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THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. LESSON lII—FIRST QUARTER, INTER NATIONAL SERIES, JAN. 21. Text of the L*»»on, Lnke ill, 1-17. Memory Versea, 8-6 Golden Text. Luke ill, 4—Commentary Prepared by the Rev. D. M. Stearns. [Copyright, 1899, by D. M. Stearns.] 1, 2. “The word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilder ness.” The heavenly and the earthly are ever in contrast in this wonderful book; all things and people on earth are dependent upon heaven and should wor ship and adore and glorify the God of heaven and earth, who giveth life and breath and all things (Acts xvii, 24, 25), /et the general rule is forgetfulness of %nd rebellion against God. God is all the while seeking to win His creatures to Himself and came to earth in human form that He might Himself become a sacrifice for sin and in due time subdue all things unto Himself for the good of all and the glory of God. John the her ald of Christ is now about 30 years of age (compare verse 23 and*chapter i, 26), and the story of those 30 years is briefly summed up in chapter i, 15, 80. The civil and religious leaders of Jews and gentiles are set before us in these open ing verses of our lesson, but the God who gives them being they know not. John, apart from the world and the world’s ways, lives with and for God, and now receives from God his commission to go forth and make ready a people prepared for the Lord (chapter i, 17). Apart from the world we hear God. 3-6. Where God sends him there he goes as the Lord’s messenger with the Lord’s message. He is only a voice to be heard and not seen (verse 4 and John i, 23), and as such he fulfills Isa. xl, 3-5, which is here quoted. Had Jerusalem received the herald of her king and then her king, she would have been truly com forted and the kingdom would have come, but as she rejected both herald and king her comfort is delayed until He shall come again in His glory preced ed by Elijah (Math, xxiii, 38; xvii, 11), and then all flesh shall see the salvation of God. 7-9. Multitudes came to him from Jeru salem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins (Math, iii, 5,6), for one of the first works of the Holy Spirit as the word of God is heard and received is conviction of sin (John xvi, 8,9). Until we know we are sick we will not want the physician; un til we know we are blind we will not want our eyes opened; and the strange thing is that the multitudes are spiritual ly sick, and blind, and lame, and poor, and know it not (Rev. iii, 17); this is true of believers, for as to the unsaved they are all dead and know it not Eph. ii, 4, 5), but as the word is preached the Spirit causes even the dead to hear (John v, 25). When John saw the multitudes be fore him he desired the work to be thor ough and not superficial and so he search ed them with the word in the power of the Spirit. While salvation is the free gift of God, and we are saved wholly by faith and not by works (Rom. iii, 24; iv, 5; Eph. ii, 8,9; Tit. iii, 5), yet where Christ is truly received, and there is really sal vation, there must be, as a result of that salvation, the works of God manifest in the daily life (Eph. ii, 10; Tit. iii, 8). 10-14. As the people, the publicans, and the soldiers, asked him what they were to do now that they had been baptized, he made it very plain that their new life was to be manifest in deeds, not in words. They were to show their sincerity by their love to others, by righteousness and by mercy. It is all beautifully and concisely summed up in Mic. vi, 8. “Do justly, love mercy and humble thyself to walk with God.” All manner of work, however good it may seem, is simply nothing, of no ac count before God. until the love of God has been shed abroad in the heart (I Cor. xiii, 1-3). God having so loved us as To give Himself for us in the person of His Son, puts but one thing before the sinner who cannot by any means save himself, and that is the acceptance of His Son. Until this is done all else is vain and condemnation is written upon all (John iii, 18, 36). All efforts of the natural man to please God are like the offering of Cain which God could not ac cept, but the sinner who like Abel con fesses his sin and accepts God’s way of sacrifice is accepted. 15, 16. “He shall baptize you w’ith the Holy Ghost and with tire.’’ As the peo ple wondered whether John was the Christ or not. he told them of the One mightier than he whose shoes he was not worthy to unloose. He said he was not Elijah, nor that prophet, nor the Christ, but just one to herald and point out the[ Christ, and he loved to cry, “Behold, the Lamb of God!’’ He rejoiced to be the. Bridegroom’s friend and hear His voice, and to decrease that the Bridegroom might increase (John iii, 27-30), “and it was here he said that “A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heav-' en.” This truth received gives perfect contentment under all circumstances, for God alone is seen as the giver or with bolder, and w’heii we are one with God in giving honor to His Son that He should be in all things pre-eminent (Isa. li, 11, 17; Col. i, 18) we have a taste of heaven upon earth. It was said of John by Gabriel, “He shall be great in the sight of the Lord” (chapter i, 15), and the Lord Jesus said of him, “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Bap tist” (Math, xi, 11). To have only one ambition, to please God, not heeding jß'hat men may think or say, seems to me to be the height of the Christian life (II Tim. ii, 15; I Thess. ii, 4), and God has made provision for our living this life (Gal. ii, 20; Heb. xiii, 20, 21). On our part it requires a willingness that Christ may be all, and we just vassals for His Casure, not seeking our own nor pleas self, but living only to exalt Him. 17. The reference here to the harvest which is the end of this age (Math, xiii, 89) makes us think that the baptism with the Holy Ghost and wdth fire will have its complete fulfillment at that time also. It shall all be fulfilled. The chaff shall find the fire and the wheat His garner; the kingdom shall come and the earth be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord; it shall be at His coming again In glory. What are we now doing to prepare the way of the Lord? Have we the spirit of John leading us not to think of self or self interest, but only to de rive above all things to make Him known that those who will may accept Him and glorify Him by a holy life and thus has ten the completion of His body and the -Mme of His return? Whosoever will may (Bev. xxii, 17). 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M. 800 230 430 Lv, Waycross Ar 110 10 00 910 f 8 10 (4 40 Jamestown Lv fl 02 fg o 2 s 8 15 257 £4 45 Waitertown fi2 57 920 f 8 37 £8 24 [4 54 Upchurch fi2 48 f 8 48 s 8 34 ?3 22J {5 04 Elsie si2 40 854 f 8 40 s 8 42 335 £5 12 Bolen si2 31 842 £8 31 s 8 55 400 f$ 25 Beach si2 19 828 f 8 19 f 9 04 f 5 34 Murray’s £l2 03 , , fS 03 S 9 15 428 £5 45 Sessoms sn 53 800 £7 43 s 9 2 5 43® s 5 53 Granville ,sli 49 7 o 57 49 s 9 33 518 s 6 03 Nicholls su 36. 715 sy 36 £9 4 8 . 53 8 s 6 18 Bell’s fu 2i 650 £721 io lo 600 640 Ar Douglas Lv; 11 00 630 700 No. 1 and No. 4 will meet and pass at Bolen according to rules. s —lndicates regular stop, f —lndicates stop if flagged. ALEX BONNYMAN, Supt. J. E. WADLEY, President. Subscribe for the GAZETTE, the Leading Negro Journal ef the gouth« iB4.OOTEKYF.AR