The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-16
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

son for october IL is Rdul d 1AASOA-
er Before Felix" Acts "a.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
The imperfections of the judicial
system in the United States have laIeiy
been pointed out by President Tart
himself Except in very rare in
stances these do not include corrup-
ton. At times we learn of judges who
are swayed primarily by amoltlon' so
cial ties and pecuniary considerations:
by all such the administration OF JUS
tice is utterly impossible. Pure water
does not flow from a foul spring. An
instance of the effect of bribery upon
the character of judge is the case of
Felix, before whom We ind Paul
standing in the course of his adven-
lures.
Felix was CRATER. The graft
habit had so eaten into his whole ma
ture, that even when he came to con-
slider seriously the question of personal
religion. he still could not shake off
the desire to make personal gain out
of his teaching; even as many man
today finds the ruling evils of his life
rising up before him in church, as a
veil to shut out the truth of God. His
essential corruption had so distorted
the nature of Felix (history writes him
down as the worst governor Judea ever
had) that he could not deal justly with
the prisoners before him. The high,
infexible and evenhanded justice of
the Roman courts was made a mock
cry by this debauched and crafty off,
cial. His story is one that should
bring home to the youth of the Sun
character and destiny of being .swayed
by any other considerations than those
of honor and justice.
A Giant at the Bar, Pigmy on the
Bench.
In this Roman court room at Ce-
marea, the capital of the province of
Judea, we see enacted a scene which
history has often been called upon to
record-greatness and honor standing
at the judgment bar OF pettlneSs and
greed. Felix was pigmy; Paul was
a giant. Felix was not worthy TO
wash the feet of this prisoner upon
whom his lecherous eyes leered SO
superciliously. He was serene and
contemptuous in the delusion that
power and position made him great
an error that has not yet persisted
from the earth Jesus had to stand
before PLATE; and truth and nobility
often finds itself arraigned before
meanness and time-serving politics.
Mediocrity often sits in judgment upon
genius. Boorish wealth sometimes is
served by true gentility. The present
lesson, with its dramatic contrast in
injustice, reminds US that
'Honor and shame from no condition
Act wen thy part: there all the honor
lies"
A cynic, aware of the facts. would
have found food for epigrams in that
court room scene. Knowing the shady
record of Felix, whose only merit
seems to have been diligence in sup
pressing crimes of violence, SO that
'He left a corsair's name to other
times
Linked to one virtue and thousand
crimes
+ba obser1-er would bava smiled in
wardly at the fulsome fiattery of the
hired Roman advocate, Tertullus, who
was doubtless employed for his lin
fuence" with this Roman judge. The
obsequiousnesS and servility of these
proud Jews. including the high priest
himself, before the naughty and cruel
alien dominion, must have been de-
light to the cynic. Even such one
could not have failed to show interest
In the ophistry-puncturing state
ments of the plainly clad and badly
battered hereto at the bar, whose
adventurous career had been enough
to stir cynic's blood. Anybody &C
customed to measuring men could see
that the merits of the case, as well
as the personal greatness, all lay with
the little christianized Jew from Tar |
Eus.
The Debate in Court.
stormy petrol was Paul. There |
is no denying that wherever he went, |
commo tions seemed to follow. That |
was because he was personality, |
and preached a gospel which, when |
presented straight, always makes a |
stir. Commander Claudius Lysias, of |
the Jerusalem garrison, had been glad |
to have his hands free of Paul; after |
rescuing him from mob. he had |
foiled the plot of forty assasSins by |
sending the prisoner on by night to /
Cesarea. There. after five days, a |
delegation of leading Jews. including |
Ananias, the high priest, attended by |
@ Roman pleader named Tertullus, |
followed to prefer charges against |
him.
The lawyer was sycophantic. He !
dattered Felix without regard to the |
facts. He called Paul "a pestilent fell |
low" "a mover of Instructions /
among all the Jews throughout the |
world" "a ringleader of the sect of ,
the Nazarenes," and a profaner Of the |
It will be noted that he did
not call Paul a leader of the Christ
ians;" it was the pagans who gave |
that name to the followers OF Jesus,
and not the Jews; to the latter 1t was
an offense, for Christ was their
sacred word for the expected Mes
siah. So they used the despised name
ssNaEarenes," which Is Illuminated by
their proverb. Can any good thing
come out of Nazareth 90
When the prisoners turn came to /