Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-04-22
BEYOND THE CHOSEN PEOPLE.
The international Sunday School Les.
son for April rs is "The Gospel in
Antioch" Acts IL: 1890; 1925.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

BY WILLIAM /. ELLIS.
Everybody is somehow provincial.
The standards which men involuntar-
lily apply to everything, in heaven
above and on earth beneath, are the
standards of their own time and place
and training. 1t is natural to try to
measure all things by our own little
twelve-inch rule. Only the rare man
who Is a truly great man ever be-
comes a cosmopolite, recognizing free
ly that there are other peoples other
standards, other times. While not
quite putting it into words. the ordi-
nary person who gives thought at all
to the civilization of what is somewhat
conceives of it's being brought to the
standards of his own particular church
to the use of his mother tongue, and to
the adoptions of his forms of dress.
This spirit made trouble in the early
church, The first Christians thought
of themselves as Jews. and of Christ's
message as being for Jews. But when
by persecution the infant church was
flung hither and thither into what the
Jews called barbarian communities,
they had their eyes opened, even as
today travel broadens mems horizons.
Gradually, and after much intense op-
position, the truth began to enter the
minds of the early church that the
gospel was for Gentle as well as for
Jew, and that the former could be as
true disciple of Jesus as the latter.
While not saving so in church meet
ings, there are multitudes of earnest
Christians today who, in their heart of
hearts, questions whether man with
yellow face and speaking tongue
to them comprehensive, can Nbe as
true a type of Christian as the white
man. Much work remains to be done
with the home churches as we'll as in
foreign lands before there can be a
general leveling up to a realization
that Christ Jesus is the Saviour of all
men, and that he recks not of tongue
or color or race. Many travellers have
wished that the fervor and fidelity and
Joy of some Christian communities
newly out of paganism, as the Korean
converts, for instance, could be found
as a general characteristic of the all
too complacent churches at home.
Some Meaningful Names.
The arch-persecutor, Saul, was prob
ably responsible more than any other
one man for driving the Christians
from Jerusalem in every direction. 1t
| is one of the dramatic contrasts of his
tory that he himself should later fol
low them into these remote places as
minister of the once-despised Gospel.
Now we find them in the present les
| son in Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and
Antioch, and Cyrene.
The dispersion of the disciples to
these points meant the direct, vital
contract of their faith with the most
| formidable aspects Of entrenched
paganism. 1t was one thing for the
teachings of Jesus to subsist as an
aspect of Judaism in the brooding re-
ligious atmosphere of Jerusalem, quite
different was its life in these active
busting materialistic heather" com
munities. And here the disciples, who
had begun by speaking the word tc
none save only to Jews, found them
selves constrained to preach the LORD
Jesus unto the Greeks also. New con
ditions had so broadened their minds
that they perceived the inlpossibility
of retaining their faith as mere Jew
iSh sect.
A New Label From the City.
The city is the final test of mos
men and enterprises. Every boy o.
man of parts, however celebrated 10
cally, feels himself hound to go vi
against the city, where he knows hi
real success or failure must be dem
monstrated. The new teachings o
Jesus were soon called upon to face
this test In Antioch, amid new ant
relatively hostile environment, thu
disciples had to prove the workabilit,
. of their faith. Could it endure tn,
cold Indifference of this vast munich
pality- Was it equal to impressin,
these hurrying hordes of Greeks? Tn
challenge Of the city, which is a pres
ent-day problem for religion, was thu
early question for the followers o
Jesus.
1t was his expedition to New Yorl
City that marked the downfall of Johl
Alexander Dowie. In his own littl
community on the shores of LAX
Michigan he could thrive in CROWN
power and honor. Face to face wit
: the metropolis of the continent h
proved to be unequal to the big tas
r he had set himself, and the fundameI
tai falsity of his pretensions was III
covered. In Antioch, however, tn
small community of exiles from Jeru:
, allen made an entirely different in
, preston. Antioch gave it new labe
Having stood the test of the city, tn
!. friends of Jesus were henceforth
be known by the name there receive
Christians. Little could the mos
imaginative citizen of Antioch dreaI
that the day would have come in hi
Z man history when Antioch would b
E known chiefly to civilization becaus
"the disciples were called Christian
: first in Antioch
Obviously, whether or not the nam
was applied in derision, it arose frol
i the fact that the disciples .suggeste
I Christ The center of their faith an
$ preaching and practice was the Ga
5 lean When their neighbors saw thel
= they thought of Jesus. In the COZ
q duct of these lowly believers the cit
. of Antioch read as in living epistle
n the Gospel of the Crucified. 1t we
II tba coll ict