The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-01-31
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
BY REv.FRANKLIE B, DWIGHT.
The First Persecution.
Acts w: III.

4DAbNtA ORROoAHAOAA III uhA0 ReNA * - II NA~S
leading men in Jerusalem il to test
its strength, and it is to come forth
victorious. No sooner has the miracle
OF the healing of the lame man been
noised abroad than the people come
together and listen to Peters earnest
words, as he stands in Solomon's
Eporch, pillared portico Of the tenn
pie, and faithfully breaches the Cos
pei. I'LL
But while this gospel of repentance
unto life was a glad message to many,
it gave no pleasure to those whose
hearts and lives we're opposed to it.
Journalists and skeptics always oppose
the Gospel. Men who, like the priests
of the ancient temple, depend for
their living upon keeping the people
ignorant of the truth of the Gospel
with it's clear teaching of a direct
access of the. soul to God; men like
the Sadducees, who were the intellec.
tual unbelievers of their time. and
WIN unbou W WV tu0AA AAuO3AuO1c
to the mysteries of the Christian
faith; both these classes united to
oppose the truth, being grieved", or
"vexed" that the Apostles taught
the people and preached through Jesus
the resurrection from the dead. !"
". ~
And so they arrested Peter and John
and put them in prison. What CON
trast in the next verse; "Howbeit
many of them that heard the word,
believed, and the number of the men
came to be about five thousand. !"
What wonderful growthi and all in
time of opposition and persecution.
In the Gospels we read of twelve dis
Eciples. In Acts one hundred and
twenty are mentioned as the total of
the infant church. On the day of
Pentecost three thousand are added,
and now the number has reached five
thousand. Probably the great major
ity of these were men, which accounts
for the expression 'the number Of the
men. Some commentators, as Meyer,
take this to mean men only, others
think it includes women, which seems
the more natural, remembering, how
ever, that they were probably few. In
any case we see vast growth in the
church and we are impressed with
the fact that its enemies can not stop
its growth or prevent its power from
being increasingly felt in the world.
And SO it has ever been. Persecu-
ton has only proved as the threshing
floor which has separated the chaff
from the wheat, which has tested and
proved the character of Christians,
and the Church often has grown most
rapidly when the world has opposed
most bitterly it's ever victorious
course The Masters prophecy is
constantly fulfilled, 1.-THE gates of
He'll shall not prevail against it. "
In this connection some very inter
esting facts, quoted by DR.. Peloubet
from the Sunday School Times, will
serve to show how history repeats
itself, and how Gods promises to his
church never fail to be fulfilled.
MODERN EXAMPLES.
1.-THE century just closed has been
a century of martyrdoms beyond any
since the days of Constantine. Bur
NAH, the South Seas, Madagascar,
Bulgaria. Armenia and now China,
have each in turn been the scene of
painful and yet triumphant endings
to faithful and fruitful lives. But
the century has been, not in spite Of
this, but because OF it, more fruitful
| in missionary labors than any since
the death Of the apostles. 1t has sent
out more missionaries and has ga
thered more converts than any that
preceded. The heroism Of the mis-
sionaries in Armenia and China, and
of the Christian disciples within the
last few years, has been as great as
in the early Christian days and has
lifted up the missionary cause to
public notice and repute more than
any event for years. In China the
outburst came with the suddenness
of an earthquake and with the des-
Effectiveness Of a great natural catas-
trophe. 1t is known that not less than
two hundred missionaries, and it is
now believed that not less than forty
Thousand converts to Christianity in
China, persisted during the terrible
months of August, September, and
October, 1900, and this sublime .testi-
monial to the reality of the Christ
faith and the sincerity of the Chinese
converts was essentially q voluntary
offering. The Chinese Christians
died with their faces to the front, as
nobly as the early martyrs Of the
church died in the amphitheater or at
the stake. Many of them. undoubt,
eddy, were slain in the mad moments
when the mobs were rioting, but the
great majority of them could have
saved themselves and their homes by
reoanting their faith. Gases of apos-
tasy have been so few that they are
not worth taking into account. Never
was there more magnificent refuta-
tiOn of the Islander that the Chinese
honnv,,a Nh~fsk{a,s, -. -. 1890.