The Penn's Grove record., 1909-03-05
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV EDWARD NILES.
Theme: Johns Second EpistIe.

preached from text in Acts 2:46:
with n accord in the temple, and
breaking bread" as illustrated by
Johns Second Epistle. Mr.. Niles
said:
We read aloud this entire book of
the Bible in four minutes. Shortest
OF all the sixty-six, 1t is easily written
on three pages of lady's note paper.
The most precious goods comes "
small parcels. A vest pocket full of
gold buys coal enough to heat and
light this church for years. The thir-
teen verses of Second John are more
precious than the thirty-six chapters
Of Second Chronicles.
Especially interesting is this letter
to every woman-and to every man
whose dearest friend is a woman
Few are outside one or the other cate
CORY. While nine of the twenty-five
New Testament letters are directed to
churches, four to Christians In gem
eral, two to the Jews and five to in
dividual men, this is the only one sent
to a woman.
The writer was John the aged, her
spiritual adviser and intimate friend.
Often entertained at her home in
Ephesus, he often thought of her
when out of the city.
l believe we are right in giving her
a name. The word translated @lady"
in the English text, in the margin is
ssCyria." Like Martha" in the He
brew, "Cyria" means lady" but was
just as much a girls name among the
Greeks as Flora" with the Romans
or "Grace" with us.
Cyria, then, was a well known
Christian with no less than four chill
dren. At least two were young men
whom John had just found to be
steadfast disciples in the town where
he was holding evangelistic services.
There, too, was the home of Cyria's
married sister, as well as of some
nieces and nephews. With them the
apostle probably stayed. Cyria was a
widow of means, leisure and inclina-
ton for good works.
Not long before this time, Petron-
ius. Nero's "arbiter of elegance" a
prominent character in "Quo Vadis,"
published his "Ephesian Widow" 1t
IL a satire upon silly women, living
for pleasure, devoted to dress, so evil
minded and foul mouthed that its
translation is prohibited our mails.
The contrast between that typical
heather widow of Ephesus and this
typical Christian widow of Ephesus
speaks most %eloquently of how the
Gospel transforms womankind.
The motive of Johns letter is two
fold: To commend the widows chill
dren whom he has seer and to warn
the widow lest the children still at
home be contaminated.
Only a pastor fully understands
Johns delight at writing with a clear
conscience, only a mother fully under
stands Cyria's delight at reading with
beating heart, 81 rejoiced greatly that
| have found some of your children
walking in truth" Archimedes
leaped out of his bath shouting
"Eurekai | have found it." when he
there discovered the long sought
proof of his pet theory. John cries
but "Eurekai" with even more joyful
Intensity when he finds in Cyria's
children proof of his and Peters the
Dry propounded at Pentecost, @the
promise is unto you and your chill
dren." When boys could go away
from a Christian home and, in the
midst of paganism, live pure, Christ
like lives, Johns preaching had
passed beyond the experimental
stage.
A shadow falls over even this Joy.
Some of your children" indicates
that the cup of happiness was not full
to running over.
Rumors had reached John that
Cyria's hospitality was being abused
by plausible counterfeits of Christian
ministers who were circulating the
blasphemy that Christ did not really
live on earth in flesh and blood. 1t
was only an appearance. So these
men were later known as "Doeetists."
Those children were in imminent dan
ger of being led into perdition by the
heresy which asserted that only jesus
of Nazareth was crucifed; not the
Messiah at all. Divinity, they
claimed, could not be subject to hui
manity. Matter is essentially evil.
All sin comes from the body. The
passion story is drama, not history.
Nothing is real but mind. They
called themselves advanced think
ers," because they wanted Christian
ity to keep pace with the times and
lnfuse itself with the popular Oriental
mysticism. Progress" was their
watchword. In reality, says John, it
is r~etrogress, for they "go onward by
aot abiding in the teaching of Christ"
The glamour we are inclined to
cast about the early church is not
justified. It's members had the same
failings as ours. Its vagaries are
strikingly duplicated now and here.
Theosophy, Free Thinking, Christian
Science fourished in Ephesus. "The
teaching of the Twelve Apostles" a
church manual probably written be-
fore John died, warns believers
against many who went into %evangel-
ism for what they could make out of
it. 1t lays down this very practical
test of ge%nuineness: "If he stays
more than two days he is false. If he
teaches the truth and doeth 1t not, he
is false. Whatsoever shall say in the
spirit, Give me silver or anything
else, We shall not listen to him. If he
tell YOU to give for others who are
in want. let no man judge him."
Let us apply this test on the pres
ent-day protested improvements upon
the old faith: How much do they
charge for their text books? What
is the price of their treatment? Do
the POO. have these substitute gospels
preached to them?
The central thought of this minia-
ture epistle is the same as in all of
Johns writings, love. Faith is loves
basis. When belief is false, love dis
appears. The disciple whom Jesus
loved was o a hundred years old.
Although his handwriting was trem-
ulous with age, he was still a Son of
Thunder. His conception of love was
not an invertebrate sentimentality,
but q discerning reasonableness. He
ever. emphasized the need of an ac-
tual, incarnate Christ on whom to
focus affection.
So he hurled his thunders at who
ever would emasculate the love-re-
ligion and stirred Cyria to guard her
family against them.
Shortly a~fterward, John is said to
have returned to Ephesus, so weak
he needed to be carried to the Chris
tian meeting place on young mems
shoulders. Unable to stand up and
xnAa.k C~~1o~E C--1- -