Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-12-11
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
BY REV. HUGH II. STEVENSON.

| Jesus. in an effort to emphasize the
| priceless value of the kingdom. turns
from illustra tons of nature. such as
I'VE studied last week, to the manners
methods and motives of men in their
daily life. The four last parallels
| which Matthew has grouped to make
Fan application of His the Master s
para bolic teachings concerning the
| kingdom of heaven are the subjects
of this weeks lesson. Christ recog-
| nized that the disciples, as we'll as
i himself, faced imminent danger. He
sought to make them realize the
character of the kingdom. so thai
| they would be willing to make every
sacrifice needed to advance the rule
! of God in the life, of men. The first
two parallels present the supreme
, value Of the unseen. hidden spiritual
force of the kingdom of heaven
which he sought to establish. The
third para bic warned them against
! impatience and hastiness in desiring
the Kingdom to Immediately appea"
for il was difficult for the disciples
to get away from the Jewish concep-
ton of a temporal and visible king
dom.
Spiritual Riches.
The parallels of the hidden treasure
feet illustrations of the superior valu e
of the spiritual over the temporal or
secular kingdom. Property in the
east was not secure in Christ's day, so
the people frequently then. and very
often today, in Palestine acci-
dentally discovered hidden treas
ures, which had been buried to pro-
tect them from falling into the hands
of thieves, tax collectors or troops
that preyed upon the people. Pesti-
lence may have carried the owner
away or it may have been that he had
forgotten where he buried it. An
accidental discovery of the wealth did
not give the finder the title to the
same. for the laws of the land in
vested the title in the owner of tho
field. This prompted the discoverer
of the treasure to sell all his posses
sions so he might come to be the law
full owner of the treasure which he
had accidentally found.
He forgot in the joys of his dis
covery the sacrifices he had made to
obtain title to the hidden treasure. He
person is, who has discovered the
riches of Gods grace. and made a
surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ
of all things to find Him and be found
in Him. Although the treasures of tho
Lords grace are free. many without
money and without price, yet many
souls have to make great sacrifices
in order to win Jesus and secure tho
life that alone is worth possessing.
The parable of the pearl of great
price emphasizes the value of Chris
tianity, or the. spiritual value Of the
Masters teachings. as the preceding
parable did. with: this marked difference.
In the former parable "the hidden treas
ure" Is Unexpectedly found. while in
this the pearl of great price has been
found as a result of a definite search.
Both teach that as a result of their dis
covery men gave UP all that they might
personally possess to obtain the price,
for one having. discovered the value of
the pearl to give up all. 30 that he
might have riches; SO It is not difficult
for any person to surrender all to win
Christ. When we find Jesus we are
willing to sacrifice to obtain not oaly
Him, but with Him all that is wise and
good and beautiful Some would turn
the parable around and point out how
the Lord came to seek the goodly pearl.
even His church, and sacrificed all, CIV
Ing Himself for 1T, but the former is
probably the correct Interpretation of
the parable. The possession Of spiritual
life is worth seeking. The man who
seeks first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness will cheerfully forsake all
and find in Christ complete satisfaction.
The message Of the dragnet is similar
to that OF the wheat and tares, but the
lesson is different In the parable
studied last week it was difficule to
separate the wheat from the tares. but
this one points out that in the end the
segregation will be certain and the
spiritual will be saved and secured.
Many Of the disciples were fishermen
and acquainted with the operation of
seine or great dragnet. They would
leave one part fastened to the shore
and drag the other out into the deem
waters and then hanf it In to. shore.
where they would throw back into
the water the valueless varieties and
sell the balance. They could not tell
until the end Of the age what the re-
suits Of life would be, yet Jesus
points out that they should wait until
then patiently to learn the result of
ChHstianity's contamination. Until the
event Of judgment, there will exist a
mixture Of good and evil, but then He
will separate the spiritual and good from
the secular and evil. The preservation of
the good and the condemnation Of the
is brought to an end. The final and
awful doom of the wicked leaves no hope
for their escaping punishment. It is
important that each individual de-
termine for himself by his attitude
toward Jesus Christ as to which class
he belongs to, for il he is Christ's he
cannot escape responsibility for his life
and labor, and II he is not His, then he
can be certain that he cannot dodge
the penalty that follows through neglect
Of Christ Jesus
The understanding Of what the king