Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-16

guarantees Ol ndppy nOlleS lor thS
future, is to win the children of to-
day to the Christ who makes life
whole and sweet and true. The Sun
day school teachers is engaged in
work of citizenship and social serv-
ice of unmeasured magnitude, in that
he is introducing young people to the
Master of life. In all the wide realm
of child-training, there is nothing
else so important as vital religion.
A Man With One Idea
Let a really great personality arise
anywhere and it will soon be known
everywhere. A miracle is done
among the Jews of Cana, at private
wedding, and, 10, it is soon being
discussed in Roman circles at Caper-
naum, and its Doer becomes a topic
in three provinces. So when the great
mind turns to the Wonder-Work OF
Cana. Fortunately, Jesus had return
ed to the place, and, hearing this,
the noblemen sets forth in haste.
Can you not almost see the excite
ment in that officials home?-serv-
ants cunning, the steward giving or
ders. the guard of soldiers being got
ready, the best chariot being exam
ined, and the fleetest horses being
harnessed up. No messenger will
serve for this most important errand:
the nobleman must go himself. There
is some discussion as to whether fast
er time can be made by taking a row
boat to Tiberias, and thence over the
hill by chariot for the short distance
to Cana. Speed! speed! = no way is
snort enough, no conveyance is fast
enough, for this anxious father, who
blesses the wisdom of Rome that built
good roads across Galilee.
There was just one word on the
nobleman's lips, and in his heart:
MY son!" AS soon as he could find
IL 1t
more eloquent of faith than an Ella
borate creed. Jesus made a remark
about the value of the sort of faith
that rises superior to evidence, but
the anguished father interrupted His
with the cry, MY son!" Every ut
terance of his lips every gesture OF
his body, was eloquent of that one
thoughth, healing for his son. God is
not going to deny the boon of one
whose entire being has become pray
er. When we want anything as badly
as that nobleman wanted health for
his boy, we are likely to get it.
If he only had known it, the very
possession of this supreme desire was
a boon of life to the kings officer.
he was experiencing a grand pas
sion, which is to live. Most of us
skim the surface of life; we scarcely
) know what it is to possess any emo
ton greatly. Our pleasure and our
sorrows are trivial; we merely play
at living, never knowing what it is
to experience anything superlatively.
This war has meant life for count
less ShriVelled souls, that have come
, into their first experience of the sub
limitieS of existence through this
, Gethsemane of humanity. Even had
this fathers son not recovered, the
; noblemans life would have been for
/, ever richer and true because he had
| so greatly suffered. But his boon was
granted; God hears the prayers that
, vibrate from the innermost core of
} the heart.
| Health and Religion
For the first time in Johns Cos
pei, we here come face to face with
Christ as leader. We have seen
Him doing wonders as a social force
and as a courteous guest; as a moral
; and religious reformer; and as a
teacher and personal worker. Now
, we behold Him as a healer of the
body. The theme is congenial to our
) day. All graduations of philosophy
are turning toward the healing func-
: tions of religion.
Clearly, the tendency of our day Is
: to eXalt physical health into the first
place, as the supreme spiritual bless
step of that way of thinking is to put
: all bodily satisfactions above any
moral or spiritual codes, as is the
practice of some of the cults which
jaded seekers after new sensations
are borrowing from the East. This is
the clear peril of our new mood of
. seeking health for the body from soul
sources. Now the body is not first
and they who live for the body inn
peril their spirits. Man is more than
this physical corpus: as the old say
ing has it. 1--WE have bodies; we are
, souls" Man is a creature of two
worlds, and they little understand his
capacity or his destiny who would
; leave the future life out of their reck-
oning.
. Nevertheless, Christ was a healer
So were His disciples. There is this
, supreme warrant for entering into
a study of this vast and uneXplored
: field. Plainly, Jesus cares for our
Wilderness as well as for our holiness.
He means to be a vital factor in every
department of human life. Some
; times He ministers to our highest well
) fare by healing our diseases, and
| sometimes by transforming our lives
through suffering endured with noble
resignation. We even dare say that
God is glorifled oftener in the sick
room than in the gymnasium.
a Miracle Across the Miles
, Happily, in the present story there
: was a healing of body, as well as a
, changing of mind. While the father
was pleading in Cana, the son was
, suffering in Capernaum, twenty miles
/
5 thought than that Jesus would come
down" from the hills of Cana to the
seashore of Capernaum. This was his
2 plea. His only hope was in the ply
steal presence of the Healer. But
t Jesus is even better to us than our
faith of our fears. His answer to
= the great desire of the father was be-
S yond expectations or supplication.
For, 10, across the miles the mir
5 acle was wrought. At the very hour
= the boy was healed. The fathers
D faith was rewarded. A wonder of
/ wonders had happened. Amazement
5 ran through the countryside. The
daring new Teacher had once more
| accredited Himself, in startling and
f superlative fashion. The healing was
a "sign" of the deity of the Healer.
t AS was the purpose, the miracle
t created faith in Christ. The kings
5 officer himself, and his household,
became believers. Not intellectual
{ wonder, but practical faith is the
| proper consequence of the marvellous
works which Jesus has done und is
/ doing. All that the Lord says and
} does is meant to work out into life.
g The healing of the son was the saving
= of the family.
@.-N-