Evening star., 1941-01-18

Concerning the first invited he COM
mented, rather bitterly, None OF
those men that were hidden shall
taste OF my supper" A new social
scheme was put into effect. And
the Teacher meant the parable tc
indicate the wide sweep and COM
prehensiveness of the gospel invita-
ton. AS His inaugural speech at
Nazareth had indicated, the poor
were to have the good news.
Throughout all the centuries since
this message was first preached, the
lot of the plain people Of earth, the
toilers and the poor, has steadily
risen. Serfdom and slavery have
almost wholly disappeared from hu-
man society. The big one bright as
pect Of today's world darkness is the
promise that out of it may come a
new era Of brotherhood and peace
and general prosperity.
Thronging the Feast.
We cannot too often stress the
fact that the Bible frequently por-
trays religion as a feast. Shallow
thinkers have deemed the Christian
life deprivation. death of good
things. famine of pleasure Not
so; the gospel is problem in addi-
ton, not in satisfaction. True reli-
gion Is replete in satisfaction. Con-
trast the faces in a night club-the
tired eyes, the wrinkles which no
beauty doctor can efface, the rest
less spirits. the frantic quest for
new sensations-with the faces Of,
say, the plain" people OF Lancaster
County, Pa. or Of any group of sin
cere Christians, noting the signature
OF peace and confidence upon them.
For everything that true religion
takes away from a life it adds a
rich store of satisfactions that last
10 the end. and extend into ex-
ternity.
Big news for today. commonly
missed from newspaper headlines.
is that the long neglected folk from
the highways and hedges are
thronging to the Gospel feast. With
organized Christianity suffering va
rious slumps In the homeland. We
read of religious revivals in
heather lands. Great mass move
ments of the outcasts in India are
thronging into the Church. China
Is responding to the Gospel today as
never before. have under my hand
at the moment a booklet, World
Christians In World Crisis" which
sweeps the whole missionary horizon
with an array Of astonishing facts
of the progress Of the Kingdom.
Yes; the long-neglected are has
tening and thronging to the feast
In that fact Is assurance that the
social revolution" will not be
thing Of bitterness. but Of brother
hood.
Over and over again the urgent
truth needs to be stressed that, If
the world is to escape overturn of
the existing social order by violence.
it must accept the Christian way of
a brotherhood based upon good will
and justice. To make the world
Christian is the most effective means
of making it safe and brotherly. Can
we not envisage a society in which
every member belongs to the church,
and is q sincere disciple Of Jesus?
Hatred, vengeance. class bitterness
and war would all disappear from
the common life were everybody
bent upon doing the will Of God, as
by Jesus Christ.
There is new need that we should
heed the Masters injunction to
compel them to come in" or to
constrain people to accept the invi-
tation to the great feast BY meth
ods new and old. from motives
eternal and from motives aroused by
the current situation. the church
should be reaching out after the
neglected masses, who may now be
a menace, but who should be mem
bers Of the kingdom of love.
"The Sunday School Lesson for
T. l.