The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-16
International
SunddySchoolLesson
For January Is is "Beldness of Peter
and John.'-Acts 4:s-21.
Fisherman Courage VS.. Official
COVva rfitf,f.
By WILLIAM 4. ELLIS.

| anu JOun. -AclS 4so@4l
/ Fisherman Courage VS.. Official
/ Cowardice.
If there had been at the Paris peace
! conference one delegate, of any ma
| tionaIity brave enough and indiscreet
enough to tell the whole truth about
the proceedings and about world, con-
| ditions, there would be less fighting on
| the earth today. Courage to tell the
truth, the tactless truth, if need be,
| but the whole truth, in full proper
tons, is society's greatest present
need. HaIf-knowledge and active
prejudice abound; but it is the clear,
! comprehensive and uncolored truth
that will save our time from blum
ders and delays. Fearless outspoken-
needed more today than wisdom or
wealth or winsomeness.
| Here, in this book of backbone, we
/ have stirring story for study. 1t
portrays the two fishermen John and
Peter, confronting cowardly official
| dom by courageous confession. They
had healed the lame man at the
Beautiful Gate, as told in last weeks
| lesson, and had made that miracle the
| text for q sermon upon Christ and the
resurrection. Incensed at this unau-
! thorized teaching, the ecclesiastical
| authorities clapped them into Jail.
These priests and sadducees could
not themselves work a healing: and
! the juice ud0 gone out OF Lnelr own
/ preaching; but they could lay a heavy
| hand upon any man or men who
| dared to proclaim a message of reli-
| gion that had not their authofizati ton.
And they would brook no rivals; so
stern proceedings were taken against
| these Galilean advocates of Jesus, who
had already seduced five thousand
| men to their way of thinking. Thus
the Sanhedrin, like many another high
court of religion since. tried to re-
press the rise of vital religion which
did not bear its seal and brand.
Prison Cells and Real Liberty.
| Happy is the cause that can get its
1 advocates sent to jail. Even Chris
tianity owes more to its prosecutors
than to its official patrons. Peter and
John started an apostolic fashion
when they spent night in custody
for proclaiming the Name. Liberty
| has always progressed thru prison
bars Error, reaction and oppression
have consistently, turnout the CEN
turtles. committed the blunder of try
| ing to restrain truth by force. The
same proud Sanhedrin that had ar,
rested and slain Jesus was now at
| tempting the same tactics with his
disciples. They lifted the Master up
| so high on a convicHs cross that all
the world is enabled to see and adore
| him; in the case of Peter and John
| the prison cell served as a calcium
| light, to rivet the attention of Jeru
salem upon them.
! Thinking to find the street-preach-
ers cowed by a night in prison, the
Sanhedrin gathered the next morning,
in full and solemn session, and set the
/ fishermen in the midst to make an
swer concerning their credentials. "By
what power, or in what name, have
you done this?'
That is the arrogant way in which
| organization usually functions. Even
| the best of institutions is likely to
petrify into this sort of self-important
| and sacrosanct sense of authority and
| infallibility. Kipling once wrote a
singing poem. "Rimmon," about this
very quality in the British war office.
He might as we'll have written it about
the American war department or state
department, or the French or Ger
man foreign offices Ecclesiastical
| boards and courts and councils de-
veIop the same arrogant intolerance
/ and inefficiency The tendency is as
widespread and as old as human So
! ciety. Progress has come by the
| courageous defiance of things as they
are by the fearless champions of
things as they ought to be. Reform
ers, saints, heroes. have all had to
pass thru the Peter and John expert
ence with some Sanhedrin. So it will
ever continue to be; and the good
man needs to be constantly alert that
| his vote is not cast on the side of
mere complacent standpatism-
A Book That Makes Bold.
"a deal of talent is lost to the world
for want of a little courage, said
Carlyle. As it was in France. where
courage was the only virtue by which
the fighting men were judged, so Il
| is in life: the supreme desideratum,
especially of youth, is GOODNESS, ever
/ h0ldnRSS.
Christians especially must 'have-lit-
orally must have, if.they are to func-
ton successfully as Christians-the
sort of fearlessness exhibited by Peter
and John.
There is a better way to acquire
courage than to pray for it. That is
| to turn to a close AMI constant study
of this book of the Acts. which may
well be" called the Book of Boldness.
| At least nine times we find the word
itself, or one of it's derivatives, used
In the Book of the Acts, and always
in connection with witness bearing.
The first and most familiar instance
is this lesson: when they saw the
holiness of Peter and John :.
they took knowledge of them, that
| they had been with Jesus" Keeping
company with Christ makes men stout
| of heart. The first recorded prayer
| of the Christian church was a prayer
| for boldneSS; as well as the 1lrSI
recorded answer.
| Anybody who will take the trouble
to read carefully this one New Tesla
ment book, marking the instances of
spirit-filled boldness on the part of
1 the first disciples, will be overwhelmed
by the conviction that this quality of
courage in confession of Christ was a
primary Characteristic of the Apostolic
church. Such 2. study will do more
to make him bold in his own Witness
bearing than any number of sermons.
J The very word ''boldnosS" which re-
ours so often means free utterance";
it is bravery in speech; she power OF
| testimony; the audacity of truth. The
only gift of tongues that Christian
ity needs today is this characteristic
of free AID fearless speech in bearing
witness to the Saviour Given a
decade of the Peter and John sort of
courageous confession OF Christ, in
Init ir7e r.oIr ~ 1ff