Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-08-05
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.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS year DOOh5, VIII JoiAS
secret societies in order to further
his ambitions; who schemes for &C.
clesiastical preferment; who measures
field by It's salary, and who, in short,
lis constantly thinking of himself
rather than of the flock of Christ
such a one is outside of the Pauline
classification.
That is the sort of preacher they
can make in theological. seminarles;
and he will never once utter an unor-
thodox word. But preachers are not
made by schools; preachers are called
of God. 1t is because they are man
made preachers that there are empty
churches. The ministry is in rather
poor repute in some quarters merely
because the visible samples are poor.
The world has not outgrown It's need
for preaching; given true prophet
and shepherd, and the people will
still follow and honor him. There is
just as much work and influence and
grateful affection awaiting the right
kind of pastor as ever there was.
Is New Religion Coming.
The distinguished president-eme-
ritus Of Harvard college was reported
by the newspapers few days ago as
declaring that new, twentieth cen
fury religion is coming, to take the
place of this first-century faith which
transformed Thessalonians and Cor
inthians and Athenians, and proved its
power greater than the mighty Roman
empire. This new religion is not to
come by authority or revelation; it
will "just grow" like Topsy and in its
rare atmosphere mankind will lift
itself by it's own boot-straps. There
will be no Christ in it, but it will be
sort of monotheistic patriotism. 1t
will have surgeon, but no heaven to
which his unsuccessful cases may go.
Under it men and women will not be
sinful beings needing redemption but
free souls interrpenetrated with the di-
vine.
If any one may have the temerity to
take issue with such a distinguished
| authority and put in plea for the
old-fashioned gospel that made over
these heather Thessasonians then 1t
may be suggested that this sort of evo-
lutionary religion which is proposed
does not square comfortably with the
facts of history Had not Athens evo-
luted far? Some scholars look back
upon her days as the golden age OF
humanity Why hasn't the evolution
continued? Athens persisted like rot,
ten apple. Some of us who have seen
evoluted man where the props OF
Christian sentiment did not uphold
him are not enthusiastic over the in
herent divinity of humanity. During
the Spanish-American war l was in a
camp at Chickamagua with Massa
chusetts regiment; need not say
more.
i If any man thinks the Pauline re
ligion which saves man, whose natura
drift is downward-saves him from
himself and in spite of his environ
ment-has become back number le
him spend his book allowance for ;
, year in travel. Let him go to the Knee
land Street Mission in Boston, thu
Water Street Mission in New York
the Galilee Mission in Philadelphia
the Pacific Garden Mission in chicago
or hundreds of others, where slur
: buns or college graduates who hav
gone utterly to the devil, are mad
: over into the new by the mysteriou
: power of Jesus Christ. Or let him G
Q today to Uganda or Fiji or Kores
I where, without the slow process {
y evolution, men have taken on tn
New Testament traits within a gene
0 alton. This great Issue Of creedles
Christless, colorless, churchless reli,
l. ion, versus the Church which has bee
y making history for twenty centurie
i and never SO nightly as now, seen
{ to be Joined. 1t behooves the Sunda
$ schools to present a Saviour who ca
l, still make men and women over eve
J. as he did in Asia Minor.
o New Rules for the New Way.
l. Christianity does not have to wa
, for the slow process of time in ord'
e to effect radical changes in huma
V life. Here we find Paul writing, with
g less than two years after he first S
l. foot in Thessalonica, concerning que
'e lions of character which are of Il
y very highest. He expected new wa
n of all who We're in the new Way. Tia
ulate even so few of the Requirement
C. as are in this fragment of the lett
IL under present study:
u "Keep the stragglers in line"
d Encourage the faint-hearted."
ie Support the weak"
"Be lone-suffering toward all"
See tnaJ none T01lQer eNll IOT eYl
II "Follow after that which is good"
III "Reioice always"
re pray without ceasing."
y ''In everything give thanks"
IS If these do not represent a hi
IS. water mark of character-especial
u, since we remember the heather {
vironment-we may proceed to t
Ut climax of the lesson. wherein Pa
s. prays for nothing less than the emit
m sanctification Of his friends. The d
ct ing goal of the early Christian chur
ay was holiness They projected a
ne wart the blackness of the wick
at world in which they lived a people
ey simple faith whose lives were Of sh
~ ing purity. That was their ties
ID mony in their time to Christ's pow
ng And that witness was then, Is nc
re and ever will be, irresistible. +
at the world has no argument with viii
1T to answer a holy life
re ----
es WAR AGAINST WAR.
Mt
nv WILLIAM n ELLIS