The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-03-26
International
SundaySchoolLesson
By WILLIAM Il. ELLIS.

For March % is Review: The Life
/ Work of Peter and John"
| Two Men Who Changed Things.
Ibanez, the Spanish author who has
a present vogue. told an interviewer at
Bryn Mawr recently. The majority
of people are idiotic. They are imbe-
Giles You cannot hammer logic into
their heads. In fact. I hardly think
| it worth while bothering much with
humanity at ALL
Probably our visitor was not led to
| this pessimistic conclusion by the fact
! that his own books have had such a
large. sale-his remark rather illus
trates his contention that humanity
| is not always logical!-he merely was
maintaining the popular pose of cyni-
cisrn and superiority affected by many
modern writer's His attitude toward
humanity is that of obscurantist aris-
tocracy--and there is no aristocracy
more absurdly vain and supercilious
than that of the tintellectuals" of all
time 1t echoes the arrogance of the
Jewish Sanhedrin. which. pointed
Iscornfully to the fact that the only
followers of Jesus were the masses of
plain folks-''This multitude, which
knoweth not the way. is accursed."
In sharp contrast, observe the DEM
ocratic basis upon which Jesus estab-
lished His kingdom He Himself was
a man of the big crowd. His hands
bore the callouses of the wielder of
saw: ana a0Ze ana manner. HIS
friends were the ordinary run of
workingmen, with one or two excep-
tious, from a higher social stratum.
proving that He was no advocate of
class consciousness. His messag e was
not directed to the literati of His time.
but to the common people. who heard
Him gladly. OF His intimates. the two
whose lives are assigned for review in
the present lesson, Peter and John,
were only ishermen-smelly, sun
1t lad rtll Isa
fishermen, more at home manning the
heavy sweeps in a Galilee storm than
in even the outer courts of the gov
eminent palaces.
The Making of Two Men.
OF course, if John and Peter had
not lived neighbors to Jesus, and had
not been quick to seize the chance
to become His friends they would
have been, so far as history goes,
merely uncounted units amid the bill
lions of forgotten dead. That they
enterd upon careers of power surpass-
ing the fame or might of kings is due
to the time in which they lived and to
the opportunity which they grasped.
These two common men became I'M
common (for there is unsupported ca
pacity in every one of us) by accept
ing as Master of their lives the new
Teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. That
statement is not preaching: it is sim
Right here is where the big truth
bites. Ours, like the day of the two
fisherman, is plastic, portentous
time, an era of unprecedented oppor-
tunity. Its call for men is almost
pitiable. How little are the biggest
men of our period-the men who made
the peace treaty, for instance! Instead
of moral giants, minds of sublime and
imperial mold, we see them to have
been hucksters and schemers and COM
promisers, unequal to the opportunity
Politicians, rather than statesmen,
hold the center of the worlds stage.
Where is the outstanding figure of
spiritual might, with clarion voice and
selfless spirit. calling this tragic time
back to the clear verities which alone
ruin? Truly. we need Johns and
Peters to arise on the peak of oppor
tunity.
Also this is the day of Christ He
alone has the key to the riddle of Now.
Only He can guide US out of the jungle
into which mankind has blundered.
No leader less than Christ, the master
full and merciful. the Lawgiver and
the Lover. the Will of God for the
way of men, can deliver our hurt and
harried humanity. He alone can
speak the master-word that rises
above the babel of scared and small
and selfish counsels. Political candi-
dates. convictionless and timorous.
promise anything that they think will
get them a following; Christ uncom-
promisingly offers Himself as the way
of Righteousness and brotherhood and
peace.
But He needs now, as perhaps He
never before since the days of the
apostles so acutely needed, men who
will dare to interpret Him to a blum
dering and befuddled world as did
Peter and John.
C,reater Than the Ieaeue
Decisions are dear to most of US,
and none is dearer than the notion
that we shall yet find a patent me-
chanica1 remedy for everything that is
wrong with the world. Men are still
seeking for the philosophers stone. |
We set up political theories galore
from Bolshevism to the League of Ma
uons-and try to cheat ourselves that |
these cure-alls are different from the |
quack nostrums that are offered the
ignorant for the cure of the body's
ills. Health is not coming that way
for our sick and smitten earth. /
No message from Mars will do it; |
no universal federation or union of
churches; no spiritualistic revelation; |
no League of Nations no government |
ownership project; and no other po-
litical or economic or religious device |
or orga nization. Let US be brave |
enough to face the elemental fact that |
we are to be led into a nobler life
only by nobler lives: the answer is
"Once upon a time there was a man"
When we have got our Johns and |
our Peters for today with their goodly |
fellowship of Christ-aflame men and |
women, then we shall see that the
way out is clear: and it will be the |
same way that led Christendom out |
of the murk and slime and suffering |
and oppression of the Roman era,
which was overwhelmed by the gospel I
of personal goodness and brotherliness
and divine faith. Our 'broken-down
civilization is going to be reconstruct
ed only by new and widespread /
turning to discipleship to Jesus, with |
an obedience to His law of love and /
righteousness