The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1943-10-22

LESSON JEAI-EX0QuS ~. L. Luxe x.4bs
81; Mark 1913; John 10 25-27.
GOLDEN TEXT-Children, obey your
parents in the Lord: for this is right
Ephesians ell.
Right relations between children
and parents have much to do with
the peace and prosperity of a COM
munity and a nation. Experience
has demonstrated that to be true,
but even more basic is the fact that
it is in accord with the promise of
God.
One Of the bad breakdowns in
modern life is that of proper honor
and obedience to parents by chill
dren. In all too many homes Gods
order has been reversed and instead
of honoring and obeying their par
ents, children (both young and old)
have taken the place of ''boss," and
mother and father must obey if they
want peace and rest.
The need for our lesson of today
is both great and acute. The future
happiness of hundreds of thousands
of children and the present welfare
of thousands of neglected and boss
ridden parents will depend on the
intelligence and faithfulness with
which this lesson is taught in our
churches, and the honesty of heart
with which we all receive its truth.
I. The Command and Promise
(Exod. 20:12).
We are told by Paul that this is
the first commandment with prom
Use" (Eph. 6:1-3). The Lord was
not making bargain with man, or
seeking to draw out obedience by q
prize, but there is obviously great
reward in the observing of this COM
mandment.
Then, too, as the children of God
(if we are such) through Jesus
Christ, the first and most important
consideration to come before us is,
What is the mind and will of the
Maker Of us all regarding this mat
ter of the relation between parents
and children? His words are plain
we are to "honor" our fathers and
our mothers.
The word "honor" carries with it
great many things, but perhaps
the three outstanding elements are
respect, obedience, and affection.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the
Saviour and then the Example of
believers, presents beautiful pat.
tern Of true obedience to this COM
mandment.
III. Willing Obedience duke 2:48-
81; John 19:25-27).
The fact that Jesus was God mani
fest in the flesh only enhanced His
conduct. He who is divine presents
an example of obedience and con-
sideration both as boy and man
which we do well to emulate.
l. AS Boy (Luke 2:48-51). The
boy Jesus, increasing Sin wisdom
and stature, and in favor with God
and man" ". 52), had come to His
twelfth year and with His parents
had gone up to jerusalem to cele-
brate the Passover.
There moved in His heart the con-
yiction that He must now be about
His Fathers BUSINESSMAN altogeth-
er proper and commendable pur-
pose, but one which resulted for
the moment in separation from His
parents. This was far more serious
than physical separation, for we
read that they did not understand
Him ". SOY.
Tragic indeed are the conse-
quences Of our failure to understand
our children. Notice, however, that
Jesus did not withdraw Himself from
their watchful care, nor refuse to
obey them even though they failed to
understand Him. Equally tragic are
the results Of hasty and bitter sep
arations brought about by the dis
obedience of children.
2. As Man (John 19:25-27). The
value Of our lesson will be greatly
reduced if we see only the RESPONSE
bility Of children while they are
young. We are the children of our
parents as long as we and they
live.
One marvels at the carelessness
and hardness of heart that will per-
nit men and women who have time
and money for everything else, to
neglect their aged parents and even
shunt them off into a public institu-
ton for care.
III. Hypocritical Disobedience
mark 1919.
Such an important commandment
naturally held high place in the
thinking of the community. To vio-
late il involved a measure of shame
which men sought to avoid. So the
Jews of Christ's day devised a
scheme which made it possible for
man to appear to be very religious
even as he deprived his parents of
the honor and help to which they
were entitled by the law of God.
The man who was so avaricious
that he did not wish to support his
aged and needy parents could en-
tirely evade that God-given respon-
sibility by declaring that his proper
ty was "Corban," that is, dedicated
by vow to God. Thereafter no
matter how great was the need of
IL l. 4.