The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-31
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LESSON.
June I, 19O2-Acts xiv, S-19-Paul ut
Lystrn.

II there was one person above another that
might be excused from going to hear Paul preach
it was that nameless unfortunate, the cripple at
Lystra. Perhaps unlike his fellow at the Gate
Beautiful he was not public mendicant IL
so. he would naturally shrink from the display
Of his infirmity Again, he might say: The
throng will be TO press between me ana
the speaker, so to mar my pleasure or
have too little physical strength to endure the
strain of listening to the discourse Much
smaller hndrances than club-feet and withered
limbs keep people away from the courts OF the
Lords house to-day.
But none of these things deferred him. The
text saws. The same heard Paul speak" but
It should read. He kept hearing Paul speak
His hearing was not accidental but designed;
not occasional, but continuous. He said TO
friends each morning. Garry 70 where 1
can hear this stranger speak" There he sat-
day after day. his beaming countenance seeming
to say: TELL me more about Jesus" No cap
tious questions were on his lips. He was Ike a
little child-docile, trustful. loving. He was OF
the kind the kingdom is made OF. He took the
gospel in just as the tree does the wedge-shaped
twig after the Observation-Disclosures incision He re-
ceived with meekness the migrated word.
Paul kept his eye upon his hopeful nearer.
He poured forth the story OF the healing miracles
I
see the deaf hear and even the lame walk At
length he read the unmstakable signs in the poor
mans countenance that he had faith not as our
version has it. to be healed: but in the orig
inal to be saved, soul and body. Then Paul
cried: Stand upright Neither the apostle
nor the cripple disappointed. His moral
and physical malady was gone at the same in
slant.
Paul in his missionary journeys touched human
life in a great variety of conditions-refned and
unrehned. educated and illiterate. In this in
stance. Conybeare and Howson well say.
he came in contact with the wild fanaticsm OF
a rustic credulity. They had a tradition that
Jupiter and Mercury had once. in human form.
visited their country. whose very per-
petuated the legend. The people failed to recog-
nize them and do them reverence. and were
punished by having their city burned up, and
their king changed into a wolf. The Lystrians
of Paul's day proposed TO be smarter than their
ancestors. They hasten to offer divine homage.
Here the priests with garlanded oxen.
Paul is taken unawares. All the talk about
the gods had been in the vernacular. into which
the people had fallen in the intensity Of their
feeling. Neither what they were saying nor
what they intended. understood.
Unlike Herod in the amphitheater at Cesarea
| under similar circumstances. the apostles enter
their vehement disclaimer: stop! only
men. exactly like yourselves Our very object
| in coming is to turn you away from the vain
| pigments OF Jupiter and Mercury, TO serve the
| God that really lives. whose handwork is all
| about in heaven, and sea: who up this time
has let you follow your own course, not having
| given you a written revelation he did the
Hebrews, but has not left himself altogether
without a witness In naure'
There is a sudden. complete revulsion of feel
ing in the multitude, illustrating we'll the tickle
ness Of our degenerate humanity. AS once the
| cry. Cruelty, followed that OF 'Hosannah!
in the streets of Jerusalem, so now stones take
| the place of roses. In the long inventory OF
his sunerings Paul says: "Once was 1 stoned
THE TEACHERS LANTERN.
| We have here a remarkable instance of Paul.
extemporaneous tact in addressing himself to hi,
| ever-shifting auditory. He quotes no Hebrew
| Scripture TO these rustcs Of the Wolf land
but cites them to the book of nature open be
fore their eyes. and fastens the condition upoI
them that they not doing as well as ever
1t taught them.
Among the endless volumes instructing preach
ers how to preach, telling the people how
to hear is a desideratum. The Lystrian crippl
is ideal nearer.
The gospel is a remedial agent. 1t may no
cred limbs. nor remove the thorn and cup, but
never fails to supply grace sufficient. 1t help
to the submission which cries, Even So Fa
Their; for thus it seemeth good in thy sight
The sincerity and loyalty Of the apostles ha
a beautiful evemplncation. They look with un
feigned horror, upon an ovation that diminishe