Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-06-23
SUNDAY SCHOOLS
TO HOLD REVIEW
Will Give Book of Philippines
Retrospective Glance
on Sunday
The International Sunday School Les
son for June 25 is "Review-The
Phtlippian Christians" Phil.
LII Ala
By William T. Ellis

BY William Il. Ellis
Once every three months the course
of International Sunday School Les
sons is interrupted for a backward
look. 1t is as if the committee said,
Now stand aside and look at things
In the large. You have been observing
individual trees: now study this sec
tion of the entire woods. Learn to
think In larger units. See things as a
whole. Observe relationships. Use
big maps and comprehensive charts.
The Bible is far more than q collec-
tion of texts. Watch it march in its
majestic wholeness.
Adventures and events of thrilling
character have been the theme of the
past three months of study. The most
popular character in the New Testa-
ment. next to our Lord himself. is the
central figure of the stories. Now
adays we hear a great deal about film
faVorites"; but consider how trivial
and ephemeral and local is the popu-
larity of the most popular of motion
picture stars" alongside of the uni
Versal and centuries old enthusiasm for
that scholar soldier traveller orator
teacher-saint, Saul of Tarsus. Earth
has produced less tnan half a dozen
names worthy to rank with him.
Beginning with the miraculous con-
Nersation of Saul on the Damascus
highway,the quarters lessons have
Followed him, and Peter and the other
pioneers, through the dramatic and
hlstory-shaping events that culmi-
mated in the invasion of Europe by
the Cross. When Paul became Chris
tian the Church was Jewish and it has
scarcely gone beyond the limits of the
Promised Land. Within less than a
score of years it had swept to i'm
perial proportions, with living centers
in the great cities of Europe and Asia.
church is theme to be dwelt upon
and expanded. 1t is one of the
miracles of our religion.
Think On These Things"
A single phrase in the golden text,
Think on these things" will serve as
a thread on which to string our studies.
Thus we shall have a more unified
possession of truth than if we were
merely to recount the lesson events.
Think on the Church. With our
zest for the days problems. some of
us give scant heed to the wonder of
the historic Church. which has per-
sisted through the centuries as one
body. The unity of her life and 81 her
experience is a steadying inheritance
for instance, that the present suffer-
lngs of the Armenian Christians are
but a continuation of the prosecutions
OF the Church in which Saul of Tarsus
was leader we perceive that the
grace of martyrdom is one of the con-
tinuing gifts of the Church. What
hostile forces - arrogant empires.
heathen faiths, human ambitions and
feshly lusts-zhave beaten in vain
against the rock of the Church! To-
day that same church, in newness of
power, literally encircles the globe,
being found in every land and cline
and island of the sea. ....
Elect from every nation,
Yet one DER all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One Lord. one faith, one birth;
one holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And 10 one hope she presses,
With every grace endued."
To-day that same Church confronts
even more perpleXing problems than
those faced in the apostolic age. Her
right to speak the word that will clear
up the worlds muddle is generally
conceded. Even the talk about the
of the Church in a world
crisis is but confession that the duty
and power of the Church should be
supreme The present trouble with
the world is essentially spiritual. It
roots down into those human qualities
which are the chief concern of re-
igion. The new task of the Church,
which lays such staggering response
bility upon teachers and preachers, is, |
fundamentally, no different from that
which confronted her in the first CEN
tury, namely, the redemption of men
and women into newness of life. The
ability of the Church and her gospel to
make over human nature is the one
hope of the world to-day.
Men Made Over
There Is a man in Philadelphia who |
two years ago was the unknown assist
ant in q city church. To-day he is the
accepted and autocratic leader of the
most significant and portentious move
ment of Christian men this generation
has known. Two years engrossed i'm
petty parish tasks: to-day the real
leader of more than a hundred thou
sand men. or course that is no new
thing. The Gospel has been doing
that all the way along it's course. God
works by finding the right man at the
opportune hour. Christianity is largely
the history of discovered and trans
fornle men.
First comes to mind Paul who
found a new name, a new life, a new
mission within the Church. Saul the
bigot became Paul the expounder of
liberty: Saul the hater became Paul
the apostle of love; Saul the scholastic
became Paul the popularizer of re-
ligious truth; Saul the narrow Phari-
see became Paul the world-loving and
apostle; Paul the aristo-