The Republican., 1925-05-21
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
Prepared Especially For The Repub.
lican's Readers by Rev. U. S.
Wright, DID,.
SUNDAY, MAY "a, 1925.
SAUL BEGINS HIS GREAT

l determined not to know anything among
you, save Jesus Christ. and Him crucifed.-
1 Corinthians 2:2.
SETTING A COURSE
Saul had been swept out Of his old
reckoning and found it necessary to
lay a new course for his life voyage.
On shipboard the taking of observa-
tions is vital in it's influence for it
determins, by relating the ship to
star or sun, its immediate location
and the direction it must take to
reach its desired port. Sauls sky
had been so clouded by storms of pas
sion that while he kept full steam
ahead he had been carried far from
the designed course and not until
with great burst Of light the Son
had broken thru to his vision was he
aware of his false drift. There was
nothing to be done but turn his helm
and point his PROV toward another
point Of his moral compass and it
was as swiftly done as by any other
Captain of my Soul" Out of the
house Of Judas in company with Ana
MAS he passed to the synagog where
he amazed those who had heard of
his mission to the city. His letters
of arrest were probably known but
here was their holder proclaiming
Jesus as his Lord. And the unac-
countable thing to any Jew was the
declaration that He was the Son Of
God. 1t is one of the questions still
raised and denied as implying any
different relation than that possible
for any Christian. It was the old
charge Of Jerusalem that "He being
a man" made himself God; a charge
that Saul had determinedly echoed.
But now he flung his revised belief to
the breeze and settled in the very
beginning of his new course under
what flag he should sail.
But he was still Jew and so revo-
lutionary a notion in his unitarian
mind needed much thinking to bring
it into line with what the Scriptures
had seemed to teach. He must have
both time and quiet for such mental
observations and he hied away into
the deserts of Arabia, very probably
to the Sinai he wrote about in his
Galatian letter. There he interviewed
the words Of Moses and listened to
the voice Of Jesus interpreting them
by His life, death and glory until
with his characteristic honesty he had
satisfied himself of the truth of the
hope born Of his roadway experience
and his Damascus contacts with be-
levers. When his mind was fully sat
isfed he was ready to turn his face
once more toward the place of his
first confession. 1t was the most
natural thing in the world, for Chris
tians everywhere retain that ardent
affection for the place "Where love
and mercy crowned me-"
STEERING THRU STORMS
There was no turning from the way
he had laid for himself but he must
hold steady in the face of storm
where riotous winds beat against him
and threatened complete disaster. In
Damascus among the followers of the
Way he found abundant kindness.
Among the Jews there was deter
mined hate for any one who became
SO great traitor to the cause he had
once followed. Unable to meet his
arguments and his reasons for MAX
ing the change they stirred up all the
opposition possible and threatened his
life. They even enlisted the city po-
lice force and got an order from the
Governor for special guards at the
gates. Evidently ward politics didn't
begin in the goth century and we'd
dings were not the only places where
rings could be found. But it was the
Rope-Holders against the Ring and
the Rope-Holders won. Nameless
saints who helped to make Pauls
ministry possible lowered away in the
darkness but their work went out into
the light and to the ends of the earth.
In Jerusalem there was another
storm to be weathered and that was
the suspicion of the Disciples. Evi-
IDENTIFY there were not many subscrib-
ers to Missionary News in the city or
some one would have known of Saul's
conversion. Foreign missions were
quite foreignto their thinking and the
most significant event of those years
was utterly unheralded in the home
Church. So the doors were shut until
his school comrade, Barnabas, found
that he was in town and after that
he had free entry among the follow
ers of The Way. With his heart
stirred by memories of Stephen he
took upon himself the continuing of
his ministry and appearing among
the Hellenists took up the argument
where the martyr had left it. Doubt
less he had been we'll known to them
as partisan in the old days and it
must have made a stir to find him
wearing Stephens mantle. And he