The Washington herald., 1914-02-07
The Narrative.

| How far the bringing together of thest
| two paragraphs il chronologically justi
/ fable is open to question. There Is. how
ever. a connection which may be indicat.
ed by reading the paragraph omitted
That connection may thus be stated.
We have in the first paragraph of the
! lesson. a graphic picture Of the darkness
| of those who attributed His works to
Beelzebub. and sought a sign.
In the paragraph omitted from our les
son we have first of all a parenthesis in
| the story OF the exclamation of woman.
and our Lords reply to it: and His crit
icism Of the evil generation which sought
a sign. and His declaration that no sign
would be given 1t but that Of Jonah.
Then We come to the second paragraph
of our lesson. which contains His teach
ing about light. which has an important
bearing on the attitude of the men who
attributed His works to Beelzebub.
As a matter Of fact We have in our les
son. two criticisms of the enemies OF the
Lord. resulting from His exorcism Of a
demon; and His answers to both of them.
The first criticism was that He cast out
demons by Beelzebub, the prince OF the
demons The second expressed itself in
a demand for sign. The first He an
swered directly. and with great solemnity
and severity. Having refused the demand
for a sign. He proceeded to reveal where
in their failure lay.
With regard to their declaration that
He cast demons out by the prince Of the
demons, He first declared the absurdity
of their position by showing that a king
dom divided thus against itself must be
brought to desolation: and moreover
challenged them as to whether their sons
cast out demons by Beelzebub. declaring
that IL He wrought this work by the fin
ger of God. IL was a demonstration of
the fact that the Kingdom Of God had
come to them. He then-under a figure.
that of the strong man fully armed, and
the stronger than he-declared the meth
cd Of His own work: solemnly reminding
them that those who were not with Him
were against Him, and that such as
gathered not with Him. scattered.
Going still further He revealed to them
the necessity for doing more than casting
out demons. by the illustration Of the
house swept and garnished. but left ten
antless.
With reference to their demands for
sign, having declared, as We have seen.
that the only sign that would be given
to them would be that OF Jonah. which
He Himself interpreted here to be that
of Himself as returning from the dead
to continue His work, He proceeded to
The declaration that mo man. when
he hath lighted n lamp putteth it in a
cellar neither under the bushel. but on
the stand, that they which enter in may
see the light taken in close connection
with His reference to the sign to be
granted, undoubtedly referred to the clear
shining of the light which should result
from His resurrection. Now in the pres
ence of that, their responsibility would
of that light would illuminate them would
depend entirely upon their eye, as to
whether It was single, that is, natural.
sincere, true in its revelation: or whether
it was evil-that is darkened by hatred.
The Teaching.
In the first part Of this lesson We have
our Lords revelation of His conception of
Satan. of Himself. and Of men.
Satan is the strong man. fully armed,
guarding his own court and thus keeping
his goods in peace. That is to say. he is
mightier than man, and man under his |
is helpless.
His claim for Himself is that He is the |
stronger than satan, who comes upon
him; overcomes him. takes away the |
armour wherein he trusted. and divides |
his spoils. Man Is thus seen as needing |
first the help of the stronger than the |
strong. in order that he may be set free
from his dominion: and secondly as need |
ing not to set free alone, but to be pos
sessed and mastered by his conqueror,
lest he be repossessed by evil spirits. |
This revelation of man is of great I'M
portance, as one who is like house, de-
a tenant.
The teaching Of the second paragraph
Is, as we have seen. concerned with the /
not only Of light, but of obedi-
snce to It: and therefore the supreme inn
,ortance Of the singleness Of eye, which
IS of the nature of simple and unprej-
ldiced observation.
The Golden Text.