The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1918-05-30
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
Especially Prepared For Readers
of The Republican,

SUNDAY. JUNE End.
Self Forgetful Service. adult Toplc)
Mark 13:1-14:8. Read Matt. "a, 25;
Luke 21:5-26.
He that endureth to the end, the same
shall be saved. Mark 1918.
U. S. WRIGHT.
The MINISTRY OF JESUS.
Jesus had finished His warnings and
work in the temple and had proclaimed
its coming desolation. He took the
familiar way across the Kedron and
coming to the summit of the hill seated
Himself in the glory of the lavender
lights of dying day and was looking
back over the city. Four of the Dis
ciples came up and seated themselves
with Him and the talk Immediately
turned to the explanation of His state
ment, more explicit to them than to
the Rulers, that the very stones of the
Temple should be overthrown. AS the
twilight deepened into moonlit shadows
He talked freely OF the future in order
that He might give needed lesson to
these inquiring minds. Three thoughts
come into prominence. Firt, The clear
understanding of the faith-shattering
events that were to come. Jerusalem
was to become ruin. The Jewish ma
tion was to be overthrown. Dellverers
should rise and create followings. The
direst sufferings should fall upon those
who believed in His teachings even
families should be disrupted by them.
There was not a ray of light upon the
background of the canvass that He
painted of the days to come. Why did
He speak so plainly? Because of their
need. Their whole world had conferred
in that beloved city of mighty men,
cries and IN the prominence which it
and its worship were destined to hold
in that world. When the citadel should
fall what would be its effects upon them
but the destruction of their faith? We
can more clearly understand this to-day
than we ever could before because the
same thing has happened to so many
questioning eager souls as we face the
crash of all the we'll builded hopes of
our civilization. The church has been
stoned frt m almost every angle and men
have declared her uselessness if after
all the centuries of her teaching such
calamity should come upon the world.
Men are lost through shattered faith
never by falling walls. 1t was this that
plunged the ten tribes into oblivion and
buried so many of the Judean Jews in
Babylonian life and not the fact that
Jerusalem and Samaria were captured
by enemies. This has crushed Russia
where the impact of German armies
failed, its opposite makes France I'M
conquerable, in the face of tenfold
horrors and makes Albert still King.
These Disciples must know, If their
faith fail not, that their Leader
understood just what lay in the peri
lous path that stretched across their
years. Knowing this events would find
and leave them unafraid. Their NOR
ale would be unaffected. Second, The
clear perception of the permanence of
the principles underlying His mes
sage. 1--WE are saved by hope" is
Paul's verdict which is confirmed by
every struggler since. No man reck-
ons cost or hardship if victory is as
sured thereby. Jesus was perfectly
plain in the explanation of what was to
be expected but He was equally certain
that His words should not pass away.
Conviction of their truth would be in
eyitably strengthened as they met them
if He had promised them these things;
if one was being witnessed before their
eyes then surely the other would follow
as He declared. If he knew the world
well enough to trace its history that
grew out of the forces then at work He
knew what forces would survive out of
the changes that were in process. Jere-
miah did more than any other man to
save the faith of the overthrow Jew
by his claim of the coming fall of Jeru-
salem and the undefeatable PRINCIPLES
that the city stood for in Gods plan.
What stopped the Germans at the
Marne?" some one questioned. God"
came reverentlF from the lips of Cen
eral SHUTS who knows how to fight as
we'll as pray. Moral forces cannot be
mastered in Gods world. That sense
of coming victory Jesus put into the
lives of His followers and it is the same
sense of certainty in the outcome that
has kept the church a vital force
thru all the centuries. Third, The clear
challenge to alertness and expectancy
in facing the world. If there is defeat
it will be because OF your own failure
not because of any necessity for it.
When the Fifth Army had been brushed
aside by the Germans along the Somme
in rout that grows mole momentous
the more it is known and their object
i've was open for the taking General
Carey did the impossible by gathering
laborers. engineers and stndants -