Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-07-08
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON AND
YOUNG PEOPLES MEETINGS
News of Interest to Church Goers By a
Writer Who is An Authority on Religious
Subjects The International Lesson for
Next Sunday.

| Wv hioD W ClSlIS IISdI Is Dldnd Vi
the Eoheslans." So did Nero turn the
wrath of the mob upon the Christians
to divert attention from himself 1t Is
we'll always to be skeptical Of an alli-
gators motives. Paul perceived this
in his own case. and was careful to
receive no profit for his preaching. He
maintained himself by tent-making, be.
cause he would not bring reproach up
on the Gospel.
ssaten, MISUNDERSTANDING.
What do you do when in trouble?
Do you simply collapse? Do you
Whimper and whine and pour your
grievance into the ears of all who
listen? Do you bitterly rail against
fate, your fellow-men, and God? Or
do you smile and sing when troubles
pile the thickest? That last Is the
apostolic way. Beaten with rods,
stretched in excruciating stocks, dump
ed into the lowest dungeon Of the
Philippian prison, because of the mob's
false accusation, Paul and Silas yet
made melodious the midnight hours by
their songs. They had within them.
selves springs OF exhaustless Joy. That
is the spirit OF faith which the world
cannot touch. Although earth cannot
move it, 1t may move heaven, for we
may be sure that wherever men are
suffering for truths sake, wherever
Gods servants are shut into any
prison, there is concentrated the spe-
cial interests of all the forces of
heaven. The prayers and songs of the
disciples were answered by an earth
quake.
An Earthquake Messenger.
Our word angel, when traced back,
means simply messenger. Anything
that God sends is his angel. 1t does
not have to be Gabriel; it may be a
grief, 1t may be joy, 1t may be, as
with Paul and Silas at Philippi, the
shaking of the earth itself
The Imagination loves to dwell up
on that tragic scene. What pande.
monillm ensued as prisoners found
themselves loosed from their torturing
bonds; what cries of panic and of fear
rent the midnight air; how some
thought first of swift and furtive
flight, while others, nobler, took first
thought for the welfare of their fell
lows. The keeper, true to the Roman
tradition that death is better than dis
honor, started to commit suicide, I'M
til stayed by Paul's intervention.
The way the strong man comes to
the fore in every situation is of
absorbing interest. Paul was only
prisoner in the inner dungeon, but
still he was the captain of that un-
precedented situation. Once more he
was the leader, sitting the panic,
staying the jailer's hand bent on self
murder, and bringing to its highest is
sue this providential disturbance His
thought was of the iailer, and not of
himself. The passion for service will
find expression In every condition of
life.
what Must ! Dor"
There is popular theory nowadays
that II we just let society alone it will
eyolute into golden age. The scien-
tific discoveries in evolution made by
Darwin and Wallace are wrested into
all sorts Of applications. If evolution
is to save humanity, why is it that
some OF societys worst degenerates
spring from the most honored families
in the nation? And why does ancient
Italy furnish such an undue percentage
of the modern criminals? Why is 1t,
too, that the greatest men and the
hottest are prompted TO see, like Paul,
that they have not vauled into their
present character but that they have
been made over, transformed, by some
power outside of themselves?
That is what happened to the Philip
plan jailer. He did not gradually
ascend, by slow processes, from the
state of mind of cruel, heartless,
brutalized Roman Official to compass
sionate and tender friend Of his re-
cent victims. He won his transforma-
ton by the route of the ancient cry,
What must l do to be saved? %
Christianity alone has simple ans
questions. To the Philippian jailer's
cry Paul answered. Believe on the
Lord Jesus. and thou shalt be saved,
thou and thy house" The churches
have modified and diversified and
elaborated the program of redemption,
and have instituted long processes to
be undergone. But Gods way is a
simple. short direct. and sufficient
one. Believe in Christ as the door to
entrace into life
This sublime truth has often been
obscured in the case of the Philippian
jailer by bootless discussions concern
ing the method of baptism. Paul bap-
tized the jailer and his family and the
theologians have displayed all kinds of
ingenuity and ill.temper in their eff
forts to prove that new converts were
simply sprinkled or that they were
Immersed. Happily that sort of thing
is largely out of fashion, except in the
case of a few religious papers that
have not yet awakened to the fact that
they are not living in the sixteenth
century. We are not greatly interest
ed in the form of baptism today. We
know the jailer was baptized, and that
he was made new man and Joyous
disciple Of Jesus. That is enough.
The Whole Family.
Four times in four consecutive SEN
fences the point of the whole family's
identity with the jailer in salvation is
emphasized. This runs counter to the
mood of the Western world. We have
minimized the Importance of the fam
lily. The Orient, old and new, knows
better. 1t stands by the family and
by the clan We are astrav in orr in