The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-30
International
SundaySchoolLesson
BY WILLIAM I. ELLIS.

For February Is Peter and John in
| Samaria.' Acts s:4-25.
A World Attire From Scattered Brands.
| With the whole vast world of today,
from China to Peru" ablaze with
new fires, we are in a mood to- study
this story of the Scatterdtion of the
embers of Christianity into the little
Hebrew world of Judea and Samaria.
Both Instances have certain measure
| of analogy. Nobody dreamed, five
years ago, that the assassination of a
royal parsonage by Bosnian student
in an unknown city would result in
overturning ancient autocracies, in
arousing all slumbering peoples, in up
setting the worlds economic system, in
discarding existing maps of the earth,
and in creating a really revolutionized
human order.
| Neither did fanatical Saul, and the
| other Jewish bigots, suppose that
when they stoned to Death a sanity
deacon of the young Christian church,
named Stephen, they were inaugural
ing a missionary era for Christianity
which has gone on expanding to the
present day, sweeping aside empires
and systems as it moved. Persecution
| kicked the brands of the fire of faith
in every direction and wherever they
fell. new fire started. Stephen, by
his death, won apostolic rank as a
preacher of the Good News
They that were scattered abroad
went everywhere preaching the word"
That is the way cause, be it good or
Dad, wins converts. Bolshevism has
grown perniciously by that sort of
propaganda Islam has won huge
countries in just this fashion. II the
far-scattered representatives of the
| Christian church, who are now sailing
frau
business men, travellers, diplomats and
government servants, have the ancient
| impulse to proclaim the Good News.
| this Will be the era os the quickest and
widest dissemination of the story
the centuries have ever known. The
Gospei statesmen, to change the figure,
are covering all the possible territory:
the only question is whether or not
they have the goods
| Where Orphanages Bloom.
Not to press the parallel with this
oia experience too far, We yet must
mote that where Christianity goes
there also goes moral cleansing and
health and helpfulness- The preach-
ing that followed the Christian dis
persal from Jerusalem was accom-
fpanief by miracles of healing. and
casting out of demons. While nv pen
pauses, poised above this page, there
passes before my memory a wonderful
succession of Christian hospitals Mai
have seen in Asia, from Japan to
ASA Minor. Scores and scores of
them l have visited. They are bring
ers-in of the curative art of the west,
with all that it implies of kindly care
and social responsibility.
| Looking back over this sweep of
service and succor, it is not essv TO
realize that all these hospitals, and the
orphanage and modern schools also.
| have followed in the train of Christian
i missions; that they were previously
unknown over most of the earth's sur
face. All this vast machinery of
/ altruism is a direct product of the
i gospel. AS it was in old Samaria, so
1T Is now in new Asia and. Africa and
1.-THE islands of the sea-healing and
Joy travel in the train of the religion
of Jesus.
And they are bringing forth after
their kind. AS the violet-ray appara-
tus win drive into the tissues a healing
oil spread on the skin. so this war has
almost magically driven into the whole
worlds life the altruistic usages of
the Christian Occident. I recall or
phanages and schools in Turkey that
have been opened by the people them
selves, without western help. but pat
termed on the Christian model. The
lanclent cruelty and callousness and
selfishness of the east has had to
surrender to the new and Christian
spirit which regards man as his
brothers keeper. Not all missionary
leaders know if as yet but the truth
is that revolution In conditions,
needs and methods of the worlds re-
ception of Christianity has taken
place.
"Religious Graft"
To keep contacts clear and pure
and vital is as important in religion
as in electricity. There is always the
tendency of the world to absorb the
church, as well as for the church to
!. absorb the world. Oftentimes official
Christianity has boosted itself of its
worldly wisdom, its material might
its wealth, its position, and its eff
cheney, rather than of it's simple
spiritual faith. There has never been
a period when the church has not
been subject to the temptation of be-
ing annexed or utilized by the world
An interesting incident of this sort
appears in the present lesson. A
sorcerer named Simon was the major
attraction of the region. He was &C
claimed as a Somebody. SThen along
came Christianity, with greater pow
ers, and obscured him. He cannily
. decided to go along with this more
popular movement. and formally en-
rolled himself as an adherent. Later
when he saw the marvellous gift OF
the Spirit, which came at the laying
= on of the hands. of the apostles. he
, offered them money to be taught the
art.
simon was d IcilSlOuS STd1lST ms
could not think of a spiritual expert
ence apart from profit for himself
He would go along with the new
movement: but he m1st have a jot
out of 1t! And to his heather way OF
thinking. there was nothing. even ir
the realm of religion, that money
could not buy. His idea has not yei
been wholly uprooted from the
church Many men and women ex-
pect special consideration because
they have wealth.
E All such need to hear Peters con-
l,temptuous words, Thy money perish
with thee!'' That was doom and
damnation for the man and hi:
money, too. He had thought to traf'
fic in Gods free gift. Peter stigma
tized Simon the Magician-who has
given his name to religious graft. II
the word 'simony''-as entirely out
lsidn nf anu ralatinr1-fn the aiff of thu