The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-06-19


great many things she wants to ask
the disciples and Abraham 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, he yearned to
have him in hi service. and even went
in person to enlist him in discipleship.
That is the way Paul was transformed
from his career as chief prosecutor of
Christians to the chief apostle Of Jesus.
PauPs own life and work is a more
powerful apologize 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 ar
gurnent.
Once Famous. Now Smitten City.
The cables have been burdened with
heart-breaking messages from this
same city OF Antioch of which the Sun
day schools have been learning through
these recent lessons. For Antioch has
been drenched with the blood of those
who still bear the name of Christian.
which was first applied to the disciples
TarSuS, the BIRTHPLACE of Paul, has re-
sounded with the shriekS of tho dying
and prosecuted Christians as they fell
before the rifles and swords of the
Moslem fanatics. From many points of
Asia and Asia Minor the same tale is
repeated. Why does not the present.
day Christian church feel its old-time
unity? Ancient Antioch heard the plea
of suffering Jerusalem. Should not
Christian Europe and Christian Amer
lea hear the plea Of Antioch?
Our various religious declarations are
getting together to stress their ortho-
doxy or their Hberality, but where are
they getting together to make claimant
thetic twentieth century Christendom?
The cry of the east should be met by
returning hail of brotherhood and of
succor. May it not be true that Chris
tianity, after twenty centuries, is less
Christian than it was when Antioch
sent of it's choicest and best to the ser
vice of the world, and poured out law
ishly of its substance for the succor of
the needy mother church?
The Church That Swarmed
This Antioch Christian church pos
sessed the real genius of Jesus. It was
tions. 1t was restless and not confined
within itself. Night and day its
thought went out to the worlds needy
ones. In vision, sympathy, and in eff
fort, Antioch outreached to the en-
vironing heather world.
Up in Antioch they knew that Chris
tianity was at once at war with the
forces of evil-note the episode of
Simon the Sorcerer-and at work for
the alienation of spiritual restitution
In other words, religion then meant
ness. Surely not in Antioch could have
business. Wherever the gospel touched
life it brought about results. Disciple
ship meant the practice of righteous
been written such an editorial. as ap-
peared in the Boston Herald, with
truthfulness which no one denies, but
which has caused the utterance to be
widely quoted in the religious press:
1.-THE churches may be filled, the re-
vival halls may be stormed by crowds,
to whom the formal churches make no
appeal; the name of Christ may rise
choruses shake the walls; memories of
mother and the old home may bring
men to their knees in tears; a splendid
ardor to take up the cross and follow
Him may seize upon multitudes, as it
has seized upon their predecessors at
intervals through hundreds of bygone
years, and yet our cities remain the
most conspicuous mockeries of self
government that the world can show"
The Ups and Downs of Pioneers.
Sheldon Jackson died a few weeks
ago; after a long life of hard fighting
to a soldiers reward. 1t had been
planned by his denomination to do him
signal honor at the General Assembly
last month, for he was the home mis-
sion pioneer who, with Pauline vision,
helped win a half continent for
downs of his active, stormy life remind
us that such preaching as the Apostle
Paul did was not a comfortable career
OF pleasant piOuSneSS. 1t meant real
war. These studies have shown Paul
preaching with mighty power and then
driven out with stonings because of
the jealousy of the Jews. A few days
later he was hailed as God-and then
straightway stoned again. Yet he de-
clared that none of these things moved
n A ma hA hoe oh ND
| ambition as dominated his life dwel1s
too deeply to be ruffled by adverse or
favorable circumstances.
Real Religion and Sectarfan Doctrines
The extension of the early church
| created problems. So long as the
believers were all of the Jewish faith
| their life and practice was simplified.
| The bringing in of the Gentiles Great
| ed complexities, and it was necessary
| to call the first council of the Chris
tan church, at Jerusalem to decide
whether the Jewish rates were still
incumbent upon Gentle converts. The
vote was heartily and lovingly in ia
vor of liberalism. Those men held
convictions, convictions for which
| they would die; yet they granted lib
erty in all non-essentials to their
brethren. That meets the mood of
I'm essentials unity; in non-essentials
| liberty; in all things charity
The pastor of the Fifth Avenue
! Baptist church, in New York city, re-
Gently declared publicly that the prac-
| tice of immersion, while he believes
it to be scriptura1, is not a sufficient
reason to warrant the existence of a
| separate denomination. What a
storm of agitation would have been
created by such an utterance a gener-
alton ago! Yet today it seems scarce
| ly to have caused ripple. Men are
| more concerned nowadays about find
! ing ground on which they may stand
in common. They want to hold fast
| to the vital, central truths. And If a
man is in touch with God through
Christ he may differ from his neigh
| Dor as much as he pleases in rites
and forms and in observances, and
Christianity may still present a united