Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-01-06
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON AND
YOUNG PEOPLES MEETINGS
News of Interest to Church Goers BY a
Writer Who is An Authority on Religious
Subjects. The International Lesson for
Next Sunday.

days newspapers are, if you please,
merely marks of the struggle of the
human soul in its evolution upward.
Yet some of us are not keen on the
ology seem to see that the evolution
which leaves out God and the devil is
devolution-or devil-ution Pinned
down to choice between definite
devil, a malign personality invested
with the power of the pit, and hui
man nature that is innately devlish,,
] perfer to take the devil himself, and
save my faith in mankind. If it is the
way of human nature to do the deeds
that make up so large a part of the
days news, then I want to move into
some other safer society-say the
mollusks or polyps.
Jesus met the devil. That is the
plain teaching of Scripture; and it is
in consonance with all human ex
perience. Jesus did not go into the
wilderness to be tempted of himself
Just as most persons know from their
own Autobiography that there is a
Power outside Of self which makes for
righteousness, so there is likewise a
POWER that makes for unrighteousness.
The preachers are not so far wrong as
some sociologists would make out, in
whanging away at the devil: for the
arch-inspirer of all the evil on earth
must be defeated ere new social or
der can come in. Still it remains true
that the blight of the time is not the
trusts or industrial despotism or class
distinctions or race prejudices; but
that old enemy of mankind, sin.
When sin is overcome, all its attend
ant train of evils disappear.
The Peril of Short Cuts.
Everybody is attacked at his point
of least resistance. The hungry mans
temptations come, as did that of
Jesus, through proffered good. The
lonely, misunderstood woman's temp
tation comes in the form of companion
ship and sympathy. The poor mans
temptation comes in the guise of
wealth. This subtlety of temptation
is always to be borne in mind. And
further, that temptation is not neces-
sarily defeat, but rather chance
for victory.
There is modern maudlin, novel
writing school of philosophers who
assume that of course temptations are
to be yielded to. This sort of literature
seldom af1irms the doctrine, Resist
the devil, and he will flee from you"
The new fashion of the sentlmentalists
is to give up all idea of resisting temp.
tation; instead, temptation Is to be
coddled and cherished. So we have it
pictured that because a woman finds
Fife with her husband and domestic
cares not quite to her liking, she is to
| shovel the ten commandments, and all
the old code of decent living, into the
ash-barrel, while she runs off with
some smooth-talking scoundrel. And
the young man in our modern novel
| finds virtue not easy, SO he jilts her
and goes the way of folly; to be hail
| ed therefore as a hero.
Indeed we need to study lesson on
| temptation, to learn how to fight and
to overcome; and to see in the ex-
ample of Jesus that THE Easiest
Way" Gas current problem play is
called is not the divine way, but the
way of the devil. For the temptation
Of Jesus is study in the avoidance
of shortcuts. Satan tried to beguile
Jesus into accepting some other way
| than Gods way What he proposed
was not wicked in itself, so much as it
was a compromise with the evil one
reinforcement of God from his place
of prominence.
1t was natural of Jesus to want
bread; but 1t would have been ignoble
of him, at the evil ones bidding, to
employ his highest powers for lowest
uses. To have tested God by an idle
| leap from the temples pinnacle would
| likewise have been a needless viola
| ton of Gods orderly way of working.
! And to bend the knee to Satan, in
order to acquire world-dominion with
out travelling the bitter way of suffer
ing, sacrifice and surrender, would
have been to strike hands with the
| adversary whom he had come into the
world to fight.
The Conquerins Sword.
That he might be closest brother to
every son of man, Jesus underwent all
human experiences. ''In that he him
self hath suffered: ing tempted, he
is able to succol them that are
tempted" He met temptation, with
the full possibility of yielding to it.
even as every mortal must face temp
tation. He conquered satan by nc
power which may not be used by
every other child of God. The
weapons which Christ welded are all
ours.
/ As good books, noble memories, ex
allied thoughts are as armor of de
Tense to the SOUL so Jesus found his
weapon in the armory of Holy Writ
1T is written" was the sword thai
thrice thrust the adversary back in
defeat. Before the World of God, temp
tation covers and shrinks. The best
equipment for life's inevitable tempta
lions is a knowledge of Scripture. Tt
know the will of God is to be able tt
thwart the will of the devil.
FOLLOWING THE BEST.