The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-04-17
~ WILLIAM y. FLLIs.


BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
A few weeks ago / met on a west
bound train young Philadelphia ply
stefan of an old family and embodying
in himself the best traditions of cul-
ture, who was enroute to China to
serve as a medical missionary of the
University of Pennsylvania. He an
swered the old criticism that only sec
ond-rate men are missionaries The
man most suitable for the service of
the Kingdom of Heaven is the one
possessing the most force, brains and
That is why the present notable les
son is a familiar bit of Christian his
tory-it relates the extraordinary
manner in which the assistant, the
scholar and the cosmopolite, Saul of
Tarsus. became a soldier of Jesus
Christ, against whom he had been
fighting. 1t is a great day for two
worlds when powerful personality
goes all the way into the service of
God. This event on the highroad to
Damacus is the most important item
of Christian history after the resur-
rection OF Christ. Next to Jesus him
self, this transformed prosecutor Saul.
has been the mightiest figure in Chris
tan history.
Making Ready for Big Work
All the conditions that contribute to
the making or a IOrceIul 1nannOOQ are
aids to Christian character and SER
vice. That is why the gentleman-
scholar athlete, DIR. Grenfell, is so ex-
traordinary a missionary. The peculiar
training of Saul, designed to make him
a singularly efficient man of the world
or Jewish theologian, admirably fitted
him for his unique position in the ear
iy church.
No experience IS ever wasted. This
brilliant young man had been brought
In n tha of
learning of his time, although his
scholastic education was acquired in
Jerusalem under the great Gamaliel.
He was city man, used to the best
society the son of a wealthy father
and an inheritor of the latter's Roman
citizenship. He had acquired touch
of the Greek culture, but yet he had
not lost his Jewish adherence of idol
airy, as he had seen it at Tarsus. a
center of Baal worship. His native
city was famous for it's cloth, and Saul,
like all well-trained Hebrew boys,
whatever their wealth, learned the
trade of tent-making, which later
stood him in good stead. So notable
were the abilities of this Jealous young
student-whese age was about the
same as that of the Nazarene with
whom his life was to be identified
that he was early made a member of
the Sandhedrin, the highest official
body in Jewry.
l1nkcO Up 10 a NldfIgF.
Back of every life and work lie 9TH
err lives and works. All talk of self
made men, is aside from the mark.
for no man makes himself; he is the
product and expression of other lives
than his own. Saul was linked up to
Stephen, the first martyr. Probably
his career as a prosecutor, officially
commissioned to harry the Christians
wherever he could find them, dates
back to that event. 1t was at this
scene that he first appeared to the
historians eye: not throwing stones, of
course, for he was a gentleman, and
that was work for the rabble, but
standing to one side lending counten-
ance TO the crime, and even guarding
the cloaks of the sweaty mob. His
responsibility as leader and adviser
was greater than that of any mere
hurler of deadly missiles. We are i'll
very prone to blame mobs for crimes,
forgetting the responsibility of the
men who have created the conditions
and impulses leading to the crimes.
Nevertheless, the same qualities of in
itiatiye and daring and fearlessn ess
which made Saul chief among the
foes of Jesus, added value to his dis
cipleship when he later devoted his
trained mind and sensitive spirit to
the service of Christ.
As DIR. Martha Tarbell says, in her
capital summary of the character of
Paul: ''He was a born leader of men.
HIS originality OF thought maze MIN
philosopher, his spiritual insight made
him a theologian. New conditions and
difficulties presented themselves wher-
ever he went, but he was equal to any
emergency. and whether talking to a
few women by the riverside at Philip
ri, or to many philosophers on the
Areopagus at Athens, he could do all
things through Him who strengthen
ed him. And yet this intellectual
siant-organizer and administrator,
orator and theologian, prophet and
eeer-was intensely human, and 1t is
perhaps his humanness that has en-
deared him most to countless multi
tudes OF Christians. He had great Wis
ions and inspirations, but he lived on
human levels. We see him not a saint
but q man, with human weaknesses
impulsfve, unyielding at times. OF
quick and vehement temper. and we
see this man in many ordinary situa-
lions pressed on every side, yet not
straigfltened: perpiexed. yet not unto
despair: pursued, yet not forsaken;
smitten down, yet not destroyed. He
represents human nature at its best
the nature toward which all may
strive, for he could we'll say to the