The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-06-19
The Enlarged Horizon;
This Is Day of Broad Viesos

bear the Name. The missionaries on
trial In the Congo for bearing witness,
to the truth, the Disciples In Asia MI
nor persecvted cor their faith, the ma
tive CHRISTIANS IN many heather lands
who must pay price for their dfsci-
tenderest soiicitude of the entire church
In the world.
History-H1aking Man.
Good times are ushered in by good
men, When God wants to do big
things In the world He brings ON the
scene of action some great-sptrited
men. Thus we hnd the Apostle Paul
appearing in the history of the apos-
tolic church. II has been of tonic eff
feet for the Sunday Schools to be
brought into association with Paul and
with Peter and their fellow workers.
All of nus are inclined to boast of the
distinguished men we know, and to
claim relationship with even the re-
hottest ancestors who have any reason
for celebrity. BY the same token we
should cultivate this good society of
the men and women of sacred history.
Why should we not be sedulous to
take some time apart from the news
paper every day, where we come into
association with the lowest and the
meanest and the emptiest people of our
time, In order that we may cultivate
Peter and Paul and Barnabas and
stephen and Doctor Luke and
young Timothy? There LIS an old lady
who moves constantly in this good So
ctety, and she told me q few days ago
that when she gets to heaven there are
great many things she wants to ask
the disciples and Abraham and Isaac
and David.
The new Christian Church needed a
Paul. AS the risen Jesus looked down
upon this choice young man. with all
his misdirected energies. he yearned
to have him In his service, and even
went in person to enlist him in disci-
pleship. That is the way Paul was
transformed from his career as a chief
prosecutor of Christians to the chief
apostle OF Jesus. Paurs own life and
work Is a more powerful apologize
for his doctrine than any OF the theo-
logical arguments that came from his
pen. A great life lived In the name
and the power of Jesus is the unan-
swerable Christian argument.
A Once Famous, Now Smitten City.
The cables have been burdened with
heart-breaking messages from this
same city of Antioch of which the SUM-
day Schools have been learning through
these recent lessons. For Antioch has
been drenched with the blood of those
who still bear the name Of Christian,
WHICH was HrsI 8ppitSu u the uisCiplOS
of Jesus In that ancient city. So also
Tarsus, the birthplace of Paul, has re-
sounded with the shrieks of the dying
and prosecuted Christians as they fell
before the rifles and swords of the
Moslem fanatics. From many points
of Asia and Asia Minor the same tale
is repeated. Why does not the pres
ent-day Christian Church feel its old
time unity? Ancient Antioch heard the
nlo oP at1A
not Christian Europe and Christian
America hear the plea of Antioch?
Our various religious declarations are
getting together to stress their ortho-
doxy or their liberality, but where are
they getting together to make CLAIMANT
the voice of an outraged and sympa-
thetic twentieth century Christendom? p
The cry of the East should be met by a
returning hail of brotherhood and of
succor. May II not be true that Chris
tianity, after twenty centuries, Is less
Christian than II was when Antioch
sent of Its choicest and best to the SER
vice of the world, and poured out law
ishly Of it's substance for the succor OF
the needy mother church?
The Church That Swarmed.
This Antioch Christian church pos
sessed the real genius Of Jesus. 1t
was quick-eared to hear the Spirits
monitions. 1t was restless and not
confined within itself. Night and day
its thought went out to the worlds
needy ones. In vision. sympathy and
in effort. Antioch outreached to the en-
vironing heather world.
Up in Antioch they knew that Chris
tianity was at once at war with the
forces OF the evil-note the episode of
Simon the Sorcerer-and at work for
the alienation Of spiritual restitution.
In other words, religion then meant
business. Wherever the gospel touch
ed life 1t brought about results. Dis
cipleship meant the practice of right
eousness. Surely not in Antioch could
have been written such an editorial as
appeared in The Boston Herald, with a
truthfulness which no one denies, but
which has caused the utterance to be
widely quoted in the religious press:
The churches may be filled, the revi-
val halls may be stormed by crowds
to whom the formal churches make no
appeal; the name of Christ may rise
from close-packed masses whose cho-
ruses shake the walls; memories OF
mother and the old home may bring
men to their knees in tears; a splendid
ardor to take up the cross and follow
Him may seize upon multitudes as II
has seized upon their predecessors at
intervals through hundreds Of bygone
years, and yet our cities remain the
most conspicuous mockeries of self
government that the world can show"
The Ups and Downs of Pioneers.
Sheldon Jackson died a few weeks
ago; after a long life of hard Nflghting
he has gone home covered with scars
to a soldiers reward. 1t had been
planned by his denomination to do him
signal honor at its General Assembly
last month. for he was the home mis-
sion pioneer who, with Pauline vision,
helped win a half continent for Chris
tian civilization. The ups and downs
of his active. stormy life remind US
that such preaching as the Apostle
Paul did was not comfortable career
OF pleasant piousness. 1t meant real
war. These studies have shown Paul
preaching with mighty power, and then
driven out with stonings because OF the
jealousy of the Jews. A few days lat
er he was hailed as a God-and then
straightway stoned again. Yet he de-
clared that none of these things moved
him. A man who has such a profound
ambition as dominated his life dwells
too deeply to be ruffied by adverse or
favorable circumstances.
Real Religion and Sectarian Doctrines
The extension of the early church
created problems. So long as the be-
levers were all of the Jewish faith
their life and practice was simplihed.
The bringing in of the Gentiles created
complexities, and it was necessary to
cal the first council of the Christian
Church at Jerusalem to decide whether
the Jewish rites were still incumbent
upon Gentle converts. The vote was
heartily and lovingly in favor of lib