The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-11
BIBLE STUDIES OF BROOKLYN
 TABERNACLE
Rx PASTOR RESELL


 The Mystery of the Kingdom.-Mark iv, 1-2O
 Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souis."- James l. 21.
 The salvation open at the present time has been obtainable only through faith. and faith is dependent upon a measure of knowledge. or revelation, and this knowledge, or revelation, came to us from God, for, as said St. Peter, Holy men of old spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" God in this age is calling class possessed of ears of ap- precation for His message. These are
 mainly the weary and heavy laden and snsick, chiefly the poor of this world, rich in faith.
 The point of today's lesson is to show the importance of having the right kind of spiritual food. and of using 1t and not allowing the new nature to become choked by earthly hopes. aims or ambi- tons. Such as thus overcome will be in heritors with Jesus of His glorious Mes-S sianic Kingdom of 1O00 years, which IS to bless Israel and, through Israeli all the families of the earth.
 Jesus gave the parable of the sower of the good seed The disciples were perplexed and unable to understand it and inquired of the Great Teacher it's meaning.
 His answer was that He was quite will ing that they should understand the par able and that 1t related to the kingdom of God. but it was not to be understood by outsiders He explained that it was for this reason that He always spoke in parebles, so that the general public might see and hear and not understand, be- cause the masses even of the Jews were not in heart condition to understand and be profited by these lessons respecting the kingdom. Only such persons as de- sired to become members of the Kingdom class and were also willing to undertake the stringent conditions of the marrow way''-only such were to fully and clearly understand the parables of the kingdom. This is in harmony with all of God S dealings in the present time. We read, "The secret of the Lord is with them that reverence Him, and He will show them His covenant
 In verse 13 the Master indicates that this parable would serve as a general key to His followers for their interpretation of all His parables. Seed" does not mean literal seed. birds" do not mean birds. "thorns" do not mean thorns. etc. Pro- ceeding, the Great Teacher expounded the parable as follows:
 | CD The seed that was sown represents | the word of God. More than this, it rep resents that particular element or feature I of Gods word which relates to the king l dom. This is shown by St. Matthew's ac- count of the same parable (Matthew xiii, 1 1y. Our lesson says that the wicked one meant is satan. Satan and his evil agents are therefore represented in the parable l by birds and the import is that how ever much of the gospel of the kingdom we may read or hear preached, we lose l the benefit of that which we do not un- derstand.
 1 Evidently, then much of Bible study and religious reading is lost because not understood The secondary lesson is that one reason why the good seed' does not enter into the understanding is that the 1 heart is not in a receptive attitude Like the wayside path. it is hard. l @ The seed sown in --.c stony place rep resents those who. when they hear the message of the kingdom are delighted They say; How good that sounds Wiat
 grand time there will be when Messiah