Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1916-03-16
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON
Comments BY
Rev. Ernest Bourner Allen. D. D.
Pastor Of the Washington St.
Congregational Church and tho
Marion Lawrance Sunday
School, Toledo, Ohio.
Comments BY
For Sunday March 10

Lesson Text: Acts 8: 26-4O. Mem
orize VS.. 2S-31.
Golden Text: "Understandest thou
what thou readest?" Acts 8: 80.
|. The Foreigner.
There are millions of foreigners in
the United States. Many of them
have become good citizens. Some
have not. In either case, how shall
they be treated? Many of our lead
ers say that if foreigners do not obey
our laws, they would better go back
to the countries from which they
came. While the foreigners do a
they are often despised and i'll treat
ed. 1t takes the spirit of gentle
man and christian to treat them
right. If we despise people, sooner
or later we come to hate them. If
we think we are lords of creation
and better than everybody else, then
we begin to domineer over others. If
our desire for "a place in the sun"
does not allow others their place there
also, then we grow selfish and cruel
This is the explanation of RACE
PREJUDICE and it's deadly dangers.
The Jew hated the Gentle; the Greek
despised the uncultured; the Roman
thought himself the divine ruler of
all peoples; and the world today is
full of its hatreds. The black man
and the Indian, the brown man and
the Oriental,-all are despised, hated,
and cruelty treated.
How do you treat the foreigner in
your town?
The story of Phillip shows how the
christian spirit conquered the old jew
ish preiudices. For he went to teach
a man who was an alien. He did it
publicly. He did it himself. He
taught him to understand the Script
ures. He told him that the Messiah
was just as much for the Gentle as
for the Jew. 1t was great victory
over his old prejudices and training.
Europe today is seething with awful
strife. Nations are being taught to
hate other nations. Good will is be-
ing shot to pieces by big guns. The
christian attitude toward men and
nations is being frightfully over
whelmed. Our own nation must be-
ware of race hatred and so must
every citizen.
III. Increase the Acreage.
Canada is urged to double her acre
age of wheat next harvest. Every
country in Europe is trying to in
crease it's acreage of foodstuffs. Ha-
waii is doing all it can to increase the
acreage of sugar cane. Big harvests
depend on good seed, well and widely
sown, properly cared for, and spread
over millions of acres.
Many a country church reaps
poor harvest because it sows stingily
and narrowly. It's members left all
the religious seed-sowing to the min
lister and to few godly women. They
failed in seed-sowing by such per-
sonal work as Philip did. Every
member talking to somebody else,
means larger, stronger church and
Sunday school. 1t means an institu-
ton with gripping power in the COM
munity. The church that sows spar
ingly, "shall reap also sparingly."
III. "Understandest Thou What
Thou Readest?"
Much of our reading is low grade.
Why spend all your time on second
rate books and papers, or worse?
Why not spend more time with the
greatest Book the world knows? 1t
is the Book of which more copies are
sold every year than of any ten "best-
sellers" so called. 1t is the Book
which brings the message of hope,
cheer, peace, purity, power. You do
not understand it, you say? Do you
try? There are ways of learning its
meaning. No one learns, of course,
who does not read and study and
think and pray. There are men and
women who can help us understand,
if we wish too. Have you ever ask
ed any one to help you understand,
as the eunuch asked Philip? 1t is
no disgrace to ask questions. Over
the door of the great scientist Agas-
siz, were these words: Learn to say
you do not know" When you say
that, you are on the road to know
ledge.
Some people say the Bible should
not be placed in the hands of the
common people, because they will not
understand and may misinterpret it.
Others say Interpreters are unneces-
sary. Both are wrong. The Bible
is good for every one, however poor
or ignorant. There are many who
interpret it helpfully for us, by their
words and by their lives