The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-21

relates primarily to their duty toward the l household of faith. It may at times be l given broader application; but the in- l junction In Matthew IS that, if necessary,
 the matter come before the church,
 proves that it Is not intended for any but 1 the church.
 1 The lesson Is boundess mercy. The | bal sis of the argument is that all need di- | vine mercy because all are imperfect; land in order to assist us in the cultiva- tion of this grace, the Lord has arranged l that His blessings to us shall be depend- ent upon our endeavor to exercise this l Godlke quality. It seems strange that our forefathers and ourselves were So
 deceived by the false doctrines which St. l Paul styles doctrines of devils q Tim | othy 4:1) that we once thought Of the | Heavenly Father as absolutely unforgiv- 1 ing because His human creatures had
 snned We insisted that the wage of sin
 must be torment to all eternity. How lit tle we understood the real character Of 1 the God of all grace. the father of mer- | ciesl
 Without the least warrant of Scripture, | but in contradiction of it, many of us upheld the terrible theory that all who l do not in the present life become Christs S | followers would be eternally tortured We now see that the Bible teaches that only a comparatively small class now have the hearing ear and the seeing eye and enter into covenant relationship With God through Christ. For these only does the present life end all probation. For the remainder of mankind God purposes a future resurrection by judgment.
 Faith Power-Credulity Power
 A great deal passes for faith which is mere credulity The faith commended in the Bible is that which relates to things which God has promised. We are en- couraged to be full of faith in God-not questioning that He Is able to accomplish all His good promises.
 Our forefathers had too much confi- dence in men. They swallowed the creeds of the dark ages: and the more absurd the proposition, the more faith they | thought they had. On the contrary, they should have said, Where is the proof? Where has God declared such things?" Those who defended the creed cried out l against sober faith. branded 1t heresv. and superstitiiously burned the truly faithful at the stake. The lessen is that we should accept by faith only what the Lord has assured us of in His word. and this means that we should be particularly careful that we have the pure word of
 God. sitting out mistranslations and in- 1 tterpolations. In our lesson, Jesus dscipIes were evi- dently impressed with the difficulties that must lie in the way of the accomplish ment of all the wonderful things recorded | in the law and the prophets respecting | His Messianic kingdom, etc. They there l fore asked the Lord to increase their faith Jesus replied in words greatly mis- understood in our day If ve had faith as a grain of mustard seed We might I say to this sycamine tree, Be thou 1 plucked up by the root. and he thou l planted in the sea- and 1t should obey l you'' On two other occasions Jesus made similar remarks respecting noun tains.
 1 Evidently the Master did not mean to | encourage the Jews to command the l mountain to be carried into the sea. rather He wished them to realize that l If they had proper faith in the power of God. and should receive a command from l God to move the mountain into the sea. and shonld give the command with faith l the results would follow. But God gave
 TO such command In respect to the noun | tains or the tree. Hence faith would have no basis for operation in such cases. Not Profitable to Our Master l Some amongst the followers of Christ are naturally progressive, aggressive or l self-conceited. Becoming Ills disciples 1 does not change these natural traits in-
 stantly. The old things pass away grad- 1 ualy A lesson for all of His disciples
 to remember, but especially forceful to ], the classes mentioned. is taught in this study. They must remember that the work of Gods grace is His favor toward l them; and that their obedience to His commands is primarily for their own
 correction and development, for future l life of blessing. They should remember
 that even their service for the Lord Is a | privilege.
 l The apostle declares, By grace (divine 1 favor) are ye saved through faith" To
 some extent, therefore, faith is matter l of our own development. However, the l apostle adds that the faith Is not of our selves, that even it is Gods gift All
 that we have we have received of the Lord.
 We. are all unprof1table servants. in the sense that God could just as easily do without us, indeed. could more easily do 1 His work otherwise than through us. !! None of us Is indispensable to His work or His glory. Quite to the contrary, the opportunity for entering into the Lords vineyard and laboring therein is chiefly l for. our own advantage. The service lbrings us certain experiences necessary to our own development and qualification