Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 9, Number 13, DeMotte, Jasper County, 16 February 1939 — IMPROVED UNIFORM INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL Lesson [ARTICLE]

IMPROVED UNIFORM INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL Lesson

By HAROLD L. LUNDQUIST. D. D.

Lesson for February 19 Lesson subjects and Scripture texts selected and copyrighted by International Council of Religious Education, used by permission. BEVERAGE ALCOHOL AND ITS SOCIAL PERILS LESSON TEXT—Amos 6:1-6, I Peter 2:11. 12; 4 1-5 GOLDEN TEXT—It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbieth.—Romans 14:21. ‘‘Hazards in the use of alcohol in a machine age”— this is the topic assigned for our lesson today. Lt is a good one and worthy of the careful thought of every intelligent citizen. With automobiles alone killing over a hundred persons a day, and the obvious connection between alcohol and death on the highway, we might say much about the folly of trying to cut down traffic accidents while we are licensing more and more “taverns” along the road to fill the drivers with the destructive stuff. v There is much that might be said about the social’havoc that is being wrought by alcohol. It is bad enough that a man pays 25 cents for a drink, but even worse, that he gives 25 minutes ,of his life for each indulgence.' But the liquor Industry covers that up under a mask of festivity, making booze look' like a desirable adjunct to congenial and successful living. It does not picture the bleary eye and the babbling tongue of the drinker, nor does it present the broken-hearted mother, the devastated home, the ragged children, and the empty cupboard. Liquor is one of America's major problems. Let us face it. The Scripture portions assigned for our lesson rightly emphasize fundamentals, the first being a call to awake from a false sense of security, the second emphasizing that this is a spiritual battle, \ and the third pointing the way of victory as being in holy living. I. Foolish Security When Surrounded by Danger (Amos 6:1-6). Surprise attack is always effective. Satan would lull us all to sleep in the assurance that “God’s in his heaven—all’s well with tire world.” God is in heaven and it is certain that ultimately He will reign over all, but just now the world is in the hands of the Wicked One (I. John 5:19). The people of Amos’ day, to whom the message was addressed, had come to the point where prosperity had made them at ease when they should have been active, foolishly secure when they should have been sacrificially serving their fellow men who were in need. The picture is astonishingly up-to-date. Today in our own land the Gold Coast and the slums rub elbows, but few of those who have plenty are concerned about those who have not. In the eyes of most people the purpose of gaining possessions is to relieve one from the necessity of work and to enable one to evade life’s responsibilities. America needs to awaken to its dangers, and we repeat that hot the least of these is the liquor question. We*must either win a victory over it, or it will destroy our people. 11. Spiritual Warfare—While at Peace with God (I Pet. 2:11, 12). “Fleshly lusts, which war against the soul’’ (v. 11) are the .object of serious concern on the part of every sincere Christian. There is h battle on, and the enemy of our soul knows how to make the abuse of the normal impulses and appetites of man his strong ally. The rush of modern life, the increasing use of stimulants, both natural and artificial, the very luxury in which many live, these things tend to give the flesh and its desires undue promF nonce, and not infrequently cause even God’s children to fall into sin. We are called to a holy warfare, but that does not mean that we live in a constant turmoil. We are, after all, pilgrims and strangers in this world. Our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20) though we live on earth. In the heart we have peace, and that enables us to fight a good fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil. IH. Doing the Will of God in a Self-willed World (I. Pet. 4 1-5). Essentially there are two opposing principles operative in the lives of men—we either are controlled by God’s will, or by self-will. The flesh is really man’s personality controlled by his own self-will. It results in the kind of life described in verses 2 and 3. When a man becomes a Christian he should move over into the will of God. Such a man may be regarded as strange, but as a matter of fact, men will recognize his godliness' (see I. Pet. 2:12). Dr. Will H. Houghton tells of “a soldier who ultimately was made a Christian believer through seeing his companions make fun of another soldier, who was a believer in Christ. The thing that impressed him was the fact that though they made fun of this man, they left their money in his possession for safekeeping!” Do we have that kind of a testimony?