Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-06-09
DIR. MARION NIGH. HULL.


lowed his visit into that section about
which we studied last week After
bis departure Jewish Christians came.
TO gain favor with leaders at Jeru-
salem and discredit Paul they tried
to induce the Galitians to become Jew
ism proselytes, telling them that this
was necessary for their salvation. They
said that Paul was not an apostle.
That produced such an effect upon these
tickle Celts that this letter of Paurs
became necessary. 1t is one of the
greatest pieces of literature in the
world, and mastery argument for
justification by faith rather than by
works.
In the first two chapters Paul de-
tends his own apostleship. In the third
and fourth chapters he sets forth clea-
~ and suscintly the doctrine of justifi-
cation by faith. And in the last two
chapters, he draws certain conclusions
which should follow in the lives of
those who live by the Spirit and are
rot under bondage TO the law.
BEAR.
Our lesson today Us taken from the
closing chapter. To get the thought we
must go back a few verses in the fifth
chapter which Paul concludes by say
ing, 'if we live by the Spirit, let us
also walk by the Spirit" In other words,
if we are depending on the life of the
Spirit rather than on our obedience to
law, let us show by our manner of life
that the Spirit is dwelling in us.
For instance, if one who has been
trying to live right makes a mistake
and is found out, the natural man would
feel very much like kicking him out
The spiritual man should restore him
ir a spirit of meekness, realizing that
he himself is subject to the same
temptations possibly has been guilty of
the same fault but has not been caught.
The word restore" which Paul uses
expresses in the Greek the idea of re-
placing dislocated joints. BY wise ma
nipulation and skill and with just as
little pain as possible. the surgeon re-
stores the bone to its proper place. This
is the way the spiritual man should
act when a brother has been caught up
with.
Is this the way you have been acting?
Has it not been your tendency at least
to hold aloof from one who has slipped,
to give the drunkard another push. to
despair of the dope fiend. to draw your
skirts away from the unfortunate girl?
If we live by the Spirit, let us also
walk by the Spirit. and not as the I'M
regenerate, or natural man would.
In fact if we would fulfill the law of Christ
must bear one another's burdens, one an
others troubles whether they be spiritual or
temporal or mental A sympa thetic word will
clear away the cobwebs from a worried bralI
and make life seem all new again. Just TO
know by handshake, maybe, that some one
else is suffering with YOU for that is what
sympathy means originally in your spritua
eclipse, makes the sun shine through the clouds
again. And il the trouble happens TO be tenn
poral the spiritual man will want TO do all, he
can help TO bear the difficulty Of a brother IN
need. The word translated burden there
4rsn III
word burden would be better translated
load responsibility" for in seeking 10
God will be glorified, not comparing ourselves
with any other standard than the perfect stand
ard.
The man who walks by the Spirit not only
hears his burdens but he shares with them il
all good things. This is what the word ''conl-
muncate" means. The class must share with
the teacher in all good things. The church
must share with the preacher in all good things
God is not fooled, although may be by OuT
reasons for lack of liberality. Whatever a mau
soweth that shall he also reap. This is an in
exorable law of nature. If the teacher in shar'
ing with the class what he has sows to the
flesh, depending upon himself for wisdom and
strength, depending upon his own prOwess or
ability to move the class, then he shall of the
and decay. But if in dependence upon God he
shares what he has with those under him, aud
If they In turn with dependence upon God snare
what they have with His, they shall of the
Spirit reap life eternal.
1t is compare lively easy to share with Our
brethren for little while, but ii is very much
easier to become weary in we'll doing, but the
man who lives IN the Spirit and who walks by
the Spirit will not be weary, will not faint,
but will continue and in due season reap. The
spiritual man will want TO share with every
one, will want to beside all waters but es-
pecially with those who belong TO the family
of faith.
CARE.
The great trouble with those Judarizers was
that they wanted to count noses. Their SUI
uaE n he hp
who had been brought through the Mosaic law.
Cnfortuna tely they have many successors today
whose chief care seems to be to report the mum
bers of cards signed, and so on, who glory Ill
statistics. But Paul was living in the Spirit
and was walking by the Spirit: he had no care
in one way whether they were circumcised or
not. He did not glory in the flesh. AS be
said, Far be ii from me to glory save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world has been crucified unto me and L unto
the world. Living in the Spirit and walking
the standpoint of the cross. As IL were, he
could look at the world through the eyes OF
Christ he hung on the cross. These things
meant nothing TO the man who saw things from
that standpoint; nor did he mean anything to
the world any more than Christ meant any thing
to the world; spectators who gazed upon the
sight of His suffering He hung there.
The man who walks in the Spirit sees things
from the standpoint of the cross-in a way he
hangs there with the Christ How insignificant
things of the world look 10 him he hangs
there with the Christ. From this viewpoint
there is nothing that has Importance except
sin and the Saviour. Paul did not care how
was in bringing just many men as he could
In wi