The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-03-16
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
BY w. T. ELLIS

episodes in missionary history. Now
he had suddenly learned the truth, |
and the truth had made him free.
There is no real emancipation except
by the progress of truth. No word
of the Master has been oftener or
more brilliantly exemplified than this
one. 'Ye shall know the truth. and
the truth shall make you free"
After the Spanish-American war a
Court of Honor was erected in Phila-
delphia, and those words were in
scribed upon the triumphal arch. 1t
was truth which had freed the Gu
BANS 1t is the truth of Christ which
makes man free from the curse of
strong drink. We hear a great deal
about personal liberty in connection
with this liquor question; here is the
real personal liberty: "Ye shall know
the truth. and the truth shall make
you free"
No phrase is commoner in connec-
ton with the liquor question than the
one, "a slave of drink That is but
the putting into a concrete proverb
the utterance of our Lord, Every
one that committeth sin is the slave
of sim" The figure is a strong one.
Sinners are slaves. They are no long
er their own masters; they have fallen
into involuntary servitude. The lash
OF a taskmaster is on their backs.
They who have seen the agony of a
drug fiend deprived of his drug, or of
a drunkard seeking drink, have
gimpsed the horrors of this slavery.
The wise old Scriptures declare that
the pleasures of sin are only for a
season" After that come the agonies,
and the chains that eat into the spirit.
Would that the eternal truth could be
branded in letters of fire upon the
brain of every young person, that sin,
which seems but a toy, is enslave-
ment, and that in the days to come it
will restrain the liberty Of its victims
why did not somebody tel me that
it would cost me this, if l committed
that SIM is the so IL cry of a multi
tude of people today, chained outside
the gates of happiness by the sins of
their youth.
The Hope of Freedom
There is a brighter side. Slaves
may be freed. This is the message
that lies at the heart of the lesson.
There is hope for even the worst vic
tins of sin, whether that sin be
drunkenness, passion, avarice, or what
not. This is the uniqueness of the
Christian gospel: 1t offers power for
liberty. Not only does it set forth
the benefit of freedom, but it also tells
men how to be free. Recognizing the
profound truth that sin is slavery. it
provides a Redeemer. IF the Son
therefore shall make you free, ye
shall be free indeed
liberty comes from One who has au-
thority to fulfill His word. Some of
the ancient Grecian cults, which de-
MED the reality of matter, and in
sisted that mind is all, babe a man
believe that he was happy when he
was unhappy, that he was we'll
when he was i'll, but they had not the
power to fulfill their promises. 1t is
of no avail to bid sinner sin no more,
unless he be given the force for the
fulfi1lment of that injunction. Now
Gods. commands are Gods ena bl-
ings' What He bids us do He helps
us do There is supernatural power
impaired to the weakest life, that
seeks to obey the will of God In
other words it is by the Sons might,
as well as by the Sons right that we
are freed from sim
loses 1t either delivers the race from
the old thraldoms, or else it does not,
in which case it is the grandest delu-
! sion of the ages. If the Gospel is not
adequate to meet all the needs of this
new day, it is not equal to any of them.
Conversely, if the Gospel can save one
| sinner from his bondage. and make
new man of him, it can do the same
for all the sinners on earth. And
what Christ has done in the making
over of life is proved in countless
cases. in all the ages. The latest
drunkard saved down in the rescue
mission, and the heather Korean
made over into shining saint, are
conclusive evidence that the Son is
still able to make all men free.
! The Truth and the Facts.
| A third great principle is laid down
| by Jesus in this Lesson, and it under
lies the practical considerations of the
temperance question. This is the
eternal e-existence of the Son with
the Father Before Abraham was,
1 Am" What has this got to do with
deliverance from drink for the indi-
vidual and for society? Everything.
In the heart of the ageless Almighty
resides the love of Christ. If God
forever is all that Jesus showed Him
to be, then the Ineffable Deity has no
greater business on hand in all His
universe than the saving of men and
women.
The greatest truth is not too large
shelter for the weakest and most
That Jesus is and was with the Fa-
Their from before the foundation of
the worldNiS a matter of supreme in
terest to every one of US, for it as
sures us that all the tenderness and
patience and forgiveness and loving
helpfulness which He showed in
Judea and Galilee are still employed
for the last man on earth
This statement was drawn from
Jesus by the snobbishness of the
Jews They were Boosting that they
had Abraham for an ancestor. In that
they rested. Now it was a fact that
they were by blood descended from
Abraham But greater than the mere
fact was the supreme truth that all
who have the spirit of Abraham are
his heirs. There are some descend
ants of the Mayfower Pilgrims who
have none of the spirit of those great
pioneers. Whereas there are others,
recent immigrants. who are true to
! the Mayfower type. The best citi-
zens of country are those most loyal
to its laws and genius; and the tru
est children of Abraham are those
who share the privileges impaired by
. Christ, who was before Abraham, and
whose spirit was that patriarch's
L.. L. I L.