lesson
not our own by any deeds of the law,
but that which is through the faith Of
Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith phil iii, o. If this
righteousness is truly ours it will be
manifest in our lives to the glory of
! God. and the whole life will be simply
/ and only and always desire for Gods
approval. Thus the light will shine
/ before men and God will be glorified
/ According to the scribes and Pharisees,
/ righteousness consisted of giving and
/ prayer and fasting, but it was all to
obtain honor from men Matt. xiii. 81;
/ it was not from the heart unto the
/ Lord. In the lesson today our Lord
takes these three things and teaches
that those who seek the praise of men
may get honor from men. but that is
! all they ever will get. The truly right
! eOus will do their righteousness verse
( |, margin and r. W unto the Lord, with
the one desire OF pleasing Him. and
! concerning such Jesus said three times,
/ Thy Father who seeth in secret shall
/ reward thee openly" oversees 4. 6, 49,.
| The worlds favor is to many a great
snare. but the motto of the truly right
eous is Not as pleasing men but God
/ who trieth our hearts" Not with eye
/ service as men pleasers, but as the
servants of Christ, doing the will of
God from the heart q Thess ii, 4;
/ Eph. vi. g.. The words of our Lord in
John vi, 81. seem to me to cover all this
/ teaching, AS the living Father hath
! sent me, and | live by the Father so
/ he that eateth me. even he shall live
/ by me-" Those who have taken the
trouble to note how often in the book
| Of Leviticus the book of worship, the
expressions unto the Lord" and be
/ fore the Lord" are used and will lay
this to heart will surely be delivered
/ from the snare of the devil against
/ which the Lord here warns us.
In reference to giving we have the
/ contrast between the rich who cast
into the treasury of their abundance
! and the poor widow who, perhaps will
| some secrecy. cast in her two mites,
| but of which our Lord made such hon
| orable mention The being rewarded
/ openly is referred to on another occa-
! sion by our Lord when He urged that
we should do good to those who can
! not recompenSe us here, reminding us
| of a recompense at the resurrection of
! the just luke xiv. IA. \ contrast in
! prayer is seen in the PhariSea and pub
| lican of Luke xviii. The contrast be-
| tween fasting before men and before
| God is set forth fully in lisa. lviii, Is.
! Let the world go its way and please
| its god, but if we have become children
of the only living and true God let US
| in all things honor our Father who is
in heaven and learn to pray from the
heart the prayer that is here taught
us by our Lord, the only model of
! prayer which Christ has given us, and
| as one has said. the epitome of all
prayer, for there is nothing that we
can ask for that is not included in this
! This is truly the believers prayer, for
only such can say from the heart Our
Father" All others had better take
heed quickly to our Lords estimate of
them in John viii, "A. Between Our
Father" and Thine is the kingdom"
there are just seven petitions. divided,
as nearly all sevens are. into three and
/ four. The first three refer to God, Thy
name, Thy kingdom. Thy will; the last
four refer to US, give us. forgive US,
lead us not, deliver us. God must be
always first. Nothing is right till we
are right with Him.
1t must be GLORY to God in the high
est before there can be peace on earth.
When His name is hallowed by all
then the kingdom shall have come and
His will be done on earth as in heaven.
We must never forget our daily de-
pendence upon Him and our indebted
ness to Him, remembering that we are
in a world lying in the wicked one
whom we must resist and pray to be
delivered from. 1t is q tremendous
fact that onr adversary. the devil, go
eth about seeking whom he may de-
YOUR Il Pet. Y, s. 81. and there is no
greater evidence of this than the null
titudes who have been led to believe
that there is no devil, that such a crea-
ture does not exist. The closing words
are found fully in | Chron. xxx, II. in
the prayer of David. and when the
kingdom shall have come David's peo-
pie shall be found in their own land,
all righteous, and David's son shall be
seen on David's throne. according t,
Luke i, 1898. The kingdom for which
we pray. the Fathers kingdom, Is
spoken of in | Cor XIV. 24-2S as being
the sequel to Jesus reigning till He
hath put all enemies under His feet
the kingdom that shall follow the mil
lennial reign. Our being accepted by
God in Christ and obtaining in Him by
His blood the forgiveness of sins do
not depend upon our forgiveness of
others But as children of God. re-
.1oo,,ol prOo;o,,- Hood