The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1919-06-04
SUNDAY SCHOOL NOTES
Side LIshts on, Next Sundays
Lesson for Teachers and Puplls
Edited by Charles K. Meyers.

1921 and John IA, 21.24.
We have for our lesson this week
one of the great truths of the world
the need for obedience: Looked at
from the everyday, standpoint it is i'm.
pressed on all, of thinking age, that
a prime need for success Of an under.
taking is obedience I'd authority. This
has been brought home on thousands
ofimen who have just had narmy eX-
perience. To some it was ashard les
son, to find that not their own will
orstheir own convenience was to be
the rule for conduct in the army. 1t
was found that obedience to authority
was the first thing demanded, and that
if this was not given disgrace and
punishment soon came. The state
asks obedience to its laws. A home
where there is no obedience expected
from the children, is simply hell on
earth, d place where there is no love,
no comfort, but humiliation and dis
grace, both for the present and the
long future.
If the importance of obedience is so
felt in the conduct of affairs on earth,
and among temporal things, how much
more so this is, when it comes to
things relating to the demands of God.
We noted few weeks ago as to the
sin of Adam and Eve in eating the
fruit of acertain tree. To some it
may have seemed hard that for the
seemingly little thing of eating from a
forbidden tree, such dire calamities
came to our first parents. It was not
the deed in itself, but the thought
that prompted it, the Willingness to
defy known command, and doubt, as
to whether the penalty would indeed
come true - - I ( a '' ~ y. 20
Starting out with the demand for
obedience from the first. God has new
err receded from that position. From
cover to cover, doing Gods known will
is.insisted upon in the holy book. In
the early days Of the Jews in; the
Promised Land through the lips of
Samuel came those great words ITO
obey is better than sacrifice when
he was rebuking Saul for his conduct
The Old Testament repeated this ov-
er and over, and then came Jesus with
like demands for obedience. In the
lesson of today Jesus says IF man
love me he will obey my command
ments," and thus obedience is made
the test of ones love to Jesus, and on
this basis final Judgment will be given.
The. allWise Jesus well understood
that there would be many who would
claim His love and notice on the
grounds of protested serving Him on
earth. Such as these make great
pretentions Of love, and trust, but in
deed fail, to, obey the rules laid down
by, Jesus either in letter or in spirit.
1t, was to cover, this situation that
Jesus used the words Of the first part
ofs.our lesson which, laid stress on the
fact "By their fruits We shall know
them" Ever true to teaching great
truths from common objects near at
hand, Jesus called attention to the
we'll known udgineht as to trees and
plants by the fruits they brought
forth. 1t was plain that d good tree
did not bring forth brambles, thorns
and thistles, but fruits good for eating
and make. up for useful things.
There can be no doubt that Jesus
plainly told of a day of Judgment. In
the lesson Of today He tells of people
who will claim great things based on
their pretentions of serving Him on
earth. Such as these may meet the
sentence, II never knew you, depart
from me-" The crucial and great test
is the one of obedience.
All are familiar with the illustration
used by Jesus to drive home a great
truth, when He called to mind the
building of two houses, one on rock
and the other on the shifting sands.
Jesus said that one who heard His
commands and did them was like one
who built his house on the rock and
thus it could not be moved, while one
who heard and then disObeyed was
like man who built house on the
sands, and when the rains descended
and the winds blew it fell and great
was the fall thereof. Many of us have
heard sermons upon sermons with this
subject as the text and have well un-
derstood the foolishness of trying to
make up a life without Jesus and the
bible. e..
1t is said that one test of our love
tofGod is the fobeying of His COM
mandments, and mot finding them