Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1912-08-08


Memory Verses, SO, 39-Golden Text,
Ps. XVI, /, 2 (R. v.)-commentary
Prepared by Rev. o. M. Stearns.
1t comes to me as | begin to write
this lesson that we should always see
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 a great
adversary. the devil who hates God
and man and would l1lI God If lie could
and take His throne He would ,eep
men in ignorance Of Gnl 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 1t to the full against God before
he is finally oyerthrown In the two
portions of -today's lesson we see the
Son Of God crossing the sea Of Galiee
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
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
disciples? Let those tell who know
more than do, but this we do know
that he tried to kill Him as 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 foreyermore, 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 king
dom of peace and righteousness on
earth
In this great storm on Galilee see
Him peacefully sleeping on 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
weary man. a real man. partaker Of
rejoice that we have a High Priest who
is touched with the feeling of our in
firmities (Heb. ii, IA; iv. 10. He is In
the midst of trouble as the disciples
see it, and yet He Is not troubled. And
on the last night before Ills crucfixion
He said to His disciples. I'm the world
We shall have tribulatiol, but in Me
peace; let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid" (John xvi, 33;
xiv, %. When one was discoursing on
the teaching Of Christ 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 /, II. 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 perish?" His reply was: why
are We fearful, 0 We of little faith?
Where is, your faith?" Matt. viii. 90;
Luxe viii, 25) They were troubled by
what they saw. Faith endures by see
Ing the invisible. We are expected to
wax by faith, not by sight QI Cor. v,
=. He rcbuked the wind and the rag
ing Of the sea and said Peace, be
STILL" and there was great calm
(verso 80; Luke viii, 24) The rebuking,
compared with Zech iii, 2, and Jude 8,
leads me to believe that the person re-
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,
What manner of man is this that even
the wind and the sea obey Him?' Our
hearts exultingly cry Jesus is God!'
The perfect man 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
ieps friends and quenched the violence
Of fire and spent the night with Daniel
and shut the lions mouths. To know
Him is peace ut all times.