The Detroit times., 1910-07-30

life is the grand desideratum, the
grand hope of all hopes before the
human family. We are glad OF the
question; for 1t brought forth the In
spired answer IN which everybody Is
interested. What Is the value or the
present life. except as II leads US up
the passageway to eternal life? How
utterly lost we should feel IL assured
that at death we would be blotted out
forever. How little in this life would
be worth consideration-how little II
could do toward filing the longing OF
our hearts, which yearn for eternal
life,
Our Lord parted the question. In
order to draw out the young man and
make him commit himself why do
you-call- line gnod2" Why do You
acknowledge me as good teacher?
I am either the Messiah. as claim,
or else an imposter and far from good
Do you accept My Messiahship? IL
you do not how can you call Me good
or acknowledge that anything could
be good that does not proceed from
God, the Fountain OF all goodness?
But answering your question: IL you
would enter into eternal life, keep
the commandments. The young man
replied. Which? The Master answer
ed. Thou shalt do no murder, nor COM
NIT adultery. nor steal. nor bear
false witness, but honor thy father
and thy mother and love thy neigh
bor as thyself. The young man re-
piled. "All these things have I OBJ
served from my youth. What lack l
YETI"
He was a model young man and
Jesus loved him. Evidently he was
keeping the Jewish Law to the extent
OF his knowledge and ability. He
thought that he was loving his neigh
Dor as himself: but this was q mis-.
take which the Lord disclosed TO him
/ by the following suggestion: III thou
| wouldst be perfect go sell all that
thou hast and give to the poor and
thou shalt have treasure In heaven
instead of on earth: sacrifice also
your earthly reputation and become
My follower.
All, how the Lord knew to put his
| finger on the sore spot! The young
man had come to Him very boastful
very sure that II any one In the world
was seeking to be in harmony with
the Divine arrangement he was that
one. He came for the Masters ap-
prevail. that he might hear Him say,
You are the one exception to the
rule" The Lord did not say. IF you
love your neighbor as you love your
self you will at least put forth an ef
fort to make that neighbor as com
Portable as you desire to be comfort
~ - MA tD hA
rich while some of his neighbors
whom he thought he loved as he loved
himself were very poor-abJectly. sor-
rowfully SO. When Jesus discovered
to him the difficulty of his situation.
he grasped IL at once. He saw him.
self as never before. 1t became a
new test with him. Thus II Is with
all A previous lesson showed us the
Kingdom as great prize, a pearl OF
great value, a treasure, which to pos
sese, will cost all that we have; and
this lesson points out the same facts.-
Let us not make the mistake made
by some. and suppose that the young
man who lived 80 honorable life and
failed to gain heaven, would be thrust
down into eternal torment because
he did not sacrifice his all to become
the Lords disciple. His loss OF the
Kingdom was a sufficient penalty with
out suffering eternal torment In the
future. Such members of the human
family. under the blessed conditions
OF the Miiiennial Kingdom. will doubt.
less make very rapid progress and
will obtain eternal life on the plane
of human perfection, though not
worthy OF the Kingdom honors which
belong only to the elect. And the
elect are those only who are gladly
sacrificing their lives and their all
to gain the great prize.
Our Lord commented upon the mat
ter to His disciples and added that
the rich must have great difficulty In
connection with their endeavor TO en-
ter the Kingdom. He said. sympa-
thetically, rather than In a denuncia-
tory manner, at is easier for a camel
to go through the needles eye than
for the rich to enter the kingdom Of
God" This astonished the disciples
very greatly; for they knew that the
majority OF the religionists OF their
day belonged TO the wealthy class. the
Scribes and the Pharisees. They re-
piled. "who then can get into the
Kingdom. II these cannot?" Our
lords reply WAS with men tbfs In