Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1905-07-13

and this union with the soul of God,
lis love, JOY, peace, long suffering, gen.
tleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self
control" The lives that they lived in
subjection to Jesus and by the strength
of God they lived in the midst of men.
Now this characteristic Of the first
Christians way of living is all the
more remarkable when you remember
that these men were for the most part
Jews. They had been brought up to
believe that religion was summed up
in exact observance of ecclesiastical
forms. A Jews religion consisted Of
the offering of certain prayers in a cer-
tain way, at certain times of the day,
of various washings of the hands, Of
prescribed visits to the temple, with
prescribed gifts for each visit To per-
form these and a thousand other cere-
monies was to be religious, and the
performance of these things took pre-
cedence of all else. For instance. it
was granted by the Jews that it was a
duty to honor father and mother, but,
since the commandment requiring this
was the fifth. it ranked not SO high as
the first, which required of man that
he should sacrifice to God. Therefore,
if one had only enough to buy the pro-
per sacrifice for God, he was war
ranted in letting the parent starve and
% gain the temple Offering. Now it
was men brought up on this idea of re-
1igion who suddenly turned the tables
and laid the emphasis on common duty.
1t were better to be charitable than to
have the gift of prophecy, aye, better
than to have faith that could remove
mountains.
When the feeling of the lordship of
Jesus and the union with Gods Spirit
got on the nerves cf the new converts
and let them into extravagant other
worldliness. word came from q great
leader warning them that pure religion
and undefiled was summed up in WIS.,
itiHg the fatherless and widows and in
keeping themselves unspotted. This
new way was one of life, Of the eternal
kind of life, but it was living the eter-
nal kind of life in the midst of time,
living it in subjection to Jesus by the
| strength of God.
| The fourth characteristic Of the first
| Christians way of living was, they
treated men as brothers. This was the
one thing which, next to their cheerful
servitude of Christ, most impressed
the heather world Behold" said the
pagan, chow these Christians love one
another From the very first they
walked in the love way. They did not
look upon other men rs mere tools for
selfish qualification, as mere means for
ones own ends; they worked for others
interests, they found joy in their sue
cesses and pain.in their reyerses.
The Christians first ZANE for them
selves was ''The Brothers. And so
full Of this idea of brotherhood were
they that, first off, they went daft over
it and thought it involved communism.
Each man sold his possessions and
pooled the proceeds and let the apostles
distribute the fund as each brother
had need. ''Not one Of them said that
aught he possessed was his own, but
they had all things in common It did
not take them long to find out that
brotherhood involves no sensoless level
ing down of every thing and everybody,
that it involves elder and younger,
stronger and weaker, larger and
smaller But, though they had aban-
doned this experiment, they conserved
the fundam mental principle of mutual
service and brotherly union. They
lived a way which had as its motto,
'Bear ye one another's burdens
Christianity meant walking in the
"ROad of the Loving Heart"
These, then, were the characteristics
of the Christian way as the first Chris
tians understood tit was a life OF
subjectiOn to Jesus, life lived by the
strength Of God, life Of devotion to
duty, a life Of love to brother man
And this is Christianity, and it can be
nothing else-iving your daily life al
; the call Of duty in allegiance to the
Lordship of Jesus, with persona
consciousness of God as Father ant
fellow man as brother.
A day came to Christianity when i
meant more than this. The day Of in
quiry came, when Christianity wa
brought into conflict with other cults
: and then Christianity got itself a creed
The day of systematic svangelizatio1
came, when Christianity had lost he
first leaders and had to make new one
| out Of the raw material found amon'
the new converts, and then Christianit.
l got itself energy and organized itsel
, into the church. But first and funda
mentally was what it's Founder left II
t and what it's pathfnders made it.
7. way of living the daily life in allegianc
/. to the Lordship Of the risen Chris
: with a personal consciousness Of Go