Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-02-25

81
voand-A Learned and Consiss Re-
view Of the Same.
Lesson for Feb. %.
Golden Tcxt.-"They that were scat.
tered abroad went everywhere preaching
the word. "-Acts S:.4.
The subject this week is The Disciples
Dispersed and the lesson Is found in Acts
8: LII. The persecution that arose after
the death of Stephen was the most impor-
tant event since Pentecost: 1t was one Of
the turning points of the history Of Chris
tianity. Had there been no obstacle to
the spread of the new religion in Jerusa-
lem, there is no telling how long 1t would
have been before the missionary motives
contained In the teaching of Jesus would
have effected dispersion of the disciples
and q beginning of world evangelization.
A brief review of the first eight lessons Of
the quarter will be advisable ut this point.
These lessons cover a period of about
seven years, from A.. ID. 80 to 81. The
chief events of the period were, the de-
scent of the Spirit and the opposition to
the preaching of Peter and John; the chief
cbanges in church polity were, a growing
tendency toward indifference to property,
due to the necessities Of the poor, and the
appointment of deacons. The close Of
the period witnessed great and rapid ad-
vance of evangelization through the eff
forts of Stephen and others, which led to
the first martyrdom. Humanity speaking,
1t seems to have been necessary for the
Lord to drive the disciples out of Jeru-
salem in order to get them to do any mis-
sionary work; they had spent seven years
there without any sign of intention to obey
the great commission. -
Egyptian atory.
"And Saul was consenting unto. his
death: this sentence of course belongs
with the preceding chapter. That it
should be placed as part of the first verse
of chapter eight is simply one of the many
examples of stupidity on the part of those
people who several centuries ago divided
the scriptures into chapters and verses.
1t would be ungrateful to deny that they
did a great service in rendering the Bible
easy Of reference, but there are serious
blunders in the work, which sometimes OBJ
scure the sense for the ordinary reader.
Saul not only showed his approval of the
murder of Stephen by standing by and
taking charge Of the outer garments of
those who did the stoning, but probably
used his influence in the Sanhedrim to-
secure Stephens conviction.
"Devout men are pious Jews who testi-
fled in this way their confederation for
Stephens fate and their conviction of his
innocence" "Haling men and women:
haling is of course the same as our word
hauling" and means dragging away"
That Saul did not confne his violence to
men but arrested and treated thus roughly
women also was an aggravation of his sin
which afterwards tormented him (Acts
%: A..
1.-THE city of Samaria": The country
and it's capital bore the same name, but
here the phrase probably refers to the
capital city, not to any other "city OF
Samaria." The Importance of this epoch
in the history of Christianity cannot easily
be overestimated. Remembering the age
long feud between the Jews and Samari-
tans, in which feeling many of the Jeru-
salem Christians still shared, notwith-
standing Jesus preaching in the despised
country, we see what an act of courage
and consecyation il was for Philip to enter
upon a ministry there.
The miracles of Philip showed him to be
possessed of at least one of the most i'm
portant qualifications of an apostle. Ste
phen also had performed miracles Is: y.
This man is the great power Of God:
the Greek is more literally translated in
the revised version, 'This man is that
power of God which is called Great" That
is, the mans official title, claimed by him
and admitted by his followers, seems to
have been "The Great Power of God"
preaching the things concerning the
kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus
Christ: it is interesting to note the sub
jects of the early sermons in the church.
Repentance, reformation, in order to en-
ter the kingdom of God, and personal ale
glance to Jesus the promised Messiah,
were the topics that occupied the chief
place.
"Smon himself believed also: he may
have been partly III earnest at first, or he
may have had only gain in his mind all the
time; we cannot say. At any rate, he did
not truly believe, as the subsequent verses
clearly show. Here is good example of
the truth that the Bible is not to be liter
ally interpreted i'm all cases. The writer
of Acts says Simon believed, thereby i'm
plying that he became member of
Christ's kingdom, but he Immediately pro-
ceeds to tell us that Simon in reality did
nothing of the kind. The context must
always be taken into account in inter-
pretng n verse of scripture. Simon eb-
served Philips miracles with a practiced
and professional eye, for he was accus-
toned to do little in that line himself, as
he would have expressed it. But the diff
ference between his clumsy tricks and the
genuine wonders wrought by Philip
divine power amazed him and
aroused his cupidity.
Teaching Hints.
When Gods people fail to move in the
path of duty voluntarily, he sometimes
gives them a push. Seed must be scat
tered. Any teacher who knows something
of botany can make this point very vivid
and striking by describing some of the
ways in which nature provides for fertili-
zation and dissemination.
Simon's mistake may not be common to-
day, but we have some not far different:
there are those who imagine that member
ship in a church, outward conformity To
vance them in material ways. The lawyer
or the dentist or the merchant rents
pew mt church to get the patronage of the
church people-that is, sometimes this
happens; and thereby ii comes to pass that
other lawyers, dentists and merchants,
and upright but not Chris
tians, stay away from church lest they
be suspected of that very species of hy-
pocrisy. However, let not the teacher
take pains to apply this point to somebody
else for the benefit of the class. INQUIRE
rather whether we have not the germs and
- a. -. H.