SUNDAY-SCHOOLS THE WORLD AROUND THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE WORLD'S FIFTH ROME, MAY 18-23, 1907 EDITED BY Fifth Thousand Published by The World's Sunday-School Executive Committee North American Building, Philadelphia, Pa., U. S. A. IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HER UNREMITTING AND DEVOTED INTEREST IN SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORK THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MRS. ELLA FORD HARTSHORN, WIFE OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION. The Call to Rome For the World's Fifth Sunday School Convention, May 20-23, 1907 To all who are interested in the work of the Sunday-school throughout the world-GREETING: In the Acts of the Apostles we read that Paul, with his vision of a world opportunity, having determined to visit Jerusalem, said, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome." In these later days, when that world of Paul's day has grown into a limitless opportunity for the followers of his Master and ours, it is most fitting that the World's Sunday School Convention, having met in Jerusalem, the birthplace of the Christian Church, should gather now in Rome, that world-center where the Christian Church fought and won its most notable triumphs. Imperial Rome-with its laws, its customs, its rulers, soldiers, and citizens-made up the environment within which the members of that early company of Christians gave themselves unsparingly, at any cost, to the cause of him whom they loved with a devotion not less than that of the great apostle. The Appian Way knew their footsteps; the Mamertine prison could not shut from heaven their fervent pleadings; the Coliseum ran with their blood and sounded with their dying songs of triumph; the Catacombs closed in upon them with a thick darkness which could not quench the flame of their Christian hope; and the Roman Forum daunted them not at all in its formidable publicity, when they must stand fearlessly for the rejected King whose willing bond-slaves they were. Everywhere in the City of the Seven Hills are memorials of that early struggle for the supremacy of Christ, a warfare waged by men and women to whom our debt is immeasur |