The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-08-09
SCHOOL.
Lesson W.-ThIrd Quarter, For
Aug. III, 1912.
THE INTERNATIONAL SERIES.

Text OF che Lesson, Mark ~, as 20 v, 20
Memory Verses, 80, 39--GoIdeB Text,
Pc. sIvj, /, 2 Or. V)-commsntary
Prepared by Rev. y. VI. stearns.
It comes to me as I begin to write
this lesson that we should always sec
Jesus in His life on earth among men
as God manifest In the flesh, revealing
God to us, that we may know Him
personally and trust Him and let Him
live In us, that others may know Him,
for the poor world knoweth Him not
We must also recognize always 8 great
adversary, the devil, who hates God
and man and would kill God If he could
and take His throne. He would keep
men In ignorance OF God and of Christ
and possess them for his own ends and
turn them against God. He has great
power with Gods permission and will
exert it to the full against God before
he is finally overthrown. In the two
portions OF today's lesson we see the
Son Of God crossing the sea Of Galilee
to deliver a man Tor. according to Mat
thew, two mem from the power of the
devil, and on the way it seems as If a
great storm would sink the boat and
drown all who were In it. Did the
devil know that he was about to lose
a bit Of his property, and did he seek
by that storm to kill Christ and His
disciples7 Let those tell who know
more than I do, but this we do know
that he tried to kill Him as a babe In
Bethlehem and finally did kill Him by
the Jewish rulers at the hands of the
Romans. Thank God he is risen from
the dead, Is alive forevernnore, is at the
right hand Of the majesty on high, has
all power in heaven and on earth and
Is waiting His time to put the devil in
the bottomless pit and set up a king
dom OF peace and righteousness on
earth.
In this great storm on Galilee see
Him peacefully sleeping IN a pillow in
the hinder part of the ship, though the
waves beat into the ship and it was
full of water, and recognize in Him a
weary man, a real man, partaker of
flesh and blood, but without sin, and
rejoice that we have a High Priest who
is touched with the feeling Of u In
irnit1es Heb. ii, IA; Nv, 15). He is in
the midst Of trouble, as the disciples
see II, and yet He is not troubled. And
on the last night before His cruclixion
He said to Bis disciples, I'm the world
we shall have tribulation, but In Me
peace; let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid" (John xvi, SO;
xiv, 20. When one was discoursing on
the teaching Of Christ a man who had
never before heard such teaching said,
Beautiful, beautiful, but can you do
it?' Jesus Himself could do it, and
He did it. He always did what He
taught (Acts 1, y. The ship could not
sink, neither could the disciples perish,
with Christ in their midst, but they
did not know Him and were therefore
filed with fear. They awoke Him
with the cry "Lord, save us!" and with
the question Master, carest Thou not
that we perishT" bis reply a "Why
are ye fearful, 0 We OF little faith?
Where is your faith?' Matt. viii, %;
Luke viii, 25l They were troubled by
what they saw. Faith endures by see
Ing the invisible. We are expected to
walk by faith, not by sight Oh Cor. v,
n. He rebuked the wind and the rag
ing Of the sea and said, peace, be
STILL" and there was a great calm
(verse 80; Luke viii, 24. The rebuking,
compared with Zech iii, 2, and Jude 3,
leads me TO believe that the person g
ferred to in those passages had some-
thing to do with this storm. AS the
disciples saw the power OF His word
they feared and wondered and said,
'FWhat manner Of man is this that I'VE
the wind and the sea obey HimT Our
hearts exulingIy cry. "Jesus is GodI'
The perfect man a little while ago SO
peacefully asleep has power over wind
and sea and all the elements. He 1t is
who walked In the furnace with Dan
iel's friends and quenched the violence
Of fire and spent the night with Daniel
and shut the lions mouths. To know
Him is peace at all times.
Now see Him meeting the tempest
tossed man OF Gadara, possessed by a
legion OF demons, a naked wild man,
exceeding fierce whom no one could
bind or tame, for he broke all chains
and letters, and all men were afraid
OF him. The poor demoniac seems to
long for d~eliverance, for he ran TO Je-
sus, as II he knew that He could de-
liver him, but the demons liz strong
within him. They knew Jesus and
called Him Son OF the Most High God
(verse .. They knew the doom that
awaited them and ask, "Art thou come
hither to torment us before the timer"
Matt. will 29.) They knew OF the
place prepared for them and beg not
to be sent to the abyss or bottomless
pit duke viii, 81, r. W. There is such
q place, and there is a place called the
lake Of fire, everlasting fire prepared
for the devil and his angels (Rev. XIX,
IA, 10; Matt. XIV, 40. All who deny this
or make light Of it are not for the time
controlled by the spirit Of truth. AL
though there were so many demons In
the man, they are spoken Of as one, for
Jesus said, Come out of the man, thou
unclean spirit" (yerse 8, and, having
received permission. they went into the
swine, and the whole herd about 1000.
were drowned In the sea. Behold the
change in the man who had been the