The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-24
The Program of the New Order. The
International Sunday School Lesson
for August 90 is 'Paul IN Christian
Love- I Corinthians 10: 1-13.
BY William T. Ellis.

by william Il. EInS.
The widespread social unrest is one
5 of the portentous signs Of the present
time. It affects not merely America
and Europe but even the older ma
tons of the Orient. So marked has be-
come the feeling of pOpular reStlve-
ness in the United State sthat even
the far excluded United States Senate
has felt it. Along with this social UNI
rest, has gone an increase Of popular
power in government which assures to
the refOrmer an increased measure OF
expression. There are undoubtedly
serious changes impending in the so
cial order. To that truth no careful
student of the times can be blind.
But how are these changes to come,
and what will be their nature? Here
arise p~erplexities. Will the new order
be some one of the multiform phases
of Socialism? Is a new governmental
scheme to remedy all the ills of the
day, and to satisfy all the loudly
voiced longings of the people PrOba-
bly, not, for the simple reason hat the
deepest and most permanent factor in
nfe is human nature. When royalty
fell before Communism in France, a
wild org of selfishness, vindictive-
ness and personal ACKNOWLEDGEMENT en-
sued, for human nature remained the
same under the Commune that it had
been under the Monarchy. Before We
can hope for any successful or perma-
nent amelioration of human society,
there must be a change for the better
In the nature of men and Ome
The Best for the Basest-
Once again the question arises,
How? Ia is a concern for the pro-
fessor in the university and for the
man Of the street. 1t is no abstract
and detached theory, of nc interest
to the plain people. The best means
Of improving human nature lies be-
hind every ono of the Sn-ca11nH hY7rn-
ing social questions. Right here we
lin. today to the apostolic age in Co
rinth. We find the apostle Paul CIV
ing a counsel of perfection to the
~rottenest city of his time. Corinth.
whose debasement was a proverb, had
yet been made over. in a portion of it's
citizenship, by the teachings of Chris
tIan missionaries. Now to this city,
which practised the basest perversions
of love, Paul gives his sublime truth
of the supremacy of the highest form
of love. This new religion" hich
Paul propounded was several leagues
in advance of the latest theories and
prophecies of the most advanced"
thinkers.
If people would give less serious
heed to the ~day-by-day sensations of
the news dispatches. and read their
Bibles more, they would quickly per-
ceIve how tremendously its program
Tor a new order surpasses the latest
innovations and theories. The New
Testament scheme Of life is not merely
religious, but REASONABLE as we'll. It
has the advantage over others in
that it has been tested, and it has
worked. Conditions for it's proving
could not be more adverse than they
were in Corinth, yet there, in that
bestialized city, this Gospel erected a
beautiful fraternity of men and wo-
men who lived by the royal law of
Christ.
The Finest Love Poem.
The Corinthian background should
ever be kept in mine in reading Paul's
letters to his friends in Corinth.
journ there. these w had be-
come very dear to the apostle.
In writing to them about the things
that were most worth WHILE, and the
gifts and graces to be coveted earnest
", he deliberately chose the one yir-
tue of love, n exalted It in this most
majestic Of all the owe poems in hu-
man speech:
IF I speak with the tongues of men
and Of angels, but ave not love, I am
become sounding brass, or a changing
cymbal. And if I nave the gift of
prophecy, and know all mysteries and
all knowledge: and if I have all faith,
so as to remove mountains, but have
not love, I am nothing. And if /
bestow all my goods to feed the poor
and if I give my body to be burned,
but have not love, it proiteth me
nothing. Love suffereth long, and is
kind; love envieth not: love vaunteth
not itself, is not puffed up, doth not
behave itself unseemly, seeketh not
it's own. is not provoked. taketh not
account Of evil; reioiceth not in UNI
Righteousness, but rejoiceth with the
truth; beareth all things; believeth all
things, hcpeth all things, endureth all
things. Love never faileth, but
whether there be prophecies they
shall be done away; whether there
be tongues, they shall cease; whether
there be knowledge, it shall b. done
away. For We know in part, and we
propfaesy in part; but when that which