The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-07-12
IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD
What Church Folk Are Think
ing Abont and Doing
The international Sunday School Les
son for July II is Peters Comics
SiOn,' Matt. IS: 13 %.
81 William T. EIIlS, J

The person who finds life stale and
mechanical and undressing II SUCH
there be. would do well to Journey to
the nearest metropolitan railway sta
ton or to a steamship pier on sailing
day. He would find his Indifference
strangely stirred by the manifest trag-
edies Of ~fareWells. ~partings and sun
dered lives. The heart-break of these
last words and last embraces appeals
to the most stolid. Life is full of these
vital leave-takinSS.
Jesus had come to one OF them, in
the passage which the Sunday School
are now studying. This experience Of
Peters confession and Of the trans
f~iguration, which will be considered
next week, nave been called 1.-THE Pas
sion of the North.' The great-souled
Christ underwent crises beneath the
shadow of s~nOW-capped Hermon.
Then he faced in all its vivid and in
exorable reality, the fact Of the cross.
In his agony of spirit he shared his
burden with his friends and leaned
upon them for comfort ia a fashion
that make the humanness OF Jesus
nigh to US all. His hunger for appre-
citation and his grateful acknowledge
ment of Peters insight are close kin
to the experiences of all sensitive souls.
They Say"
They say so many things that
'they' might often be d~isregacded.
Not always, though, even Jesus was
solicitous about public opinion. He
kept himself aware Of the real thought
of his time, as every leader must do.
"WhO do men say that the Son of Man
is p" he asked his abine in confiden-
tial session. The answe that he was
John the Baptist, or Elijah, or public
opinion may be mistaken. Commonly
we judge men at less tina their real
value. On the whole our leaders are
probably credited below the worth of
their best selves Jesus was more than
even his most sanguine adherents be-
Heved him to be.
TT doesn't matter what one thinks
runs the loose remark. Quite the con-
trary: on every subject of importance
It does matter tremendously, and most
Of all what one thinks OF Christi. The
statement may be made in all holiness
that Jesus Christ is today the worlds
most living issue; and hat men think
of him is Of tremendously greater con
Germ han what they think Of social
ism or the tariff Or the labor question
or the race question or the trust Ques-
ton or anything else.
Thoughtful persons will not miss the
the meaning of the fact that North
Americas most cosmopolitan owen
ton was that which brought the
worlds Sunday School workers togeth-
er a few weeks s in Washington.
Even more meaningful was the ep-
oeha gathering in Edinburg last
month. when the captaius of the king
dom of heaven gathered from the re-
hottest corners of the earth, in the
greatest church counil ever held since
men began to date their calendars
"a. D." And both of these great con-
ventions had personality and love OF
Jesus for their central bought We
can almost hear today's wonderful an
sWer, eehoing from the whale world,
to that repeated question, Who say
We that I am ?"
Impulses Clear Thought.
Do business, If you must, with the
cold, careful, calculating man; but for
a friend, seek out the fervid, eTthu-
siastice, impulsive one. Philip might
do for secretary of the cabinet Of Je-
sus, but Peter was its militant. moving
spirit. The warm heart often sees
more clearly than the deliberate mind.
for truest vision belongs to love. Pc
ter stumbled, you say. Yes, but he also
gioriously stood. The heart lake his
may have moods, but the lonely and
lOVo-hungTy know how comfortable it
IS to lean upon.
1t is sweet to the ear Of the burden
ed and soul-wrought Teacher to hear
Peters swift. sure answer. Thou art
the Christ, the Son OF the Living Cod
Peter was a Jew, and he knew full
we'll the portent Of his confession
though the significance is nearly lost
upon Us who have always esteemed
the words Of Jesus and Christ as sy-
n"nymOus- Clear as q bullets song
rang Peters declaration: he bore wit
nCSs ye believe this man with whom
n" mad travelled more than two years
to be more than man, and none other
than the l~ong-eXpected Messiah OF
the race. Would that all of the disci-
pies Of the N2zarene in our own day
had Peters clear faith.
The Comfort for a lecturer.
Only the teacher who catches the
lia5F or genius and understandings
IN the eye Of one cut out OF many
commonplace pupils can appreciate
the thrill which shot through the
heart OF Jesus at these words of Peter.
He had been sad, lonely aud MS
understood. The burden Of Calvary
rested heavily upon his heart. The
solitary way which he had walked
mai W@aried hin sore1y. But 70 be
0HG@tstood by a friend that is com