The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-07-13

WV oAA " III q
the world upside down-or, bet
ter, right side 10. He was not sur
prised at this persecution and op-
position. He had grown accustomed
to it. Like every other pioneer of a
great cause he had learned to endure
hardness. He himself, in one of his
letters, calls the roll of some of his
missionary experiences-''in labors
more abundant, in stripes above meas
ure, IN prison more frequent, in deaths
Oft. OF the Jews five times received
l forty stripes save one; thrice was I
beaten with rods, once was I stoned,
thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night
and a day have 1 been in the deep; in
Journeyings often, in perils Of water,
IN perlls Of robbers, in perils by mine
own countrymen, in perils by the
heather, in perils in the city, in perils
in the wilderness, in perils in the sea,
in perils among false brethren; in
WEAKNESS and painfulness, in watch
ings oft, in hunger and thirst, in fast
ings often, in cold and n~akedEess.'
This was the price paid for the service
of the Crucified. In it all Paul
learned the glory, for he found him
self a sharer of the cross of Jesus.
A Friend in Need.
In his extremity Of persecution,
Paul was cared for by the converts he
had made. It was the brethren who
sent him and Silas away by night
from Thessalonica to Berea, for this
man had the royal gift Of attaching
men to himself with ~steadfast loyalty.
For him his friends were willing to
risk their lives. Wherever he trav-
eled he made new friends who were
ready to share his dangers and his
sufferings. Let us not pity Paul too
much. Aside from his fellowship
with his Master, he won the close
sympathy of a of new
friends When we consider how few
real friends will stand the test Of the
fires of adversely that come to the
average man or woman in this life We
must count Paul royalty rich.
Quite different these hear cons
rades of his from idle companions who
may be picked up on all the great
Broadways of life. TIE latter last
only as long as ones money and gifts
of pleasing last. But they fade away
before adversely, as flowers before the
frost. Let it be written large in all
teachings, that a few friends are one
of life's greatest achievements. Whose
has won them is richer than the man
who has piled up a mountain of dol
lars. 1t takes more character, and a.
higher order of ability, to makel
friends than it does to make m0ley.
These companions Of Paul's life whomI
we find with him at every stage of
his journey are a real proof Of his
greatness.
An Early Bible-Study Movement.
A sight better worth seeing than the
pyramids greeted Paul at Berea, for
there he found what vas rarer on the
map of his day han it is at present.
and it is still rare enOugh-a COM
munity Of open-minded people. How
eXhilarating and refreshing to the
itinerant apostle this must have been.
Accustomed to prejudice and blind
sectarianism, it was a joy to him to
find a city where the people wanted to
know the truth. The fadeIess record
more noble than those in ThessalOnica,
in that they received the Word with
all readiness of mind, examining the
Scriptures daily whether these things
were So" The synagogue constituency
set earnestly to work to prove the
new teachers statement by their Sa-
cred writings.
tendency. This is a Understanding
age. There are probably more popu-
lar Bible classes today than Yer be-
fore in the worlds history-Bible
classes of men, of women Of young
people, Of college students, of work.
ing1nen. Everywhere, at all times,
we may find men and women turning
to the study of the Scriptures. Also
there never were SO many earnest the
OlOgianS at work as there are today.
Learned men are giving their best
thought to a close scrutiny of these
sacred
In the realms of theology, however,
an observer finds a tendency at work
which has in it seeds or great evil, The
old Berean attitude of reverence for
the Scriptures is absent from many of
the theological studies. The new
scholastic attitude is not one of ever
ence. A man goes at the Bible with
the air of one who says, My surmise
and my Interpretation are quite as
good as yours For the authority of
the inspired Word there is now a ten
dency to substitute the authority of
some bespectacled German. We hear
Harnack, and W~ellhauSen and RitSch1
quOted with more Difference than we
hear the Apostle Paul or the historian
r ,,lxo This iS the neriI and the mad-I