Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-11-11
The international Sunday School Les
son for November ID Is "PauI a
Prisoner in Rome" octs 90; 1881.
A coNoyERoR IN CHAINS.
BY WILLIAM t. ELLIS

BY WILLIAM 7. ELLIS.
There is always a way out. No hui
man soul is ever utterly hemmed in by
troubles. Deliverance is Gods pro-
gram for his distraught friends. He Is
pledged to make way to escape.
Sometimes the way to Rome-or any
other goals devious and beset by
difficulties. 1t may lead through Jeru-
salem mobs, corrupt Caesarea courts,
shipwrecks on the Mediterranean and
three months on Malta. The journey
may be personally conducted by the
military power of imperial Rome; and
chain may link the traveller to a
soldier of the legion But the arrival
at Rome is certain. The goal is sure.
A terrific Northeastern had landed
Paul and the other two hundred and
seventy-five members of the ships
company on Malta's shores. What a
storm that was! How helpless was the
arm of all-conquering Rome when
his winds! II must have seemed to
the sailors as if all the other winds
of heaven had gone ont of business
for themselves. and had been merged
into the deadly Northeaster. Their
personal experience had made them
Dessimists, even as some people think
that the whole world is encircled only
by the Northeast winds of trouble.
But the gentle South winds arose in
due season, to bear the shipwrecked
sailors away from the island where
they had spent three months. There
is always a South wind. While the
Northeast winds are bowling most
fiercely, it is we'll to remember that
Gods good South wind is on the way.
There's guide time coming" Here
was the optimistic Pauls interpreta-
ton of his experiences, as he wrote to
his friends in Philippi. Now I would
have you know, brethren, that the
things which happened unto me have
fallen out rather unto the progress of
the Gospel" That is another way OF
expressing this lessons deepest life
message: "All things work together
for good to them that love God"
Over Storied Waters.
Let us stand at the prov of the
Twin Brother above the images OF
Castor and Pollux, and perhaps with
the little missionary, whose slight
frame makes us think he is all SOUL
standing beside us, sheltered from the
Mediterranean winds by cloak given
him by grateful Maltese, we shall
see much to stir our Imagination. Over
sapphire seas, sparkling in the sun
light, with the salt air blowing on our
faces, we come to Syracuse. Here we
have three days to traverse the his
toric city, with it's memories of Dem
osthenes, in whom our orator-com-
panion Paul is especially interested.
A short journey away, reached, how
ever, only after good searaanship, we
come to the city of Rhegium, at the
entrance to the stored strait where
Scylla and Charybdis lie in wait for
the unwary ship. Paul had his own
thoughts of the famous events con-
nected with this region; he could not
know that twenty centuries later
standardization unsupported by him
would be anguished by the overthrow
by earthquake of this same Rhegium,
afterward to be called Reggie, and of
the city of Messina, across the narrow
neck of water. A day in Rhegium,
and then we attempt the hazardous
journey through the strait. AS we pass
many famous wrecks along the rocks.
Toward the beautiful blue of the Bay
of Naples (although Paul knew it as
the Bay of PuteolD the Twin
Brothers" drew steady course.
Vesuvius waved his sulphurous plume
above the horizon, beautiful but
ominous. Here we see Pompeii, in
all its Roman luxuriousness, idling
away in voluptuous wickedness the
beautiful days, unwarned of the dis
aster which was to overtake it within
ten years, burying beneath the ashes
OF Vesuyius a record of it's life that
should lie hidden for seventeen cen.
turtles. Even Luke's statement of the
presence Of Christians in the vicinity
is confirmed by Inscriptions dug up
here. Seven days of sweet fellowship
with the disciples at Puteoli were
spent by Paul before proceeding 10
Rome by land.
The Legion Without Uniforms.
The present-day traveller along the
Appian Way will have his Imagination
tremendously stirred. Everywhere
are relics of a glorious past. Centuries
long dead rise up to whisper in his
ear their romantic messages. With
the eye of his quickened mind he will
see the ancient highway once more
filled with swinging Roman legions.
Here they come, bronzed with many
suns, with the confident stride of VIC
tors, from conquests over the whole
known world. Triumphal professions,
too, with chained captives at the con-
queror's cars furnishing the contrast
to the splendor of the legions, come
rolling along amidst the huzzas Of the
holiday-maklng populace. All, what a
pageant is this which the very name
"Appian Way" conjures up!
Chiefly, though, your present-day
traveller will muse upon the greatest
leader that ever trayersed this famous
road-and he wore a chain. l found
myself saying, as myriads of others
have done. This ruin was building
when Paul passed here. The apostle
saw this monument just as i see it to-
day." So the Imagination runs to a
vision of the little company of Chris
tians that journeyed from the city out
In ha rlr a 10 hn