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2 CHRIST CHURCH. LONDON, Scripture Lesson, Luke 10:1-16. Special Text, Luke 10:16: “He that heareth you heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me." fol UR Scripture lesson is in connection with the beginning of our Lord’s ministry in heathen Perea. It will be observed that His ministry was divided into three geo- graphical parts: Galilee, with its sub-division, Phoen icia; Perea, known as “the region beyond Jordan;” Judea, with its sub-division, Samaria. In Galilee his purpose geemed to be that of teach ing. The population was made up of Jews, who knew the prophecies and hence the effort of Jesus there was to show how he fulfilled the prophecies concerning the Messiah. Most of his miracles were wrought in Galilee. When he came over into Perea his work was very different —Perea being heathen. It was made up of a mixed population with a few Jews. Perea was a section in which the Jews had practically no interest. They were heathens, made up of every kind of population that had come into Palestine from various sections of the country. The Jews had gone over and amalgamated with a population that was heanthen. So here our Lord is entering upon what we might call an evangelistic campaign. He is going on a purely foreign missionary tour of evangelism, and it is in Perea that he issues those parables or illustrations, which are of an evange listic nature, sounding in them the note of wooing and winning that sets forth the winsomeness of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Here is a list of them: The Lost Coin. The Lost Sheep. The Prodigal Son. The Rich Man and Lazarus. The Rich Fool. The Unjust Steward. The Marriage Feast. The Good Samaritan. You can easily see that every one of them is adapted to the special work he has gone over into Perea to do. They are all evangelistic, they all have the note of revelation and appeal. Thev reveal the love and interest of God. his searching, and his ap peal. You will see as you study further how in this Perean ministry Jesus uses these parables as an evangelist, keeping in mind the section of country he is using them in, and the people to whom he is using them. After he has finished in Perea, he comes over into Judea and begins again his work around Jeru salem. Now these Judean Jews were a very differ ent type from those in Galilee—they were the offi- THE GOLDEN AGE FOR WEEK OF MARCH 19, 1914 WORKING IN CHRIST’S WAY 'Retf. Len G. "Broughton, "D. D.. of Christ Church, London Reported for The Golden Age by M. I. H. —Copyright Applied for. cial element, the cultured class that dominated the whole of the Judean country. They always resisted the claims of Jesus, that is the reason why Jesus left there. Hence you find in this ministry a note of judgment ringing through his whole teaching. It will help you in these studies if you will just keep these three sections of Palestine in your mind, and remember where he is at work as you study the various lines of procedure; it will throw great light upon them. He is sounding the note of judgment, “The kingdom of heaven is taken away and given to another.” Then follows the crucifixion. These severe notes of Jesus, as you see when you read your four Gospels, were for the most part sounded in Judea. This brings us to what we want to say about the first phases of this evangelistic, or missionary tour. You will observe from the study of the lesson that the first thing stated about this tour is the selection of the seventy. It is said that “He appointed other seventy.” That is not an accidental way of express ing it, nor an error in translation, nor a whim of the translators j it is there for a reason, to express the real purpose of our Lord. The disciples occu pied a closer relationship to Jesus than the other seventy. They were the immediate standard bearers; they were (if we may use the term) the official rep resentatives of our Lord in his business on earth, while he was here, and when he was gone. The other seventy seem to ]jave been brought into the service as an expedient to meet a necessity that had de veloped, hence, he “appointed other seventy.” You will also remember that these were ordinary men that had been gathered up in and around Gali lee; they were orthodox Jews, converted to Christian ity through the preaching and teaching and minis try of Jesus. But they were of so little importance as not to have their names even recorded; it is sim ply stated that “he appointed other seventy,” and with them he crosses the Jordan and goes over into heathen Perea, beginning that great missionary tour through the land. Then you will remember also how he used these seventy, dividing them into two parts; they were to go out in two s. Two and two they were to go be fore him through that land. There is some signifi cance in the expression, “Before his face.” That is to say, before Jesus entered a single village, he sent first these seventy. It is my opinion that his dis ciples remained to go with him. The others went into the cities he intended to enter, and in it they published abroad everywhere the coming of Jesus and his disciples, telling all they knew about him and ministering to the people in his name as they went. You see in this great wisdom on our Lord’s part as an organizer. It is a lesson we can well afford to learn in our churches and Sunday schools. If our Lord must have his personal representatives to go out, and pave the way and advertise his com ing, what of us? What of you? If it paid our Lord to have such representatives, what of us? You must remember they had no newspapers in those days to advertise services and Jesus availed himself of the means at hand for publishing his coming and announcing his meetings; (I say that in no sense belittling or under estimating the work of Christ). He used these men because he had no other means of advertising his coming, and after all, that way is a great deal better than newspapers or posters. I would rather have seventy well-trained men in Lon don advertising my services than have all the print ers’ ink at my command, and all the newspapers in London. Now, following this, Jesus instructs them concern ing the greatness of the harvest; “the field is already white unto harvest, but the laborers are few.” This was specially true in Perea at this time; for while Perea was a heathen country it was very dissatisfied. It was in a low state of moral life, and there was great unrest among the people. They were begin ning to endeavor to understand and see how this state of immorality had come about. It was just at this time when that state of restlessness was abroad in the land, that Jesus and his disciples and the seventy others struck the country, so the harvest was particularly plenteous at that time; but he said, “The laborers are few.” I do not want to lose sight of the fact that these things are intended to be of service to us in dealing with our problems. It was no more true of Perea in the days of Jesus, that the heathen were plen teous and the laborers few, than it is today of us in London. The heathen in London were never so plenteous, or the opportunity so great as today for the work of the church. On the other hand, the laborers were never so few in proportion to the op portunity, as today. I do not believe there was ever a time when Christian work, really and sensibly done, returned a greater reward than at the present time. Let me give you just a little illustration from the work here: (friends not connected with us in it will pardon me for advertising our own work!) Some time ago we became very much impressed here that we were not grappling with the children of this community. A great many people said that the children of this local community would not come to our Sunday school; they would go to the Mission Schools, but not here. They said they had a natural antipathy to coming into a church that looked so churchy as this; that they were not sufficiently clothed to associate with the children of the bet ter class. But we went on feeling more and more that there was a loss of opportunity here; that if that were true, there needed to be a change all round, because a church standing as this church does in this particular locality, ought to grapple with the problem right at its door or resign business and let somebody else do it. We decided we would make a little test, and we put a woman in the field to do nothing else but visit children, all sorts and any sort, and wherever she was able to find children not sufficiently clothed to come, she was to let us know, and the requirements would be met and clothes furnished. That has not been a long time ago. And today we are beginning to get so crowded that our Primary Superintend ent has got to go to building another primary room; we have packed it so full it will not presently be sanitary for children to be there; indeed, it is already so; and even then, we hardly touched the fringe of the situation. It has opened my eyes. Here is a plant that is sufficient to take care of a great area in this community, and yet there are scores of Mis sion Schools around us, operating upon the belief that you cannot get them to go to church. It is false. We have demonstrated that; they not only come, but stay when they come. What the church of Christ needs to learn today is the lesson our Lord began to teach when he went into Perea, with the seventy, who entered it for con quest for the Lord. Get to the people personally with the Gospel. Do not sit down and wait for the people to come to you! If our Lord himself could not afford to sit down in the cities of Perea and say, “Now here I am; I can work miracles; I wlil work just as many as you bring me.” If he did not rely (Continued on page 7.) Send $1.50 for 1 year’s subscription to THE GOLDEN AGE and a beautiful 6-inch quad ruple plate silver card, solid or block-cream Tray. If you have gotten one year; want five more to make a “set” send us another $1.50 and we will send them to you.