The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1903-02-13

PLEASANT FIlLDS OF HOLY WRIT
Save for my daily range
Among the pleasant fields OF Holy writ,
might despair. -TennySoh'
The International Sunday Schoo
Lesson.

viii, 4-3l. February ID, 1903.
CHRISTIAN SELF CONTROL.
Wisdom was the real idol of the
progressive heather of Paul's day.
Images, affairs and temples were
really nothing to them. Ihey
laughed in their sleeves while stu
performing, for old association 5
sake, the functions of Il religion they
knew to be thoroughly ctfete. But
to wisdom they buried the incense
of true devotion.
The fruits of the new idOlatry, |
| however, were not much more de-
sirable than those of the old. Wis
dom sought as an end in itself, min
stered to pride. 1t pulled up, but
never built up. 1t put them hope
Lessly out of touch with their human
kind. Satan is a good example OF
great but untenpered knowledge.
Besser quantity says: THE first
person pulled up was the devil.
Over against this heather knowl-
edge there is Christian knowledge
Paul holds it up in contrast. It's SUI
periority is at once apparent. Its
source is divine. 1t comes by rev
1 citation of God. Its contents are I'M
lSpeakably precious-GOd as Father,
and Jesus as Brother and Savior.
But even Christian knowledge, il
alone, is dead. If held speculatlvely
it amounts to little. The truth is.
knowledge is a wing. One can never
rise upon it or go in II right line with
it alone. Another wing is indis-
pensable. Love is the other pinlon.
With knowledge and love the Chris
tian can speed his way, clarifying
God in practical helpfulness to his
fellows.
Paul cautions the Corinthian
Christians, in the transitional times
in which they lived, to keep the
wing of love unfurled. A bitter strife
was raging. not in Corinth only, but
wherever there were Christian So
cieties, made up of heterogeneous
elements, not all free from the preJu-
dices of their former environments.
AS ever, Paul's sympathies were
with the liberals. He says: 1--WE
know perfectly well that an idol is a
nonenity in the world. So we know
that the tissue of the meat offered
in sacrifice to a nonenity can not be
affected by such an Offering of it. So
if it is wholesome meat it can be
eaten without scruples.
But be careful. Don't let the
wing of knowledge drive you blindly
round the small circle of selfish
personal interest. Spread your other
wing-the white pinion of love. In
your church at Corinth there are
many novices in Christianity. Theo-
retically they know that All idol is
nothing: but practically they have
not been able as yet to rid themselves
of superstitious notions imbibed
with their mothers milk.
DO not urge such one to violate
his conscientious scruples while they
does what his conscience fOrbids, he
sins.
Beware also of your example.
With your full persuasion OF mind
about such matters, you could even
90 to the extreme limit of attending
: a banquet in an idol temple, and do
it without injury to yourself. But
suppose some young convert from
heathenlsm should pass by and see
you reclining at such feast. The
probability is strong that over such a
Iarge-sized stumbling block as that
he would fall into perditiOn. His
conscience was weak, but his soul
was precious. Christ died for that
brother; and you would not deny
yourself piece of meat on his be-
half?'
Like the poor, the brother of weak
conscience we shall have with us
always. He is, however, a blessing
in disguise. But for him we should
not be called upon to exercise the
5 Christlike grace of self-denial-the
: loving and cheerful surrender for the
sake of others of rights we know
perfectly well belong to us.
There is another side to this mat
ter, however. The brother of weak
4 conscience owes duty to himself
and the church. The sooner he dis
charges it the better. The duty is to
rid himself of his childish scruples
to get his conscience enlightened
and strengthened; to remember evel
that Christ only is the perfect model
He needs to stop putting his broth
: er Christians on pedestals they have
, no wish to occupy;" he needs to
stop forcing his fellow-disciples to a
self-denial which but for his weak
ness they would not be called upon
to make.
| THE TEACHERS LANTERN.
1t is very common to hold up the
church of the apostles as the ideal
church. The church of today il
, made to suffer in contrast. The
present paragraph shows the print
tive church as being far from perfect
There were dissensions in it. Some
one has said 1.-The body of Christ was
torn about a piece of meat" The
cause of the disruption was so com
paratively trivial.
The truth is, the church is in pro.
! cess of evolution. at groweth;" il
strives for the mark of its high call
ing; it sloughs off the etfete; it I'M
folds the new; and it does so, not in
supine ease, but in just such birth
: throes and agonizing labors as are
here depicted.
Scrupulosity and license are the
Scylla and Charybdis between which
the Christian of the first century and
, of every century must needs steer.
There are week consciences, shocked
ut trifles, which in Christian frater-
nifty must be considered. Then there
is practical authoritarian which
; claims to be free from the law or to
be law unto itself.
The fundamental principles of pro-
cedure in matters of casuistry are
here irradiated. That is what makes
this incident invaluable to the church
in every age. 1t is of perpetual APP
plication. =.
1t is here evident that men are, in
the last analysis, to be won to the
truth, not by legislation, prohibition
or inhibition; not by artificial or
drastic methods; but by the perpet-
ual, helpful, fraternal guidance of
precept and example, until the life
exemplIfied becomes in turn the life