Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-10-14
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
THOUGHTS WORTHY or OALaG'
REFLEcpoN.
A Pleasant, Interesting, and Instrues<.
I've Lesson, and Where 1t May n
Foupd-A Learned and coa4ise Rs-
view Of the Same.

am with thee."-Isa. Al: TO-
Paul Before the Roman Governor Ii
the subject OF the lesson this week-Acts
%: 1925. PauPs hearing before the San
hedrm, which followed his speech to the
multitude studied last week, ended in con-
fusion as described in %: 10. The refer
ence OF Paul to the resurrection stirred MP
the Sadducees against the Pharisees, and
he seemed to be in danger of his life. Res
cued once more by the chiliarch, he was
comforted that night by a vision, in which
he was assured that he would visit Rome.
Learning Of plot laid by bioodthirsty
Jews to kill Paul, the chiliarch decided to
send him to Caesarea, the residence Of
the Roman procurator Felix. The letter
of the soldier to his superior Is an inter
esting bit Of reading, in its brief and COM
pact statement of the facts t23: 26-3O)-
Accompanied by large escort-47O' men
went as far as Antipatris, and the sew
enty horsemen all the way to Caesarea-
Paul was conducted to the governor. OF
course all this care for the life Of the
prisoner was due to the fact that he had
claimed to possess Roman citizenship.
Paul was committed to prison, or rather.
to some apartment in Herod's former resi-
dence, to await the arrival of the wit
nesses and the prosecuting attorney. They
reached Caesarea five days later pa: -,
including the high priest Ananias, some
members of the Sanhedrim (''certain eld-
ers') and an ''orator or attorney by the
name of Tertullus. The speech of Ter
tulus In opening the prosecution Is good
specimen Of hattery and misstatement cal
culated to catch the governors applause
(34: 2-S). The Jewish witnesses confirm
ed his statements, and then Paul, by the
permission of Felix, rose to speak in his
own defense.
| a Explanatory.
Contrast PauIs opening sentences with
those of Tertullus. The former are cour-
teous, without overstepping in any respect
the bounds of truth. Though Felix was
known to be an evil man, and had ruled
as tyrant, so that the Jews hated him,
Tertullus sought to gain his favor by
lying fattery; while Paul simply referred
to his long service as being ground for q
hope that he would at least be familiar
with the character and customs Of the
people.
Paul denies all the charges of creating
public disorder. 1t was his accusers who
had caused that. The charge of stirring
up the peopie-was the only one which the
Ruman governor was likely to regard Sc
riously. The accusation of religious het-
| erodOxy would have no effect on him. So
that when Paul claimed to be innocent OF
the former charge, he had practically
made out his case, knowing that no cred
| liable proof on the other side could be
| offered.
| Now comes the explanation of the rea-
son for his arrest. The very object of his
| presence in Jerusalem, a philanthropic
/ oh hn ho oil of
charges. The real complaint, as Paul well
knew, was that he was not orthodox ac-
cording to the standard of his accusers.
He shrewdly brought this point up, know
| ing that the governor would appreciate
| the situation and discount the statements
of the witnesses for the prosecution.
Having more perfect knowledge OF that
way: that is, being better acquainted
with the character of the Christians than
| the Jews had supposed. Cornelius the
| centurion and Philip the evangelist lived
at Caesarea, and Felix's wife was Jew
| ess." Felix's decision, to postpone the
matter, shows the weakness of his charac-
ter. We might compare him with Plate
both were men who knew innocence
| when they saw it, but had not the cour-
| age to recognize it by releasing the pris-
oner
Drusilla. a daughter of Herod Agrippa
/. (Acts II: 23) and sister of the Agrip-
| pa before whom Paul was later brought,
was an immoral and notorious Jewish
woman. She and her son were eleven
years later overwhelmed in the eruption
| of Vesuvius which destroyed Pompeii.
| Her interest in Paul was probably one of
mere curiosity. the same interest that
would have taken her to a gladiatorial
show or fight of wild beasts in the arena.
righteousness, temperance, and judg-
ment to come" The profigate ruler and
his equally abandoned wife had not ex-
pected such entertainment. They had
| thought, perhaps, Of some fine display of
rhetoric, for Paul was known to be an
| educated man, with considerable power as
| a public speaker. They had thought that
| he might break out into impassiOned de-
| nunciation of his enemies the Jews; or
| perhaps into praise of his own religion.
| But to have him turn at once to the in
| tensely personal subject of their own sin,
| expounding withgmerciless clearness the
divine demands as to righteousness and
| sef-control, and the inexorable penalty OF
disobedience-this was more than their
| guilty conscience could endure.
| Teaching Hints.
Paul makes II plain that while his Chris
| tianity is not mere offshoot Of Judaism,
yet they have many things in common, in
stead of being opposed to each other. 1t
lis likely that in his reasoning concerning
| righteousness" he set forth the difference
between the pagan and Jewish conception
Of righteousness and the Christian doc
| trine or righteousness through Christ.
Compare Paul before Felix with Moses
| before Pharaoh; Samuel before Saul;
| Isaiah before Ahaz; Jeremiah before he
dekiah der. 81: 3; 3S: 2S); Daniel before
| Belshaz:ar; Christ before Plate; Peter
and John before the Sanhedrim. These
I cases are by no means entirely similar,
but they are all examples Of brave and
| true men bearing divine message OF
warning and calm defiance to weak and
| wicked rulers.
"When I have a convenient season" in
| the souls excuse to itself. As man ut
| tiers it he knows that the convenient sea-
son Is even then at hand, as much as it
| ever will he. Yet the pretense of postpone
ment instead of refusal dulls ones sense
| of guilt and quiets for time the .stings
F! of conscience. Such excuses are keeping
more people out of the kingdom of heaven
| than all the intellectual doubts, all the
so-called critical attacks on the Bible, all
| the inconsistent lives of Christians. The
| plain facts must be faced, that thousands
and millions of people know perfectly well
what they are aoout when they refuse to
| listen to the call 10 enter Christ's king