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STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

—INTERNATIONAL S.S. LESSONS—

SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS DESIGNED TO ASSIST THOSE OF OUR READERS WHO ATTEND BIBLE CLASSES WHERE THESE LESSONS ARE USED; THAT THEY MAY BE ENABLED TO LEAD OTHERS INTO THE FULNESS OF THE GOSPEL. PUBLISHED IN ADVANCE, AT THE REQUEST OF FOREIGN READERS

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PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

III. QUAR., LESSON XII., SEPT. 17, ROM. 14:12-23

Golden Text—”It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth.”—Rom. 14:21

The special point in this lesson is found in verse 17, for treatment of which see article, The Embryo Kingdom of God, on page 278 of this issue. The remainder of the lesson, as it relates to this central thought, is so plain as to require but little special comment.

The faith mentioned in verse 22 refers specially to the confidence of the Jewish converts in the truths of the new dispensation, which enabled them to realize their release from the bondage of the Law covenant; but they were here counseled not to so parade their liberty before their weaker brethren as to make it an occasion of stumbling to them. “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth [that does not violate his own conscience, whether that conscience be enlightened or not]. He that doubteth [that is unsettled as to what is right or wrong in any matter] is condemned if he eat [if in eating he does that which he believes to be wrong], because he eateth not of faith [because his eating, and thereby repudiating the claims of the law, is not on account of the newly received faith which sets him free from the law].” It is wrong to violate conscience in any case. But we should always seek to have it rightly informed, and then to follow its leading.

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— September 1&15, 1893 —