The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-06-05
SUNDAY SCHOOL.
Lesson X.--Second Quarter, For
June Z, 1914.
THE INTERNATIONAL SERIES.

Text Of the Lesson, Luke xvii, 20-37.
Memory Verse, 33-GoIden Text, Luke
xvii, 21-Commentary Prepared by
Row. D. M. Stearns.
Every instance of healing or making
the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the
lame to walk, wRs a sample OF the
kingdom which will be set up on earth
when the Lord shall take vengeance
upon His enemies and recOmpense His
people, when Israef shall obtain joy
and giadness and sorrow and signing
shall Zee away. when the inhabitant
shall not say I am sick and the people
shall be forgiven their iniquity Elsa.
xxxv, 40, 10; xxxiA. "a.
When the twelve and the seventy
were sent forth they were to heal the
sick and preach that the kingdom had
come nigh. Our Lord Himself also as
He preached the gospel of the king
dom healed all manner Of sickness and
disease Matt. iv, %; x, 7, 8; Luke K,
8, ~. When the Pharisees asked about
the coming Of the kingdom we must
remember hat they thought Of the
kingdom as described by the prophets,
and in this they We're not wrong, for
such a kingdom was even then at hand
and will surely come at our Lords
return. according to Luke xix, II, II;
Acts iii, 81.
Perhaps there Is no saying in the
CoVir%yroc roorn nofcNJIh+o6 roiCfnfoP-
preted and misapplied than the words
Of our Golden Text as they stand. Be
hold the Kingdom Of God is within
you" From these words it is general
~ taught that our Lord will never
have a kingdom on this earth. when
the nations will learn war no more
and all kings and nations shall serve
Him Elsa. II, 4; Ps. Xxi, ~, but that
His kingdom is wholly spiritual in the
hearts of His people, that the church
Is His kingdom, that it began to come
at Pentecost and has been coming ever
since, and that we are here to "Itend
it, and that ONE day the church will
convert the whole world. Then he
will burn up the world and take all
His people to heaven. Those who SO
teach have no use for a literal Israel,
or for the coming Of Christ to reign,
or for prophecy generally, or Daniel
or Revelation in particular. The New
Testament is quite sufficient, and much
Of that may be omitted. ,
In reading our Bibles we must al
ways notice If God is speaking either
directly or through His servants or
IL the devil is the speaker. Otherwise
we might make the same mistake as
the judge who said. I'VE have the
highest authority for saying all that a
a hath will he give for his llfe,"
the judge not having noticed hat these
words were from the devil Dob ii, A..
We must also notice to whom words
are spoken, whether to sinners or
saints, to Pharisees or disciples. The
words Of the Golden Text were spoken
to Pharisees, whom He elsewhere
called "whited sepulchers, full Of hy-
pocrisy and ~tniquity, children of hell'
(Matt. xiii, IS. 27, 80. IT Lord
would no more say to such that the
kingdom of God was within them
than you or l would say it to g drunk
en- man who was full of cursing. What
our Lord did say Is more correctly rem
dered in the margin among you" or
in the r. V. margin, "in the midst OF
you" he himself as the King. greater
than Solomon. represented the king
dom. but although in their midst and
ready to set up His kingdom they
would not have Him. but said. I'VE
have no king but Caesar" Not this
man, but Barabbas." Then He 'urned
to Els disciples (yerse 22) and
spoke to them of His future coming as
Son of Man in His glory verses "a,
26, 30, telling them that He was about
to be rejected by the Jews and sud>-,
at their hands Verse 30, and that
when He came again it would be as
suddenly as the lightning shining from
one part of heaven to the other, and
that He would find at His coming
again a condition Of affairs on earth
similar to that in the days Of Noah
and as it was in Sodom In the days OF
Lot. This does not look like a con-
verted world to welcome Him, but
rather as it is described in Rev. i. Z;
II, IS, all kindreds of the earth wall
ing because Of Him, and the nations
angry, because it will be the day OF
His wrath, when He will judge the
nations and dash them to pieces like
a potter's vessel Cps. ii. 9: lsa. xxxiv,
/. 2; Xvi, Is. 1G; Zeph. iii, 8; Matt.
XIV, 81, 32).
"nnis coming of the Son Of Man to
judge and reign is not His coming to
the air for His church. but His COM
ing in glory with His saints. when
they, too, shall share this honor with
Him as it is written in Ps. cxlix,
SO; Rev. il. %. 27; Col. iii, 4. See how
our Lord Endorses the truth of the
record Of the deluge, the destruction
of the cities Of the plain by fire and
birthstone from heaven, the judgment
upon Lots wife, and because OF the
judgments which will surely come
urges His people to think more Of the
life that is life indeed than Of this
present life, except as 1t can be used
for Him.
There must be no looking back TO
the things Of this evil age % con-
formity to it, but a life Of separation
from 1t, occupied with HiH who is our
life and the things which concern Him
and a readiness always to be taken
away from the earth. Things are bad