The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-05-22
In The Religious World
What Church Folk Are Thinking About and DoingRegous News From Everywhere Sunday School Lesson and
 Young Peoples Topics

ton of liberality which would surrend- CT without contest the dearest convic- tons and heritages of life. We owe most Of what we possess of libery and tolerance and intellectual life to the stout spirits who dared to do battle for the truth. Let us not now decry them. Paul and Barnabas met the nar-
 rowing separatism of the Pharisaical sect of Jerusalem Christians with a
 hinty front. They championed free | dom in Antioch itself. and then made
 the three hundred mile journey to Jerusalem to continue the debate in the Council of the apostles and elders. This first great heresy of the<fnfant l Church was fought out in the pfesence | of the whole Church. and the day was won for broadguage conception of the Kingdom of Christ.
 Working by the Way.
 Fighting is always bad when H | causes men to quit work Christian controversy is good when 1t inspires | men to activity. The trouble with most differences of opinion in church circles In that persons become so busy about
 disputation that they forget to do the | first works. The example of the early Church is worth studying here. Paul and Barnabas were fighting lige good soldiers for what they believed to be the pure teaching of Jesus. Withal | they kept to their first mission. From l Antioch they were conveyed on their way by the church, after the delight ful Oriental fashion. which is beauti- fully personifies fellowship; and as they went they continued preaching.
 We cannot imagine Paul and Bar. | nabas, like modern men with a griev- ance, button-holing everybody they met with story of their side of the quarrel. They had better news to tell. n Ra fnxy <O all ha hro along the way as they reported the conversion of the Gentiles and the triumphs of the Gospel.
 When they got into the assembly at Jerusalem. the sparks did not begin to fly. They first discussion was not of the controverted points at issue. After the salutations of peace and the fra ternal greetings, Paul, and Barnabas 'rehearsed all things that God had done. with them." The story of the Gospels triumphs is better worth tell ing than any fractional plea or argu- ment. We need have no fear for Christian debates if they are preceded by common rejoicing over the pro- gross of the Kingdom Let the Church get together on the board platform of world evangeiization. and 1t will not fall very far apart on any points of doctrine or polity.
 4 Great Debate.
 He Is fortunate man who has heard a great ecclesiastical debate, conduct ed on a high plane by master minds. Several such I treasure as memories, but would give them all to have heard fore the first flt Council at Jerusalem. What orators there were-Pau1 and Barnabas and Peter and James. Luke charitably refrains from mentioning row-g -guage gospel. They seem to have been utterly anihilnted. in the discus sion After their first presentation of their case. we hear nothing from them.
 The debate went all one way, proved by the teaching of experience, and proved by the very Old Testament it, sauareiy on record in favor of world embracing Gospel. The narrowness of Judaism was given a death blow. so far as the Christian Church was con cerned. It was not many decades be- fore the .Iudaizing tendency had disap- peared from the early Church, although something akin to 1t is ever and anon cropping out in these latter days. The First Encyclfcal.
 From the apostles and elders of the Jerusalem Church there went letter of greeting to Antioch and the other new Gentle centers of evangplization. Accompanying the written Word were e. deputation of the Church's strongest men. Tn manly fashion the encyclical gave affectionate endorsement to Paul and Barnabas. that there might be no misunderstanding as to how the home church rated them. Then 1t declared against laying upon the Gentle con- verts backs the needless burden of Jew ish rites. It merely stipulated that in some matters of practical conduct the new converts walk carefully. Some concession was made to the Jewish sentiment with respect to the eating of meat that had been strangled, or from which the blood had not been drained
 It was a catholic letter, and worthy of the builders of the Builders of the Christian Empire. Its spirit. happily. is reflection today in the utterances of most of the great leaders of Christen- | dom. There is visiting on this conti- nent at the moment a distinguished
 English church -man who has suffered
 serious oppoisiion for the very same breadth of view with respepct to his
 fellow believers that characterized
 Paul and Barnabas.
 Christendom should remember Anti
 och's connection with these events.
 Then the city was the center of the
 new evangelisation. Today its streets
 are sodden with the blood of hundreds
 of Armenian Christians who have been
 lately massacred by the fanaticaI Mos
 lems. Their inheritance of Christianity
 may be regarded as imperfect
 and their own conduct may not have
 been wholly justifable, but still these uuu.