The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1924-07-03
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
Prepared especially for The Republi-
can by Rev. [. S. Wright. D. D.
SUNDAY, JULY 6, 1924.
THE BIRTH OF JESUS.
Luke 2:7-20.

, There is born to you this day in the
city of David a Savior, who is
Christ the Lord.-Luke 2:l1.
, THE LIFE RAY.
H. Grindle Matthews death raw"
has had large space in the news with
its potential control of air activities
from distant projectors. The build
ing of an electric fence that airplanes
can not pass may become the ultimate
defense against their assaults. A
French scientist says: at is no lon
ger question of "new form of ra-
} dent energy" but of forming a line
along which electricity may flow. And
this he claims to have done. But God
, did it long before apd is continually
doing it in setting up line along
which life energy may come in the
mist, medium that holds poor con-
. ductivity. That was what happened
in the long ago when Gods very life
was projected from heaven to the
, plains of earth.
We have studied the setting up of
that priestly government that ulti-
: mately became the controlling body
of Israel and fashioned all the details
of Jerusalem life. 1t was rigid, for
NAL, cold, fanatically possessed with
, the belief that it held the only hope
of the Jew and that any proposed
change was treason to Jehovah. Thru
, such an atmosphere even God could
send no message. But He attempted
the same process that has resulted in
( forming a conducting line thru the
resistant air for the death ray" He
set up high. spiritual potentials in
Joseph, Mary, Elizabeth and the rest
When the word came to Mary her re-
ply was: Behold the handmade of
: the Lord; be it unto me according to
thy word" In the case Of Joseph he
'did as the angel of the Lord had
: hidden him." In that home in the hill
( country where John was born it was
the same attitude; the shepherds said,
: "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see
what the Lord hath made known to
u.s." Simeon, just and devout, upon
whom lay the Holy Spirit and Anna,
who "served God night and day."
We're also concerned in carrying out
the details of the story and the whole
company that were at the heart of
the Bethlehem wonder We're the most
spiritual persons God could find, all
of whom might have said, 81 never
said mo- to God" 1t was along such
line that Jesus, Gods Life Ray,
could enter earth and the chiefest
task of the church is to keep in the
chill air of worldliness such a con-
Quoting channel of spiritual forces
that God can still project His spirit
into its living. The Savior of mans
spirit can only come thru the spirit
of clean men. Conductivity is the
necessity for His approach.
THE SETTING FOR THE SCENE
Israel was an insignificant spot upon
the map. A hundred miles long by
forty wide does not speak much in
|
further to a tiny town with but one
struggling street of wind-swept
houses built of mud and rooted with
clay and the contrast with Rome and
Athens, with New York and Hong
Kong becomes startling. Place the
palace of Herod over against lone
table and mark the difference. A
plain carpenter, a village girl, a
group of shepherds, the whole COM
pany bankrupt with the demand for
hundred dollars, and this thing that
God did that night is as striking as
the difference between a piece of
black carbon and the leap of light
from its touch by the current. Not
one great among them, but they were
all good. And goodness is kinsman
to God
Judea has become a province of
Rome, governed by Rome's appoin-
tee, Enthusiastically, politically bythe
Herods, religiously by the Sanhedrin.
In the well ordered scheme of temple
procedure Zacharias was serving his
one single hour with the incense in his
whole life of ministry when the angel
visitant gave the promise of a Son to
be born in the hill country of Judea.
Dumb he went home and waited for
the day of joy. Six months after and
Mary had her call in Nazareth. She
may have been an orphan or have
Z had mother who coald not under
stand girls heart, for she went
with haste to "Auntie Elizabeth. THE
world is everlastingly in the debt of
this elder elect-lady to whom a girl,
e trembling over the wonder of life and
the mystery of motherhood, could
confde and talk out her heart. What
1 those days meant will never be known
; but certainly much of the genius of
( direction for that Son must have been
influenced by them. Then back to