Assure my conscience of her part
       In the Redeemer’s blood;
     And bear thy witness with my heart,
       That I am born of God.

     Thou art the earnest of His love,
       The pledge of joys to come;
     May thy blest wings, celestial Dove,
       Safely convey me home!”

STUDY XI.

Every weight.

Memory Verse:  “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so
    great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the
    sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the
    race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and
    finisher of our faith.”—­(Heb. xii, 1, 2.)

Scripture for Meditation:  1 Cor. viii, 9-13; ix, 24-27.

We hear much about “personal liberty” in these days, and, to hear some talk, one would think that personal liberty was a gift to be selfishly guarded rather than to be sacrificed for the good of others.  But Paul, the apostle, sacrificed his liberty for the sake of others; so did Onesimus, the Christian slave.  Surely those professing Christians who make “personal liberty” their plea for engaging in some form of worldly amusement (such as dancing, card-playing, or theater-going), and those who are given to some filthy habit (such as the use of tobacco), have not studied the life of Jesus, or of Paul, or of Onesimus.

If there were no other reasons why these things should be renounced, that they injure our influence as soul-winners would be sufficient; for who ever heard of a man or woman who engaged in these forms of questionable amusement becoming illustrious as a soul-winner?  To say the least, they are “weights,” and must be laid aside.

In a revival service, a lady rose, and, with tears raining down her face, said:  “I have taught a Sunday-school class of sixteen young men for three years, and have not seen one of them converted.  I believe I know why, and now confess my sin.  Being a teacher in the city schools, I thought I must see a Shakespearean play, and went to the theater one night.  I saw several of my class there, and they all seemed to be looking at me as if surprised.  Next day I met some of them, and they confessed surprise that I was at the theater.  I have been conscious from that time that I had lost my influence to win these young men to Christ.”  Within one week after this confession was made this lady had won seven of her class for the Savior.

A young lady, once a society belle and fond of worldly amusements, consecrated her life to the Lord’s work.  In a rescue mission she was asked to speak to a poor wreck of a man who had been a gambler.  He looked at her suspiciously as he asked, “Do you play cards, or dance, or go to the theater?” “No, not now,” she replied.  “Well, then you may talk to me; but I won’t listen to one word from you fine folks who are doing on a small scale the very things that brought us poor wretches to where we are.”  And the young lady afterwards said she had found more real joy in leading that lost soul to Christ than she had ever found in the pleasures of the world.