The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-02
A MAN AND HIS ENEMIES
The International Sunday School Lesson For October Paul
 Prisoner-The Arrest" Acts xxi 17-22; %.

| unreason. Judgment. dignity, and manliness had been thrown to the winds.
 Suddenly into the midst of this wild scene came on the double quick the Ro- man guard. Rome stood for law. Her | soldiers were the embodiment of order ly procedure. Before them the frenzied Jews scattered. The supposed criminal althougt half dead, was loaded with double chains. for surely. reasoned his rescuers, he must be some monstrous one. so to excite the city. The com mander of the soldiers attempted an l investigation on the spot, but a mob cannot give a reason for its existence So to the barracks he proceeded with his prisoner.
 | Where Knowledge Counts. Here Paurs cultivation as a man of the world came to his help. Whatever extra accomplishment a person may &C., quire. be 1t the finger speech of the deaf and dumb, bit of French or of pfdgin English. or knowledge of how to make bed or a camp fire. or to l shoot a gun or to tie a knot, comes in | with opportune usefulness on some oe- casion. No knowledge is ever lost. l The cultivated man has this advantage over the ignorant. that he is armed at so many more points with skill and knowledge.
 When his prisoner after wiping the blood from his lips. quietly spoke in | polished Greek. the colonel stood amaz- | ed. This was the speech of a man of breeding, spoken as by one who was used to the ways Of best society. Thus | 1t came about that cosmopolitan Paul was given an opportunity to address the multitude-which meant moro to him than all the incidents of tho pre- l ceding riot. He was willing to be mobbed If thereby he might have op- portunity to preach.
 A Speech to n Mob.
 Dignified. despite his bedraggled raj. ment and his bleeding face, Paul stood on the stairway and confronted the multitude that had so lately sought his life. A moment before he had spoken to the Roman soldier in Greek. Now he talks in the tongue of the temple, and the fact that he spoke Hebrew gave him a hearing. What would you say in a like case? Would 1t not be natural that Paul should at. tempt to justify himself. or to prove hia own innocence? He did nothing Of the sort. In>.ead he told his story. for a personal experience is the supremely interesting utterance of everybody. It Is a common saying that every mans experience would make at least one book. Nothing Is of such absorbing in- terest as real life. Paul spoke with | WOEIu NlSuOH Wn6H ne began to tell his own life story. Moreover. no man can ever preach above his own expe- renee. He may try to. but the only utterance which will find lodgment in his hearers hearts will be that which mas come out of his own life.
 So the dramatic biography of the great apostle poured forth torrentially from his eloquent lips. The multitude heard him in silence until he came to | the point where he declared that Jesus had appointed him as an ambassador to the Gentiles. Then religious preju- dice famed forth afresh. There is no reason in bigotry. When their sec tarian zeal was affected the Jews would hear no more of Pauls message. nI- stead. they drowned his voice in the cry which his Master. Jesus. had heard In the same neighborhood: Away with | him."
 Ii is a singular coincidence that this shout arose about Paups ears for the same reasonthat 1t sssailed Jesus. The Jews could not bear the thought nf a bigger religion than their traditional