The Topeka state journal., 1919-07-04
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON
By WILLIAM T. ELLIS.


Full circle swing the wheel. All
the world is agog over the new mood
of socialism that is expressing itself
in violent forms in certain centers
which hold public attention. Millions
of people sincerely believe that this
whole basic idea of a reconstructed
social order is entirely new. They as
sumo that socialism-if so indefinite
a word be permissible-is a discovery
of recent years.
Yet here we come upon a picture
of the first company of Christian be-
lievers, bent upon realizing complete
communism-sellin their individual
possessions and having all things in
common, and moving altogether in a
mood of high spiritual exaltation. we
might almost say that the Christian
church began as an experiment in
socialism.
Today the church is the worlds
best bulwark against the extremes Of
socialism, such as Bolshevism, which
are being preached by radicals in
Russia and elsewhere
How are these two positions to be
reconctled? Has the church lost her
gleam. and IS communism right? Or
is the church right and are the Boil
shevist theories wrong?
We look to the story for the an
is, the organization of the friends of
Jesus. He established it to carry on
his message and mission. He provid-
ed an initiatory rite, baptism, and q
commemorative function, or sacra-
ment the eucharist, or Lords Supper.
In addition, all his followers were
characterized by the habit of prayer:
and they instinctively. and by COM
mandment also. assembled together
for fellowship, and to hear reminis-
cences about Jesus, his life, his work.
and his words. from those who had
companied with him in the flesh. A
formal Inauguration of the church
was the mysterious and supernatural
descent of the Holy Spirit at Pente-
cost. to be to the disciples all that
Jesus himself had been when alive
teacher. inspirer, present Friend.
When Socialism Was First Tried.
Life has its climactic moments. it's
transcendant experiences. by which all
else is measured and dated. In such an
upheaval, the pentecostal Visitation,
the early Jerusalem church came to
GENERALIZATION. The unity of the
brotherhood was dominant Men and
women knew themselves to be one in
a new and supreme fellowship. The
fact that they were Christians touched
by the divine fire, aware of their ac-
ceptance by Christ, made everything
else seem relatively unimportant. By
the accession of three Thousand re-
cruitS, under the stimulus of Peter S
great sermon. they were suddenly con-
fronted with a new sense of their
solidarity as Christians They became,
as it were, a special community within
the city-and the happiest. sweetest
spirited. cleanest-living section of the
population.
Under the impuision of the new
emotion, they decided to pool their
possessions. 1t was unthinkable to
them that there should be social de-
grees or classes among the brethren.
AS members of one great family, the
young Christian church, they decided
to hold all things in common. The
poor shared the property of the rich;
the rich had the voluntary help of the
poor. 1t was a case of emulation in
self-sacrifice and in affectionate serv-
ice. In eating and drinking, in work
and in workshop, there was sim
plicity of thankfulness and mutuality
never seen before.
Significantly, we hear little more
about the economic aspect of this ex-
pertinent in socialism. Had the zeal
of the disciples carried them to i'm
practicable lengths? Soon we read of
help of the mother church at Jerusa-
lem: the community had evidently
gone on to the rocks economically.
Communism has revived in various
ways in the church thruout the sue
ceeding centuries, as in the monastic
orders and in certain groups of live
minded Christians, but communism is
not a teaching of any considerable
section of the church today.
Something Better Than Socialism.
This is an arresting situation. and
@l,F- n n
study by millions of alert persons
who follow the International les
sons, keen to discern the present ap-
plications of Scripture. Either the
first group OF Jerusalem Christians
overstressed the social and economic
side of their discipleship, or else ex-
pressed il in a mistaken form, or the
Christian church as a whole has been
guilty of a profound error and apos-
tasy. Let us see.
Forms are incidental and transit
tory: the spirit is essential and abid-
ing. Jesus himself laid down that
principle. The world needed a scheme
of communism less than 1t needed a
new disposition of genuine brother
hood. Christ did not come to estab-
lish any special form of social order,
communism or aristocracy, any more
than he came to set up a distinctive
or the monarchial. Instead, he put
into the hearts OF his people a new
fire of divine love for their kind. His
followers have always been known for
their good will toward men. They do
good to all men, and especially to
such as are of the household of the
faith. Jesus creates saints; and
saints re-create society.
Because becoming a Christian is
an individual. ratherfhan mass mat
ter, and because the world ever has
greater need of vitalized personal
tiles than of new institutions. the
stamp of Scriptural approval is not
given to that first impulsive effort at
communism, other than to record the
fact. The church is a living organ
ism, and not a static construction.
Her members have shaped and re-
shaped the world, and are still doing
so. Nevertheless, the Christian in
terest is primarily in the individual
man or woman.
Institutions only incidentally mould