The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1903-01-16

PLEASANT FIELDS OF HOLY WRIT
The international Sunday schoo

Save for my daily range
Among the pleasant fields of Holy Writ,
might despair -Tennyson.

ne INTERNATIONAL sunday oCnoOl
Lesson.
First Quarter. Lesson III. Acts
xvii. LIP. January Is, 1903.
PAUL AT THEssALONICA AND BEREA
Thessalonica was named for the
daughter of Philip of Macedon, who
in turn received her name because
she was born on the day her father
conquered Thess&ly. Some hundred
students of history may know that,
but hundred million know of the
city, because it is mentioned in Acts.
The fame of this commercial and inl-
posing metropolis depends not so
much upon its association with
Philip, Alexander, or Cassander, as
with Paul, Silas aud Timothy.
How ignoble the entrance of the
latter! The backs of two of them
were still corrugated by the igno-
minious beating they had received
at Philippi. The other was an i'm
mature youth from the rude "Wolt-
land" The kingdom of heaven was
coming OF truth unobseVed. But
it was coming, for these wayfarinG
men represented moral ideas and
forces destined to conquer a larger
world than Alexander dreamed OF
and to conquer it for all time. The
weapons of their warfare were not
carnal. But they were mighty
enough to pull down the strongholds
of a pagan religion and philosophy
and finally of pagan empire itself.
| The time of the missionaries adj
| If 70 Ia m ~
was prevailing. Breadstuffs had ad
vanced to six times their comm0u
price. Bnt Paul's tr de, which IN his
affluent days as a young SanhedrlSI
he never dreamed he would ever use.
stood him well in hand now. 1t waS
us Indispensable in the East as the
trade of the carpenter is with us. r.
his independent self-support hr
could prove his disinterestedness be
You'd cuvil. He sought "them," nc;
''theirs."
He preached a suffering Messiah,
He traced the Via Dolorosa throug
all the prophets. Opening it up i
one scroll after another, he set forth
in argument the necessity for an;
the substitutional character of The
death of Christ. The unprecedented
prOselytes easily apprehended the
truth. A good1Y company of them
cast in their fortunes with the new
faith and its heroic ambassadors
But some bigoted sectarists, whOst
hearts were yelled to such Messiah
as Moses himself d .scribed, availed
themselves of mob violence, always
the last resort of failing cause.
1t was Hebrew policy to play on,
enemy against another. They hated
Rome superlatively. But they could
affect undying loyalty to Caesar on /
moments notice, if by so doing they
could impede the young religion
which was fast writing "Ichabod
upon their ecclesiastical establish
ment.
1t was a fixed policy of Roman
rulers in the PROVING S to hush up
tumult at the very start. Report al
Rome of even an incipient insurrec
ton made further tenure of otfici
precarious. Quick, and in this III
stance effectual, measures were TIA
ken. Had the storm fallen upo!
Paul in person he would have borne
the brunt of it with his character
istic heroism. But he would no.
unnecessarily subject his friend ano
host to persecution. He would no
make Jason forfeit his bond. In or.
der that the peace might be kept h.
departed. But he had staid long
enough to lay the foundation of &
church to which he afterward ad
dressed the first apostolic epistle.
that ever came from his pen.
THE TEACHERS LANTERN.
The points thought to be most vul'
nerable in Luke's history are thu
very ones which illustrate his per
sistent and minute accuracy. If HI
had baited hook with this uncom
mon word politarch (rulers of tn.
city), he could not have caught his
critics more cleverly. Today a frag
ment of an arch from Thessalonici
greets the eye of the visitor to tn,
British Museum. 1t is of Luke's
own era, and on it is cut In high re-
lief the title politarch, with The
names of seven of the wearers of thai
singular appellation.
This is one instance of his exact.
itude. Add to it titles of proconsu
in Cypress, Chillarch in Jerusalem
Asiarchs in Ephesus and pretors anC
lictors in Philippi, and one realize,
he is following an historian who hac
a conscience in his work.
This is the writer who affirmed
himself to have perfect understand
ing of all things (relating to Chris
tianity) from the first, and whose
purpose was to set them forth in al
orderly manner, and thus impair
knowledge with gertrude. Luke !
8. A. Luke as an historian is as
credible as Xeniphon.
What associations are here! II
this region Aristotle was born. (Sta.
graz Here he taught the boy Alex.
ander. (Pella.) Here Cicero was
an exile for seven months. Euri-
pides was born at Salamis, which i.
famous also as the scene of thu
greatest naval battle of antiquity, il
which the Greeks defeated the Per.
SLAMS. But none of these circum
stances can compare in width and
permanence of effect to what Pau
did there. The preaching of Chris
tianity was the regeneration o.
Greece.
The policy of Paul's propaganda !.
here evident. He passed Amphipolis
and Apollonia and struck for Thessa-
lonica, a center of population ano
commerce from which the gospel
would soon radiate to smaller places
Paul was Bible preacher. lie
reasoned out of the Scriptures.
Paul was a methodist-a clock
work Christian. He had certain
way of doing things. His manner
was to go to the synagogue.
The Berean Hebrews were more
ingenious than the Thessalonian,
because they candidly tested Paul's
doctrine by the Scriptures, and We're
willing to abide by the result.
GOOD ADVICE.