The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1921-03-03
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
Prepared Especially for The Republi-
can By DIR. U. S. Wright.

fIepdSeu ESPECIALLY IOr Inc hcpuDlI-
eSn By DIR. U. S. Wright.
SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 1921
JESUS AMONG HIS FRIENDS
Matt. ES;1-13.
(Read Mark 1899; John 12:1-8.)
She hath done what she cSuld.-Mark
VOLCANOES AND VIOLETS.
Volcanoes are disastrous things.
Many city has been buried in the
ashes that became a sudden tomb
Whole territories have been blotted
out and islands have been transform
ed into waste places. Yet upon their
smoking sides, far above the snow
line of perpetual winter, violets bloom
and mingle their fragrance with the
pungent air. There is the same con-
trast in life, for where passion flames
and clouds of poison gases wrap
themselves the flowers of sacrifice
bloom most profusely. Witness the
peoples in Flanders Fields. Witness
he love offerings of life in the midst
f the hate of war. And whenever a
strong soul, rising above the average
plain of humankind, is smitten with
beating storms of envy or whatnot of
mans passion just so certainly will
there be found close under the
clouds some beautiful evidence of hui
man love. Among the Rulers hate
had developed into an unreasoing,
deadly rage. They felt all the sacred
things built through the slow centur-
les assaulted by this strange interpre-
ter of those very things as the pos
session of the ignoble throng rather
than as the exclusive property of the
privileged. The most holy institution
halllwed by the centuries and linked
with the name of Moses, David and
Solomon, appeared to them to be en-
dangered by His teaching of Father
hood and brotherhood. If the Tenn
pie were destroyed what untold disas-
ter would be wrought to the faith of
the fathersl And to what depths
might not they themselves be reduced
who like barnacles upon the stout bot
tom OF ship are carried by it's power
instead of by their own volition! And
II the Temple and its accompaniments
disappeared the nation would not sur
we its loss. There is no difficulty in
understanding the position of the rul.
ers and the volcanic nature of their
passion against Jesus. In the light
OF the attitude of labor and capital, of
the union and the scab, of society and
the l.. W. W., of certain TYNE of
wealth IN money, position, education
or occupation and less favored folk
one can readily see how much the Jew
found to justify his attitude toward
Jesus. And it is against such heat
and under its stimulus that the bean,
tlfully fragrant blossom of devotion
appears. John places the time as ev-
enlng before what We would call the
First day, but part of it, according to
the reckoning, that began at sunset
instead of midnight Matthew and
Mark are more concerned with the
thought sequence and seem to be
placing it where they do in explana-
ton of Judas's act follows it. Time is
not SO essential as the fact of loves
unforgetable offering.
THE DEVOTEE.
Who was Simon the Leper? No one
knows and conjecture runs from the
husband of Martha to the name of an
inn. He is a mere marker on tha
page of life. Jesus was coming to
Bethany and his last visit had left
such stupendous changes that hate
had determined upon His death and
devotion upon His honor. Martha was
her place of serving the outside of
life as had always been her habit. |
zarus the silent, who might have
IN such striking testimony to af- |
S in the unseen border beyond the |
OF death, was there in the full
OF health and vigor and shared |
Joy of all the home. Mary was
ut upon the higher ministry to the |
and soul of her loved Lord. She
I'd the situation as no one else
--.ned to do and understood how
heavy was the heart of Him who made |
the meal to be feast. She knew the |
storm about to break and feared with
good reason the outcome. against
the day of my burying hath she kept
this" is the word of Jesus, and evil
IDENTIFY she had planned this Offering of
gratitude before Nicodemus had given
a thought of his spices. Then came
the wondrous Presence and the con-
seriousness that there was sore need
OF some special sustenance of spirit
rather than of the body, and her in
sight into the heart of Jesus with it's
shadows of the approaching cross ar
rested her with its sudden demand for
expression. Why shouId Sba v,oi+o