Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

What tribe did Samson belong to?(Judges 14:25) Can you locate it on amap of Palestine?Supply the missing words in this versefrom Psalm 118:14: "The Lord is myand, and is become"myList in your notebook six ways thatyou can be a stronger Christian: Ephesians 6:16; Luke 11:10; I John 3:14; IJohn 4:7, 8; Proverbs 23:12; 24:5; andPsalms 107:2 are some suggestions.SABBATH SCHOOL, LESSONNovember 27, 1955Rev. W. J. McBurney(Lessons based on international Sunday SchoolLessons; the Internationa] Bible Lessons foiChristian Teaching, copyrighted by the International Council of Religious Education.)SPREAD OF THE GOOD NEWSTEXT, Luke8:l, 4-8; 9:1-6; 10:1, 2a,8, 9, 17aMEMORY VERSE: Luke 10:2; "Theharvest indeed is plenteous; but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore theLord of the harvest, that he send forthlaborers into his harvest."Christ taught the people.He performed many wonderful works. He prepared His disciples to do "greater worksthan these." Christ wrought Salvation.He did what no man could do. His lifeand work is the best news that theworld has ever heard. It is the "Gospel,"the Good Story. Having done that whichHe alone could do, He trained and commissioned men to do what they wereable to do by His power.It was the enemies of Christ thatcalled His disciples ignorant and unlearned men. That could not be saidof them after they had been in trainingunder the best of all teachers for threeyears. Christ taught the wayof life toall who came to hear. But He taught Hisdisciples how to teach the way of life.Christ came to save sinners. He alonecould do that. But men could teach theway of the great salvation that Christhad wrought. So Christ taught men howto show men the way of salvation.So we would define the study todayin this way; Christ Teaches His Disciples How to Spread the Good News.He Taught Them by ExampleAfter His disciples had learned theway of salvation, and had enlisted in thegreat work of spreading that knowledge,Christ gathered them about Him andtook them out among the kind of folksthey were to teach, and they watchedHim while He did the kind of work theywere to do. Christ was an ideal teacher.He started with what was known, andled to what was not known.314There were times when He introducedevery mystery by a parable. They werewindows to let the light in. There werethe lilies growing about them in suchbeauty as no artist could approach.Countless thousands of them, each in aperfection of beauty beyond their comprehension, who made them? There,just across the valley on the hillside,was the grain field. They rememberedwhen it was planted, and knew that thefarmer used the same seed on all of it.But the harvest differed in differentparts of the field. It was from the verybest to what was wasted land and effort,and seed. There, while He warned thepeople of the danger of failing to makethe best use of the truth offered tothem, He showed His disciples the kindof people that they would have to teach.He showed them how to offer hopeand joy by the Beatitudes. They were allexemplified in the experiences of livesthat they knew. Everything about us isa parable to those who study them inthe light of God's sovereign power.For a couple of years, I have beenreading "NOW," a four page semi-weekly published by "LeTourneau Teck."One page is given to short EvangelisticMessages by Tom M. Olson. The rest ismainly filled with news of new developments in super-powered machines. Everyitem leads the writer of it to suggestsome way in which the news illustratesthe way of salvation and service. Whenbusiness is dedicated to Christian service, there is hope for the Kingdom. Le-Tourneau's ventures in business evangelism are worth watching.The Parable of the Seed, the Sower andthe SoilChrist Himself explained this parableso plainly that there seems little moreto do than to study our own lives, andsee where we fit into the picture. Weare in it, and when we find our facein the picture, if we don't like the pose,well, it's a moving picture, we canchange it, for the future. All fourkinds of soil are to be found in almostany crowd. No difference about otherfolks until we have found where we fitinto the picture. Do we hear the Wordwithout listening? Do we make goodresolutions under showers of blessings,and forget them when the weather getshot? Do we attempt to live a Christianlife without giving up doubtful occupations, or pleasures, or our pet idols? Or,have we prepared the soil of our hearts,without fencing out the tramping feetthat would pack it down so that theseed could never take root? Perhapswe make good resolutions only in thewarmth of a communion season or a revival, and when special influences havepassed the fruit withers for lack of adeep contact with the never-failingspring of Christ the living fountain.Perhaps we have not broken the entangling alliance with sins that are rootedin our lives, that spring up and growfaster than we thought they would, until they take the nourishment of the soilaway from the good seed, or perhapscrowd it out altogether. It is not hard tofind all these conditions in other folks.Have we looked for them in ourselves?The part of the field that delights usis where everyseed has grown and isbearing a heavy harvest of grain onehundredfold.Christ Taught the Art of Teachingthrough Practice.Christ had shown His disciples Hismethod in actual dealing with the world,sowing the seed in all kinds of soil. Hehad explained to them the seed and thesoil, and after He had warned of whatthey might expect from the world, Hesent them out to try the work for alittle and then come back and reporttheir experiences and receive further instruction. They were seeing the effect ofthe Gospel on the various people thatheard, and the encouraging and the discouraging conditions that they wouldmeet. When they were finallysent outpermanently, they would not be shockedor bewildered by what they met.This method is being followed moreand more in many schools. TechnicalSchools and factories are co-operating.The LeTourneau Teck is working closelywith the factory. It is worthy of notethat LeTourneau Teck attempts to leadevery student to a saving knowledge ofJesus Christ. And in the tremendousreclamation projects that the LeTourneau company is carrying on in thejungles of South America and Africa, alltheir workers, and the teachers thatthey take to train native workers areChristians who seek to teach the nativesthe Christian way of life. Into everyfield they open, Christian Missionariesare taken with them. This principle canbe applied to small business enterprisesas weH as to large ones.On their first trial trip, the discipleswere to travel light. On the secondjourney which was longer, theywere togo better equipped for their personalneeds. We must remember that theywere among folk of their own culture,with whom they could talk in their ownlanguage for the most part. We cannotapply their methods to foreign missionwork.Eastern greetings and farewells consumed much time. So the disciples werenot to move from one house to another.If no-one in a town would receive them,they were to shake the dust off theirfeet and leave. This jesture seems tohave had two meanings; it was a testi-COVENANTER WITNESS