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January 6, 1909. TH!
Shamrock-Land
By Rev. Plummer F. Jones, Avonia, Va.
A most beautiful book, handsomely illustrated.
The Interior: "Readers can
find no better high road to knowledge,
none more charm-strewn, than that which
Mr. Jones takes through Shamrock-Land."
ON SATURDAY
Prepare for
YOUR
Sunday Dinner
This Dessert of
Jell-0
Dissolve one package Lemon
Jell-O in one pint of boiling
water. Just as it begins to
tliickeu stir in one-fourth cup
maraschino
fL,2\ cherries and
one-fourth cup
English walnut
meats, mixed.
When firm,serve
WW''<''1 'f'*l with whipped
J J/1%-11VV^ *ifJM It is delicious.
fJell-O is made
in 7 flavors.
Costs 10 cents
at all good groIlluntrated
Recipe Boole,
The Genesee Pare Food Co., Le Roy, N. Y.
AGENTS: $103.50 Per Month Sure
md olh? ucful ?ajT* ^0
Mtooi.h.t ICIIU. , \SELf SHARPEHIH6
t?t*1" Po*?ln "TutfrOMEN^J^^
T*?riT!Llu 1 h#ur?i ?** n*3o. Wo ritf. Jf
*nU? *0 B"OW ANY ONE IlOW TO MAKE t J to flO
JJ , . 7* h*T* BW* P*t?RUd good* for *.# through ogoRU.thot oro
not found In itoroo. than an* of k? u.k. it n t.
ixsk"*- a i?ui will"<u. xddrm
|Th?wiM Mfg. Co., m H??? HMg.f "'f'"] Okl?|
Why Does It Cure
Not because it Is Sarsaparllla,
but because it Is a mecjlcine of
peculiar merit, composed of more
than twenty different remedial
sgents effecting phenomenal
cures of troubles of the blood,
Stomach. Ilvor and bowels.
Thus Hood's Sarsaparilla cures scrofula,
eczema, anemia, catarrh, nervousness,
that tired feeling, dyspepsia, loss
of appetite, and builds up the system.
Get It today In the usual liquid form or Id
chocolated tablet form called Barsatabs.
I will not count
On aught but being faithful.
?George Eliot.
E PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOUT
THE AIM OF THE ACTS.
(The Sabbath School lessons for 1909
will be taken from the Acts and the Epis1
ties. We give a review of next year's
lessons, In the form of an introduction to
the Book of Acts, written for the Westminster
New Testament, by Professor H.
I T. Andrews, of New College, L?ondon.)
une or tne questions which it is necessary
to ask before we can understand
Acts is, Wny was the book written?
What was the writer's purpose?
It may be taken for granted that the
writer's primary purpose was historical.
He wished to set forth the story of the
progress of the Church after the resurrection
of Christ. Acts is a continuation of
the Gospel of Luke.
But it cannot be doubted that over and
above this primary purpose there were
some secondary motives which weighed
very considerably with Luke in the composition
cf Acts. Luke is not a mere annalist.
No historian worthy of the name
ever consents to be simply a machine for
tabulating facts. We have only to call to
mind such classics as Grote's History of
Greece, or Clarendon's History of the
Great Rebellion, or Gibbon's Decline and
ran or tne Koman Empire, or Green's History
of the English People, to see how
great authors employ historical data to
illustrate and support their own political
or religious views. It would not be too
.much to say that most histories, like
many novels, are consciously or unconsciously
written with a purpose, and reflect
the principles and prejudices of their
authors.
wnai, tnen, were L,uke's secondary motives
in writing Acts?
1. It seems quite clear that Luke intended
Acts to he not merely a historical
narrative but a defence of the Christian
faith as well. As we shall see presently,
when we come to discuss the date of the
book, Acts was probably written in the
reign of Domitian, at a time when Christianity
was beginning to come into conflict
with the Roman Empire. There were
signs on every side that the Church
would have to pass through its baptism
of fire. The spirit of persecution was in
the air, and spasmodic outbreaks had already
occurred in many provinces. Public
pressure was being brought to bear on
magistrates and governors to induce them
to stamp out ' the pestilential religion"
of the Christians, and it seemed inevitable
that before long the Roman Empire
would find it necessary to bow before the
storm of prejudice which had been aroused,
and hand over its Christian subjects
to the fury of the mob. The xfook of Acts
seems to have been written as a kind of
counterblast to the anti-Christian agitation
which threatened to force the imperial
officials to sacrifice justice to public
clamor. Theophilus may have been,
as many people think, a Roman magistrate,
but whether this was the case or
not, the Book of Acts was evidently
meant to show, by an appeal to history,
what was the correct attitude for a Rowion
/\fR/tlo1 f a o <1 Ant tniirar/la PhrleHonliv
AAAOAA umvmi iw auuj/t wunaiuo VUIADUOIIII,;.
Hence we find Luke laying the utmost
stress on the justice and kindness displayed
by Roman magistrates towards the
new religion in early times. There are
many illustrations of this friendly feeling
in the hook. Sergius Paulus, for instance,
the proconsul of Cyprus, is represented
as embracing the Christian faith (13:12).
The magistrates at Philippi are depicted
H. ^5
as bitterly repenting their hasty and unwarranted
action in scourging and imprisoning
the apostles (16:38, 39). Gallio,
the brother of Seneca and proconsul
of Achaia, scornfully dismisses the
charges preferred against Paul by his
Jewish opponents at Corinth (18:1416).
The town clerk at Ephesus protests
against the savage attack which the mob*
Mad made upon Paul and his companions
(19:36-41). The Chiliarch Claudius Lysias
protects the Apostle on several occasions
(22:28; 23:10, 23-30). The procurator
Felix refuses to condemn Paul (24:
25), as also does his successor FesTus
(25:9). Publius, the head man of Malta,
entertains Paul and his ship-wrecked
companions, and treats them with the utmose
courtesy (28:8). And finally, whem
Paul reaches Rome, though he is a prisoner,
he is allowed liberty to preach,
"none forbidding him" (28:31). The
phrase "none forbidding him" is represented
by a single word in the
Greek and placed in a most emphatic
position in the sentence. It is
the last word of the book, and may be
said to constitute its climax. "None forbidding
him" sums up the moral of Acts,
and is the message which Luke gives to
the Roman officials of his day. Acts
may therefore not unfittingly be called
the first Christian vindication of the ereat
principle of religious liberty.
2. Roman officials were not the oniy
class which Luke had in mind when
he wrote the book. He intended nis narrative
to be an encouragement and a comfort
to his suffering fellow-Christians as
well. The words which Luke puts into
the mouths of Peter and John as they
stood before the Sanhedrin?"Whether it
be right in the sight of God to hearken
unto you rather than unto God, judge ye:
for we cannot sneak the thiners which we
saw and heard" (4:19)?are not meant
to be mere history: they are intended to
be a rallying-cry for Luke's contemporaries,
an incentive to courage and heroism
in face of the policy of repression which
was endeavring to reduce Christianity to
silence. The whole of Acts breathes thespirit
of dauntless and invincible loyaJty
to Christ. The earliest disciples bear
their witness in the teeth of "clenched antagonisms."
The Sanhedrin threatens.
the Jewish mob howls for their blood,
but the Apostles and their followers are
never deterred from their mission. Nothing
could exceed the opposition which
Paul has to encounter in the discharge of
his work, yet in spite of all he never
wavers, but persistently delivers his message,
and never loses an opportunity of
presenting the Gospel to his fellows. The
Book of Acts may thus be said to be the
message of the Apostolic age of the persecuted
Christians in the reign of Domitian.
The message is twofold. (1) No
opposition or persecution must be allowed
to silence our witness for Christ. (2)
Persecution is part of the discipline of
life, and a powerful agent in the dissemination
of truth. "Through many tribulations
we must enter into the kingdom of
God" (14:22).
3. A third motive which seems to have
influenced Luke in the composition of
Acts is the desire to dissociate Christianity
from the Judaism of Palestine.
The great war between the Romans and
the Jews, which had culminated in the
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A. D., had
induced a hitter feeling of hostility
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