DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON:
Sundays, Bright or Doleful.
“And call tho Sabbath a delight.” Tea, 53:13,
Tere is an clement of gloom strik-
ing through all (also religions. Pagan-
ism is a brood of horrors with blind
fale. Mohammedanism promises noth-
ing to those exhausted with sin in this
world but an eternity of the same
passional indulgences, But God in-
tended that our religion should have
the grand characteristic of cherrfulness,
St. Paul struck the kev-note when he
said; **Rejoice evermore, and again 1
say, rejoice.” This religion has no
spikes for the feet; it has no hooks for
the shoulder; it has no long pilgrimages
to take; it has no funeral-pyres upon
which to leap; it has no Juggernauts
before which to fall
ITS GOOD CHEER
is symbolized in the Diible by the
brightness of waters, and the redolence
of lilies, and the sweetness of music,
and the hilarities of a banquet. A
choir of seraphim chanted at its induc-
tion, and pealing trumpet, and waving
palm, and flapping wing of archangel
are to celebrate its triumphs, It began
its chief missizn with the shout: **Glory
to God in the highest!” and it will
close its earthly mission with the as-
cription: **Hallelujah, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth!”’
But men have said that our religion
is not cheerful, Lecause we have such a
doleful Sabbath, They say: ‘You can
have your religious assemblages, and
your long faces, and your sniffing cant,
and your psalm-books, and your Bibles:
give us the Sunday excursion, and the
horse-race, and the convivial laughter,
We bave so much joy that we want to
spread it all over the seven days of the
week, and you shall not have one of
our days of worldly satisfaction for re-
ligious dolefulness,’”” 1 want to show
these men—if there are any such in the
house this morning—that they are un-
der a great delusion, and that God in-
tended the fifty-two Sundays of the
yous to be hung up like bells in a tower
ating a perpetual chime of joy and
glory and salvation and heaven; for I
want you to carry out the idea of the
text, “‘and call the Sabbath a delight.”’
I remark, in the first place, we are to
find in this day the joy of
HEALTHY REPOSE,
In this democratic country we all have
to work—some with hand, some with
brain, some with foot. 1f there is in
ing the past ear, been stretched forth
to some kina of toil, let it be lifted,
Not one, not one, You sell the goods,
You teach the school. You doclor in
the sick-room. You practice at the
bar, You edit a newspaper. You tan
the hides. You preaehi the gospel.
You mend the shoes. You sit at the
shuttle, You carry the hod of bricks
up the ladder on the wall. And the
one occupation is as honorable as the
other, provided God calls you to it, 1
care not what you do, if you only do it
well. Lut when Saturday might comes,
you are jaded and worn, The band
cannot so skillfully wanufacture: the
80 clear; the judgment is not so well
balanced.
A promivent manufacturer told me
that he could see a difference between
the goods which went out of his estab-
iishment on Saturday from the goods
that went out on Monday. lle said:
“They were very different indeed.
“Those that were made in the former
part of the week, because of the rest
thay had been previously given, were
better than those that were made
the latter part of the week, when the
men weie tired out,” The Sabbath
comes, und it bathes the soreness from
the limbs, quiets the agitated brain,
and puts out the fires of anxiety that
have been burning all the week, Our
bodies ; re seven-day clocks, and unless
on the seventh day they are wound up,
they run down into the grave. The
Sabbath was
INTENDED AS A SAVINGS-BANK:
anto it we are to gather the resources
upon which we are to draw all the
week. L'hat man who breaks the Sab.
‘bath robes his own nerve, his own
muscle, his own brain, his own bones,
He dips up the wine of his own life,
and throws it away. He who breaks
the lLord’s day gives a mortgage to
disease and death upon his entire physi-
cal estate, and at the most unexpected
moment that mortgage will be fore-
closed, and the soul ¢jected from the
premises. Every gland and pore and
cell and finger-nail demands the seventh
«ay ior repose, The respiration of the
lungs, the throb of the pulse in the
wrist, the motion, of the bone in its
socket declare: “Remember the Sal-
bat day, tw Leep it holy.”
There are thousands of men who
have bad their lives dashed out against
the golden gats of the Sabbath, A
promnent London merchant testifies
that thirty years ago he went to Lon.
don. ile says: *1 have during that
time waiched minutely, and 1 have no-
iced that the men who went to busi-
ness ou the Lord's day, or opened their
counting-houses, have, without a single
exception, come to fallure.,” A prom-
inent Christian mwerchant in Boston
says: “I find it doesn’t pay to work
on bunday, When I was a boy I no-
ticed, cut on Long Wharf, there were
Joerchants who loaded their vessels on
the Babbath day, keeping their men
busy from morning till night; and it is
wy observation that they themselves
‘came Lo nothing — these merchants—and
their children came to polling. It
doesn’l pay,’ he says, “to work on the
1 appeal to your observation. Where
ate the men who twenty years ago were
Sabbuthi-breakers, and who have been
Babbatii-breakers ever since? Without
un single excoption, you tell me, they
lave come sithey to! financial or to
mora beggary. defy you to point
cout a single exception, and you cau
take the whole world for your eld, It
- has either been a or
MORAL DEFALCATION
An overy instance, Six hundred and
phymicalns in Loudon petition
saying; rr oust, have
0
Sabbath takes down the curse of Al-
mighty God. That farmer who cul-
tures his ground on the Sabbath day
raises a crop of neuralgia, and of con-
sumption, and of death.
A former sald: *'I defy your Chris-
tian Sabbath, I will raise a Sunday
crop.” So he went to work and plow-
ed the ground on Sunday, and harrow-
ed it on Sunday, and he planted corn
on Sunday and hoe reaped the corn on
Sunday, and ho gathered it into the
barn on Sunday. ‘‘There,” he says,
“I have proved to you that all this idea
about a fatality accompanying Sabbath
work is a perfect sham, My corn is
garnered, and all 1s well.”” Dut before
many weeks passed the lord God struck
that barn with His lightnmngs, and
away went the Sunday crop.
SABDATI-KEEPING TAYE,
During the last war, it was found out
that those public works which paused
on the seventh day turned out more
war material than those which worked
all the seven days. Mr. DBagusll, a
prominent iron merchant, *gives this
testimony: *‘I find we have fewer acci-
dents in our establishment and fewer
interruptions, now we obserye the
Lord’s day; and at the close of the
year, now that we keep the Sabbath, I
find we turn out more iron and have
larger profits than any year when we
worked all the seven days.”’ The fact
Sabbath-made shoes will leak, and Sab-
bath-made coats will rip, and Sabbath-
made muskets will miss fire, and Sab-
bath occupations will be blasted, A
gentleman said: “1 invented a shuttle
on the Lord’sday. I was very busy, so
I made the model of that new shuttle
on the Lord’s day, So very busy was I
during the week that I bad to occupy
many Sabbaths. It was a great suc-
cess, 1 enlarged my buildings: I bullt
new factories, and made hundreds of
thousands of dollars; but I have to tell
you that all the result of that work on
the Sabbath has been, to me, ruin, I
enlarged my buildings, I made a great
many thousands of dollars, but I have
lost all, and I charge It to the fact of
that Sunday shuttle,” I will place in
two companies the men in this com-
raunity who break the Sabbath and the
men who keep it, and then I ask you
who are 1h vest friends of society?
SABBATII IN THE HOUSEHOLD,
I suppose that the mere philosopher
would say that the Sabbath light comes
in a wave current, just like any other
{ light; but it does not seem so to me,
It seems as if it touched the eyelids
{ more gently, and threw a brighter glow
{on the mantel ornaments, and cast a
i better cheerfulness on the faces of the
{ children, and threw a supernatural
| glory over the old family Dible. Hail!
{ Sabbath light! We rejoice in it, Hest
{comes in through the window, or it
| the old arm-chair, or it catches up the
{ body into ecstacy, and swings open be-
| fore the soul the twelve gates which
| are twelve pearls, The bar of the un-
| fastened store window, the quiet of the
| commercial warehouse seem lo say:
{ “This is the day the Lord hath made.’
lest for the sewing-woman, with weary
haods, and aching side, and sick heart,
lest for the overtasked workman in
the mine, or out on the wall, or in the
sweltering factory. Haug up the plane,
drop the adze, ship the band from the
wheel, put out the fire. Rest for the
body, for the mind, and for the soul,
“Welcome, sweot day of rest,
That saw the Lord arise;
Welcome to this reviving breast,
And these rejoicing eyes™
Again I remark, we ought to have
| In the Sabbath the joy of
DOMESTIC REUNION
and consecration. There are some
very good parents who hove the faculty
of making the Sabbath a great gloom.
Their children run up against the wail
of parental lugubriousness on that day.
They are sorry when Sunday comes,
and glad when it goes away. They
think of everything bad on that day.
i It is the worst day to them, really, in
all the week, There are persons who,
| because they were brought up in Chris-
tian families where there were wrong
notions about the Sabbath, have gone
out into dissipation aod will be lost. A
nan said to me:
| gust for the Sabbath-day,
| my father smile on Sunday.
It was
|
and never
Those parents did not “call the
delight,” they made it a
gloom. Dut there ure houses repre-
sented here this morning where the
children say through the week: “I
wonder when Suuaay will an
a boy, I never got over it,
wiil.”?
Sabbath
come!
They are anxious to have it come. I
hear thelr hosanta in the house; | hear
their hosanna in the school, God in.
tended the Sabbath to be especially
A DAY FOR THE FATHER,
The mother is home all the week, Sab
bath day comes, and God says to the
father, who has been busy from Mone
day morning to Saturday night at the
store, or away from home: “This is
your day, See what you can do in
this little fl. ck in preparing them for
heavens This day 1 set apart foryou.’’
You know very well that thére are
many parents who ate were sutlers of
the household; they provide the food
and raiment; once in a while, perhaps,
they Lear the chill read a line or two
in the new primer; or if there be a case
of especial discipline, and the mother
cannot manage it, the child is brought
up in the court-martial of the father's
discipline and punished, That is all
there is of it, No scrutiny of that
child's immortal interests, no realiza-
tion of the fact that the ehild will soon
go out in a world where there are gig-
antic and overwheming tewplations
that have swamped millions,
But in some household it is not that
way; the home, beautiful on ordinary
davs, is more beautiful now that the
Sabbatli has dawned. There is more
joy in the *‘good-morniog,’”’ there is
more tenderness in the morning prayer.
The father looks at the child, and the
child looks at the father. The little
one dares now to ask questions without
any fear of being answered: ‘Don’t
bother me—I must be off to the store,”
Now the father looks at the child, and
he sees not iarey the blue the
touches that child, he says: “I won-
der what will be the destiny of this
little one?” And while this Christian
father is thinking and praying, the
sweet promise flows through his soul:
“Of such Is the kingdom of heaven.”
And he feéls a joy, not like that which
sounds in the dance, or 18 wafted from
the froth of the winecup, or that which
is like the *‘crackling of thorns under a
pot,” but the joy of domestic reunion
and consecration,
ELEVEN FAMILIES,
I have some statistics that I would
like to give you, A great many people,
you know, say there is nothing in the
Christian discipline of a household, In
New Hampshire there were two neigh-
borhoods-—~the one of six families, the
other of five families, The six families
disregarded the Sabbath, In time, five
of these familles were broken up by the
separation of husbands and wives; the
other by the father becoming a thief.
Eight or nine of the parents became
drunkards, one committed suicide, and
all came to penury. Of some forty or
fifty descendants, about twenty are
known to be drunkards and gamblers
and dissolute, Tour or five have been
in State-prison, One fell in a duel,
Som» are in the almshouse, Only one
became a Christian, and he, after first
having been outrageously dissipated.
{ The other five families that regarded
the Sabbath were all prospered. Eight
| or ten of the children are consistent
members of the Church, Some of
them became officers in thé Church;
one is a minister of the gospel; one is a
missionary to China. No poverty
among any of them. The homestead is
now in the hands of the third genera-
tion, Those who have died haye died
in the peace of the gospel. Oh, 1s there
God’s holy day? Can it be possible
that those who disregard this holy com-
mandment can be prospered for this lite,
or have any good hope of the life that
is to come?
Again, we ought to have in the Sab-
bath the
CHRISTIAN ASSEMDLAGE,
Where are all those people going on the
Sabbath? You see them moving up and
down the street, Is it a festal day?
people might ask. Has thers been
some public edict commanding the
people to come forth? No, they are
only worshippers of God, who are going
to their places of religious service,
whatdelicatescale shall Iweigh the joy of
Christian convocation? It gives bright.
ness to the eye, and a flush to the cheek,
and a pressure to the hand, and a thrill
to the heart.
| aisle,
{ hand of its mother.
! and rejoice that this is God
| this the communion of saints,
I look upon the Church of God as
{ one vast hosanna. Joy dripping from
the baptismal font, joy glowing in the
{ sacramental cup, joy warbling in the
{ anthem, joy beating against the gate of
Heaven with a hallelujah like the voice
! of mighty thunderings,
| situation, the joy of the whole earth is
{ ing them out in companies and regi-
meents and battalions, riding along the
| past combat, and cheering them on to
future victories, Oh, the joy of Chris.
| tian assemblage!
{ I remark also, we have in this day
the joy of
ETERNAL SABDATISM.
I do not veneve 1t possible for any
| Christian to spend the Lord's day here
t without thinking of Heaven.
| something in the gathering of people in
| €hurch on earth to make one think of
| the rapt asetnblage of the skies, There
i tian Churclhi to make one think of the
{ companying the harmony.
| of a better Sabbath gilds the top of this,
{and earth and heaven come
! speaking-distance of each other, the
! song of triumph waving backward and
{ of earth, now sent back by the Church
{ of heaven,
“Day of all the week the best,
Embiem of eternal rest.
The Christian man
{its light, His bereft heart rejoices at
| the thought of a country where there is
{ neither a coffin nor grave; his weary
| body glows at the idea of a land where
| there are no burdens to carry, and no
{ exhaustive journeys to take. He eats
| the grapes of Esheol, He stands upon
| the mountain-top, and looks off upon
{ the promised land,
} TWO TREASURES TO PROTECT,
With what revulsion, and with what
pity we must look out on that large
class of persons in our day who would
throw discredit upon the Lord's day.
There ure two things which Christian
people ought never to give up; the one
timnity in this country, farewell to our
civl and religious liberties. When they
go, all go. He who has ever spent Sun-
day in Paris, or Antwerp, or Rome, if
he be an intelligent Christian, will pray
God that the day will never come when
the Sabbath of continental Europe shall
put its foot upon our shores, had a
friend in Syracuse who lived to be one
bundred years of age. Ile said to me
in his ninety-uinth year: “I went
across the mountains in the early
history of this country. Sabbath
morning came. We were beyond the
reach of civilization, My comrades
were all going out for un excursion, I
said: ‘No, 1 won't go; it is Sunday.’
Why. they laughed. “They said: ‘We
haven't any Sunday here. ‘Oh, yes,’
I said, ‘you have. I brought it with
me over the mountains.’ ’”
‘There are two or three ways in which
we can war agalust Sabbath-breaking
usages in this day; and the first thing is
to get our children right upon this sub-
ject, and teacii them that the Sabbath
day is the holiest of all the days, and
the best and the gladdest, Unless you
teach your children under the paternal
roof to keep the Lord's day, there ure
nine hundred and ninety chances out
of a thousard it will never learn to
sup thie Sybbath, You may think to
shirk responsibility in the matter, and
send | Jour child to the Sabbath-school
and the hous of God: that will not ve-
A
——
lieve the matter, I want to tell you, in
the name of Christ, that
YOUR EXAMPLE
will be more potential than any instruc-
tion they get elsewhere; and if you dis-
regard the Lord’s day yourself, or in
any wise throw contempt upon it, you
are blasting your children with an in
finite curse, It is a rough truth, I
know, told ina rough way; but it is
God’s truth, nevertheless, Your child
may go on to seventy or eighty years of
age, but that child will never get over
the awful disadvantage of having had
a Sabbath-breaking father or a Sabbath-
breaking mother, It is the joy of many
of us that we can look back to an early
home where God was honored, and
when the Sabbath came it was a day of
great consecration and joy. We re-
member the old faces around the table
that Sabbath morning. Our hearts
melt when we think of those blessed
associations, and we may have been off,
and committed many indiscretions, and
done many wrong things; but the
day will never come when we forget
the early home in which God’s day was
regarded, and father and mother told
us to keep holy the Sabbath,
There is another way in which we
can war against the Sabbath-breaking
usages of the country at this time, and
that is by making our houses of worship
attractive, and the religious services in-
spiriting. 1 plead not for a gorgeous
audience-chamber; I plead not for groin-
ed rafters or magnificent fresco; but I
do plead for comfortable churches,
home-like churches,
MAKE THE CHURCH WELCOME
to all, however poorly clad they may be,
or whatever may Rave been their past
| history; for I think the Church of God
i is not so much made for you who could
have churches in your own house, but
for the vast population of our great
cities, who are treading on toward death,
with no voice of mercy to arrest them,
Ah, when the prodigal comes into the
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON,
Eunpay Fesnvany 3, 1889,
The Parable of the Sower.,
LESSON TEXT.
Mark 4:10.20, Momory verses, 203
LESSON PLAN.
Toric OF THE QUARTER :
Myhty Worker,
Jesus the
GorpeN TEXT FOR THE QUARTER!
Believe me that I am in the Father, ond
the Father in me: or else belveve me for
the very works’ sake.—John 14 : 11.
Lesson Toric: Supplying the
ceptive,
Ile-
r 1. The Law of Supply, va 10.14,
2. The Non-receptive, va. 15-19,
8. The Truly Receplive, va 20,
Lesson |
Outline;
Text : If any man have
Gg
ity
GOLDEN
ears to hear, let him hear ~—Mark 4 :
Dany HoME READINGS:
M.—Mark 4 : 10-20, Supplying the
receptive,
T.—Mark 4 :
BOWer,
W.—Matt, 13 1-23.
parallel narrative,
T.— Luke 8 : 4-15.
lel narative,
F.-—Matt, 25: 14-30,
increase,
S.—Job., 42 :
ant supply.
S8.—Eph, 3: 1-21.
Christ.
1-9. of the
Parable
Matthew's
Luke’s paral-
The law of
1-17. Job's abund-
Supplied through
co
LESSON ANALYSIS
I. THE LAW OF SUPPLY.
I. The Opportunity Afforded :
The sower soweth the word (14),
Behold the sower went forth to sow
(Matt, 13 : 3).
To each according to his several ability
(Matt. 25 : 15)
The seed is the word of God (Luke 8:
{ church, do not stare at him as though
i he had no right to come, Sometimes a
| he comes from one motive, perhaps
| from another, Ie finds the
{ dark and the Christan people frigid
{ (and there are no people on earth who
ican be more frigid than Christian
| people when they try), and the music is
| dull, and he never comes again,
| pose one of these men eaters the church.
{ his mother sang when he was a boy; he
| remembers it,
| one hands him a book, open at
“Jerusalem, my bappy bome,
Name ever dear to mo.”
“Yes he says, “I have heard that
many times.” He sees cheerful Chris-
tian people there, every man's face a
{ psalm of thanksgiving to God, He
i says: Do you have this so every Sun-
| dav? 1
| God was a doleful place,
| enjoyed myself!"
| man is again in the same place,
{ of repentance start down his cheek; he
I have really
at
ai
| jon-table is spread, he sits 1t,
you didn't believe in such things"
{ you, Ab! you can’t drive men out of
{ their sins, but you can coax them-—you
{ can charm them out,
{i I would to God
3.
{i come toa higher appreciation of this
| Sabbath heritage! We cannot count the
treastires of one Clnistian Sabbath,
{ the archangel of merey. Ob,
| Sabbath! They scot a great deal about
THE OLD YURITANIC SABBATHS,
Sabbaths they
England, I never lived in New Eng-
tian this modern Sabbath, which is
fast becoming mo Sabbath at ail,
| our modern Sabbatism shall produce as
! stalwart Christian character as the old
| New England Puaritanic Sabbatism, 1
{ shall be satisfied, and I shall be sur-
| prised,
Oh, blessed day! blessed day! I should
| the air 1s full of church music and the
belis are ringing. Leaving my home
grouped with a dying blessing, should
like to look off upon sowe Christian as-
semblage chanting the praises of God
as I went up to join the thousands of
thousands standing around the throne
i ofJesus, Ilark! I hear the bell of the
old kirk on the Lili-side of heaven. It
is a wedding-bell, for behold, the Bride-
groom cometh! It is a victor’s bell, for
we are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us,
“Oh when, thou city of my God,
Shall I thy courts ascend?
Where congregations ne'er break up,
And Sabbaths have no end.”
Boys and Girls in Holland.
-—
A letter from a lady in Holland tells
how they distinguish the boys from the
girls in that country. They are all
dressed alike in dark, fall skirts and
gay bodices., All had long hair and
long thick bangs trained to stand out
under their tight caps like little visors to
shade their eyes, We began to won-
der why they were all girls, when sud.
denly the guide seized one, crying:
“Do you think this is a boy or girl?”
When we said “'girl” he whisked the
child around and pointed to a little
red and white crown piece in the back
of its cap. **No," he sald, “girl's caps
sure plain, Until the children are 8
years old you can’t tell a boy from a
glel, ex from the backs of their
heads.” asking the children thelr
names we found guide was right,
and we all wondered what Young
America would say If he were obliged
to dress like his sister till be was 8 years
11}.
{| Who giveth us richly all th
i Joy {l Tim. 6: 17).
{ IL The Receptive Supplied :
ing
ings to en-
2, “Such as hear the word, and accept
it.” (1) The bearing ear; (2) The
receptive heart; (3) The decisive
wills (4) The devoted 1 fe,
8. “And bear fruit.” Spiritual fruits:
(1) Their characteristics: (2) Their
varieties; (3) Their values,
LESSON BIBLE READING,
SEED AND BOWING,
L In Nature :
Beed perpetuates vegetable life (Gen,
1:11, 12, 29).
Each seed is distinctive
98).
Sowing a perpetual ordination (Gen.
8:22).
Demands constant
6; Isa, 28 : 24, 25).
Often pursued with difficulty (Psa,
126 : 5, 6).
Constant effort succeeds (Ian
lequires heaven's blessing (Isa.
v:1 Cor. 3:86).
= In Grace :
The word of God is seed
11; 1 Pet. 1:23),
Seed illustrative of
(Matt. 13 : 31, 32).
Sowing illustrative of preaching { Matt
13:3, 19; Mark 4 : 14).
Sowing illustrative of spiritual life (1
John 3 : 9).
Sowing illustrative
Cor. 9 : 6).
Sowing ustrative of religions recom-
pense (Job 4 : 8 :Gal, 6:7, 81.
Sowing illustrative of the resurrect
jon (John 12:24 ;1 Cur. 1
e————
LESSON SURROUNDINGS,
Quite a number of events occurred be-
tween the healing of the paralytic and
the discourse in parables, which begins
with the parable of the sower., Bbome
of these parables are narrated by all
three evangelists; the account of Mark
being the briefest, and that of Matthew
deviating greatly from the chronologi-
cal order. It will be possible here only
to name the events, with a reference to
the points in dispute,
The call of Matthew (Levi) immedi-
{1 Cor. 15:
effort (Eccl. 11:
9 3
33 20)
»”
wp
¥ res XR +
AALEE BL
Christ's kingdom
of liberality (2
- Ahm why
Pond: d FD.
Unto you is given the mystery of the
! kingdom of God (11).
{ Whosoever hath, to him shall be given
(Matt, 13 : 12).
| Give it unto him that hath the ten tal-
ents (Matt, 25 :
| If any man willeth to do his will, he
shall know (John 7 : 17).
{ He cleanseth it, that it may bear more
fruit (John 15 : 2).
| HI. The Non-Receptive Denled:
i Unto them that are without, all things
| are done in parables (11).
| To them it was given (Matt. 13 : 11).
| Take ye away therefore the talent from
{ him (Matt, 25 : 28).
| God gave them up unto a reprobate
mind {Hot i:
Evil men and impostors shall wax worse
and worse {2 Tim. 2 : 13).
1. “When he was alone, they... .ask-
ed him.”’ (1) The closer fellowship
with Jesus; (2) larger freedom
with Jesus; (3) The fuller instruc-
tion from Jesus,
28).
ne
wi hy
he
the kingdom of god.” (1) An un-
speakable gift; (2) A divine Donor;
(3) An honored clientage,
3. **The sower soweth the word.” (1)
The sower; (2) The seed; (3) The
field; (4) The sowing; (5) The
harvest,
II. THE NOX-RECEFPTIVE,
| L. Ravaged by Satan:
Straightway cometh Satan and take
| gway the word (15).
{ The evil one, ...sratcketh
i
§
1
i
!
4
away that
which bath been sown (Matt, 13:19).
he devil....taketh away the word
from their heart (Luke 8 : 12),
| Satan entered into Judas (Luke 22 : 3).
Test he full into....the snare of the
devil (1 Tim, 3:
IL. Crushed by Opposition:
When. ...persecution ariseth,
stral (htway they stumble (17).
Yet hath he not root, . ...but endureth
for a while { Matt, 13 : 21).
| Because iniquity shall be multiplied,
the love....shall wax cold (Matt.
24:12.
{ In time of temptation fall away (Luke
8:13).
They went out {rom us, but they were
not of us (1 John 2 : 19.
| 1H Choked by Care:
The cares of the world. . . . choked the
F word (19), ;
He becometh unfraitfal (Matt, 13 : 221.
They are choked with cares and riches
and pleasures (Luke 8 : 14),
| They that desire to be rich fall into a
temptation {1 Tim. 6 : 9),
Demas forsook me, having loved this
present world (2 Tim, 4 : 10).
1. “Stinighltway cometh Satan.” (1)
Satan's malignity; (2) Satan’s alert
ness; (3) Satin’s success,
“Stinightway they stumble,” (1)
The stumbler’s character; (2) The
stumbler’s obstacles; (3) The stum-
bler’s doom.
“Choke the word.” The choked
word: (1) Its causes; (2) its evi-
dences: (3) consequences.
Ill, THE TRULY RECEPTIVE.
I. Their Character:
The good ground (20).
Dy their fruits ye shall know them
(Mate, 7 : 16).
In an honest and good heart (Luke
8:15).
The branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except, .. . in the vive (John 15 : 4).
Being filled with the fruits of righteous-
ness (Phil, 1:11).
iL Their Conduct:
ne a8 hear the word, and accept it
{ie that heareth the word, and under-
staudeth it { Matt, 13 : 23),
Having heard the word, hold it fast
(Luke 8: 15).
Abide in me, and I in you (John 15 : i
Begaing fruit in every good work (C
HL Their Fraitfalness:
Bear fruit, thirtyfold, and rixtyfoid
and & hundredold (20), ’
Some a hundredfold, some sixty, some
thirty (Matt, 13 + 58).
Budng oct fruit with patience (Luke
Herein is my Father glorified, that
; much rat (Jon 15 : 8). 3
The of the y is Joy, peace
os
fh.
i
i$
a
a
3.
bl . ;
«J the
pon oo"
ately followed the healing of the paraly-
tic (Mark 2:13, 14), The feast and
discourse which are joined with the
call in all three narratives seem to be-
| lung to a later period in the history. So
| far as Mark’s Gospel is concerned, we
may say that chapter 2 : 15-22 should
be placed after 5:21, this being the
only variation from the chronological
order in the account of the Galilean
i ministry, Nobinson places the second
Passover (John 5) immediately after
| the call of Matthew, Andrews, as al
ready intimated, places it earlier.
| Thesabbath controversies came next
(Mark 2 : 23 t0 3:6); then a with-
| arawal, during which the twelve are
| chosen and the Sermon on the Mount
{is delivered, Mark gives no report of
| this discourse; but in Mark 3 : 7-19 we
| find a description of the multitude and
{alist of the twelve. The healing of
| the centurion’s servant comes next in
| order (Matt, Luke), and, shortly after,
| the widow's son was raised at Nain
| (Luke 7 ; 11, see R. V., text und mar-
| gin). The account of Luke places next
{the message from John the Baptist
| {Luke 7 : 18-35). which Matthew puts
{in a different position, adding a dis.
course that probably followed the re-
{turn of the messengers from John
{ (Matt, 11 20-30). The occurrence
pext in order was the anointing of our
| Lord’s feet Ly the woman whd was &
| sinner {Luke 7 : 36-50), quite a differ.
ect vepson from Mary Magd#iene, and
| from Mary of Bethany. Another cir-
| cuit in G lllce & jhen spoken of by
| Luke 8 : 1.3), which was followad by
| the healing of a dJdemoniac (Mark 3:
| 20, etc.). This Jed to severe conflict,
| during which our Lond was sought by
i his mollier and kis Lrethren. In the
| narrative of Mark {avd of Matthew)
the discourse in parables follows (‘‘on
| that day,’ Matt, 13:1). This would
| make ‘that day’ one of the most im-
| poriant in the Galliean ministry. It
| began with the healing of the demon.
jac, and ended with the stilling of the
tempest {Mark 4 : 3541). y
The full impression of the story is
not secured by the arrangement of Mat.
thew, who places the earlier events of
the day in his twelfth and thirteenth
chapters, and the last event in the
eighth, But Robinson and others ac-
icept a fuller account of *‘that day.”
| In Take 11 : 14, 15, ele., there is nar-
| rated a similar miracle of healing, and
{ asimilar conflict, Regarding these as
identical with those referred to by Mat.
thew and Mark, Robinson finds it neces.
gary to join with these events those
which follow in Luke (chaps, 11 : 27 to
13: 19), There are internal reasous
for deeming this a correct arrange-
ment, (With this view Andrews does
not agree),
if the passage in Luke belongs to this
period, we have nearly seven chapters
in all devoted to the accounts of what
happened on *“that day.” In any case,
it is important to notice thal the paia-
bles were spoken after a sever conflict,
and that our Lord was weary al the
close of the day.
The place seems to have been on the
seashore near Caperpaum. The time
was in the latter half of the year 781,
A, D. 28, but whether in the autumn
or early winter cannot be determined.
Paral'el passages: Matt. 13 : 10.23;
Luke 8 : 9-15,
Too Much Opium.
By the discovery of a vast opium-
smuggling scheme on the Norih-
western frontier, an expianation is
given of the low rate ruling for the
drug in our market for some time past,
It is not known what the grade of the
of pharmace
preparations, If it should prove not to
be Turkish opium, it will be a question
how so much of it could get into
Canada, or, rather, how 1t may be made
puoliiabls to pul it in the Northwest
good
Elements
fertility
li, I Sot 8
+ (8) Resulta tery.