The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1916-11-09
INTERNATIONAL.
SUNl6YSQ|1O0L
LESSON
(By e. o. SELLERS, Acting Director OF
Sunday School Course. Moody Bible In
stitute, Chicago.)
Copyright 1915. Western Newspaper Union.)
LESSON FOR NOVEMBER I.
WORLDS TEMPERANCE SUNDAY.

WORLDS TEMPERANCE SUNDAY.
LESSON TExT-Romans H:13-15:3
GOLDEN TExT-It Is not good to eat
flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do any
thing whereby thy brother stumbleth.-
Rom. I4:2L
The early Christian church had two
outstanding problems, the question OF
the Sabbath days 1.-TWO Of them) and
the question of eating meat offered to
idols. This lesson suggests the sOlu-
ton Of the latter. Our modern prob
lem of intoxicating liquors is very
much the same as this ancient one Of
the early Gentle Christians.
!. "Let US not therefore judge one
another" wv. 13-15). There are GER
tain acts which are universally cOnced-
ed to be right and within the Christian
law Of liberty. There are also other
acts which are as plainly prohibited.
There are large number of acts which
lie In the region between these two,
and men ought to be careful how they
things. Where good and true men diff
fer, their acts, on the matter of the
Sabbath (See Col :16), or on temper
ance, must be determined as being
unto the Lord, sincerely, conscientious
ly. 1t Is not for us to judge ". 49,,
literally, to pronounce judgment. They
have right to their opinion and to
their liberty Of thought and action, but
wv. IA, %, 23) rs for Paul or the
Christian, he must have clear con-
science. He must have faith, and be
assured that he Is right; otherwise he
is condemned by God and by his own
conscience, and is not sincere Chris
tan disciple. The word therefore" in
verse 13 points back to verse II, which
ought to be carefully pondered. AS we
have each to render our accounts to
God, we should stop judging one an
other. Food Is a very proper thing,
and laws are also proper, yet love is
the ruling principle Of the Christian
life.
We ought to have our liberty cur
tailed rather than have our souls lost.
If we magnify our liberty to the sacri-
flee of our brothers soul we walk no
longer in love-" The demands of
Christian love are more to the true
followers Of Christ than the permits
sions of Christian liberty. The privi-
lege Of eating and drinking while 1t
Injuries others, however harmless to
yourself, is not to be tolerated.
The word "stumbleth" here used
". 21) implies movable trap or snare,
literally any impeachment placed in the
way so as to cause another to fall. We
must never forget that even a weak
brother Is "a brother for whom Christ
died"
II. "Let not your good be evil spoken
Of" wv. 1929. The kingdom of God
Is not meat and drink, but it is life
Of Righteousness, peace and JOY in the
Holy Ghost. Our liberty is to be SO
used that it shall not be evil spoken
of. The real proof that we are in the
kingdom Of God and that the kingdom
Of God is In us is not found in our
scrupulousness or lack of it, in our eat
Ing and drinking, but in the manifesto
tons of righteousness in our lives, and
of having peace in our hearts Us :13).
This peace must be manifested toward
our fellow men ". 10; Oh. Is :1S) and
being filled with "joy in the Holy
Ghost" The object of our pursuit Is
to be the things which make for peace,
the things whereby we may fill one
another up, not the exploitation Of
some pet hobby, for the kingdom Of
God does not consist of riding hobbies.
In this matter Of temperance reform
we all recognize that alcohol has many
uses besides that for drinking pur-
poses, and that there are various opin-'
ions about drinking certain forms of
it, and various ways Of advancing the
temperance cause, all of which are
honestly held by many good men, but
Christian patriotism demands that ev-
cry true-hearted man or woman every
one who is loyal to his country, to hui
mainly and to his God, should take
Paul's position, "a That he will not
be stumbling block in the way of the
weak and of the young. (2) That he
will not do anything to destroy his
brother for whom Christ died. 90 That
he will deny himself anything for their
sake. az That his attitude will be
that of love and not Of selfishness,
This places temperance on high moral
plane, but the world is also beginning
to recognize that the temperance ques-
ton is also an economic one. The re-
cent developments in Europe, since the
war began, are tremendously signifi-
cant AS someone has said, "Russia's
recent advance upon the eastern front
is really an advance Of an army led
by General Abstinence. and not by
any particular military general. 1t Ia
not merely a question as to whether a
thing is wrong in itself or whether you
will hurt yourself by 1t, but the real
question Is, "Will anyone be injured,
made to stumble, by doing what l am
doing?" This will settle the moderate
drink question, the tobacco question,
the dance question, card-playing ques-