The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-02-23
MONEY AND RELIGION

AMI HELIlOlON
The international Sunday-School Les
son for February % is, The Gospel
in Salnaria.'' Acts s.: 4-25.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
Outside the quaint old walled city
of Taiku, Korea, are the French
Catholic church and the Presbyterian
mission compound. When h Protes-
tant missionaries arrived, the Catholic
priest, whose diversion was his garden,
plants With his neighbors. These had
been imported and reared at great la
Dor, and the gift was an appreciated
one. The verv next season the
priests own crop Of strawberries en-
tirely failed. Then his neighbOrs We're
able to- restore to him what otherwise
he would have utterly lost. Thus it
is with all things. The principle Of
throughout life. What We. give we
have. The ideas that are shared are
most truly possessed. Religion that
is carried abroad is saved at home.
This resent Sunday-school lesson,
concerning the bearing Of the Gospel
to Samaria-thefirst step over the Dor
ders of Judaism by the infant Church
was the salvation of the Church it
self. For today Judea is a mission
land. Christian missionaries from
America and Europe are now at work
in Jerusalem. bearing back he Cos
pei which they possess because of the
missionary activity of the early
Church..
1t was a great dream which that lit
tie band of humble folk in old JeruSa-
lem cherished: the dream of a world
c~onquering faith. Other religions
have held it, too, but now the vision IS
fading from every other faith, ana
meanwhile is gripping Christianity with
new power. Nations whose Very exist
ence was ungueSsed by the early
Church are today turning toward the
light Of the Gross, while others, k
North America, then undiscovered.
confess supreme allegiance to the Cru
Gifted, and give richly of their treas
ures of life and wealth for the wider
dissemination of the Message which
Philip carried to Samaria.
The Scattered Embers.
The rod of persecution sent h first
embers of Christianity flying in many
directions. After the martyrdom OF
stephen the jury of Jewish bigotry
broke, and before it Christians We're
scattered everywhere. But every
fleeing Christian meant a progressing
evangel. Truth thriyes under perse--
ctuion. My. last evenings mail [ hal
a letter from a friend in Japan, point
ing out hat in the early days, when
passport restrictions made it lmpossl-
BILE for missionaries to go far into that
country, the latter were aflame with
impatience to carry the Gospel to the
remotest interior. Now, however, that
all obstacles have been removed, a
strange laSsitude seems to have heSet
the Church, and there are yet millions
Of Japanese who have never heard a
single presentation of the Gospel IN
their own villages and towns. 1t does
seem as if external difficulties promote
the Gospel, while ease without creates
difficulties within.
In Korea the native. Christians have
a practice that is commemorative. When-
ever one is obliged to remove his home
from one town to another. he counts 1t
as a ~providential sending upon a mis-
sion. tina he may be an evangelist TO
the new neighborhood. Even further
than that many Christians go, since It
is not for a Korean con-
vert to remove his. home voluntarily
to a village where there are no Chris
tians, simply for the purpose Of at
fOrding a. center for the OK
the Gospel. More Of that spirit IN
church work at home woNld Won
drously sweeten the Church, as Well
as the world. If there. We're more
swarming among churches there
would be fewer church quarrels.
An Earthquake Incident.
At this instance. it is hard to catch
the significance of the advance of the
to be remembered that the Jews
have no dealings. with the Samarf-
tans." Yet such is the liberalizing
power Of the Gospel of Jesus that II
maze these JEWISH S1AlSIldio "1AAiH
and eager to share their best with the
Samaritans, and to take the latter into
their great family. Any vital expert
ence has his tendency to broaden.
Up until the time Of the Italian
earthquake there was open antagon-
ism between the Vatican and the ltal-
ian Jew who is mayor of Rome. n
latter is not only a nOn-Catholic, but
he is a prominent Mason as Well. Yet
when the victims of the earthquake
We're carried to Rome and placed IN
the Vatican hospital, the mayo of the
city. on his round Of ministry n