The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-23

| of International Sunday School Les
sons is interrupted for backward
look. It 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 section
of the entire woods. Learn to think
| in larger units. See things as whole.
Observe relationships. Use big maps
and comprehensive charts. The Bible
is far more than a collection OF texts.
Watch it march in its majestic whole
| ness
Adventures and events of thrilling
character have been the theme of the
past three months of study. The most
| popular character in the New Tesla
ment. next to our Lord Himself is the
central figure of the stories. Nova
days we hear 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-ol1 enthusiasm
| for that scholar-Soldier-tr aveler-
r-teacher-saint, Saul of TarSuS.
Earth has produced less than half a
dozen names worthy to rang with his.
Beginning with the miraculous con-
version of Saul on the Damascus high
way, the quarters lessons have follow
| ed him, and Peter and the other
pioneers. through the dramatic and
| MISUNDERSTANDING events that culmi-
mated in the invasion of Europe by the
| Cross. When Paul became a Chris
tian, the Church was Jewish and it had
scarcely gone beyond the limits of the
Promised Land. Within less than a
score of years it had swept to imperial
proportions, with living centers in the
great cities of Europe and Asia. This
| rapid and wide growth of the Church
/ is a theme to be dwelt upon and ex-
banded. 1t is one of the miracles of
our religion.
Think on These Things"
4
Think on these things will serve as
a thread on which to string our
studies. Thus we shall have 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 of her
| experience is a steadying inheritance
| for mercurial times When we recall
for instance, that the present suffer-
ings of the Armenian Christians are
but a continuation of the prosecutions
of the Church in which Saul of Tarsus
was a leader we perceive that the
| grace of martyrdom is one of the CO.
tinuing gifts of the Church. What
hostile forces - arrogant empires,
heather faiths human ambitions, and
| IlSSIlly luSlS"HdNS beaten IN vain
against the rock of the Church! To-
day, that same Church, in newness of
power literally encircles the globe, be-
ing 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, faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
-Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses.
With every grace endued.''
Today that same Church confronts
even more perpleNng 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
collapse of the Church in 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. 1t
roots down into those human quail
ties which are the chief concern of re-
ligion. 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
century. namely, the redemption of
men and women into newness of life
The ability of the Church and her gos-
pei to make over human nature is the
one nope OF the world today.
Men Made Over.
There is a man in Philadelphia who
two years ago was the unknown assist
ant in a city church. Today he is the
accepted and autocratic leader of the
most significant and portentous move
ment of Christian men this generation
hask nown Two years ago engrossed in
petty parish tasks: today the real
leader of more than a hundred thou
sand men. OF course, that is no new
thing. The. Gospel has been doing
l that all the way along it's course. God
: works by finding the right man at the
, opportune hour. Christianity is large
ly the history of discovered and trans
. formed men.
First comes to mind Paul, who
r found a new name, a new life, 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 scholas-
!, tic became Paul the popularizer of re-
/ ligious truth; Saul the narrow Phari-
, see became Paul the world-loving and
world-moving apostle; Saul the aris-
tccrat, the alunnus of the best schools
of Tarsus and Jerusalem, the son of
luxury and position, became Paul the
! pilgrim, foregoing ease and wealth and
place and welcoming hardship and
persecution and cruel sufferings.
e When we start to think upon what the
= first generation of the apostolic
( church means for human character
= we need not go beyond Paul.
I Our old friend Peter figured largely
\ also. "Oh, what a changer This
Y rough fisherman will serve, along with
r the latest convert in the rescue mis-
sion. as Exhibit A. of the power OF
Christ to make a man right about
n face" into new tolerance and self-re-
}, straint and unselfishness ana simple
: lpiety. Among the great pictures in
A the worlds gallery of remembered
scenes is Peter in the presence of Cor
: nelius Think on these things"
o When Progressives and Pull-Backs
/ Met.
It From Palestine to America is moi
n far, in spirit. We are today witnessine
: the same struggle between liberal and