The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1927-03-17
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
Prepared Especially for Readers of
The Republican by Rev. U. S.
Wright, D. D.

THE CHRISTIANS HOPE. John IA:
1-3; 2 Cor. 5: Ito; John 8: 2,3.
In my Fathers house are many man.
sions; if it were not so would have
told you; for | go to prepare place
for yOu.-JOhn 14:2.
THE ASSURANCE.
More than any other faith Christi
anity is committed to the future life.
The old Hebrew Scriptures leave the
Jew with dimmed vision. The Koran
holds hope for the faithful Moslem
but its character is material instead
of spiritual. The Vedas believe in in
Vulnerable reincarnations and the
ultimate losing of personality. Con-
fucianism has no certain note. But
Christianity is built about the belief
in Immortality for the person. Where
does its assurance come from? At
the heart of it stands Jesus. And such
is the conviction of His life that
Peters word, at was not possible for
Him to be holden Of DEATH" is about
the best expression of its thinking.
Such life as His makes Heaven a
necessity. There are many rooms in
my Fathers house; if there were not,
l would have told you" In the dark
days of uncertainty that often came
in his explorations in the heart of
Africa Livingston once penned in his
diary an expression that told of his
trust in the word of Jesus. He could
take that word as true because of
what his Lord was and he acted ac-
cordingly. The character of Jesus is
a Christians assurance of the future.
And His statement was one of the
uttermost appeals to their confidence
In Him. eff it were not so, l would
have told you" He could not think
of contingency that would have kept
Him from telling the truth. Of course
He would have told them if it had
been different but the whole drive of
the piled-up story of Jesus is that He
believed in life in which the grave
was only an incident and that the
things told to the Disciples were true.
To doubt here is to sweep away every
foundation for the religion we pro-
fess. The whole being of Jesus is in
volved. If you wipe out the future
life you destroy the character upon
which our belief is based and make
of Him a mere dreamer of dreams
and a proclaimer of untruth. And
the picture drawn in these words of
John is thoroughly accordant with the
proclamation of the family of God.
'1n my Fathers house are many
mansions" offers no understandable
picture. For a mansion is a palatial
house, how could many of these be
packed in the one house? But the
rendering, "In my Fathers house
there are many rooms" is clear as
sunlight. 1t is the dwelling place
not only of God but Gods family in
which as a member there will be
room for me. | shall have my own
place. | shall still be a recognized
part Of the busy household of the
Eternal.
THE TRANSFERABLE
That picture of Paul's is drawn
from his own experiences. eff this
tent is taken down" then there will
appear "house" that is eternal For
tent is always a temporary shelter,
moving from place to place with the
eXigencies of the situation, and liable
to be swept from its rope pinnings
by the first big blow. A truly fine
picture of life. But contrasted with
that is the "house" that can not be
moved but can only be occupied. One
may range far but the house awaits
the return and becomes the head
quarters from which all the living is
carried on. Such a change implies the
moving up to higher type of life.
The nomadic tent dweller found the
house an entirely different situation
and from it has come our present city
civilization. 1t brought new problems
and mans mentality throve by their
solution or the attempts at it that
still persist. That new life will be
marked by tremendous advance that
will rank with the differences between
the desert and the town. Paul cites
the gift of the Spirit as typical of
what will be the character of that
new living. The old body, wasted by
disease, wearied by labor, weakened
by indulgence, is the temporary thing
only; it will be taken down at death
and stored in the cemetary. Of what
sort the new will be we have no clue.
There is nothing in the experience of
worm to postulate that of butter
fly, nor of the water grub that of
the iradescent dragon fly. We have
absolutely nothing upon which to
build our ideas Of what that embodi
ment will be- If one remembers that
we are mere cave jewellers who never
see out or catch a sound directly but
only by the intervention of the SEN
sorry nerves one begins to understand
l.