CHAPTER IX The Master's Affection DAILY READINGS First Day, Ninth Week John 15:9-15. Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you. No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known unto you. No one of the earlier gospels contains so beautiful an expression of affectionate friendliness as this, but, as we shall see, they do present the Master as one who must have felt toward his disciples the most tender and constant love. Consider the difficult combination in Jesus' character between his heroic and revolutionary fearlessness, his capacity for indignation on the one side, and on the other this deep, friendly tenderness. We feel a like wonder when we turn from Paul's splendid statesmanship, his amazing power of intellectual grasp, and his dauntless courage to read a passage like this: "We were gentle in the midst of you, as when a nurse cherisheth her own children: even so, being affectionately desirous of you, we were well pleased to impart unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were become very dear to us" (I Thess. 2:7, 8). Some men are ashamed of such a deep and moving affec tion in friendship, but they are the small men. men are always the gentle men. Second Day, Ninth Week The great Matt. 18: 1-6; 10-14. In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And he called to him a little child, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me: but whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea. See that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. How think ye? if any man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go unto the mountains, and seek that which goeth astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth over it more than over the ninety and nine which have not gone astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. We are going to note in this week's study that the Master's teaching is always family teaching. Consider today that in just one social group is each individual of boundless value, no matter how many individuals there are. That group is the true family. See in today's passage how the Master carries this family idea out to the whole race and applies it even to little children. He thinks of humanity as a family with one Father, and each member of it of infinite value. How great must be the capacity for love in one who can really take the race into his affection as though all men were members of his own household and not one of them negligible. Consider yourself as living in such a human family and regarded, with such love as the Master's, by the Father of all. Is your life a worthy response to such love? Are you living as though you were of infinite value in the sight of God? And are you living as though all other people, even forgotten "little ones," were of infinite value too? Think now of some neglected, ostracized, unbefriended person and begin today to treat him especially as though he were valuable to you. Third Day, Ninth Week Luke 15:21-32. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight: I am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called to him one of the servants, and inquired what these things might be. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. But he was angry, and would not go in: and his father came out, and entreated him. But he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, and I never transgressed a commandment of thine; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: but when this thy son came, who hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou killedst for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that is mine is thine. But it was meet to make merry and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found. Do not be content with reading the closing portion of the parable of the Lost Son; read it all. See how clearly here the Master puts his Gospel into family terms. In only one social group, a true family, are relationships indissoluble, so that a bad son is still a son, an unfaithful brother is still a brother. The Master applied this family principle to all life. The Pharisees, he said, were denying the relationship of brotherhood with sinners, just as the elder brother did with the prodigal, whereas all men are our brothers, often wicked, ignorant, corrupt, but still our brothers. Think what it would mean to have the Master's principle accepted, and brotherhood and sisterhood recognized with all human beings. Think of changes that would have to be made in our business and industrial life. Think of the deepening motive for social service and missions. Think of the changes that would come in your personal attitude toward some particular people. Fourth Day, Ninth Week Mark 6:30-34. And the apostles gather themselves together unto Jesus; and they told him all things, whatsoever they had done, and whatsoever they had taught. And he saith unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile. For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desert place apart. And the people saw them going, and many knew them, and they ran together there on foot from all the cities, and outwent them. And he came forth and saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things. Matt. 23:37, 38. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. We have been thinking of the family idea behind Jesus' love for men: that God is our Father, that all we are brethren; that as in a home, each individual is of infinite value, and that the relationships of fatherhood, sonship and brotherhood are indissoluble, so that no man's sin can utterly free me from being brother to him as much as I can. Let today's Scripture make you feel how these basal ideas of the Master were in his life warmed and made effective by a deep, compassionate, overflowing love for men. You hold the Christian theory of fatherhood and brotherhood; has it become real in your daily attitude and feeling toward men? Fifth Day, Ninth Week John 13:1-5; 12-15. Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus knowing that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to be tray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came forth from God, and goeth unto God, riseth from supper, and layeth aside his garments; and he took a towel, and girded himself. Then he poureth water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. So when he had washed their feet, and taken his garments and sat down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me, Teacher, and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you. Could there be, under the circumstances, a more moving expression of deep friendship than this? Friendship is of many qualities. Addison says: "The friendships of the world are oft Confederacies in vice or leagues of pleasure; And such friendship ends not but with life." Friendship is like a plant that grows in all zones, nipped and wizened in the north, luxuriant and beautiful in the south. Consider the friendship of the Master and his disciples, how it was nurtured by a common faith, a common hope, a common devotion to the same Cause; how it grew in a climate of spiritual sympathy and mutual service. Jesus was friendly to everybody but he could be friends only with those who consented to meet him on his own high terms: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." Do your friendships partake of this high quality, and are you thus a member of the circle of the Friends of the Master? Sixth Day, Ninth Week I John 1: 1-7. That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life (and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have |