The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-02-11
International
Sunday School Lesson
For February IS is Humbled and
Phil. 2:1-11

u
An Ancient War Zone Letter.
Most of the places that figure in the
daily dispatches from the war zones
might almost as well be on the moon,
so far as the average readers sense of
their actual location goes. In a gem
eral way, everybody knows that the
Allies have established center at the
port of Salonica, Greece; and others,
less numerous, have a vague geo.
graphical sense of the news that the
Central powers are expected to make
drive down the great highway from
Kavalla to SaIonica.
When we recall, however. that all
this is located on the map of the Apos-
tie PaufS journeys and that Salonica.
is his Thessalonica to whose Chris
tians he wrote two letters; and that the
apex of the present Balkan military
situation is exactly where Christianity
first invaded Europe, in the person of
the great missionary apostle. we see a
new light. 1t was from the other side
of the AEGEAN sea, that Paul caught a
vision, in a dream, of a man crying
Come over unto Macedonia and help
us" That same Macedonia, of which
Salonica is the chief city, is today a
center of the world war.
r On the main road between Salonica
and kavalla, road now worn into
ruts and hollows by the passa ge of the
big guns, and about ten miles inland
from the sea. there is a little village
and an ancient ruin. That ruin is
Philippi, the once proud city that bore
the name of Philip of Macedonia
Famous for its gold mines, famous for
its battles, famous for its prosperity
in olden times, Philippi is most famous
as the city where the Apostle Paul
first preached the Gospel in Europe.
There may be great events in the vicin-
ity of Philippi during the present war,
but nevertheless the place will always
have its highest honor from the fact
that here Paul established his first
church, and the one which he seemed
to love best of all All the stately
cathedrals and churches and chapels
and monasteries in Europe and Amer
lea trace their beginnings back to the
landing of Paul at Philippi.
Prisoners Letter
None of the war literature that has
come out of this neighborhood in re-
cent months is comparable in interest
and Importance with an old letter,
first preserved in Philippi and soon
shared with the entire Christian fell
lowship, written by Paul while he was
a prisoner in Rome. A noble passage
from this letter, which still CLOVIS and
throbs with the warm personal friend
ship of the writer for the recipients,
has been selected by the International
Lesson committee for study this week
by the Sunday schools of the world.
We can imagine with what peculiar
interest the lesson will be read by
many British mothers and children
ers or sons are at present within ten
miles of the ancient homes of the peo-
pie to whom the original letter was
written.
If today's local color of the lesson is
dramatic. what shall we say of thet
background during the years 81 or 81,
when the epistle itself was penned?
And these circumstances need to be
borne in mind for a clear understand
ing of the message written by Paul.
l. n
chained to a soldier. Proud and h5art-
less Nero, the mailman. was on the
throne. All the pomp and glory and
self-assertiOns of that luxurious and
ostentatious age lies behind the letter.
With Paul in his Imprisonment was
Timothy, the beloved. The Christians
at Philippi. newly out of heathendom,
but with tender memories of their
brave teacher, had sent to the apostle
in prison one of their number,
Epaphroditus, who had borne a gift of
money and many messages of love. and
these had touched the heart of the
imprisoned hero. Epaphroditus him
self had fallen ill in Rome, apparently
from the dreaded Roman fever. His
life had been despaired of, but the
prayers of the church had saved him.
So he was sent back to his fellow
church members at Philippi with this
loving letter of counsel from the apos-
tie, who in his prison in Rome, recalled
the time he had been a prisoner at
Philippi, having been arrested on the
trumped-up charges of fortune-telling
grafters. An earthquake had opened
the doors of the Philippi prison while
Paul and Silas were singing hymns in
the night. On that very night the
jailer and his family were converted.
Such were the facts behind the letter
When Church QuarreIs Impend.
| A choice fragment of the letter has
/ been chosen for the present lesson. 1t
reveals the writer's solicitude over
dangers of discord that threatened the
/ Church at Philippi, and gave the
Apostles remedy. He applied the
highest resources of the Christian
/ faith to meet the needs of every I'M
toward situation. The troubled church.
and the troubled life, can find no
! clearer path to peace than a reverent
/ opened minded and repeated study of
/ these eleven verses from PauPs great
letter to the Christians in old Philippi
l quote from the American Standard
Revision:
IF there is therefore any exhorta-
/ ton in Christ, if any consolation of
love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if
any tender mercies and compositions
make full my joy, that he be of the
same mind, having the same love, be-
ing of one accord, of one mind; doing
nothing through faction or through
vainglory. but in lowliness of mind
each counting others better than him
self; not looking each of you to his
own things. but each of you also to
the things of others. Have this mind
in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus: who, existing in the form of
| God, counted not the being on an
equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but emptied Himself. taking
the form of a servant, being made in
the likeness of men; and being found
in fashion as man, he humbled Him
self, becoming obedient even INTO
death. yea, the death of the cross
Wherefore also God highly exalted
Him, and gave unto Him the name
which is above every name; that in the
name of Jesus every knee should bow
of things in heaven and things on
earth and things under the earth, and
that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord. to the glory of