Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-07-22
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.

purpose. He dreamed of the tremen-
dous abilities of this queen city placed
at the service of his Master. Small
wonder that he coveted this Jewel for
his King.
A Great Souls Indignation.
A people that consistently gave it.
self to pleasure-seeking as its chief
aim Is bound to atrophy it's capacity
for all intense emotions. The pleas
ure-seeker gradually becomes able to
look unmoved upon the most terrible
spectacles. Moral degeneration inev-
itably follows In the wake of putting
pleasure first.
Into every small community great
soul enters, as Paul entered Athens
and finds himself deeply stirred with
indignation. It is no credit to CHRIS
tian that he cannot get angry. Christ
was tremendously moved by the in
iquitous spectacles which he beheld,
and his greatest apostle had similar
capacity for adherence. He found
Athens-beautiful cultured graceful,
artistic Athens-crowded full of idols
A Roman poet had declared that it
was easier to find gods than men in
Athens
These shrines and figures Of divini-
ties which lined all the highways rep
resented not merely error, but, what
was worse, they stood for Indifference.
When a people have many gods they
cannot be loyal to any one God. This
multitude of deities spoke eloquently
of the light-mindedness of the Athen-
ians. They, like some modern success
sors, were not particular as to what
men believed. They could say, as is
so often said today, lone religion is
as good as another" Such state
ment reveals vitiated power OF
thought. fhe so-called tolerance,
which possesses no convictions, is
merely state of mental debilitation.
Every great man believes something
| tremendously. A fair Indictment Of
much modern education is that it only
goes far enough to cut the nerve of
conviction.
In contrast with the Athenian way
we can hear Paul as he preached in
| the synagogue. How his eloquence
must have blistered the Jews who had
become Injured to the sights of Athens.
With what terrific words did he recall
them to the standards of Moses and
their own pure faith. The very pres.
ence of such an intense and vital char.
acter as Paul in a community is a
tonic.
| A Street Preacher.
| The man who believes something
which he feels belongs to the whole
world and believes it with a deeper
earnestness than his regard for the
prophecies or for life itself, cannot be
kept bottled up within the forms Of
/ conventional procedure. No synagogue
could hold Paul in the presence of the
Athenian conditions. He went morn
ing, noon and night to the public
square to debate upon these profound
truths of which he knew himself tc
be the custodian Even the Stoics
and Epicurians who resorted thithel
were stirred to some fresh interest a,
the prospect of a new doctrine. New
thought had never so attractive d
sound to modern Athenian as did the
rumor of new teaching to these idlers
in Athens OF old.
Paul became fad. even as the tur
! baned Indian babu who visits America
1 becomes the fad with idle women
/ They wanted TO hear more of his doe
| trine- not because they felt it to be
/ important, but simply because it was