The Topeka state journal., 1922-12-08
International
Sur7daySchoolLesson
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

! - OQYOCfEOOI LCSSO1t
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS
For December 10 is 1.-THE Good Sa-
marftan." Luke 10:25-27.
A Quibbling Lawyers Confusion.
One quibbler' fate is the lesson
for our quibbling day. There is no
mistaking that religion has come to
period of Quibbnng- That is the
blight which seems ever to overtake
Christianity in her hours of greatest
opportunity Quibbling paralyzed the
early church. Quibbling halted Chris
tendon upon every occasion when the
fate of Constantinople, the gate city,
was in the balance Quibbling Grip
pied the cruSadeS.
Now, with a world crisis of unpre-
cedented dimensions upon US, the
church is quibbling over wholly nom
essential points of belief and of or
ganization. Whenever students of
present religious conditions meet, the
word is sure to be heard that, The
churches ver-where are likely to be
split over this question this ques-
ton being usually the entirely sub
ordinate matter of pre- -millennialisn,
or of thigh church versus '1ow
church," or of liberals versus fun
damentali: 81
If we are wholly honest and dis
passionate with ourselves, we shall
find more Of present application in the
present lesson thar the commentaries
give. While writers and teachers
everywhere are repeating the beauti-
full and wholesome platitudes forever
associated with this best-known of all
the stories told by Jesus, they are also
overlooking its peculiar pertinency to
the times in which we live. The oc-
casion of the Parable of the Good
Samaritan gives it real significance.
The purpose the Teacher had in mind
is our first concern. So we recall that
it was to answer and silence an insin-
cere and quibbling lawyer that Jesus
told the tale of the man who went
down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and
fell among thieves.
The Story Itself.
Both because it is a literary classic
and because it is our present Sunday
school lesson We quote here DR..
Luke's words:
And behold, a certain lawyer stood
up and made trial of Him, saying.
Teacher, what shall L do to inherit
eternal life: And he said unto him,
What is written in the law? How
readest thou? And he answering said,
Thou shall love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy st 1gth. and with all
thy mind; and thy neighbor as thy
SELF. And He said unto him: Thou
has answered right: this do. and thou
shalt live. But he, desiring to justify
himself, said unto Jesus, And who is
my neighbor? Jesus made answer
and said, A certain man was going
down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and
he fell among robbers, who both
stripped him and beat him, and de-
parted, leaving him half dead. And
by chance a certain priest was going
down that way: and when he saw
him, he passed by on the other side.
And in like manner a LeYite also,
when he came to the place. and saw
him, passed by on the other side. But
a certain Samaritan, as he jOurneyed,
came where he was: and when he
saw him, he was moved with compass
sion, and came to him, and bound up
his wounds, pouring on them oil and
wine; and he set him on his own
and took care of him. And on the
morrow he took out two shillings,
and gave them to the host, and said,
Take care of him; and whatsoever
thou spendest --1ore, I, whenaA come
back again, will repay thee Which
of these slree, thinkest thou, proved
neighbor unto him that fell among
the robbers? And he said, He that
showed mercy on him. And Jesus said
unto him, Go, and do thou likewise"
The TheoIogian's Trap.
This quibbling lawyer-or theolo-
gian We would now say, for he was a
teacher of ecclesiastical law-was lay
ing a clever trap for Jesus. He
wanted to catch him in some unor-
thodox utterance. Then, as now, shib-
boleths meant more than spirituality.
A friend who had witnessed the ex-
animation of candidate for the min
istry before a church court said to
me in-Rreat indignation, There was
not a single question asked that was
designed 10 shed light upon the young
mans motives, his devotion to Christ,
his spirituality, or his ability to be
minister to men. All the examination
seemed to be consumed with tech
nical questions Of theology and &C.
clesiasticism such as I could not for
the life of me see had any relation to
the real life and work of a minister
of the Gospel
That mood nowadays has broad
ened. A fresf fac for "heresy-hunt-
ing" pervadC the churches Self
appointed judges, companions in spir-
it of this ecclesiaStic who tried to en-
trap Jesus, are making it their busi-
ness, without any display of tolerance
or charity, to find flaws in the the
ology of men who are busy preaching
the Gospel in such terms that it draws
men to Jesus. 1 once heard-and re-
buked-one of these "unco guild" Gus
todians Of orthodoxy make an attack
upon the church's missionaries in
China that simply astounded me by its
reckless disregard of simple facts as
1 know them from personal observa-
tion.
As readers of these lessons know, I
am almost ultra-conservative in my
theological beliefs, and in my loyalty
to the Bible: but if Orthodoxy" to-
day means the sort of censorious, un-
charitable, suspicious, pettifogging
and quibbling attacks upon every per-
son who does not fully coincide with
every detail of our thinking, then I
want to discover some other word