The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-01-17
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
international Sunday School Lesson
for January II, 1902
BY REV. FRANKLIN B. DWIGHT.
The Early Christian Church.
Acts II: 37-47.

Immediately after the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit which was the sub
ject of the last lesson one of the
apostles stood up and preached a
mighty sermon Who was it? Notice
the great change in the man who,
once denied his Lord 1t was Peter
now no longer weak and faltering,
but bold to proclaim in the face of
opposition the need Of true repent
ance and faith in Jesus Christ. Here
at once is striking illustration Of
the power of the Spirit to make a
weak man strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might The SER
mon is masterpiece of logic. He
begins by showing that the events Of
Pentecost are the fulfllment of the
prophecy of Joal, iii :28) who had
lived eight hundred years before
Christ Then he speaks plainly to
them of the Man Christ Jesus, one
whom they had known and whose
miracles they had seen. Then he
shows that the death of this same
Jesus was a part of the plan of God
but he does not lesson their own res
possibility in the matter, for he says
in the most outspoken way, Him, I'VE
have taken and by wicked hands have
orucified and slain /" (v. 23,). Then
he goes on to declare the great truth
which was the burden of all Apostolic
preaching, the resurrection of Christ,
and by quotation from Psalm xxi,
he shows that this too was all in full
fillment of prophecy. The first con-
He who hath shed forth this which
We now see and hear. ), AS the Apos-
tie Paul puts it, quoting Psalm wi,
ssWhen he assembled up on high He led
captivity captive and gave gifts unto
men. > iEph. iv :1O) These gifts they
saw. Jesus they had known. His
death was their own work. His resur-
rection was known as an incontestable
fact. and as all these events had fol-
lowed each other in the order of Di-
vine prophecy. the final conclusion
was inevitable. that God hath made
this same Jesus whom We have cruci-
fed both Lord and Christ - He is
now proved to be the One who should
be the Lord or Master and Ruler of
our heart and lives, and the long
promised Christ, or Messiah, that is
the Amounted One. whom the Jews
had looked for as a Prince and Saw
Jour.
Our lesson deals directly with the
results OF Peter'a sermon, and with
the conditions of life in the primitive
church. Three features must be
noticed
/. 1t was an EVANGELICAL
CHURCH After the presentation
nreacher the hearers were deeply
moved ana said. ssWhat shall we do?''
That is the test of all preaching. If
it leads men to search their own
hearts and ask This ouestion If is in
the best sense EVANGELICAL. They
did not ask. What to believe. or
fsWhat shall we do?'' Doing is the
fest lof believing. and the feelings or
emotions will be- pure and true in
proportion as we do our duty toward
God and toward men. The answer
was "Repent. y It was the same
word with which John the Baptist
Matt iii:24 and Jesus Himself
MARK i.15l had beoun their nreach-
ing. The story of Gods redeeming
love in Christ .Tesus must ALWAYS
realize that if they are to share in the
blessings Of salvation, they are re-
ouired to repent. that is to change
their mind toward sin and toward
Righteousness. toward self and toward
God. They must hate sin and love
Righteousness They must humble
self and glorify God. Those are clear
words in the Westminster Catechism:
q Repentance unto life is a saving
grace, whereby sinner, out of true
sense of his sin and apprehension of
the mercy of God in Christ, doth,
with grief and hatred of his sin. turn
from It unto God. with full purpose
of and endeavor after, new obedience. !"
3. The next feature to be noted is
that this Christian society. after three
thousand had obey ed the command. re-
pented of sin and been baptlzed was
a STEADFAST CHURCH.
The revival of religion was not fol-
lowed by a reaction. The converts