The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-07-07
International
Sunday School Lesson

4 III 6L W. L. hLAA0- Ill
For July is 1.-The Thessalonian Chris !
/ tians.''-I Thess., CHI. 1; 2:17-2O;
4:13-1S.
/ After the Evangelist Goes.
The test of the success of an evan
gelistic campaign comes year after;
the evangelist has gone. Nobody can
give a true judgment of revival meet !
ings while they are at their height.
The adventures of Paul and his COM
paniOns, exciting, sensational and dra-
matte, have engaged the thought of
the Sunday school for weeks past. Now
we come to ask what traces could be 4
found year later of his great ex-
periences and utterances in these
cities of Macedonia and Asia Minor. \
We are not left to surmise. There is a
clear record. That record is found in
the letters of the Apostle, one of which
is the basis of today's Sunday school
pictures of the churches founded by
Paul that attest the abiding results of
his work.
The study is of peculiarly absorb
il kind. In the letters of John Hay,
recently published, we find mirrored
from a new angle the events of his
tory of which he was a part. The
careful reader of Kipling's travel let
tiers can trace the originals of the
characters who appear in his later
poems and stories. The letters of John
Keats are the best commentary upon
the. poetry of Keats. Naturally.
thorough student reads history in the
light of contemporary documentary
evidence Today we have the letter to
the Thessalonians as a supplement to
last weeks study of Paurs adventures
in Thessalonica.
The Letter and the Story.
Superficial and ignorant readers of
the Bible do not put two and two to-
gether. 1t never occurs to them that
the familiar passages in the Epistles to
the ThesSalonians have anything to do
with the narrative in the Book of the
Acts. Yet one is needed to make clear
the other. This is the time to find out
all possible about Salonika, the city,
the people and its religious history.
Three sorts of documents are available
in today's lesson, the letter to the
, tory In the Book of the Acts; and 3,
the place itself.
There is need to emphasize the sim
pie point that Thessalonica was real
, place; that the Thessalonian Chris
tians were real people, and that Paul.
the author, was a real person. He
wrote to his friends and converts just
as a teacher or a preacher or a parent
would write today. He was not
formulating texts for ministers to base
sermons upon. He had no idea that
what he was writing would be studied
by thirty million persons nineteen
centuries later. He was writing pri-
marily and only for flesh and blood
Christians with real problems and per-
, plexities, whom he loved and who
needed his counsel. Unless we get
that situation firmly in mind, our
, Bible study will be unreal.
The Personal Element.
Three names begin the lesson and
the letter, Paul, and Sylvanus and
: Timotheus." OF course Sylvanus and
Timotheus are but another form OF
Silas and Timothy, our old friends who
have been sharing PauIs adventures
All of them had a keen and personal
! interest in their friends in Thessalonf
ica A year before these men had
been mobbed out of the city. NOW
there was, as result of their trip,
! real church with all the marks of
Christian growth and permanence
Would that all sensational preaching,
such as Paul did, and all revival CAM
paigns left behind them a great and
growing church.
The active and imaginati. mind of
Paul loved to play around a theme.
Thus he remarks that the church was
not only in Thessalonica, but that it
I was also lin God" 1t had habita-
ton that was spiritual, as well as a
local physical identity. Come to think
of it, that Is the greatest fact of all
about a church, 1t is more than a
thing of brick and mortar. or boards
. and stones, or a body of men and wo-
, in the character of God Himself Some
churches remember their local obiiga-
tons and forget their spiritual ones;
; others conceive of themselves as a
spiritual body, but have too little eff
} feet upon the neighborhood in which
they are placed. Every church has
} business with two habitations; it is
/ on earth, and it is in God; it is forced
| to prayer, and it is also forced to pub
} Incity. The Thessalonian Christians
5 were in fellowship with God, and at
: the same time they were making a
tremendous impression upon the old
heather city of Thessalonica.
Somebody to Love.
The personal and tender greetings
.. in the letter are suggestive Paul had
been through great times at Thessa-
lonica. He had a stake in that city.
Therefore his heart turned back to the
: Thessalonian Christians. Every man
: who was in the Civil war looks back
? upon those years as the greatest ex-
l perience of his life. Not a single vet
!, eran is sorry for the orders of those
! times that tried mems souls. The war
/. made it's participants great. They
achieved life in its depth and in it's
grandeur. The interest of the old SOL
, der in his comrades and in the places
+ of his war experiences is like that of
> PauPs interest in the Thessa1onians.
So it is with a mothers solicitude
for the children who have caused her
t such suffering. Pauls heart is mir
: rored in the words, I'VE give thanks
e to God always for you all, making
4 mention of you in our prayers; re-
Numbering without ceasing your work
of faith, and labour of love, and pa
Il thence of hope in our Lord Jesus
II Christ, in the sight of God and our
II Father"
II Nobody can be as interested in any
Il person or cause as Paul was in those
Thessalonian Christians and their
$ work, without giving himself to pray
er for their success What says Ten
e nyson?
| for NV SorI