Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-08-04

Spiritual Lessons For the spiritua
Household.
There is a precious lesson in thii
miracle for all Of the Lords followers
We also have need Of faith and o.
tests Of that faith. Our daily expe
riences since we became the Lords
followers have been guided and guard
ed apparently by the Power unseen, t
the intent that as pupils in the Schoo
of Christ, we may all be taught Of
Him and develop more and more the
graces Of the Spirit, particularly more
faith.
How important this item Of faith Is
we probably cannot fully appreciate
now. 1t seems to be the one thing
which the Lord especially seeks In
those now called to be His followers
without faith 1t is impossible to
please Him" With faith "all things
are possible" According to thy faith
be 1t unto thee" Proper faith, of
course, Ii meant, not credulity, not re-
lance upon the words Of men, but i'm
plicit faith in the Lord for all that He
has promised to them who love Him
supremely.-Hebrews 11:6; Mark 9:23.
So important grace must Of ne
cesslty require many lessons for its
proper development, and therefore we
find that in our individual experiences
as Christians we have those CORE
spending to the experiences Of the
Apostles, as recorded In this lesson.
How suddenly the Adversary may at
times bring against us a whirlwind Of
temptation or Of opposition or of per-
secutlOn! How overcast, how dark, our
sky seems at such times! How the
waves Of adversely or Of afIllction have
almost overwhelmed us! And how the
Lord has seemed asleep, needless Of
our dlstress
Such experiences are tests Of faith.
II our faith be strong, we would keep
on with our proper endeavOrs to ad-
just matters, corresponding to the eff
forts Of the Apostles to keep the ship
afloat, but with implicit faith In the
Lords promise that "all things work
together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called ac-
cording to His purpose" SO accord
Ing to our faith shall we be able to
rejoice even in trlbulation Not that
we enjoy the sufferings; but we enjoy
the thought which faith attaches to
them-that these are only light afIllc-
tons, intended to work out for us a
far more exceeding and eternal weight
OF glory, ,"-Romans s:2s; 2 Corinthians
All.
The Boat and the Storm In Antitype.
We may regard the incidents Of our
lesson from typical viewpoint. Thus
the boat would seem to be the Gospel
Dlspensatlon, or Gods provision for
carrying Messiah and His followers to
the other side. The Master asleep
would seem to prehgure the apparent
Indifference OF the Lord, the Head Of
the Church, to the storms Of persecu-
tlon and suffering assaillng His Church.
The disciples awakening Him would
seem to imply the prayers Of the
Church throughout the Age, crying
unto the Lord, "Carest Thou not that
we perishl"
What a tempestuous storm broke up
on the Lords people after Jesus had
gone from theml Prosecutions from
the Jews, then from the Gentiles, fol.
lowed one another until the entire his
tory OF the true Church has been mark
ed by severe trials, dlscIpllnes, test
ings OF patience and Of faith Many
a time have the Lords people won.
dered at the amount Of afIllctlon and
opposition from the world, the flesh
aud the Devil that their glorihed Head
permits to come upon them. Verify, 1t
seemed as though He were asleep, as
though He cared not for their welfare!
The storm on the Sea Of Galilee may
have arisen In some ordinary way, for
aught we know to the contrary. It
must have been very severe storm;
for the disciples were expert, expert.
enced fishermen, We might reason
that surely God would not specially
rulse up such storm; and that If He
had Jesus would have submitted to It,
and would not have worked contrary
to the Divine arrangement,
On the other hand, we might reason
that, since Satan Is Scripturaly term.
ed the prince OF the power OF the
air" II would be quite In line with his
disposition to seek to destroy Jesus
and the Church, represented by the
Apostles, lie might have thought thus
to nip In the bud the Divine arrange,
ment which Jesus had outlined; name.
ly, His crucldXlon In fulnlment OF the
Scriptures, At all events, Jesus when
awakened did not hesitate TO use the
power He possessed from the Father
to quoll the storm-to turn aside the
mlschlcvous designs Of Satan.
"And There Was a Great Calm"
We reNd that when awakened, Jesus
FIRST repOvcd His disciples for lnsuf.
nciency OF faith, as manifested in their
doubling that with Him present with
them they would be entirely safe from
all powers Of wind aud water and the
Adversary. Then He rebuked the
storm, and 1t quickly subsidized; and
there was a great calm
What could these things mean anti.
pplcollyy What lesson could we gain
from them along spiritual lnes1 The
lesson is that the storms OF life which
have beset Gods people throughout
this COgDpl Ava hnvn undnuht,,di,, HOO,