The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-06-06
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

1t is remarkable what a CHASTITY
separation people often manage to
make between their religion and their
life. Nor is it the persons of hypo-
critical intent in whose thought and
life duty is divorced from devotion.
There are many who make much of
their religion, but it is crowded and
clotted into the corner, leaving all the
rest of their lives empty and unblessed
by it. Many there are also who would
like enough religion to keep them
classed among the religious" and yet
not enough to make real demands
upon their. time and attention; enough
to secure for them the life eternal, but
not enough in any wise to affect the
life temporal.
Then there are, undoubtedly, those
who wear their religion as a mask.
Jesus had seen such among the re-
ligious classes of His day-the scribes,
the Pharisees and the Doctors of the
Law. He said they looked well out
wardly, but inwardly-. They were
like whited sepulchres, which are
beautiful without. but within were full
of dead mems bones and all unclean-
ness.
The Message From the Mount.
great Teacher makes it plain that re-
ligion is eminently practical 1t is
not mere doctrine, it is duty. "Godli-
ness is profitable unto all things, hav-
ing promise OF the lie that now is, anu
of that which is to come"
Obedience is the price of life.
Jesus declared: Not every one that
saith unto me, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven; but he that
doeth the will of my Father which is
the great Searcher of the heart will
distinguish. Not all the clamorous
and self-complacent professors of or
thodoxy shall enter, however repeat
edly, loudly and Familiarity they call
Lord, Lord"
The confession Lord, Lord is
symbolic of a sound creed, as well as
a religious profession. 1t is as much
as to say that there are many who
have an unhesitating belief ip the
doctrine of grace and of God, who
nevertheless are not true disciples OF
Jesus. He demands profession OF
his name, but those who offer only
this, he will exclude and reject. Faith
fulness as we'll as faith, is necessary
to secure entrance into that realm OF
bliss where his servants serve him
with no divided allegiance.
The Times of Testing.
So loyal was Jesus to the spirit of
truth, and so indifferent to its out
ward seeming, that he early won for
himself the name. of hereto, and as
such was put to an ignominious death.
OF course. he was orthodoxy itself,
but he did not square with the
crooked little sticks which the priestly
measures tried to apply to him as
Standard. He had no zeal to conform
to their type of correctness, for he
measured himself-and he laid this
down ass a. principle for all his dis
ciples-by the unchanging will of the
Father, and by revelation of the great
day of clear vision.
sAs Jesus lived his own life serenely
IN the brightness of truths revealing,
SO he taught that there lis a. day com
be discovered. and their judgment set
tled,ss Doubtless there will be great
CONSERVATION among many of the
Loudly protested followers of Christ
Astonis1ied and incredulous they will
cry: Word, Lord, have we not stood
among theslpeople as thy representa-
tiVes in the world, preachers of the
gospel? Have we. not cast out demons
in thy name and in thy name done
many wonderful works 2''
Up from the depths of a city's slums
by way of az rescue mission, occasion
ally comes IA dramatic story of one
whose life had in its time stood high
and shining, but who, for one cause
or another, had become a castaway
OF the thousands who applied to the
Bowery Branch of the New York Y
M. c. A. for relief work last year rs
PSA NVAll NCIc NO1lSSo iHeH. once lead
ers of men now needing to be lifted
out of the gutter, How -Vividly they
illustrate the Masters teaching that no
man is saved by his standing. SP osition
in life, reputation, diplomas. useful
neSS-nOne of these are sufficient to
save in the crises of life, or in that
other great hour when the soul stands
before its Maker for judgment 1t is
then that the thoughts of the heart
must chord with the outward seeming
IN loving fidelity to the Christ whose
friendship is life for two worlds. The
thought is startling, but fully war
ranted, that those from whom men
mig vote as the most religious, may
be found among the rejected before
the Searcher of hearts.
What Counts on the Great Day.
In the book of Matthew the Judg-
ment day is depicted for US in the
imagery of Christ seated upon the
throne dividing the sheep from the
goats. The sheep he places on his
right hand and the goats upon his
left. To those on his right hand he
says: Come We blessed of my Father.
inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world"
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these, my brethren,
We have done it unto me-" To those
on his left hand he says: Depart
from me We cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels" Inasmuch as ye did it not
unto one of the least of these we did
it not unto me-"
The great final test of religion is
not Righteousness, but a relation; not
what have I done, not what have I
believed, not what have I achieved.
but what is my relation to Christ :?
So the great Teacher makes it plain
that He will openly declare that He
never knew these loud professors. He
dismisses them with the simple COM
mand: Depart from me We workers
of iniQuity." AS unbelief departs
from the loving God-refuses to fol-
| low. obey and love Him-so unbeliev-
ers must forever depart from the pres
ence of God, and from the glory of His
power. "outcast."
A Parable of Foundation and Floods.
This whole mountainside sermon
concludes with one of those exquisite
parallels whose pictorial beauty and
spiritual insight, always remarkable,