The Palatka news and advertiser., 1903-05-01
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PAUL ARRESTED.

Strange are the rcprisals Of history !!
A furious understanding with an
ger. stopping ears, gnashing teeth,
and rushing like an avalanche OF
death upon one whose face shines
like that Oft an angel! AS the murder
erS run they toss their garments
at the feet OF Il young man who acts
as official witness. Twenty years
have passed, and the same scene is
transpiring on the same spot Only
in the place of Stephen stands the
very man who has consented to his
death. Now it is Paul himself who
is bearing the brunt of the deadly
avalanche.
Paul had come to Jerusalem to
make peace, if possible, between
! Jewish and Gentle factions i'm tht.
Christian church. He had come in
spite Of warnings that it would cost
him his liberty and life. He had
| been quoted as hostile to the law.
! He proposed to show this false by
himself observing at Jerusalem the
feast (PentecOstl which commence
rated the giving Of the tables Of
stone. He would also join certain
Nazarites and help them fulfill their
vow. He could give every signili~
cant evidence of the friendly spirit
of the Gentle toward the jew in
their generous donation for the re-
lief Of their poor.
The Jews of Asia had often heard
Paul affirm that the middle wall of
partition must be broken down.
They took him to literally mean the
wall that separated between the
court OF the Gentiles and the inner
court. the pavement of which could
be pressed by Hebrew feet alone. so
| finding Paul within the palisade they
sDrang to the conclusion that he ~"s
| then and there engaged in breaking
it down by the Introduction OF the
uncircumcised within it. The cry
il raised, "Men "f Israel, hcip!
As if this inotfensive, thoughtful
man, making not the slightest resist
ance, ready to submit to arrest and
all the forms of civil proseCution-as
if he was some wild beast, some
| frightful menace to the peace and
safety, to be eXterminated as quickly
as possible.
No sooner had Paul been tossed
out of the inner court than the great
braZen gates shut with a revengeful
clang behind hipl-perhaps to pre-
vent his finding an asylum there, or
to inhame the populace still more by
| signitying that the LeVites consider
ed the temple polluted, and would
not open the gates again until 1t had
been purified. However that may
be, no more significant circumstance
can be conceived. Those closing
gates are a striking figure of the
Hebrew heart closing against its last
prophet and sealing its doom.
Uproar and tumult prevail. a
wild, uncomfortable, universal eX-
citemcnt is rife. The Jews are in a
jealous rage for their temple. The
| Romans are stricken with IL fear that
| the Egyptian zealOt on whose head d
price still rests has made his appear
ance. Excitement universal? No!
one heart is calm, and that the heart
of the man who is in most danger of
all. Out of the very jaws Of defeat
Paul seizes an opportunity to preach
his gospel. How strangely siguiti-
cant his pulpit!-a staircase-mid-
way between Hebrew temple and
Roman tower. Like a mediator
Paul stands there laying hand upon
Gentle and Jew.
The vanquished is really victor.
His raiment covered with dust and
his visage marred by the rude hand-
ling of the mob-hOw divine the COM
poSure, how Christianlike the be
nignity that can address its assail-
ants "Brothers and fathers" What
Il lovely comment on Jesus com
|mand, "When smitten on one cheek
turn the other alsO!"
Within the very precincts of the
temple, hard by the chamber in
which he had sat as member Of
the Sanhedrin, in sight of the very
spot where he had taken part in the
legal murder of the first Christian
martyr; in the very presence of some
who had furnished him his commits
sion us a prosecutor, and of Others
who made the journey with HIM to
Damascus, Paul tells the thrilling
story of his conversion. He was a
Jew born indeed in distant prov
ince, but brought up at the heart OF
the Hebrew commonwealth, and by
its greatest teacher graduating from
the school of Gamaliel, q zealOt and
a prosecutor. But how sudden and
complete his transformation! He
resigned his seat in the Sanhedrin;
relinquished all hopes of preferment;
suffered the tenderest ties of kinship
to be broken; went voluntary exile
from home and country; became as
the filth and otfscouring of the world,
counting all that he priced before as
drOss; wearing as a slave the brand
of the Nazerine and glorying in it;
yes, rejoicing now in the prospect of
martyrdom. And the incredible
Transformation had come to him, not
by the slow infiltratiOn of Christ
ian doctrine, precept, and example,
but suddenly at midday, when in the
very height of his career as a perse-
cut0r at the very gate of Damascus,
by the miraculous appearance to him
of Jesus the Nazarene.
1t is very true that this powerful
sermon preached to a riOtoCs mob,
overawed for the moment by the
towering moral grandeur of the
preacher, was not permitted to reach
a conclusion; but it was not preach
ed in vain.
THE TEACHERS LANTERN.
This narrative fairly bristles with
points of application to our times in
general, and to our personal eXper-
fence in particular.
A mob has been characterized as
the most odious and despicable spec
tacle which the world can witness.
Mobs are often, as in Paul's case, the
instruments of a cruel injustice. For
example, it was on the mere suppO-
stion that Paul had brought the
Gentle Trophimus into the inner
temple that he was treated with such