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Let that God-love radiation bless and lift up and warm and cheer the saddened heart and discouraged brain, and you shall live. This is worth all the commandments for doing and not doing in existence. Jesus rightly said that which the lawyer quoted from the Mosaic law gave the life and support to all the law and the prophets. (Matt. 22:40.)

1-13.

Lesson IV.-July 22.

JESUS TEACHING HOW TO PRAY.-Luke 11:

LESSON KEY-NOTE:-"Lord, teach us to pray."
Time: December, A. D. 29.

Place: Somewhere in Perea, beyond Jordan.

1-4. Jesus had been praying. His disciples had often seen him in that attitude, which was so different from that assumed by the priests. They did not know what he said, for his was silent prayer, always except upon one occasion when he spoke aloud more for instruction of his disciples than for any other reason. (John 17.) There was one other brief prayer utterance aloud on the cross, "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do." This also was for effect on the audience. Jesus told his disciples not to pray aloud. (Matt. 6:6.)

So they asked him to teach them. The priests had never taught thein to pray, except to them. They took all the people's requests to God.

The "Lord's prayer" quoted in our Bible is given differently and probably was not quoted correctly in the first place. The best gleanings we can get from all sources so far open to us give only these words as, in some degree, authentic:

"Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we ourselves also forgive every

one that is indebted to us. And bring us not into temptation.”

This is really all we now have that has even a shadow of authenticity as coming from the Master, and this is, in the highest probability, only a faint echo, through a very ignorant medium, of what he did say.

These words mean-1. Recognition of a Father Principle. 2. A desire and permission that this principle should reign on Earth. 3. Trust for daily supply, free from care and worry. 4. Reciprocity between us and the Father, to supply us as we send forth. 5. Avoidance of going beyond our power to stand amid the necessary trials of this life. This we now know is only a thought suggestion. To say this over aloud with the trimmings zealous church people have added, is of no value.

5-13. The rest of this lesson sets forth the value of persistency and the certainty of receiving from a loving benefactor.

I doubt if Jesus said all this. He never favored begging. He probably said something which meant substantially: If through tireless, persistent importunity you secure what you want from even hard, cruel men, how much more sure you are to get what you need from a loving Father! Here you need not beg at all.

14.

Lesson V.-July 29.

JESUS DINES WITH A PHARISEE.-Luke 14: 1

LESSON KEY NOTE:-"He who humbles himself will be exalted."

Time: Early in Jan., A. D. 30.

Place:-In Perea near Bethabora, or Bethany, and at the fords of the Jordan near Jericho.

The Pharisees were a Jewish sect. They differed in their creed from the other great sect, the Sadducees,

in that they asserted that the Israelites possessed the oral law transmitted to them by Moses, the resurrection of the body after death and denied the freedom of the will, which the Sadducees claimed.

1-4. Jesus took lunch in the house of a Pharisee who was an officer in the church. There were other official persons present. Jesus knew they would object to his healing the dropsical man on the Sabbath day. He asked them to get an expression; but they were silent. They suspected a trap. They knew that Jesus knew what they taught about the Sabbath as well as they did.

The sick man had asked for healing and Jesus denied him not.

5, 6. They declined to answer this question also, for they felt the answer must be that any of them would do it, and then the Master would have them where he wanted them. Like the modern orthodox church people, they dared not submit their tenets to the light of reason nor subject them to the crucible of

common sense.

7-11. In these verses Jesus teaches modesty, that we should not seek to exalt ourselves-let others exalt us for our merits. In modern politics there are not many who follow this advice. In fact the principle involved here has become almost obsolete. And I don't know that it is to be deplored. I don't see why a person should not appreciate his own merits as well as any one, just so he does not become arrogant toward others and depreciate their merits.

12, 13, 14. The lesson of helpfulness set forth here and the suggestion of uncommercial giving and friendship are not heeded among society people nowadays. The feasts are given either to return favors or secure them and only those who are able to reciprocate are invited. Such people are only toadies in their friendship. I want none of it. I despise a friendliness that is won only by patronage.

THE

LIFE

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Our silent Hours are 6 to 7 a. m. and 7 to 8 p. m., central Standard time. All are requested to observe at least a part of one or both of those hours in the silence with us.

I

Key-notes.

1-15.

AM TRANSFIGURED EVERY DAY IN THE
GLOW OF LOVE AND THE LIGHT OF HELP-
FUL DEEDS.

NO

16-31.

OW DO THE VIBRATIONS OF A WHOLE-
SOME OPULENCE ERASE THE BROKEN
WAVELETS OF POVERTY EVERYWHERE.

MR

Healing Choughts

FASTING AND PRAYER.

R. EDWARD EARLE PURINTON, the poet, has written a book on the subject of Fasting. And as prayer is the natural concomitant of fasting, it also is included.

The book is an interesting one, founded on experience Its author fasted thirty days; and in that fast he says he found God. His work is called "The Philosophy of Fasting" and he begins by quoting:

"To be healthy is to be half-animal half-god; to be sickly is to be circumscribedly human; but to be sane is to be triunely god-man-animal." And this he has made his text.

This book is rich in humor yet earnest in instruction, and it is replete with new and helpful thoughts. (He has not asked me to review this book.)

Much has been said, at times, down the ages upon the subject of fasting and prayer for the healing of disease; and it does seem in looking at Buddha and Confucius and other Christs of different peoples that something of this kind was required before they could put on their full power, and be of great service to the race. Even Jesus, for whom a higher kind of birth was claimed, fasted forty days in the "wilderness" Certain diseases have been pointed out as healable in only this way. After his transfiguration "on the Mount," and when Jesus had descended again, he was met by the father of a lunatic boy, who besought him to heal his child, saying, "Thy disciples could not!" He rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith, and then healed the child; though it was after the second treatment, if the record is correct, for the first words

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