Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-06-09
BIBLE ONE BOOK
NEVER OUTGROWN
Sowing and Reaping" Subject
of International Sunday
School Lesson

The International Sunday school Les
son for June fl is Sowing
and Rcaping'-Gal., 9
BY William Il. Ellis
How many books there are that we
have got through with. and laid aside:
We have outgrown them. But the
Bible, like the mercy of God, is fresh
every morning and new every evening.
This is because the Bible goes down
deep, deep, deep into the vital prin-
ciples of life. Its teachings pertain to
all places and all practices in all times.
In every reform movement the Bible
exercises a corrective and restraining
influence because it continually calls
men back to fundamentals More than
one JEALOUS temperance advocate has
wished that the Billie were more eX-
plicit and detailed In its treatment of
the liquor evil, not seeing that if it
were, the Bible would soon be as out
of date as a last years temperance
pamphlet. The power of the Book is
that it establishes all its teachings
upon the bed rock of eternal prin-
ciples.
A declaration of interdependence is
the substance of the portion of Scrip
ture which has been designated a tenn
perance lesson for the Sunday schools.
The idea of mutual responsibility of
mans obligation to man pervades
PauIs letter to the Christians in Ga
latia. This letter, it will be recalled,
was written to the Galatian churches
at Iconium, Derbe, Lystra and An
tioch, about which we have been
studying. The new Christians were
Singularly docile in matters of faith
and practice. They wanted to know
how to live in the way that would
please Jesus. So they We're hungry for
instruction from the Apostle who was
their father in the faith. The present
passage is a series of somewhat de-
tached injunctions strung on the
thread of the obligations which Chris
tians have one to another, and to God.
Finger Boards Or Lifc's Highway
What Paul himself wrote is more
effective than any comments upon it,
and l quote the lesson passage:
Brethren, even If man be over
taken in any trespass, ye who are
spiritual restore such one in a
spirit of gentleness; looking to thy
self, left thou also De tempted. Bear
ye one another's burdens and so fulfill
the law of Christ. For if a man think
eth himself to be something when he
is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But
let each man prove his own work, and
then shall he have his glorying in re-
gard of himself alone, and not of his
neighbor. For each man shall bear
his own burden.
But let him that is taught in the
word communicate unto him that
teacheth in all good things. Be not
deceived; God is not mocked for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall
he also reap. For he that soweth unto
his own flesh shall of the flesh reap
corruption but he that soweth unto
the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap
eternal life. And let us not be weary
in well doing: for in due season We
shall reap, if we faint not. So then,
1.,v 1.4 Il
that which is GOOD toward all men,
and especially toward them that are of
the household of the faith"
When a Man Stumbles
The badness of good people lies in
their consciousness. 1t is hard for
them to make allowances for others
not so correct as themselves. Ian
Maclaran drew this type to perfection
in his portrait of Lachlan Campbell,
who drove his own daughter from his
home in his hardness of self-righteous-
ness. To he so engrossed in ones own
goodness that he is intolerant of an
others weakness is the very essence
of Pharisaism, and the one sin against
which Jesus contended more than any
other. The exceeding sinfulness OF this
sin consists in its power to harden the
heart so that the divine plant of love
is starved to death.
Big-hearted Paul, who knew that
among the new Christians there would
he many TO stumble, bade the brethren
restore such an one in O spirit of meek
ness. Thus they would save the
offender and serve their own souls
This kind of ministry used to be called
the cure of souls" and applied to the
pastorate. My friend, DR.. Robert
Hume. at Ahmednager, India. has his
shingle out as Maker and mender of
men and boys in the name of the Lord
Jesus" The program of Christ con-
templates the greatness of soul among
His disciples which can be patient and
forgiving.
The Book of Paradoxes
Within few words of each other
there are two contradictory injunc-
tons in this letter. Bear We one an
others burdens. Every man
shall bear his own burden" Both are
gers nobody; for each in its own
sphere is a binding law.
Christians are commanded to fulfil
their gospel by the practice of other
ism, or unselhshness. That is the
Christian principle at the heart of our
religion. Life at it's best is vicarious.
God has entangled us all in a mesh
of human relationships. because in the
school of helpfulnesS we learn divine
discipleship. One OF the magazines
recently had a tragic picture of a
woman who was needed by nobody
mend, no little faces to wash, no tears
for her to dry, no household tasks
for her to do. And no burden of cares
can be equal to that saddest lot of all.
On the other hand, there are some
burdens that nobody can shift on to
another. We may as we'll accept them
and shoulder them. All the highest
responsibilities are individual and in
escapable. Here is a woman laid aside
with nervous prostration because" so
runs the explanation, "she had so
many things to stand"-as if standing
things was not part of the program of
life. Every spirit with stamina must
expect rebuffs and disappointments
and anXieties and bereavements: these
are all in the days cares. How they
shall be accepted is a matter of ones
own attitude. They may be borne as
crushing load, or they may be ac-
cepted as a normal responsibility. In
all these ultimate things the soul
stands alone.
Sowing in Soul Soil
The high point of this temperance
lessons is this principle of sowing and
reaping. Whatsoever n man soweth
that shall he also reap" That is one
of the life laws that needs no learned
commentary. Everybody from his own
experience and observation can assent
to it. In school and college COM
mencements we are hearing fire.