Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-07-21
PAUL DID GREAT
WORK IN CORINTH
Apostle Gathered Large Church
Together in Wickedest City
of His Time
The International Sunday School Les
son for July 23 is paul at Corinth." J."
Acts 17:16-34.
(By william 7. Ellis.)

! There has been many a laugh over
the idea of Billy Sundays going to
New York City. Gotham and godl-
ness seem contradictions in terms.
Evangelists shun San Francisco.
some preachers resent being sent by
their bishop to bad" towns. They
say they have no chance" there. All
of which may be Interestingly con-
sidered in the light of the fact that in
wicked old Corinth, with a reputation
| far worse than that Of New York
\ or San Francisco or Paris or Cairo,
the Apostle Paul spent a year and
half, and gathered together a great
church, to which two of the most
famous books in the New Testament
were addressed. The Sunday school
lessons Of the next three weeks will
be taken from these letters.
Obviously, the salt should go where
corruption threatens. Yeast belongs
in the dough, and not on the shelf.
Christianity, according to its Foun-
der, is for sinners, and not for saints.
II the Church has any mission at all,
she has mission to the worst places
At the very basis of this Corinthian
lesson lies the assumption that the
Gospel may not shrink from any task,
however hard; and that the greater
the need the louder the call. The
Church is not true to type If she does
not go up confidently against all the
Corinths of the twentieth century
and win them for her Master. Only
students know nowadays what was
common report two thousand wears
ago, that Corinth stood for the very
limit of lewdness and vileness and
all wickedness. To-Day Corinth is as
sociated, in the common mind, with
christianity. Such is the transforma-
ton wrought by one faithful mission
ary' The South Sea Islands have had
the same experience. Once dreaded
aoodes of cannibalism, to-day they are
Genters of Christian light and life
| whenever and wherever the Church
has valiantly attacked the citadeIs
or evil she has come off victorious
The cross is mightier than any Cor
inth.
Enter a Man and Wife
The Emperor Claudius had made
Rome too hot for the Jews, and they
nao oeen scattered IN exile. The ex-
perlence seemed bitter one. Among
the victims of the edict of exile were
high-minded tent-maker and his
wife, Aquila and Priscilla. They were
drlven from their established work
ana their house in Rome, and finally
landed in Corinth. Fate seemed cruel
70 them. Still. with the stout-hearted
torutude which their prosecuted race
mas SHOWN in all ages. they took up
lie anew in this heathen city, Joining
| the tent makers colony.
Then, as now, workers at the same
crart formed a guild. Aouila and
Priscilla belonged to the tent-makers'
union. One day there came to them
ahotner stranger bearing, and we
sMouio @ say now union card, a trav-
enng tent-maker from Tarsus, named
Paul. They Hospitality welcomed him
10 their home, the more that he was
a rabbi, learned in the Law Of Moses
rogether the three OF them toiled at
their trade, Paul the while talking
OF the Nazareth Carpenter.
This is the Gospel of Labor.
Ring 1t, ye bells of the kirk,
The Lord of love
came down from above,
10 dwell with the men who work"
There is no fellowship like that of
common task, a common cause. a
SoihIlon Leader and common pur-
pose RMS insures community of in
terests. Therefore farmers pet TO
gether in oranges, f1nanciers in clubs
| Worklngmen in unions. It is difficuIt
Tor a stockbroker and a carnentar
10 think alike: they have not even the
same lingo. Therein lies the dtffi-
cuIty OF preserving the nation from
classism. There must be some com
some common purpose. great enough
10 comprehend all these divisions and
10 fuse them into oneness on the
real essentials of life. If a man is a
oanker or a brakeman before he is
a patriot, then woe to the country.
one great obstacle to the success
OF the Church, and one seldom dis
cussed IN religious conferences. is the
tact that the average clergyman does
not speak the makers language.
His speech is that of a class rather
than of the mass. The preacher is
trained as bookman by bookmen
and if he is brainy book taught folk
enjoy him. AS for the great bulk OF
the people, who are toilers, he sc
little knows their life and language
that he is not even aware of the gull
that separates him from them. SIN
cerely and earnestly, he desires to be
close to the workingman: but his
years of apartness intervene.
The Personal Factor
This casual contract, following ex-
lie, was the making OF Aquila and
Priscilla. 1t wrote their names among
the immortals. They became import
ant figures in New Testament his
tory; for, of course, they were early
converts of their workfellow, Paul
whose daily life and skill gave full
proof of his religion. Destiny usually
comes to US in the form OF persona
relationships. Opportunity is ordin.
arily man or a woman. The friend:
we make make us. every fresh con
tact with a person is a serious bus.
iness. Had it not been for their asso
citation with Paul, Aquila and Priscilla
would have gone into oblivion with
the other unknown Jews of Corinth.
The other side of the case is equal
ly significant. A cause grows by it
recruits. Just as it was a great houl
; for Christianity when Paul was con
, verted, so it was also a great houl
, when Aquila and Priscilla accepted
the cross. The hope and reward O.
every teacher is that among tn,
, young lives she shapes there may b,
a Paul, an Aquila, a Priscilla,
Moody, Frances Willard Th,
greatest growth possible to tn,
, Church is by the addition of power
. full and consecrated personalities.
The Time to Quit Coaxing
Some parents and preachers mis-
the truth that there comes an hou
, when entreaty should end. Many
lover would win the woman of hi
choice if he quit pleading so abjectly
Many a son would be brought t,
righteousness if he were made to se
that his folly is upon his own heas
alone. Pauls way with the Corinth
ian Jews is sound. When they prove,
obdurate to reason and invitation
Paul shook his raiment and said un
to them, Your blood be upon YOU
own heads: | am clean. from henca