Ellsworth American., 1914-10-21
SUNDAY SCHOOL.
Lesson N.-Fourth Quarter, For
Oct. Is, 1914.
THE INTERNATIONAL SERIES.

Text of the Lesson, Matt. XVI, E-5o;
xvii, g. 3-to--Memory Verses, Matt.
xvii, s-5-Golden Text, Matt. XVI, "a,
Commentary Prepared by Rev. D. M.
Stearns.
Here is another instance of God and
the devil face to face. as in the temp
tation in the wilderness chapter iv),
after the baptism at the Jordan. But
there it was the devil in his own per-
son, while here it is the devil In Judas
Iscariot. First the devil put the
thought into the heart of Judas, and
later he entered III himself John xiii,
2, 20. If we would be overcomers we
must resist the thoughts that are evil.
1t is encouraging to know that IL we
resist the devil he will fee from us
(Jas. iv. Z: Pet. V. s. 81. We must
bear in mind that our great daily con-
flict is not so much with the Visible
in the form Of people or circumstances
as with the rulers of the darkness of
this world, wicked spirits in the heav-
enlies Eph. vi. 10, and we certainly
need the whole armor of God to be
able to stand against the wiles Of the
devil.
Some one has said that as this was
the greatest piece of work the devil
ever undertook be could not trust it to
any of his followers. and so entered
into Judas himself. 1t was host of
the devils followers, including the
chief priests, elders and scribes, who
came with Judas as their leader, for
our Lord had said to them earlier In
His ministry, "Ye are of your father
the deyif' John viii. Az.
1t Is written that the way In which
the betrayer knew where to find Jesus
was because He ofttimes resorted
thither with His disciples John xviii.
p. The wicked (one) watcheth the
righteous and seeketh to slay him" Cps.
xxxvii, 32). and he seems to know our
resorts and our weaknesses. Judas had
told the band of followers that he
would indicate the man they wanted
by kissing Him. This he did. and
Jesus suffered 1t, simply saying. "Ju-
das, betrayest thou the Son OF Man
with a kiss" Iuke xxi, 49, How
much He bore for our sakes, but how
little we seem able to bear for Him!
Knowing all things that should come
upon Him, He went forth to meet His
enemies and said. Whom seek yer
They answered, Jesus of Nazareth"
to which He replied, 81 am"
Then happened a wonderful thing,
an instance Of His power, an illustra-
ton of the fact that not all the SOL
diers on earth could take Him If He
had not been willing. They went
backward and fell to the ground John
xviii, 4-6). They would never have ris-
en- again II He had not permitted, but
would have been like the army of Sem
nacherib, all dead men QI Kings xix.
35). He allowed them to rise up and
come again and take Him. It was
then that Peter In his zeal blundered
with his sword and took Off mans
cor, but our Lord gently rebuked Peter
and healed the ear,
How often by our blunderings we
hinder people from hearing the gospel
1t may be by untimely zeal or by some
Inconsistency or some un-Christlike
word or deed suggested by the devil.
; In following lessons we will take
ub the story Of Jesus and Peter and
Jesus before PLATE. but now we are
asked to continue the story Of Judas
until the end Of his earthly career as
recorded in chapter xvii, $40. this
portion Of the record being found only
here. The seeming change In Judas
was when he saw that Jesus was ac-
tually condemned. Is it possible that.
having seen so much of the power Of
Jesus Christ and remembering the day
when He quietly slipped away from
the hands of the people of Nazareth
and perhaps recalling His words that
gohn x, 49,, he did not believe that He
would ever let His enemies kin Him
He could make little money and then
fool the high priests and others by see
ing Jesus take Himself out of their
power.
Icannot tell what His thoughts were,
but cannot forget the words, "It had
been good for that man if he had not
been born" CMatt. t.xxvi, pa The pieces
of silver remind us of the money re-
ceived by Joseph's brethren when they
sold him, and also of the prediction in
Zech. xi, IL. Verse of our lesson is
a little perplexing, as 1t is said there
that the words about the pieces of sill
yer were spoken by jeremiah the
prophet. vet we find them written in
Zechariah. not jeremiah. Our lesson
does not say they were written, but
spoken. by jeremiah. If jeremiah
spoke them and Zechariah wrote them.
that would clear it all up. Some day
we win know. If necessary.
The words of Judas In verse 4. II
have sinned in that I have betrayed
the innocent blood" are to my mind