Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-10-07
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.

of the day. Once more he was visited
by the familiar figure of the Christ
who had appeared to him, on several
previous occasions of crisis. BE of
good cheer; for as thou hast testified
concerning Me at Jerusalem, so must
thou bear witness also at Rome, y
was the encouraging message of the
Master. Alongside of that divine VIII,
all the Vaccinations of the Jews and
the Romans were of no avail, Paul
was sustained by the promise that he
should go on to his desired goal. Can
we wonder that he met the morrow
with a smiling ane serene counte-
nance? Pity the souls that have no
vision. Well does the old book say:
where there is no vision the people
perish. The teachers of our own time
are pointing out that one of the needs
of our day is this high sense Of sus-
tanning purpose and of divine call:
The crusader spirit alone can occom-
plish lofty aims. Present-day society
needs more of the consciousness of
election to duty which made the Pill
grims and the Puritans nation build
ers.
An UuhoIy Vow.
Mary Wilkins tells a human story
of man who sat on the steps of his
church for years because he had vow
ed that if certain minister were ap,
pointed over the congregation, he
would sit on the church steps rather
than go in. So through summer heat
and winter cold the man spent his
Sabbath mornings on the steps OF
the church. Because he had been fool
ish one minute, he felt that he was
obliged to continue so indefinitely.
Every political campaign reveals a
crop of these rash and absurd
| pledges. Among foolish vows that
were also ubiquitous, this one of the
forty Jews who bound themselves
neither to eat nor drink until they
had killed Paul, takes the front rank.
| 1t was an unwise vow and an un-Mo-
sale vow, even though ostensibIy
| made in the interest of the law of
Moses. The glazing inconsistency of
this never appealed to the forty, or
their colleagues, for somehow bigotry
and passion seemed always to lack a
sense of humor.
Low Politics in High Places.
Once man begins to follow policy
rather than principle, or ambition
rather than truth, he sets out on a
way whose end he cannot foresee. A
tragic life story was revealed in
Pennsylvania a few weeks ago by the
maudlin confession of a twenty-year-
old suicide. At the age of ten he be.
gan to steal money from his mother.
He increased his thefts throughout
the years, impoverishing his parents,
\ until finally he wound up by murder.
ing his mother. There is now on trial
before a civil court, as he has has
been for months in the pillory of pub
lie scorn, a college man whose relig,
ious and artistic ideals were famous
because, rather than travel the toll
some way of industry to success, he
made alliances with corrupt polite
ians. Now he has won national motor
/ iety by the accusations of graft made
against him. Even more tragic is the
case of the ministers who once were
noble messengers of the Word and
shepherds of Gods flock, who have
degenerated into ecclesiastical polite
ians. Some of them have attained
high Office, but at the expense of theil
honor and spiritual integrity. Fol
they have made compromises which
have been as the selling of theil
souls.
i Astounding as it may SEEM it was
yet not inconsistent with their record
that the high court of justice and re
ligion of the Jews, the Sanhedrin
should lend itself to the murderous
plot of these forty ruffians. We 1nt
that the Council entered heartily int