The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-02

OnCA"lLS AT w.t. avs -
22:29.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS
In our quiet commonplace life.
appliances of civilization. few of US
know what it is to experience a great
adventure. 1t is out Of the depths OF
our nature, therefore. that we hail
such explorers as Cook and Shackle-
ton and Peary and Sven Hadin, who
have been at close grips with death,
facing it as familiar foe. Used as We
are to the Apostle Paul merely as the
author of great New Testament wri-
tings, we forget that he was one of
these heroic, adventurous spirits who,
turning their backs upon ease. have
dared all the buffetings of perilous
fortune. Paul had almost grown &C
customed to- the shouts of murderous
mobs. He we'll knew the feel of rough
hands clutching his clothes and ms
body-and anyone who has ever telt
that sensation is not likely to forget
it, He knew. as some sheltered per-
sons know the caresSes of loved ones,
the stunning blows of stones thrown
with deadly intent.
So it was no great shock to him
when the mob cry suddenly arose
around his ears in Jerusalem. He
might have expected ease and COM
fort at this Homecoming. Once again
he was amid his brethren at the cap
ital of his nation. Surely he had left
behind, on his stormy travels, the
perils and strife that had so often
brought him nigh to death But Paui
was one of truths adventures. and
nothing ever surprised him. He was
prepared for any contingency.
The Value of Foes
Some valiant teachers have pointed
out the usefulness to every man OF
9ew enemies They teach him to keep
his senses alert, and they cultivate his
powers of self-restraint and resource
fuiness. Because of them he must live
vWatchfully, and prepared for any on
set. Probably these teachers are right
IN assuming that a life in the midst OF
alarms is preferable to the soft and
easy lot which seeks sedulously to
avoid offence to evil as We'll as to
good.
one point should ever be borne in
mind with respect to enemies: Let all
ones enemies be for truths sake and
not on account of ones own personal
meanness Some men have enemies
because their characters provoke the
Indignation of all wholesome minded
persons. They are disliked because
they are un1ikable. No doubt there are
crooked sticks, tagged with relig-
fous label, who think that they are
persecuted for righteousness sake,
when it is only scorn of their own
perversities that touches them Paul
was personally a lovable and at
tractive man. He was not hated for
himself, but only for the cause that
had been incarnated in his life. HIS
foes we're the foes or truth ana right
eousness and liberty
The Mob Spirit.
Men who are individually sensible
yet lose their heads in crowd. The
witlessness of mobs Is as apparent as
their lawleSsness. 1t IS seldom indeed
that mob does rtghteously. me ola
proverb writer shrewdly diagnosed hu-
man nature when he babe the reader
not to follow a multitude to do evil"
Multitudes are prone to evil The mob |
r.1~- To-
self-restraint, and Judgment. The cry
upon which the Apostle Paul was
mobbed as he went up to the Jerusa- |
lem temple, after his three missionary |
Journeys, was actually mistaken one. |
But then 1t is not uncommon In this |
Western world for the wrong men to /
be lynched, whereas he had really .
done so such thing
The worst foe of justice and civilza-
ton is the mob spirit. 1t is a return
TO unrestrained barbarism. A current
magazine article points out Britain's
great glory by contrasting legal pro-
madam border. Wherever British law
runs there goes respect for orderly
legal processes. Private vendetta can
not exist under the British flag. So
important to our times Is this truth
of the sanctity of the law that it needs
to be taught in Sunday schools as of
more worth than many piOus remarks
that suggest themselves in connection
WITH THIS leSSOu. IL Inc next SCuoT-
alton is to rise above the lawlessness
which has characterized the present
one, they must learn how and why
In the Sunday schools and public
schools of today.
Rome to the Rescue.
Paul was In the hands of mob
bent on killing him. We can almost
rabbIe The roar which is the voice
of all mobs in action. so that who
ever has heard 1t once can never mis-
take il again, rose above the city's
normal sounds. Occasionally there was
the shrill shrek of some high-voiced
and excited man. Frenzied individuals
capered as in delirium about the edges
OF the crowd. Men pulled one another
away in order to get q chance at the
helpless prisoner. The latter, quickly
borne to the ground, was jumped on {
and kicked and beaten in a fury of
wild unreason. Judgment, dignity, and I
Inanliness had been thrown to the
winds.
Suddenly. into the midst of this wild {
scene came on the double quick the !
Roman guard. Rome stood for law.
Her soldiers were the embodiment of
orderly procedure. Before them the +
rrenzied Jews scattered. The supposed {
criminal. although half dead. was s
loaded with double chains, for surely, {
his rescuers he must be {
some monstrous one. SO to excite the I
city. The commander of the soldiers 6
attempted an investigation on the t
,pot but a mob cannot give a reason 6
for its existence. So to the barracks G
ne proceeded with his prisoner.
When knowledge Counts.
Here PauTs cultivation as a man
of the world came to his help. What G
ever extra accomplishment a person t
may acquire, be it the finger speech Z
IF the deaf and dumb, a bit of French | /
,r of pidgin English, or knowledge
Of how to make a bed or a campfire