The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-02-09
In TILE RELIGIOUS WORLD
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON. CHILDREN'S TOPIC

they in delivering 10 the sever-eage
crowds the message Of life.
The frightened ones were thos,
high officials and administrators o
the law. They did send to arres
the apostles, but their specific instruc
TONS to the police We're that it wa
to be done quietly and without an,
violence, for the authorities them
selves were afaird Of the free PEG
pie. POpulaceS have a way occasion,
ally rising up in vigorous champion,
ship Of truth and free speech. Sub.
sequent to the interview with the ar
rested men, there is a tentativenes:
and f~earfulneSs diScernible in the at,
tltude OF the authorities. DOe thi:
not sound like a Whimper: You have
actually flooded Jerusalem with YOU
teaching, and are wishing to make
Us responsible for the death Of this
rian'?
III contrast, note the almost belli.
cose attitude of the apostles, as they
hurried back the uneuuiVOcal reply
with its attached charge: w nus
obey God rather than men. The Coo
OF our ancestors has raised Jesus from
the grave, whom Q yourselves pu'
to death by hanging him on a cross
1t was q grim fashion of the perse-
cuted apostles to throw repeatedly into
the teeth Of their accuscrs the charge
that they We're the nlurdererS Of the
Messiah. That was not an action o.
timorous men. It was possible, OF
course, for the authorities to put the
Christians into jail: but in Jail or out
the latter had in their hearts q peace
and a liberty to which these ecclcsias-
teal p~otentates We're utterly strangers
News Too Good TO Keep.
sometimes news just bubbles out
of a PERSONS lips. He is 50; full III
he cannot restrain himself from
speech. Barrie, in one Of his stories
tells how the Scotch peasant Cory
sweetheart, Gavinia. in his exuber-
ance he hailed everybody he met, and
told them the good news. He climbe
a hill to an old woman's cottage, and
said, old m / don't know who
you are, but | just want to tell you
that GaVinia will have me-"
That is q lover to whom every
body's heart warns. And the same
type of religion which cannot be re
pressed or concealed, but overf1ows SO
that, In the case of the disciples, it
filled all Jerusalem, is the religion
that the world respects and studies.
The one supreme business in life OF
these carly Christian men II wo-
men was telling over and Owe the
story Of the crucified Christ. Wheth-
er they were in prison or at labor, or
before a legal tribunal or a multitude
OF the p~OpulaCc, there SpranS to their
lips the God News of the Crucified,
which is the heart of the Gospel of
Acts,
Peter made a significant point in
his answer to the Sanhedrin on this
truth Of this. n SO is the Holy
Spirit" With quiet confidence, he
p~ostulated the tremendous assumption
that the Christians We're fellow-part-
ners with the Spirit OF Sod in bear
ing testimony to Jesus. Some one
has said that every Christian who
undertakes to tell the Good News is
q co-worker with God, g co-sufferer
with Christ, and a co-witness With the
Spirit. That should be dignity and
reward and work enough for any
mortal. since the very angels in
heaven may not lay claim to so high
privilege. So permeated by the Spirit
of Jesus has the world become that
in the entire realm of intellectual life
to-day it is admitted that every man
owes the 1oftiest truth he knews to
the farthest man who needs it, and
Whom he can reach.
Some Angry Judges.
Sometimes truth breaks hearts, or
softens them; but sometimes it only
hardens the hearts of the hateful.
h Sanhedrin grew furious upon
hearing words of Peter. They
wanted to put him to DEATH, as ilIe-
gally as they had a few years before
put to death his Master.
Among them was q wise man. Doc
tor Gamaliel, who applied a test and
uttered q warning that are universal
Iy true. He said: Let them one
for if these designs and these pro-
ceedines arc only of human origin,
they viii come, to an end; but If they
are Of divine origin, you will be pow
erless to end thenl.f' That test Chris
tianity has stood. The S~anhedrin was
poWerless to arrest the growth Of the
little Church. SO was mighty Rome
SO was all heathendom. SO was all
infdel learning. So We're the powers
of darkness themselves.
The warning which Gamaliel added
tha,p tn beware lest they find