The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-05-03
Second Quarter; Lesson ", May 4,
 1902; Acts xi. 1o-30.
The oospel Preached at Antioch.

The Gospel Preached at Antioch.
 What Peter. the vision-taught apostle did in miniature in Cesaree. some obscure refugee disciples did on grand scale in Antioch. Peters work m the mouse od Cornelius furnished a precedent, 1t evolved q principle of incalculable value: pus there is no evidence that it was attended with immediate or large aecessions 1t Gcntiles in Cesarea; whereas m An,ioSl,. ', tnI that heathen Queen of the East. the conquest was great enough to make tnat efty the base of missionary expediuons reaching through Asia Minor to Europe.
 The Church at Jerusalem need not ps s, thought suspicious or envious of the worE at Antioch. The very character or tne amba assador they chose preciudes sucn an idea. The Son of Consolation could never become a partisan ana nosuhe critic. He went rather to prevent than cffect a division between Jew and Gen. tile within the Church; to reveal to them the mind of the Spirit as shown In the Comedian incident.
 imagined. As Levite. Barnabas would have the confidence of the JeWieh-Cnfls- ffan clement while as Greek-speakins CypriAn he would be equally acceptable fo the Gentiles. An open-ninded man. free from ssctarfan prejudice. full of the Holy Ghost and faith in the possible world-wide conauests of the Gospel. LOks's incisiys description or Bsrnaoa sIsro 2, arrival reminds one Of Caesars epsram' Fl came, I saw, I conquered"
 Christiane seem to have sixth sense, by means of whi~h they can discern q genuine revival: He saw the grace oi fnvorable report to the Church at Jeru- salem, and sent 1t off by special deiiv- cry; then, with q joyous and holy aban- don. he threw himself into the work. aad. ing new converts. roofing and grounding
 In the midst of these stirring scenes he remembGrs Saul in seclusion just De yond the Taurus Mountains. He might have said of him as Paul afterwsrds saIa M the ministry" So the very disciple who xirst took Saul by the hand. and present. cd the ex-persecutor to the timorous Church at Jerusalem, now brings ,, nm to Antioch, and starts him upon his Illus trloug career. By strange coincidence Saul meets in the Syrian capital the very Aisciples his persecutions had driven there, and joins them in building up that very ''way' against which he breathed
 Under the co-pastorate of Barnabas and Saul. the Church had phenomenal pros perity. Their preaching arrested the att fention of even this Oriental Rome." It produced a decided effect upon it's mot lev population. whirling in perpetual festival of vice." used alike to the phil osopiaic novelties of Greece and Eastern lexerdermain. The Christliness of the conveffs may have led some Greek wit fo nickname them Little Christs' Chris fiar1s), an epithet that at once became their noblest designation. Under the converts, exposed to trials the severity oi which can scarcely be appreciated in. our day, were kept from lapsing and the Church fiourished in spite of an environ ment the unfriendliest possible:
 ample of what may be called Christian recfnroeity. Jerusalem had ministered to Antioch in spiritual things. and now Je-