The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1923-12-06


WORLD CHURCH
The followers of Jesus were all
Jews. And they were all Jew. The
idea of equality of privilege with Je-
hOvah by all men was utterly beyond
their thinking. Fully convinced of
the Messiahship of their Lord they
accepted Him as the fulfller of the
prophetic dream of a world kingdom
ruled by Jew and felt themselves to
be the real Hebrew church. They kept
close to the capital and its temple,
worshipping with the other Jews and
seeking to convince them of the truth
of their contention. Urged on by the
life and work of the believers, the
movement grew swiftly. They taught
the resurrection and that caused a diff
ference with the Sadducee group,
bringing Imprisonment and stripes,
but it also elected the defense of Ga
maliel, the Pharisee. SO the differ
ences among the rulers played into
the hands of the new movement that
found itself in need Of some organiza-
ton and elected the Deacons of whom
stephen was one. This layman reused
the opposition of the Pharisee also
with his declaration that a new day
had come, that God could be found
outside the Temple, that forms were
not the vital things in religion so
that changes could be allowed and vet
the spirit of unity kept. This was
revolution, disloyalty, radicalism and
any other term that might be applied
by the rulers and since that could not
meet his logic with reasons they took
stones and stilled the voice but not
the truth he had been teaching. So
like its Lord the early Church was re-
jected by the rulers and cast out and
bloody period put at the end of its
story. So they went far for life's
sake and yet felt themselves merely
sect of the old faith prohibited
from temple worship. They carried
their report of events and they ex-
hibited winning spirituality that i'm
pressed their new acquaintance but
these We're Jews only and while they
made many converts they were jews
first, last and always. Even the Sama-
ritans were racial kinsmen.
Saul was converted and began the
REIMBURSEMENT OF his Bible to accord
with his experiences so that out Of
his days or meditation in the desert
.c@mca MISUNDERSTANDING ofChr;st's
plan for the world. Peter had his
vision Of clean and unclean animals
all made OF equal worth by God and
with much hesitation and many ex-
plantations entered the home Of Cor
nelius, the fine Roman, and bqptized
him and his household Some of the
foreign Jews, now Christians scat
tered abroad, began to tell their
neigh5Ors of their new faith and An
tioch had such a stir that Jerusalem
was obliged to investigate the ortho-
doXy Of anything of the kind. Barna-
bas was sent and he brought Saul to
help and the result was their call to
Wldentheir territory. Cyprus and Asia
Minor were explored and they openly
presented Jesus as the Saviour of
Gentle as well as Jews and organized
them into churches without ADOPTING,
! the devious route Of making them
Jews iirst. Jerusalem was Mortified
and called the first Church Council to
settle the matter. 1t is to their credit
that they listened and accepted the
evidence so that they lifted Christ to
the throne of the world and gave the
hand OF fellowship to Jew and Gentle
alike, counting Christ's work sufficient
Tor any man without any other means.
1t is one of the greatest revolutions in
history:
THE GROUND BREAKERS
Philips story is the one given in
the text. He was an unappreciated
member who walked ahead of the pro-
cession but kept step with God. Los
ing his job in Jerusalem he turned his
face toward the most unpromisinq
and the most unpopular field in SIGHT.
But ne remembered hearing of his
Lords visit to Sychar and any one his
Lord loved was a friend of his no mat
ter what the condition, racially or
morally. So he appeared at Samaria
and in his quiet, convincing way
preached unto them Jesus. He could
have raised no end of row and been
hurried out of town if he had started
with the condeming of Samaria's
worship as all Jerusalem Jews did but
leaving all that out of sight he lifted
his Lord and He being lifted up on lin
and life began to draw all men of the
place to Himself. Talk church and
trouble starts, talk Christ and both
Catholic and Protestant bow the knee.
1t was a member of Grace church
who said: "All you have to do is to
show men your goods" That was the
attitude that Philip took.
His success brought Peter and John