The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1949-02-24

question which older o''''.
teachers were bound
to put to him. If your 81
teaching is new, how
can it be true? And sE
. if it is true, what can
be ew about it?
This was a fair qucs-
ton. The Sermon on s#
the Mount is Jesus &s22za! Is .ak2z
answer to it. The DR.. Foreman
main theme of that
sermon is the kingdom of God, an
ancient phrase but with new mean
ines as Jesus used it. We can say
''The Ideal World" and mean just
the same thing.
The Right People
TESUS EMPHASIZES, above all,
J the kind of people who belong to
Gods Ideal World. This would be
surprising to some modern plan
ners. Communists think that if you
can once get a world in which every
one has enough to eat and drink and
wear, a world where nobody is poor
(or everybody is as poor as every
body else, which is all the same
thing, you will have the perfect
world. Jesus would know this is
nonsense. You do not get the per-
feet world by improving the soil,
or the system of government, or
the economic system; you do not get
it by passing laws of any kind. This
does not mean that such things are
unimpOrtant-far from it.
But the fact IS that even after
you got your perfect social sys-
tenn, with perfect politics and
perfect distribution of wealth,
even perfect climate and soil,
you wO"Id still be nowhere near
the Ideal World unless You have
improved yOHr people.
Is This You
YTTHAT WE call the "beatitudes"
w Matt. 5:7-12) is Jesus eight
point program for the citizen of the
Ideal World. The right people are
happy people, to begin with. CThe
word translated blessed" is a reg
ular Greek word for s'happy."D But
the main difference between differ
ent kinds Of people is not that some
want to be happy while others do
not
Jesus ideal people are humble.
not proud; they see their sins and
are sorry for them; they are
''meek" is, they are not in a
hurry to demand their own rights;
they do not merely admire good
ness, they are positively hungry for
it; they are merciful, not careless
or cruel; they are pure in heart and
not only in speech and act; they are
not mere peace-wishers or peace
lovers (who isn't?) III peace
makers; they are people who are
brave enough to DO what is right.
no YOU really want an ideal
- world? The best way to begin
is to learn how to be a citizen of
such a world. Jesus uses two in
teresting lnple words to describe
the kind of people he means. You
are salt, he said,-you are light.
Salt and light are old-fashioned
things but they have never gone out
of date.
So there is no substitute for
a really good Christian. Living,
here and now, like citizens of
the ideal world to come, Christ
ians are both salt and light.
Salt because they give a taste to
otherwise flat or bitter life Salt be-
cause they keep human society from
going rotten.
Light
X ND LIGHT! Like salt, light ought
\ not to be too noticeable. A glar-
ing light is bad on the eyes, as too
much salt is bad on the tongue. So
a Christian is not supposed to rub
his goodness in on other people, so
to speak. He is as Indispensable as
salt in bread-and should be as in
conspicuous. But light, like salt, if
it is any good has to be applied
directly. A strong light concealed in
a steel tube does no good Swishing
the glass end of the salt-cellar
around in the soup gives it no
flavor. The salt must get into the
soup, the light must touch what we
see.
So the Christian, Gods ideal
citizen-in-training, can do the
world no good by running away
from the world.
If a Christian is going to leave
this world better than he found it,
even little bit farther on toward
the Ideal World,-he must come into
touch with the world, not to initiate
it but to change it.
Copyright by the International Coun-
ell of Religious Education on behalf of
40 Protestant denominations. Released
by WNU Fcatmes)
Construction of Chesapeake Bay
bridge was started. 1t viii cost $37