Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1918-06-09
Sunday School
Lesson
BY ZEN NEMSOME-
lesson June ls. Mark l5l.A7.

SIS or Jesus mission. the hour or SAC |
| riflce. we cannot do otherwise than /
| be filled with a sense OF reverence. |
! The man who. for the sake Of the !
good he was laying mp in store for,
all humanity, could suffer degrega- |
ton, reproach, 0hysical pain, and al |
last give up his soul to the torments /
| OF hell, must command our respect |
| II not love. II was for this that |
Jesus came into the world and took |
| upon him human form. that he might I
SO thoroughly pay tho penalty for
/ sin that there would no longer rest
any condemnation against those who
/ accepted this redemption. He paid
| the price for ALL paid II 10 the last
| farthing, so that we. and even those
who accomplished his punishment,
| might have the chance to inherit
eternal life. for when Christ died on
the cross, he suffered physical
death and spiritual agony. but by
this sacrifice he put out Of power
the great arch enemy, death. Those
OF us who take up his cross and fol-
| low him may experience physical
death, but the soul lives on forever.
| As the Savior himself said We should
| fear not those who XIII the body,
bt rather those who seek 10 kill the
soul.
And the lesson was well learned
All through the ages there have been
| courageous men and women who
would suffer death rather than be
untrue TO their Savior. but their per
secutors could go no further, and the
sacrifice they made of human life
gave them the moro abundant en-
trance into that life that knows no
sorrow or death. Happily these times
have passed away. II 'is a rare thing
now TO hear of anyone being con-
demned to death for his religious be-
lief, but those who make business
of seeking tho ruin OF the soul are
as busy as ever. They are the ones
we should fear. Men and women go
through this world laying traps for
unwary feet, undermining the moral
convictions of the young. planting
doubt and recklessness where the
seeds Of good training have sprung
up. They teach the young that sin
and lustful qualification are human
nature" are privileges of which they
cannot Justify be deprived. and that
all who essay to be righteous are
either deficient In virility or are
playing the hYpocrite. They try to
make the young belleve~t that to be
good is to be dull. that Christianity Is
a religion of gloom and restraint.
that to take up the cross is to deny
the most pleasant things Of life. They
preach, too, that a certain amount of
sinful Indulgence is healthy for both
body and mind and that such iniqui-
ties should be excused and palliated.
They teach US tho pride OF being
red blooded," and that to achieve
this happy condition we must drink
a little, gamble occasionally and in
moderation indulge In sexual vice.
The argument Is the same as that
used by the serpent in Eden. He
made our first parents to feel that
God had someway been unjust in
planting a tree the fruit OF which
they must not touch, and that IL they
ate OF this fruit they would "be as
gods" So now they tell the young
that to be virile man you must be
just so wicked, and that to be an at
tractive woman you must forget
righteousness In the qualification Of
pleasure.
II was a specific feature Of the
trial and conviction of Jeslrs that
there was no popular demand for the
act. 1t was purely and simply dirty
politics. 1t was not the comm on
people who wanted him out of the
way; II was the men high In church
and state. 1t was not the Romans,
for they understood little OF what
was going on. 1t was, first and fore.
most, a tyrannical religious hIer-
archy. which had dominated the ma
ton undisputed for so long, even
under foreign yoke, that they con-
| ceived the sun rose and set by their
10 %
dogmausm and formality. not so
much for any real devotion TO Je- |
hovah. as for the power 1t gave them |
over the common people and for the |
graft they could acquire. They could |
not tolerate the idea of a man rising |
up who told them their sins to their |
faces, and whose hold on the people |
threatened to destroy THAR influence. y
ii was the age-old struggle between /
light and darkness. and the light had |
; had to be put out to save the dark
ness from dissipation. Just think |
Of trials that were held none of them |
just or equitable. but all dominated |
by the one idea that Christ must be |
condemned by hook or crook; and Of |
the temporizing weakness Of PLATE,
the man who found no fault with the |
prisoner, but gave him up 10 his
prosecutors to appease a faction who |
might have him deposed from his |
throne IL he made enemies of them. |
II was a question OF political exped-
iency with him, and 1t was a question |
OF military obednence with the SOL
diers who carried out the sentence.
Truly. they knew not what they did. |
But we are not to pass a sweeping |
condemnation upon all who seemed |
to be concerned in this crime We |
cannot blame the soldiers, and not all |
the rich and influential powers con-
senting to this tragedy. We must
remember that even two members
OF the sanhedrin voted against the
verdict OF guilty. These were NIco-
deDus and Joseph Of Arimathea, who
afterwards came and claimed the
body for burial. Pehaps we cannot
class them as courageous Christians.
since they confined their convictions
TO protest against a great injustice.
but in contrast with the rank and |
file Of the religious leaders they were
white as snow. And 1t has ever been
the desperation OF embittered reli-
glonists that has caused the blood Of
martyrs 10 flow and which even now
shows It's cloven foot in social and
business ostracism Of those who will |
not subscribe to the line of dogma,
which would consign TO hell fire all |
who do not agree with their theologi-
cal views. Every year sees an i'm
n a - l. L.