Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-12-19

by Dives door, with thoughtful
eye,
He did tomorrow prophesy:-
The Kingdoms gate is low and
The rich can scarcely wedge through
at ALL
"A dangerous man. said Caiphas;
An ignorant demogague, alas,
Friend of low women, IL is he
SANDERS the upright Pharisee.'
For law and order. it was plain,
For Holy Church, He must be slain.
The troops were there to awe the
crowd,
= And violence was not allowed.
Their clumsy force with force to
foil
, His strong, clean hands He would
not soil.
He saw their childish ness quite plaik
Between the lightnings of his pain.
Between the twilight of His end,
He made His fellow-felon friend:
With swollen tongue and binding
eyes,
Invited him to Paradise.
"Ah, let, no local Him refuse!
T"mrHde Jesus nth paid his dues.
Whatever others be debarred
iComrade Jesus hath his red card"
Where 1t All Occurred
Il This is the time for the long look
backward. The International Sum-
day School Lesson Committee has
assigned for this review the topic
THE Training of Peter and John"
hn fNrrA xx,l,1
ured in the years studies. So We
are to take a broad. far survey of
them, and of the conditions amid
which they lived. Perhaps we may
catch new glimpse of the impor-
tance to our own world of these two
Asiatic workingmen of the long ago.
That there is such thing as
place-providence, no reverent stu
dent of history will deny. There
IS a geography of God. fIe has cho-
sen certain lands as the scene of his
major operations. A myriad preach
ers have seen such a significance in
the situation of this western conti-
| nent. Anew, as of old, the shores
OF the Mediterranean are the thea
ter of vast and Notwithstanding
events. The Holy Land has been
the battle-ground OF the ages - and
the living spring of waters from
which world-encircling streams have
| flowed.
Everybody who is ordinarily in
telligent should know where Pales-
| tine is. The vagueness with which
all foreign lands are regarded as
/ "over there is not creditable TO
the general education. once ask
ed classroom of college students
to tell me how to go to Jerusalem:
not one could do SO: most of them
got only as far as Paris. The men
of the Bible will never be real to
us unless the places of the Bible
are also real. This Book is not in
the same category with Mother
Goose and the Fairy Tales: although
christian people not n few regard it
with somewhat the same sense of
lunreality. A map'~will make clear
why Peter and John were at a place
of universal potency.
Orange Trees and Men
I have seen orange groves bear
Ing at the same time blossoms and
ripe fruit, which is symbolic.
Certain lives like those of the two
Galilean fishermen who are at the
moment under review, are bearing
the blossoms of to-morrow's fruit.
even while producing fruit to-day.
Peter and John have profoundly af-
fected human history; they are
among the races few shaping men;
vet their greatest work is yet to be
done.
1t seems as il the world to-day is
all of sudden and all in the new,
plastic and formative We have
come, as 1t were, to n time of uni
versal social new birth. All the old
forces and institutions are being re-
valued. Some ere being rejected,
after centuries OF use. Others are
coming into fresh power. The
character and message of the grea {
builders, like Jesus and his apos-
ties, are now entering into n remade
opportunity. Like q discovered die.
they may strmp their impress upon
the currency of humanity. In all
the long stretches of time. has there
ever been an hour so full of posi-
bility as this for fixing the character
OF the spirits of mankind?
Aroused over all the world, the
toilers are ready to accept the lead
ership of such comradely heroes as
Peter and John. These two toiler-
teachers are the more welcome as
leaders because they are men from
the ranks. The callouses from the
heaVy sweeps of the Galilean boats
are still on their palms. Their sim
pie cloaks smell of the days catch.
Their eyes wenr the understanding
look of the laborer who has been
tired and hungry. These are no
book-taught theories. Their lingo
is that of everyday men; and not
the shop-tallI of seminaries. They
know what they are speaking about.
and their word has the eternal power
or the real. Whoever can introduce
Peter and John. and their Carpentcr
Master, to the workers of the world
will be doing the most possible to
serve a puzzled generation.
Selling What He Hadn't
Because Peter and John had ex-
perienced all they tell, they get a
hearing~ The simple explanation
for much of the failure of the Church
to reach the world is that it is offer
ing people what it does not possess.
It's advertised goods are not always
found on its shelves.
Recently. 7 was entering the Cos
mos Club, Washington, when q pa
thetic figure, unkempt and poverty
marked, was trying to get past the
doorman, to call upon someone in
side. The negro evidently thought
the man was not the sort whom y
member of the club would care to
see. At length, he ushered him into
n little anteroom. where messengers
wait, and sent for the person want
cd. I happened to be using the teIe :
! phone booth in that same room and
/ so was enforced witness and auditor