Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1914-10-21
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON FOR OCT. Is
SECURED EXCLUSIVELY BY THE
BANNER FOR ITS MANY
READERS
ACCORDING TO THE
INTERNATIONAL SERIES
Commentary Prepared In An Inter-
esting Way by Rev. ID. 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 nj the Jordan. But
there il WINS the devil in his own per-
son. while here II is the devil In Judas
Iscarot. First the devil put the
thought into the heart OF Judas, and
later he entered In himself Uohn Kill.
>, 81 IL we would be overcomers we
must resist the thoughts that are evil.
Ii Is encouraging 70 know that II we
resist the devil he will flee from us
Gas. ~. Z: | Pet V, 8. 81. We must
bear in mind that our great daily con-
hict is not so much with the visible
i'm the form of people or circumstances
us with the rulers of the darkness OF
this world. wicked spirits in the heav-
enlies (Eph. vi. l2l. 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 he could not trust Ii to
any OF his followers, and so entered
into Judas himself Ii was host OF
the DEVILS followers. including the
chief priests, elders and scrihes. who
came with Judas as their leader. for
our Lord had said to them earlier In
His ministry, "Ye are OF your father
the devil' Oohn viii, Al.
1t is written that the way In which
the betrayer knew where to find Jesus
was because He ofttimes resorted
thither with His disciples Uohn xviii.
y. THE wicked (one) watcheth the
righteous and seeketh to Stay him" FPS.
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 It. simply saying. "Ju.
das, betrayest thou the Son OF Man
with a kiss!" duke xxi. 4S.) 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 YEP
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
had not been willing. They went
backward and fell TO the ground (John
xviii 4-6l. They would never have ris
Ell again IL He had not permitted. but
would have been like the army OF Sen
nacherib. all dead men QI Kings xix.
800. He allowed them to rise up and
come again and take Him. 1t was
then that Peter in his zeal blundered
with his sword and took off mans
ear. 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
up 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
portion Of the record being found only
here. The seeming change I'm Judas
was when he saw that Jesus was ac-
tually condemned. Is 1t 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
no man could take His life from Him
Gohn X, 1Sl, he did not believe that He
would ever let His enemies kill H.?
He could make little money and then
fool the high priests and others by see
ing Jesus take Himself out OF their
power.
cannot tell what His thoughts were.
but ! cannot forget the words, ut had
been good for that man If he had not
been born" CMatt.xxvi, 2g. The pieces
of silver remind us of the money re
ceived by Joseph's brethren when they
Zech xi, 10. Verse OF our lesson IN
a little perplexing, as 1t is said there
that the words about the pieces Of sill
yer were spoken by jeremiah the
prophet, yet 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 1t all up. Some day
we will know, IL necessary.
The words OF Judas in verse 4. "I
have sinned in that I have betrayed
the innocent blood are to my mind
one Of the strongest testimonies on
record to the holiness of the Lord
Jesus-the testimony of one possessed
by the devil. who was in sense one
OF the twelve and knew the inner life
of the little company and would have
coon any flaw I'm thp life OF thn ord