Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-01-23
The international Sunday School
Lesson for January "a is "The
Lame Man Healed" Acts 3:1-26.
THE MAN AT THE BEAUTIFUL
GATE.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

noted achievements of Christianity.
The occasional mendicant met upon
the streets of great city cannot be
classed with the professional beggar
whom the Orient knows. The dis
tressing supplicants for aims that
traveller meets in heather lands are
without parallel in all Christendom.
The very memory of the sights and
sounds is nightmare. l am still
haunted by the heart-rending cries of
the AFFECT creatures, often hideously
manned, whom have heard and seen,
especially in China and India.
These professional beggars are pub.
lie characters, even as was the lame
man by the beautiful gate of Solomon's
Temple, who cried to Peter and John
for aid. He was as familiar spectacle
to worshippers as the pillars of the
magnificent colonnade itself. He
lived by the small doles which were
thrown to him; We in the west have
no coin small enough to express the
size of the average bit of money given
to beggars in the Orient. Probably
it never occurred to worshippers in
the great temple that the contrast be-
tween this broken bit of humanity,
and the gorgeous architecture, has
aught to do with religion It is a
distinct evidence of the advance made
in our own times that men shake their
heads over the juXtaposition of state
ly cathedrals and squalid tenements.
There is something wrong when re-
ligion can rear magnificent structures
alongside OF the abodes of direst suf-
fering. Today it is the recognized
business Of the church to do for all
the poor and suffering what Peter did
Tor the lame man at the gate, when
he stretched forth his hand and babe
him arise.
Unemployed and Idle.
The beggar sat at the Beautiful
Gate. Every door of ascent has along
side of it waiting opportunity. There
is need everywhere. The young per-
sons who lament that they have mo
chance would more truly express
the situation if they bemoaned their
lack of wit and of impulse. No sphere
is too narrow to afford person an
opportunity for the expression of his
largest and highest powers. There
is work on every hand, in the form of
occasions for human ministry.
Great Britain is witnessing at pres
ent notwithstanding professions of the.
unemployed The churches there are
doing much to meet the exigencies of
this extraordinary condition; and it is
no palliation of the neglect Of Chris
llan civilization, or of the inequalities
OF social order which permits this
state Of affairs, to say that the I'M
employed should not also be wholly
idle. There Is work even when there
are no wages. 1t is a strange fact
that most men and women when they
lose positions, give themselves to
ldleness, except as they may seek
work, instead of embracing the CD.
portunity for self-improvement and
altruistic usefulness. No matter how
hard ones own lot, there is neighbor
whose lot is worse. The salvation Of
society is to come by everybody's hay
ing in his heart the impulse which
prompted Peter to cure the lame beg
gar.
Religion for All of Man.
!, nowadays 1T is no new doctrine that
the Church has business not only with
all men, but with all of man. Her
realm is no longer confined to the
strictly spiritual. Whatever serves
mans body or spirit lis legitimate
office for religion. The problem of
poverty is, 1t is true, problem of the
State; but before it is a problem of
the Church That so much of the So
clallzed thought of our day is outside
o. Of the realm of organized Christianity
IS reflection upon the later: even
though the socialistic impulse is
porn directly of the new spirit which
Christ has brought into the world.
Peter looked upon the same man by
the gate, and said, Silver and gold
nave l none, but what l have, that
give l thee" 1t is better to have pity
IN the heart than gold in the hand A
sense OF fellowship with the suffering
Of the world is heritage from the
Christ who himself suffered. IF
is not COMMISSIONER II is
not Christlilse.
You see, the Church can no longer
say like Peter, Silver and gold have
L. none, boosted Innocent " to
Thomas Aquinas, and that great mill
osopher remarked in his turn. "Nor
can she say. Rise up and walk, TIE
Cnurch today commands the wealth
OIL the world. She is master of the re-
sources of civilization. All the mater
ial needs of all the world she can do
more to meet than any other agency
she still has, to apostolic de-
gree. the impulse of self sacrifice and
Of concern for human veal which ami
mated Peter, is not so clear. Assured
ly. the trend Of the day Is toward a
fresh realization Of the Church's re-
sponsibility for the meeting of the
worlds needs This responsibilitv is
to be met both by gifts of gold and by
the outstretched hand of brotherliness
and helpfulness.
Asking Little and Getting Much.
After all, money Is the least yalu-
able thing that a man can give to-
ward meeting the worlds needs. The
beggar who sought aims of the apos-
ties wanted only such a trifinc dole
as the Orient is accustomed to give
10 professional mendicants. He knew
full well that what men gave to him
cost them little, There is seldom the
,hrobbing heart of pity in the breast
Of those who give to the poor ito ac-
luire merit" as the religious phrase of
The Orient has it. The beggar asked
little; he got much. He sought money:
ae found health and holiness and new
ness of life. Peters hand was empty.
but he gave the hind.
Like his Master, he reached out
ard touched the suffering one. Today
he Church is getting back her heal
ng touch upon mems suffering bodies.
ell - III