Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-07
SOCIAL SERVICE
OLD AS CHURCH
Three Distinct Forms Stand
Out; Healing of Sick, Relief of
Poor, Driving Away Sorrow
The international Sunday School les
son for April o is "Aeneas and
Dorcas."-Acts 9:32-43.
(By William T. Ellis.)

|
The antiquity of the latest fashions
Is Christening theme to contemplate
| Our Vaunted modernity is severely
1olted when we discover that our new
ideas are centuries and even millen-
niums old. Thus. this weeks inter-
national Sunday School Lesson carries
us back to the facing of the fact that
the present-day vogue of social serv-
lce-care for mems bodies and estate
as well as for their spirits-is as old
as the Christian Church itself
Three distinct forms of social min
lstry are the outstanding points in
the interesting old stories of the cure
or Aeneas and the raising from the
dead of Dorcas. First, we have the
healing of the sick by the Apostle
Peter. Second, we have the relief of
the poor, as represented by the work
or Dorcas. Third we have the driv-
ing away of sorrow by the resurrec-
ton of Dorcas.
Already we have studied how the
christian Church at the first genera
ton had attained a state of social and
economical interdependence that was
without precedent in history. The
| most ideal example of communism
is that of the early Christians, when
no man counted his possessions his
own, but devoted them to the broth
erhood. The widows and the poor
were all cared for out of the common
FUNDS. Modern social service has a
long way to go before 1t can catch up
to the first crop of Christians
Wherein the Church has departed
from the practice of ministering to
all phases of human need she has de-
parted from the example and precept
| OF the Apostolic Church and of the
great Head of the Church Himself.
A delicate and important point to be
| observed is
the new swelling of the tides of broth
erliness and ministry shall not be mis-
labeled by merely sociological terms
but should be understood as simple
Christianity, the love OF Christ eX-
pressed through the hearts of His Dis
c1ples. We must not let a goddess
fad steal the livery of the Christian
Church. What we have of effective
social service today is merely a new
expression of simple Christian minis
try.
What About The Shut-ins?
From the days of Eden until now
the problem of pain has vexed the
world. Why does God permit suffer-
ing? That is the oldest of the puz-
zles that has taxed the human brain.
We are not ready to admit that all suf-
tering is evil, any more than our in
tellectual integrity will permit us to
call 1t an Illusion, a nonexistent thing
The world owes much to it's invalids
Some of the sweetest songs and most
life giving thoughts have risen from
beds of pain. There are graces, in
despensible to life in its fullness,
which seem to grow only in the hot
house of suffering. The metropolitan
newspapers recently printed columns
about Brooklyn woman who had
been for fifty years a "shut-in", and
who had ministered greatly to the
world.
She glorifed God as an invalid.
Aeneas, the paraly2ed man of our
story glorified Him by a miraculous
recovery. Whether i'll or well, whether
by enduring or recovering, we are to
fulfill life's chief end of glorifying
God.
The story of Aeneas is one of the
short and simple annals of pain.
Luke, the physician. is observant to
note that he had, for eight years, been
bed-ridden with palsy What a pic
ture the few words present! No per-
son in the full tide of health and ac-
uVities can understand what it means
to be a helpless invalid, dependent on
the ministry of loved ones for every
thing. For eight interminable years
Aeneas had lain on his pallet, or little
mattress, on the floor of a dingy Or
iental room. What had been his
! thoughts during all this time when
there was nothing left for him to do
but think?
Into the darkness of the sufferers
/ lot there had apparently penetrated
me radience OF the Good News. The
/ implication of the story is that Aeneas
was Christian. We should like to
know the difference between his life
| before the Tidings which the scatter
ed disciples had carried.
Where the New Railway Runs
| one day there came to the home of
Aeneas- wonder who was the wage
Garner there, to maintain the home?
the great-hearted Simon Peter
| This tireless apostle was a peripa-
tetic preacher. Like Jesus, he went
about doing good" he did not wait for
opportunities to come to him With
! the conversion of Saul, the Young
| Church had peace for time, and was
spiritually built up. So from Jeru-
salem as center the apostles rest
| lessly and resstlessly carried the word
LYDIA. or Lidd. where Aeneas lived.
is about twenty miles to the northwest
of Jerusalem, on the road to the sea-
port of Jaffa, which is ten miles fur
ther west. There was a community
of Christians here, as also at Jaffa.
LYDIA was one Of the main highways
up and down the Land, and Jesus
Himself had passed through it. Its
importance in history has been con-
siderable, but now it takes on new
interest.
For today, LYDIA is the junction
point of the new railroad which the
Germans and Turks have built down
the center of Palestine to Beersheba
For twenty years it has been a sta
tion on the familiar railway line run
ming into Jerusalem from Jaffa. Now
the rails between Jaffa and LYDIA
have been torn up and used for the
construction of this new military rail-
/ way, which runs from Beersheba nm
to within a few miles of Nazareth
where it connects with the Haifa-Da-
mascus line. Thus has been built for