The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-10-12
A GREAT MAN VS.. y CRATER,
The international Sunday SchoOi les
son for October II is "Patii u ifio-
Oner Before Felix Acts y.
By WILLIAM t. ELLIS.

&-
The imperfections of the Judlclal
~ in the United States have lately
been pointed out ty President lall
himself. Except iii very rare III
stances. these do noH include corrup-
ton. At times we ,earn Of Judges
who are swayed primarily by ambi-
ton. social ties and pecunlary conslo-
erations: by all such the adminlstra-
ton of Justice is utterly Impossible:
Pure water does not flow from a louf
spring. An instance OF the efect %
bribery upon the character OF a Judge
is the case of Felix, before whom
we find Paul standing in the course OF
his adventures.
Felix was a CRATER. Ine graf
habit had so eaten into his whole ma
ture, that even when he came 70 con
slider seriously the question OF per
sonal religion, he still could not SNAKE
off the desire to make personal gain
out of his teaching; even as many d
man today finds the ruling evils OF
his life rising up before him in churcn,
as a veil to shut out the truth OF Goa.
His essential corruption had SO diS-
torted the nature of Felix (history
writes him down as the worst COVER
nor Judea ever had) that he coulo
not deal justly with the prisoners De,
fore him. The high, i~nflexible and
e~ven-handed justice Of the Roman
courts was made a mockery by this
debauched and crafty official. HIS
story is one that should BRING nome
to the youth of the Sunday-schools
the blighting effects upon character
and destiny of being swayed by any
other considerations than those OF
honor and justice.
A Giant at the Bar. a Pigmy on the
Bench.
Tn this Roman court room at Cesa-
rea. the capital of the province of
Judea. we see enacted a scene which
history has often been called upon
to record-greatness and honor stanr-
ing at the Judgment bar of pettinesS
and greed. Felix was q pigmy; Paul
was q giant. Felix was not worthy to
wash the feet of this prisoner upon
whom his lecherous eyes leered so
contemptuously. He was serene and
contemvtuous in the delusion that
power and position made him great
an error that has not yet persisted
from the earth. Jesus had to stand be-
fore PLATE; and truth and nobility Of
ten find itself ~arraigned before mean
ness and time-serving politics.
upon genius. Boorish wealth some
times is served by true gentility. h
present lesson. with its dramatic con-
trast in injustice, eminds US that
Honor and shame from no condition
Act well thy part: there all the honor
lies"
A cynic. aware of the facts, would
have found food for epigrams in that
courtroom scene. Knowing the shady
record of Felix, whose only merit
seems to have been diligence in sup
pressing crime of violence, SO that
II left a corsair's name to other
times
Linked to one virtue and a thousand
crimes"
the observer would have smiled in
ward1y at the fulsome flattery Of the
hired Roman advocate, Tertulius,
who doubtless employed for his "influ-
ence' with this Roman judge. The OBJ
sequiousness and servility of these
proud Jews. including the high priest
himself, before the naughty and cruel
representative of the hated alien do
minion must have been q delight to
the cynic. Even such a one could
not have failed to show interest in the
Eophistry-puncturfng statements of
the plainly clad and ba~dly-battered
hereto at the bar, whose adventurous
career had been enough to stir a
cynic's blood. Anybody accustomed
to measuring men could see that the
merits of the case, as we'll as the per-
sonal greatness, all lay with the little
Christianized Jew from Tarsus.
The Debate in Court.
A stormy petrol was Paul, There is
pIO uSAlyIhS LhdI "IcicVcI ne went,
commotfons seemed to follow. That
was because he was a personality, and
preached a gospel which, when pre-
sented straight, always makes a stir.
Commander Claudius Lysias, of the
Jerusalem garrison, had been glad to
have his hands free Of Paul; after res
cuing him from a mob, he had foiled
the plot Of forty assassins by sending
n prisoner on by night to Cesarea.
There, after five days, a delegation of
leading Jews, including Ananias, the
nigh priest, attended by a Roman
pieader named Tertullus, followed to
prefer charges against him.
Inc lawyer was SycOphantic. He
battered Felix without regard to fine