Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-08-13

Golden Text; "Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and Him only
Paul had successful experience at
Antioch in Pisidia. The kind of SER
mon he preached there will always
bring results-it was based on the
scripture, showing Gods dealings in
the past, and lifted up the crucified
and risen Christ. The message was
received so much more joyOusly by
the Gentiles than by the Jews that
Paul announced that he would hence
forth turn to the Gentiles. Seeing
their case failing the Jews resorted
to a new measure-they stirred up
the devout women of high social
position, and the rulers of the city,
and instituted persecution against
Paul and Barnabas, and expelled
them out of the city.
At Iconiu1n
The political diversions of Asia
benefit to these ambassadors OF
Christ, for by going few miles
they could get out of tl1~ jurisdic~
ton of one officer and into the ter
ritory of another. Iconium was on
the edge of Phyrgia and under an
other Roman official. SO mere Pa s,Cd
and Barnabas came and escaped the
persecution ordered by the chief men
of Antioch. Their first concern
would be to find lodging and a place
to work. for during all of this jour-
| ney Paurs boyhood training, STOOD
make a living for himself while he
| preached among the heather the un-
| searchable riches of Christ. Then
on the Sabbath they gathered with
| the Jews in the synagogue, where
abundant opportunities were Offered
an first-for them TO, present their
message. All! but the remarka Die
thing there was that they 80" spake
that a great multitude believed we
can guess the reason, too, tor every
recorded sermon Of PauIs lifts up
Jesus the Christ. Every since his ex-
perience on the Damascus road Christ
had been all in all to Paul, and ne
could not help speaking of Him, for
Christ filled his life; to him Chris
tianity was Christ. He had no time
day; he simply offered them the gift
of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Their religions i contained many
things that were good, but none knew
anything of the pardon of sins, ana
the receiving of power over sin, 1t
was when he presented this to them
that some hesitated but others be-
lieved. But the thing that they
stumbled over was the croSS-the OIL
Tense of the cross. To the Jew 1t
was a stumbling block-he could not
| understand His Messiah dying as a
foolishness-he could not comprehend
the mystery of it. Old Polycarp on
trial for his life answered the ques--
ton put to him: who is Christ ana
One who dwells in my heart; and
one day He is coming in the clouds
in great glory" This was incom-
prehensible to the Greek. To the
Roman the cross was an otfense-
to think of a crucifer as God was
Il y1d
it was in the cross that Paul glorleo-
and it was the cross that he preach
ed. And he so spake" that "a great
multitude believed" That is still
| the secret of real success in a
nrea cher. and PauPs way is\the way
The unbelieving Jews were an in
tolerant people. They resented any
success that did not center in them.
SO they stirred up the heather here,
and did all they could to prejudice
the people against those who were
but that only made Paul and Barna-
| bas all the more determined. They
stayed a Tong time" (v. 81 in leo
MUM spanking boldly in the name of
the Lord; and God honored their min
istry by manifessting His grace
| were saying by signs and wonders
done at their hands. These were
lprobably physical miracles. Probably
at times God uses His servants now
to do signs and wonders to strength
en- their faith and to confirm their
words. He does spiritual miracles
every day which are much more re-
| markable than any physical miracle
ever performed. The result was
divided city. But when their, enc,
mics plotted an assault, they heard
| of it and escaped into the next polit-
ical acknowledgements, of which
| Lystra was the capital. Here they
were safe from the stoning which
had been plotted against them. 1t
was not lack of courage that made
keen sense of the duty of not court
| ing danger. The cities of Lycaonia
needed Christ, and they must give
it to them. In the cities of that prov
| ince they preached the gospel:
The Lame Man Healed
| In Lystra one of the hearers in the
congregation was a lame man, Grip
pied from birth. His earnestness
caught the eye of Paul, and he real
ICED that there were possibilities OF
him, stand upright on thy feet"
And he not only stood but walked
and leaned-even though he had
! never walked a step in his life be-
fore The effect on the people was
magical. Paul had been speaking in
| the creek lang udSG WHICH they all
understood; but under excitement
| men will always revert to their ma
| tive language, so these people cried
out in the Lyaconian tongue, which
of course Paul and Barnabas did not
| understand. 1.-The gods are come
down to us in the likeness of men,
| There was a popular superstition
that the gods had visited this local
ity once. Lystra was situated on
mountain side in the midst of a
plain, and just outside the gates was
| a temple to Jupiter or Zeus, erected
on. the spot which their tradition
landed 1t is easy to understand,
I therefore, how such a suggestion
made by some impressionable mem
ber of the crowd would take fire and
rapidly go through the whole com
pany. The priest of Jupiter seized
! the occasion and made ready for a
great sacrifice. And the sacrifices
were about to be made before Paul
and Barnabas Caught on" at all.
| AS Jews they would have been hor-
rified beyond measure, to think of
any worship being made to other
| than the true God, for ever since
| the Babylonian captivity the Jews
| had been completely cured of idola-
| try, but as Christians, they were
| ineXpressibly grieved. Their mission
| was to tell of Him who had died
and risen again, just to save them
from such ignorance and it's conse-