The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1926-03-11
~ SCHOOL LESSON
ed Especially For The Repub-
lican's Readers by Rev. U. S.
I Wright, ID.

/ am the way, and the truth, and the
life-JOhn 14:6.
E CLASS BANQUET.
--.Aone can readily understand the re-
fusal of Scotch preacher to use any
part of these chapters as a sermon
text for fear he might mar something
of their transcendent beauty. If John
is the heart of the Bible then they are
the heart of his Gospel. They are the
high altar of Christianity's cathedral.
And like that earlier model given in
the sixth chapter they are builded by
our Lord with bit of bread and a sip
of wine. Two disciples had prepared
the material with no more notion that
from the meager store Christ would
rear a structure that would span the
centuries and shrine the faith of all
believers through all the ages than
had the boy of what would result
from his offered lunch. 1t was the
Maker of worlds who sat at the table
that night.
1t was their class banquet. They had
completed their course of three years
in the school of Christ and were the
first class to be graduated. Their ed
ucation was no more completed than
will be that of the class of '26, but
there had come the close of a period
that must be fttingly marked, and
Jesus desired" to eat with them be-
fore He suffered. So they sat together
in that Upper Room of Jerusalem
while symbols of other classes stirred
their memories, for had not Moses
been Head Master in the early days?
( 1t was as appealing as Napoleon's
word to his army in Egypt: "Sol-
diers, from yonder pyramid, twenty
centuries look down upon you." With
such a Teacher and such a past, it is
little wonder that an ineffacable i'm
preston was made upon the minds
of those who were there. Garrulous
Peter, silent John, James the big, and
James the little, canny Andrew, prac-
tical Philip, radical Simon Zelotes,
cautious Thomas, eXpectant Jude,
prompt Matthew, dour Judas and the
rest gathered about the one figure
who accounted for the group itself. 1t
was a strange company differing in SO
many ways but united by the attrac-
ton of Him they called "Teacher."
Why had He chosen them? Not be-
cause of attractiveness in many cases,
nor of age or occupation or capacity,
but because they were growable. Peter
IF the letters is immensely bigger
than the fisherman shrieking with
physical fear. James the stout defen-
der Of the faith in Jerusalem lost his
head instead of his temper as he did
in the Samaritan village. Jesus picked
folks for friends who were open-mind-
ed enough to be able to catch new
thought and allow it to come to har
vest in their lives; they were respon-
sive souls, and such He seeks today.
THE TABLE TALK.
Much we have here in the give and
take of group in frank talk over the
board. The first task was to get rid
of Judas whose face and presence still
led the tongues of the rest. Jesus
challenged him to change and held a
sore heart because Of his hard deter
mination in the fact of all the gentle
wooing of his Lord. There is an ar
lists touch in the phrase concerning
his going: at was night" for he
strobe into the darkness away from
the light that has lit this upper room
with a glowing glory ever since. Re-
lieved by the removal Jesus became
radiant in His revealing of His heart.
He began to talk of returning to the
Father when Peter naturally inter-
rupted with the request to go along.
The reply was promise, but it car
ried with it the declaration that he
was so far from ready that he would
be lying before morning. Under the
pressure of the asserted treachery,
the failure of Crock" and the sugges-
ton of His departure, the meal SEEM
ed to promise little cheer. 1t was to
relieve this that He turned the talk
to the country of "Plenty of Room"
to which He was going to prepare for
their coming. Thomas, who would
dare any journey for his Leader, spoke
here a bit testify with his statement
that they didn't know where He was
going, how could He expect them to
know how to get there; why couldn't
He be plain? The answer swept into
the realm of character that made ac-
quaintanceship with the Father inev-
table. In the tribute of Bishop
Quayle, "a man like Naphtali Luc-
cock makes heaven necessary and i'm
mortality compulsory" 1t was here
that the soul of Philip was stirred
so that its deepest desire found ex-
preston for a vision such as others
seemed to receive. Why couldn't he
have the experience of the winged
imagination soaring into the unspeak-
able and the unseen And Jesus took
every day of those years of walking
along the roads, of eating under trees,
Of toiling at fishing, teaching, healing,
helping or what not, and told him that
in their plain every-dayness had been