Evening star., 1925-09-12
Sunday School Lesson

land only found in one other city in the
! New Testament records. They acted
fairly with the accused, for they only
made a record of the serious charges
of treason and admitted Jason. whom
some consider to have been relative
of Paul's bail. Luke's accuracy as
historian has been confirmed by the
stone taken from the so-called Arch
of Constantine in Thessalonica. con
tanning the names of six polltarcns.
It Is now in the British Museum.
Many missionaries have had to
face the charge of promoting revo-
luton, due to the transformations
made by the gospel in the lives or
their converts. President Faunce or
Brown University has pointed out the
far-reaching political effects OF
teaching English. One has but to
consider for moment the far-reach-
ing effect of the explanation of such
words as patriotism, democracy, re-
public, citizenship. town meeting.
committee, Monroe doctrine, Con-
gress, Representative, liberty, justice
and equality in the teaching Of our
language in India, China, Africa.
Oceania and Japan. These ideas
have nodded the Anglo-Saxon and
they are destined to eventually
shape the worlds political life, as
they find lodgment in the minds OF
men with strong personalities in
other lands. Such missionaries have
usually found that 1t Is best for
them to seek other fields, as Paul
did upon the advice of his friends
in Thessalonica.
Religious Research.
Luke, who evidently belonged to
one OF the old Macedonian aristo-
cratic families, points with pride to
the fact that the Jews of Berea were
more noble than those of democratic
Thessalonica lin that they searched
the scriptures daily, whether those
things were So" They put Paups
claims to the test of experience and
proved by the laboratory method the
reasonableness of the Christian
faith. They found that the Scrip
lures were in harmony with the
apostles teachings. Many Jews and
a large number of the leading
Grecian men and women of the city
were won for Christ and Joined the
Church planted by the apostle In
Berea. Paul's stay with this body
of believers must have covered some
time, although its extent Is not
known. 1t must have been one of
the happiest periods of his ministry.
There would be many congenial peo-
pie converted to Christianity from
the ranks of society and scholarship
whose friendship would appeal to
Paul. Sopater, who was a member
of the Berean Church and who later
went up with Paul to Jerusalem to
help carry the contributions of the
Gentle churches for the poor found
among the membership of the
Jerusalem Church, must have been
one of the number whose society the
apostle would thoroughly enjoy.
During the whole period that Paul
spent with Berean brethren, his heart
was heavy because of the condition
Of the Thessalonican Church. Evil
dentally he was expecting tosreturn
to that city, which was only 20 miles
away by land and Al by sea. When
the animosity of that section of the
Jewish population in Thessalonica
found It's way to Berea, Paul de-
parted through Thessaly, that he and
his bretheren crossed on foot, for
Athens, leaving Silas and Timothy
to care for the churches established
in Berea and Thessalonica The
open minded Bible reading church at
Berea needed no further oversight
from the apostle. but the Thes-
salonicans called for letters that we
Will consider in next weeks lesson.