The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-02
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.


 Tn our quikt. commonplace life. safeguarded at every point by the ap- pliances of cfvilizatio few of us know what 1t is to experience a great ad- venture. It is out of the depths of our nature, therefore. that we hail such explorers as Cook and Shackleton and Peary and Sven Hadin. who have been at close grips with death. facing It as a familiar foe. Used as we are to the Apostle Paul merely as the author of great New Testament writings, we for get that he was one of these heroic. adventurous spirits who. turning their backs upon ease. have dared all the buffetings of perilous fortune. Paul had almost grown accustomed to the shouts of murderous mobs. He we'll knew the feel of rough hands clutching his clothes and his body--and anyone who has ever felt that sensation is not likely to forget 1t. He knew. as some sheltered persons know the oa- | resses of loved ones. the stunning blows of stones thrown with deadly ir- tent.
 So 1t was no great shock to him when the mob cry suddenly arose around his ears in Jerusalem. He might have expected ease and comfort at this homecoming. Once again he was amid his brethren at the capital of his nation. Surely he had left behind.
 
 strife that had so often brought him nigh to death. But Paul was one of truths adventurers, and nothing ever surprised him. He was prepared for any contingency.
 The Value of Foes.
 Some valiant teachers have pointed out the usefulness to every man of few enemies. They teach him to keep his senses alert. and they cultivate his powers of self-restraint and resource fitness. Because of them he must I've watchfuIly. and prepared for any onset Probably these teachers are right in assuming that a life in the midst of alarms Is preferable to the soft and easy lot which seeks sedulously to avoid offense to evil as well as to good.
 One point should e. be borne in mind with respect to enemies. Let all ones enemies be for truths sake. and not on account of ones own personal meanness. Some men have enemies be- cause their characters provoke the in- dignation of all wffolesome-mindedp per- sons. They are disliked because they are unlikeable. No doubt there are crooked sticks. tagged with a religious label. who think that they are perse- cuted for righteousness sake, when tt Is only scorn of their own perversi- ties that touches them. Paul was per- sonally a lovable and attractive man. He was not hated for himself, but only for the cause that had been incarnated in his life. His foes were the foes of truth and righteousness and liberty
 The Mob Spirit.
 Men who are individually sensible yet lose their heads in a crowd. The wit iessness of mobs is as apparent as their lawlessness. It is seldom indeed that a mob does righteously. The old proverb writer shrewdly diagnosed hu- man nature when he bade the reader not 90 follow a multitude to do evil" Multitudes are prone to evil. The mob is unsafe because it lacks balance, self. restraint. and judgment The cry upon which the Apostle Paul was mobbed as he went up to the Jerusalem temple. after his three missionary Journeys. was actually a mistaken one. But then 1t is not uncommon in this Western world for the wrong men to be lynch- ed. Paul was accused of profaning the temple, whereas he had really done no such thing.
 The worst foe of justice and civiliza- ton Is the mob spirit. It is return to unrestrained barbarian. A current magazine article points out Britain's great glory by contrasting legal pro- cedure on the two sides of the Cana dian border. Wherever British law runs. there goes respect TOT orderly
 
 exist under the British flag. So im- portant to our times is this truth of the sanity of the law that 1t needs to be taught in Sunday schools as of more worth than many pious remarks that suggest themselves in connection with this lesson. If the next genera ton is to rise. above the lawlessness which has characterized the present one. they must learn how and why In the Sunday schools and public schools of today.
 Rome to the Rescue.
 Paul was in the hands of mob bent on killing him. We can almost hear the tmult of that turbaned rabble. The roar which is the voice of all mobs in action, so that whoever has heard 1t once can never mistake 1t again. rose above the city's normal sounds, oc- casionaliy there was the shrill ,hriels Of some high voiced and excited man. Frenzied individuals capered as in de- lirium about the edges of the crowd. Men pulled one another away in order to get a chance at the helpless prison- CT. The latter. quickly borne to the ground, was jumped on and Kicked ard beaten in fury of wild