Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-06-17
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON AND
YOUNG PEOPLES MEETINGS
News of Interest to Church Goers By a
Writer Who is An Authority on Rl;giouse
Subjects The International Lesson for
Next Sunday.

token we should cultivate this good
society of the men and women of
sacred history.
Why should we not be sedulous 10
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 cult.
vate Peter and Paul and Barnabas
and Stephen and Doctor Luke and
young Timothy? There is an old lady
who moves constantly in this good
society, and she told me few days
ago that when she gets to heaven
there are great many things she
wants to ask the disciples and Abra.
ham 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, ne
yearned to have HIM In his service
and even went in person to enlist him
in discipleship. That is the way Paul
was transformed from his career as a
chief prosecutor Of Christians to the
chief apostle Of Jesus. Paul's own
life and work IS more powerful apol
ogetic for his doctrine than any Of the
theological arguments that came from
his pen. A great life lived in the
name and the power of Jesus is the
unanswerable Christian argument.
Once Famous, Now Smitten City
The cables have been burdened
with heart breaking messages from
this same city of Antioch of which the
Sunday schools have been learning
through these recent lessons. Fol
Antioch has been drenched with the
blood of those who still bear the name
Of Christian, which was first applied
to the disciples of Jesus in that an
cient city. So also Tarsus, the birth
shrieks of the dying and prosecuted
Christians as they fell before the
rifles and swords of the Moslem fanat
les. From many points Of Asia and
Asia Minor the same tale is repeated
Why does not the present-day Chris
tian church feel it's old time unity
Ancient Antioch heard the plea ,ol
suffering Jerusalem. Should not Chris
tian Europe and Christian America
hear the plea of Antioch?
Our various religious declarations are
getting together to stress their Or
thodoxy Or their liberality, but where
are they getting together to make
claimant the voice of an outraged ant
sympathetic twentieth century Chris
tendon? The cry of the East shoult
be met by returning hail of brother
hood and of succor May it not be
| true that Christianity, after twenty
centuries, is less Christian than it was
when Antioch sent of its choicest and
best to the service of the world, and
poured out lavishly 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. i
was quick-eared to hear the spirit;
monitions. It was restless and no
confined within itself. Night and da,
its thought went out to the world
needy ones. In vision, sympathy, ane
in effort, Antioch outreached to the
environing heather world.
Up in Antioch they knew tina
Christianity was at once at war witt
the forces Of evil-note the episode o
Simon the Sorcerer-and at work TO-
the alienation of spiritual restitution
In other words, religion then mear
business. Wherever tie gospel touch
ed life it brought about results. Dis
cipleship meant the practice Q
Righteousness. Surely not in An
tioch could have been written sucl
an editorial as appeared in THE Bos
| ton Herald" with truthfulnes'
which no one denies, but which ha'
caused the utterance to be widel.
quoted in the religious press: The
churches may be filled, the reviva
halls may be stormed by crowds, t.
whom the formal churches make M
appeal; the name of Christ may ris'
from close-packed masses who's
schoruses shake the walls; memorie
Of mother and the old home ma.
bring men to their knees in tears;
splendid ardor to take up the eros
and follow Him may seize upon multi
tudes, as it has seized upon their pre-
decessors at intervals through hun
dreds of bygone years, and yet on
cities remain the most conspicuou
mockeries of self-government that tn
world can show.
The Ups and Downs Of Pioneers.
Sheldon jackson died few week
ago; after long life of hard fighting
he has gone home covered with scar
to soldiers reward. It had beel
planned by his denomination to do hin
signal honor at it's general assembl
last month, for he was the home mis-
sion pioneer who. with Pauline vision
w ~ I'M r wzg N,