The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-02-23
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
BY w. T. ELLIS

work and worship. He was as prac-
tcaF as the most censorious critic
would have religion be today out he
did not neglect the spiritual exercises
and institutions of His faith, even tho
the feastS and the temple were not
above criticism. We are witnessing a
present-day vogue of ..Go-to-Church
campaigns; the best of all arguments
for them is found in this lesson, in the
practice of Jesus.
After Thirty Eight Years!
There is nothing wrong with our
times, or with any person in our
times, that cannot be remedied by
Jesus Christ. That is a sweeping
statement, but it bears analysis. 1t
seems as if Jesus delights in difficult
ties, as in the case of the man who
had been paralyzed for thirty-eight
years. Our own day has been brought
face to face with problems of social
and political reconstruction of stag
gering proportions. Never before have
sober thinkers dared to propose as
Immediately practicable so many rev.
olut1onary ideas, all attuned to the
notes of justice and democracy. Yet
even the average man may find war
rant for these in the teachings and
example of Jesus of Nazareth. He is
wonderfully the master of these new
times. If we will but let Him, He
will bring new world order out of
the present strife and upheaval. Some
times the waters of human society
have to be profoundly stirred. like the
Pool of Bethesda, before healing can
come.
Beholding the man who was the
worst of all the cases gathered in
the great concentration of suffering
| about the porches, Jesus appealed to
the poor. sick will of the man. Are
What a question! Yet the man did
| not answer it directly; he wanted to
whine a bit, and talk about his trou-
| bles. So he began his familiar tale
of woe. to the effect that he had no
| friends, no chance, no pull Jesus
did not discuss the matter; fixing His
eyes upon the sufferer. with a look
| that startled the poor fellow into
| realization that this was no common
man with whom he had to do, Jesus
| gave him the amazing command,
Arise, take up thy bed and walk"
| What if the man had stopped to
argue the question, and declare that
/ the claims and commands of Jesus
were unreasonable end impracticable?
| Many persons are doing just this now
adays. Fortunately. the man had
faith, and his faith saved him, for he
| did arise and he did walk, and in
his historical enthusiasm he did not
| even wait to thank his deliverer, or
| even to learn his name. Gathering
| up his bedding roll he was off, new
I'm, freed by the power of Christ.
Pcttifogging Piety.
Worse than the bigness of sinners,
as a hindrance to righteousness and
religion, is the fittleness of the saints.
| 1t has been said that the most Won
! derful achievement of Christianity is
| that it has survived the Christians.
| Many a person has been repealed from
religion because it has been interpret
| ed to him in terms of petty prohibitions
and restrictions. The person whose
! faith is a set of ''don'ts'' never got it
from the Bible. Imagine, if you can,
this healed man, whole for the first
! time in thirty-eight years, aglow with
new joy, scarcely able to contain him.
| self, being met, as he fastened home
ward, not with congratulations or SYM
pathetic inquiries, but with black looks
and open reproof, because he was
carrying his bedding!
Naturally, the man has assumed,
without thinking the matter out at
all, that the Healer who had power to
give him life also had authority to bid
him bear his bed away. Which was
truer than the fellow supposed For
Jesus has given us a new Sabbath a
holy, happy day, free from petty re-
strictions, a day to be kept in the spirit
of reverence and liberty, for the well
rare OF a man and the glory of God.
| What sort of Sabbath we shall have
is, admittedly, one of the days funda-
mental problems. Let US be careful
that we do not initiate the pettifogging
tactics of the old Jews The Lord 5
Day should be kept in the Lords spirit
and in the Lords way.