The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1919-12-25
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON.
Especially Prepared for The Republi-
can by DR.. U. S. Wright.


SUNDAY, DECEMBER %.
Review: The training of Peter and |
John. Reading Lesson John liz. Ye
shall be my witnesses. Acts 1:8.
BURBANKING SOULS.
Luther Burbank is one of our we'll
known figures who gives his entire at
tention to the improvement of plant |
life. With perfectly clear vision of
the desirabillty of certain product
such as splneless, edible cactus, with
an understanding of the qualities of
varying plants he plans a hybrid that
shall be at least an approach toward
the one desired. Christ did the same
life with that of some other person and
produced resultant personality that
was an approach toward His ideal for
the man. 1t was a hybrid and an i'm
proVement. The quarter has been
study of the process of change in the
lives of Peter and John. 1t may have
been the ripening of still earlier ac-
quaintance but under Johns stirring
call these men accepted the ideals pro-
claimed as their own and were picked
from that larger group as hopeful souls
for the development of Christ-likeness.
For more than three years the careful
directing process went on, leaving a
new Simon and new John that yet
held all the fine things that had made
them themselves in the beginning.
Christ never destroys the me" in de-
veloping the life. John was hot tenn
pered, callow, intolerant and selfishly
ambitious. He grew into the most I'M
derstanding of the Disciples with an
ambition for the Kingdom and a con-
troll over the anger that had once
famed against those who refused his
Lord a place to the gripping hold thru
the darkest days upon the man who had
denied that he ever knew Jesus. His
outstanding lessons were the rebuke
for intolerance and the washing of the
feet in the Upper Room. Simon the
impetuous in speech and act was a
coward whose culture took the direc-
ton of making his steadfast and strong.
The sea. the converse preceding the
TRANSPORTATION, the garden. the re-
surrection and the restoration are the
seen attempts as fashioning him into
that of which he was capable. There
were many lessons which are not re-
corded and there was the constant
comradeshlp which was more than any
other the determining thing in the
lives of them all. The vase that has
held il its embrace some altar of roses
will always bear fragrant witness to
the fact and the life that has held Jesus
in its heart of love is altered for all
time. When it came to the facts given
them these covered the revolutionary
idea of God as Father with the result |
tant brotherhood, new conception of |
Christ, a new understanding of service
and a new certainty of an immortal
life. And they could not live with these |
great thoughts continually without be- |
ing lifted to higher levels so that in
dwelling upon great themes they be-
come great themselves.
PRIMARY TOPIC: True Friends of Jesus.
Memory Verse, John 1914.
Just half our lessons have been from
a different text from the adults but all
have been the stories of some of the |
happenings that went along with the
presence of Jesus. Pictures are great |
aid and either Perry's or Wilde's may
be had for penny apiece so that this
help should not be neglected. The
Picture Roll will be reused where it is
part of the teaching material. Have !
the favorlte stories retold. Use some
of the great friendship stories for illus
tration. Let them tell persons they