The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-06
BIBLE STUDIES OF BROOKLYN
 TABERNACLE
By PASTOR RUSSELL

A Faith Foundation Necessary.-Luke vi:3949
 "Be ye doers of the Word and not hear
 CTS only, deceiving your ownselves. - James. i:22.
 In today's lesson the Great Teacher em- phaszes the necessity of knowledge and Of a faith built thereupon. The blind leading the blind represent the ignorant leading the ignorant into difficulties. into the ditch. In the mental blindness of the past many Christians assumed that the Master here taught that he blind leaders
 and the blind followers of our day would all fall into the pit of eternal torment, but not so. The thought is that they will stumble and experience injury in- stead of reaching the desired destination. The destination sought by the Jews was fellowship with and relationship to God. His highest favor mentioned to Abraham I saying. Tn thy seed shall all the faml- lies of the earth he blessed" St. Paul l says of that promise, Israel hath not ob- l tained that which he seeketh, but the election hath obtained 1t and the rest were l blinded" CRomans xi:O The entire
 Jewish race was blinded and turned aside and fell into the pit-into confusion, darkness, separation from God. This was the very matter against which Jesus fore l warned them. They were following tho l lead of the scribes and Pharisees and doe tors of the law, all of whom were blind leaders who misled their too trusting fol- lowers The disciple or follower will not fare better than His master or leader or
 teacher; he cannot hope for better re- | suits than his leader
 Study the Bible-Discard the Creeds | How important. then, that Gods people | recognize the true Leader. Jesus. that 1 they hear His voice, and heed not the voice of others. In the present, in the ending of this gospel age, we have a condition of things very similar to that which obtained in the end of the Jewish age. We have many great, learned and
 wise men in all the denominations of Christendom as the Jews had in Jesus day in all their different sects. It Is equally important that we take heed that
 we do not follow blind leaders today--to us it is much more important. Why
 should we follow any of the creeds when now we have the word of God in such convenient form and when all are able to read it? Who cannot rejoice that re- gently the present pope issued instructions that the Roman CahOlic bishops should
 encourage Catholics to study the Bible? How 1t would rejoice us to find the Pro testant leaders similarly urging the word of God upon their peoples!
 | Alas, on the contrary, we find that many of the great and wise Of the prin | cipa1 pulpits of the world are undermin- | ing tho faith of the people by telling them that the Bible is not dlvinely in l spired, that Moses and the prophets l did not write the books ascribed to them, and hence indirectly saying that Jesus and the apostles were deceived when they made quotations from the | Old Testament and ascribed them to | Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses, Habakluk etc. These great men style themselves high | CT critics and indorse the theory Of evolution, that humanity is undergoing a process Of evolution from monkey | likeness up to God likeness. They arc 1 thus indirectly telling their people that l there was no fall from Gods image and lik keness that there was no sin com mitted no sentence for sin, no Redeem CT from sin and its sentence and that restitution Is not to be hoped for nor l to be desired. Acts iii, 19-21.
 | Surely the Great Teachers advice not to follow blind leaders was never more | needed than in our day. Blessed will they be who heed the warning and by l If will be guided back to more thor ough study of the words of the Great Teacher, His apostles and the prophets. Humility a Character Foundation The parable of man with beam in his own eye trying to pick mote out Of his brothers eye was forceful method whereby the Master inculcated
 the necessity of humility on the part of those who would be taught of God. Humility is here as elsewhere put as q foundation virtue. The Latin word for humility is humus, ground. This implies that it is the soil out of which l other virtues are produced. Those who i think they know everything can learn nothing. As Chalmers has said, The
 more a man does examine. the more | does he discover the infirmities or his ] own character" As Wheatley remarked,
 Ten thousand of the greatest faults l in our neighbors are of less conse- quence to us than one of the smallest In I ourselves" A knowledge of our sins | and imperfections should make and
 keep all humanity humble, but how | beautiful 1t is to realize that the perfect Jesus was humble and that all the
 holy angels are so!
 Grapes Off Bramble Bush While the scriptures forbid Gods peo- l pie 10 judge one another they do com i mend to us another kind of judging. We are not to judge in the sense of con- demning sentencing. etc. those who l claim to be honest. sincere, .reverential. 1 merely because they differ from what we would expect: God knows their 1 hearts and to his own Master each ser want must stand or fall eventually. | But while not condemning the heart
 We are to judge of the outward con-