CHAPTER I.

THE HEAVENS OPened.

"Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, and said, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased." -LUKE iii. 21, 22.

HEAVEN OPENED FOR OUR JUSTIFICATION.

I DESIRE to take this text as a keynote for all our Bible Talks. Please remember it, and constantly keep before your mind the attitude taken by our Lord Jesus Christ, and the three results following His prayerful obedience, that doing what He did, the same results may come to you.

1. The heavens were opened.

2. The Holy Ghost descended upon Him.

3. God acknowledged Him.

These were the immediate results of His attitude that day. No sooner did He publicly take the position for which He had come into this world -"to do the will of God "-than the answer to His Heb. x. 7.

B

prayer came, as quickly as an electric flash-the heavens opened. The Holy Ghost descended upon Him, and our Lord received greater measures of the Spirit than before to qualify Him for His life-work.

We cannot take such a subject as this in one chapter; it is far too large. And what I propose to do is to see, little by little, the different results of this attitude of obedience and prayerfulness. Let us take first

THE HEAVEN WAS OPENED.

What was it that opened heaven for Jesus Christ? If we can find out why the heavens were opened for Him, we shall find out what will open them for us. In the beginning of days, before Gen, ii. man fell, we see man and God in communion one with another; nothing disturbs the perfect harmony of this perfect life.

He dwells in happy

fellowship under the full power of the infinite
Jehovah. The whole of heaven is his. He has

not a desire that is not at once gratified.
nothing between him and his Father.
been no sin.

There is

There has

Then we know how Satan came and tempted Gen. ii. 1 Eve, trying to give her a wrong idea of God. She begins by standing up for the character of God.

She says He did not tell us not to eat of all the Vers. 2, 3 trees, but of the tree of knowledge. Quickly, seeing his opportunity, the father of sin says, He is a kind God, this of yours: He knows that if 4, 5. you eat of the tree of knowledge you will be as God, and thus will be able to do without God. The desire flashed into our poor forefather's heart to be independent of God. And in a moment 6. the seed was sown which brought forth the root of sin from which the deadly upas tree has sprung, spreading devastation and death over the fair scene. The root of sin is the apostasy of the human heart from God.

We know the next chapter in this sorrowful history-man cast out of heaven. The heavens were closed; sin had separated man from God, and a flaming sword is placed at the gate, keeping guard 24 that none should enter in.

Then we see Christ publicly taking His position as obedient unto the will of God, and doing the work for which He came into this world-to be