Pueblo chieftain., 1921-09-17
In the Religious World

CLASS VI UoNs anu guns. VI al eh'iie
Sunday School. Some, patient, strong
and far-sighted, will gather about
the groups of young people in order
to make disciples for Christian
patriotism and world-service. A few
may become missionaries or preach
ers. A great number will catch a
vision of the place and power of min
istering homes. The avenues and
methods are countless: it is the pur
pose that is the thing. Somehow, any
how, the great soul will bear part in
applying the Christian remedy to our
smitten. sore and sick world.
If the wonderful story of the two
first missionary journeys of Paul
have any practical significance for
this year of our Lord, 1921, it must be
that we are to help bring to bear upon
our contemporary life the transform
ing power of Christ. Personal piety is
is not enough: assent to religious
teachings is not enough; intellectual
conviction of Christian s place is not
enough: there must be. if we are to
make the Pauline Jump" some def
mite participation in broad-gauge
effort to transform our troubled
world by the peace of Christ.
As One Layman Does II
| have friend. business man.
whose "career" is-a Sunday school
Deliberately and definitely, he has
chosen to make his greatest contribu-
tion to his generation by way of the
leadership of a Sunday <school, of
which he is the superintendent. Be-
cause he is bound to do vital and
abiding thing, he had cut loose from
many of the social interests that oc-
cupy other men s time, and he gives
his brains and his nights and his
money TO planning and working for
group of about FIVE hundred young
people. Because he is big and brave
sSd genuine, he is not content with
perfunctory organization. drifting
along comfortably and usefully: he
is out to transform lives.
Progressive in his outlook, like the
Apostle Paul, he never loses sight of
the central truth that ii is the Bible
! and its Christ that alone can make
over human beings and organized
society. All the resourcefulness of
modern business man are applied to
the fascinating task of vitslizing his
Sunday school members. This past
lsummer for instance. he has got
pledges from more than four hundred
of them to "resd and re-readn. after
a definite plan. the Gospels and the
Acts, attractive copies of which arc
given to the covenantcrs. A series of
Questions, cleverly designed to stim-
lulate real thought, accompany the
Bible-study plan. For my friend
knows full we'll that when he is i'm
presnating Young people with the
Scriptures. he is rearing pillars for
the support of the nation and Of the
world.
Better Of Than Paul's Converts
This one business man. like every
sNhcr Christian worker, is better
equipped for his work than was the
Apostle Paul. We often overlook
the tremendous accumulation of aids
for Christian service which the
Church today possesses. Imagine the
missionary Apostle with railways and
steamships and automobiles and t,le-
phones and tolographs and wireless
and post Offices and printing presses
at his disposal He had 80 little and
did 30 much: we have so much and
do SO little. One of the gratifying
signs of the times is the widesprcad
increase of interest on the part Of
church folk in the subject of cooper
alton with the daily newspapers,
When this fully flowers and fruits.
We shall see every daily paper in the
land carrying Christian news and
Teachings
| In another wsy the Church today
is better of than those Paul founded.
We have Christian background, in
stead Of a gross heathcn setting. We
have an accumulation of Christian
teaching and a worldwide Christian
Organization. They had only Paul
himself: and some of them were not
big enough to discern thru his phvsi-
cal limitations his real greatness.
They had no written Gospel: Psul's
own letter TO the Thessalonians was
tho frs, book of the Christian canon.
VIC have the whole New Testament.
accessible. in more than five hundred
language. to every people under
heaven. The full sweep of Christian
teaching is available tn MS.
With heroic and sudacious Psul.
his missionary enterprise was real
"iumpr into the unknown and peri
lous; in our case. 1t is scarcely a
Jump" a, all. for We have great aud
highly-organized and efficient mis-
sionsry societies to carry on the task
he began. Our machinery for service