Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1911 — OLD TESTAMENT TIMES BROOKLYN TABERNACLE BIBLE-STUDIES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OLD TESTAMENT TIMES BROOKLYN TABERNACLE BIBLE-STUDIES.

YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE June 25 “TFAct doth the Lord require of thee. but to do juetly and to love mercy and to wain humbly with thy God?'—Uicah C:8. >9 1 J" HO could find fault with f I these requirements? Who -M could say that in setting such a standard for His creatures the Almighty required too much ? On the other hand, how could we imagine a just and loving Heavenly Father requiring less than is here stipulated. God's law. variously stated. always amounts to the same thing. The statement of it, as given to the Jews at Mt. Sinai, embodied in the Decalogue, corresponds with this statement, as does also the presenta-

tion of it set forth by the great Teacher, say ing. ‘T ho u shalt love the Lord thy God wi t h all thy mind, soul and strength; and thy neighbor as thyself.” Many of us, after confessing with St. Paul that the Divine

Law is holy and just and good, have been surprised to find that that which our minds heartily approve, we are unable to obey—to the full. For thir-ty-five hundred years the Jews have sought to keep that Divine Law, under the promise of eternal life for so doing, but none of them have been able to gain the prize. When as a nation they realize their inability, and not sooner, they will be ready to receive at God's hands, as a free gift through the Redeemer, the forgiveness of their violations of the Divine Law. And then, under their New Covenant (Jer. 31/31; Heb. 8:8-13), they will have Messiah's assistance in regaining that perfection of mind and body and a “new heart,” which will enable them to obey in every particular the Divine Law. That blessing, which is soon to come to natural Israel, under Messiah’s Kingdom and the New Covenant, will be extended through them, as the natural seed of Abraham, to every nation* kindred and tongue, in harmony with the Divine promise made to Abraham. Analyzing Our Subject

Applytng this principle of justice to our words, it means that we should not speak evil of either friend or foe; that we should not even insinuate evil It means that we should not tell unnecessarily what we know to be the truth, if it would harm our neighbor, disparage him and discredit him in the eyes of others. It means that we should love our neighbor and his interests as we love our own, and should defend his interests and guard them as carefully as we would our own. Justice, in order to thus operate in pur words and deeds, must operate in our hearts—in our minds. “As a man thinketh, so is he." If he thinks unkindly, ungenerously, unjustly, he will find it impossible always to avoid unkind. unjust, unloving words or actions. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” It follows. then, that to do justly signifies absolute righteousness in thought, in word, in conduct This none of us are capable of. The nearest approach to this is the perfect or just intention of the heart, covenanted by all those who become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ The intentions and good endeavors of these are accepted of the Father. To Love Mercy All recognize mercy as a very proper, a very desirable quality. All realize their need of Divine mercy. All should

know that the Divine purpose is that only those who show mercy to others will themselves receive mercy at the Lord's hands. Many, however, while admitting all this and while seeking to practice mercy, do not lore it. Rather, they love vengeance, and are

merely constrained to mercy hy the laws of the land, public sentiment aqd the Word of God. Time and again this hns been shown in the case of lynchings. Mobs hare gathered for the infliction of punishment, glad of an opi>ortunity for siting aside mercy and Jetting loose justice, as they might express It And in those mobs have been many guilty of perhai>s ns great crimes as the one who was mobbed. “O, consistency, thou art a jewel!” Walk Humbly With Thy God In a word, those who are just and merciful are very apt to find themselves possessed of a spirit of pride, a feeling of superiority to their fellows, a hindrance to their having a humble walk with God. Those most humble toward the Almighty are frequently those who have had great sins and great weaknesses, which have helped to humble them. Thus the great Apostle, St Paul, was allowed to retain a measure of visual weakness as a reminder of the time when he was a persecutor of Christ—os the “Church which is His Body.”

Prophet exhorting to repentance.

The ruined city.