The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-11
PASTOR RUSSELL'S
 WEEKLY LESSON

Forgive Seventy Times Seven.-Matthew xviii, 15-35.-December 15.
 Be ye kind one to another tender hearted. forgiving each other, even as God, for Christs sake, forgave you"- Eph. iv, 32
 To learn todays lesson well means blessing for life to every true Christian, and might be said to insure him eternal lfe-so fully would he be in accord with the divine requirements. The lesson re- lates specially to the consecrated, the members of the body of Christ, the church. of which He is the head, although application may be made by others with profit.
 The Masters rule for His followers is: If a brother injure you, go to him alone with the matter, striving to reach an un- derstanding. The probability is that mis- understanding is all that there is of it. But if this does not suffice and you con slider the matter serious enough, ask two others to accompany you to the offender without explaining to them the mission leave their minds free to hear the case and to advise yourself and the other.
 The agreement of these brethren and their advice should be followed by both. If they disagree with you, you should &C., knowledge that you have erred and that the matter is evidently susceptible of this construction If they agree with you, and your opponent refuses to heed their counsel and persists in doing you injury and you still think it of sufficient im- portance to trouble the church with the matter, you are then at liberty so to do The churchs decision of the question is to he final, binding upon both. The one refusing to hear the church is to be treated as an outsider, not in the sense of doing him injury, but abstaining from appointing him to any position, or honor in the church, until his course shall be changed. How simple the divine direc- tion; what a blessing would come from following it.
 Forgive Seventy Times Seven"
 St. Peter put hypothetical question, of how many times a brother might trespass and ask forgiveness and yet be forgiven would seven times be the limit? The Master practically declared that there could be no limit, that any brother con fessing his fault and asking forgiveness must be forgiven, if it should recur 30 times. Forgiveness is obligatory when asked for. We must not be afraid of the consequences of following the Masters direction, assured that His wisdom has not misdirected us
 Then our Lord gave parable, to illus trate this matter, in respect to the king dom of heaven class-the church in the present embryonic condition. certain king had reckoning with his servants. and squared up all accounts. Amongst the others, one owed him 10000 talents. His master commanded him to be sold, and his wife and all that he had until the payment should be made. But the ser want fell down at his. masters feet and besought him to have compassion on him and discontinue any further prosecution on account of the debt.
 The servant thus released went out and found a fellow servant who owed him an hundred pence very insignificant sum in comparison to the one which he had owed the master. He took his fellow servant by the throat, saying, Pay me the 100 pence thou owest." His fellow servant fell at his feet and besought for mercy, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all." But he would not delay, and cast him into prison till the debt should be paid. The matter fin- ally reached the ears of the master, who called him and said: Thou wicked ser want! I released thee from the penalty of thy debt because thou didst entreat me; thou shouldest also have had mercy upon thy fellow servant. even as I had pity upon thes.' And he was angry with