The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-06-28
IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD
What Church Folk Are Think
ing Abont ard Doing
The International Sunday Schoo! Les
son for July 3 is Pictures OF the
Kingdom" Matt. 13:31-33, do.
BY WILLIAM 7. EIIIS.
By L. FL

By WILLIAM 7. ELLIS
If first things were kept first, and
relative values were truly observed,
the notorious prize fight would get
only brief notice on the back page OF
the notorious prize fight would get
sionary Conference at Edinburg would
have a first page display head; the
billboards with their perversions OF ART
would disappear, and the old masters
would be Kept on pubic display.
When any man gets TO th1nklhg-pe
he rake, infidei or materialist-he 1s
sure to come to a contemplation Oh
the great themes of religion; Tor
every nations creed represents the
highest thought of it's best minds. I'll
mainly simply cannot escape
OF religion. And ii we fairly Cd
served relative values We WOULD put
into first place all that concerns re-
ligion.
Like all the lesser philosophers,
Jesus taught ethics, morals and re-
igion He was different from others
in tina he had a revealed reAglon TO
present; and he also knew how to ex-
press his message in pictorial WORDS
that live forever. His paintings, IN
form, of the VeritieS OF the
souls quest after God are master
pieces of ~literature. Iike some of the
old paintings, they seem as fresh and
true today as il painted yesterday.
They speak as truly to this time as
to the generation in which they were
uttered. without a parable spoke he
nothing unto them runs She record:
and these pictures are like the Old
portraits which fouow the observer
with their eyes all over the room. The
figures from the Masters brush look
straight at one; like Nathan. they
seem to say, h art the man.
When the Little Becomes Greas.
rr1- .x- e 49, .x,,-o - r-hio1,
remain to be told from this chapter
Of Matthew all concern the kingdom
of heaven That was the passion Of
Jesus He was surprisingly lndiffer-
ent to eeclesiasticism and to churchly
procedure, and to miscalled worldly
wisdom But he was afire with zeal
for the kingdom. Then. as now. the
ecclesiastical party identified the tenn
poTat cf1urch machinery with the sp1r-
ituai kingdom. We clutter up Gods
work with a lot of ciacking. clatter-
ing, outworn and antiQuated machin-
cry that belongs in the junk-heap, all,
forsooth, because 1t nce was useful
to the kingdom. So We retain useless
and competing forms and offices, and
unfit officials, all because we have not
the Christian courage and vision to
sweep out OF the way these fmpedi-
ments to the Kingdoms real progress
There are a host Of good people who
49, AIACAS " ooAAS DOhA
q wooden, dead and nnnobile thing
than they are for the kingdom in its
vastness> We need to shift our en1pha-
sis to where Christ puts it, and that
was on the kingdom of heaven.
He saw that the biggest thing in the
aniverse-bigser than any HaIley's
comet OF orderly planets the king
dom Of heaven. If men were not
SO blind everybody would see this
also. Even though its local begin
ntng5. SO CO speak. be AS insignificant
as a mustard tree. its uture is newt
ably great, II takes q person Of vision
to see the potentiality Of a seed. a
stand that there is might and meaning.
TO such a monster demonstration as
the Worlds Sunday School Convention
In Washington six weeks ago. Appa~
tently only Jesus caught the meaning
OF the little cluster OF men who fol-
lowed him but whom the woTld was
One day to follow. The Syrian mus
tard seed has become q great tree for
the sheltering and feeding Of the ma
lions.
Recently. at a large neighborhood
dinner party. impromptu speeches
were called for. One mar arose and
told OF his own recent contact with
the peace movement; another tailed
OF world brotherhood and the Orfent's
ferment; a third spoke of the sweep
ana meaning or the Sunday SEhoOl.
Al he men present felt as IL they
had added an inch TO their manhood
by being lifted above the e~ffervescence
and hanalities OF the ordinary after
dinner talks. The consciousness Of
having had their eyes opened to the
deeper realities Of their time sweeten-
ed the flavor Of the real wit and hu-
NOR n good fellowship that abound
ed about that board. A social occa-
sion IS Well utilized When it helps PEG
pie to discern the signs Of the ines
The StutteEing Parrot.
Contact creates conformity. The
law Of touch, Jesus said, by the story
of the leayet,, governs the growth of
his kingdom God.msn In the world
bring about g God-worfd. The king
dom comes as It's subjects conform
aliens to their likeness. Sometimes
we hear absurd drfvel about lives be-
ing little and commonplace because,
indeed, they are not lived in the lime