The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-10-23
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.


Agrippa" Acts 25:6-26:32.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
man regnant in manhood, though
chained to a jailer. and standing Tor
his highest rights in the face OF
kings-that is the spectacle when
some twenty-five million Sunday
school members are called upon 10
consider this week. The adventurous
hero, Paul, whose stirring career mas
been the theme of study for weeks. Is
once more brought forth from MS
Caesarea prison in order to appear De-
fore another ruler; and on TINS oc.
casion he delivers one OF his mos.
celebrated orations. The lncloehs
links itself very closely to the he Oh
today.
Governor Felix, the CRATER, had left
Paul in prison. as sop 10 1ne
ecclesiastical party in Jerusalem he
was the sort of public man VINO couiu
not do direct, disinterested deed; ms
very nature had become such that ne
could not help playing politics. An
other trucking politician, Festus, was
sent to represent Rome in the controI
of this turbulent Jewish province. re
went early to Jerusalem to make
himself soIid'' with the leaders of the
Pharisees there, who promptly trie9
to prevail on him to send his noteo
prisoner down to Jerusalem Tor trial
meaning all the while to carry out
the long-deferred plot OF assasslnatl!nlg
Paul en- route. The malignant enmlty
of the Jews toward the apostate mem
Der of their high court seemed to have
no bounds. Yet 1t never turned Paui
against his nation; Walpole's cynical
remark. st should love my country II
it were not for my countrymen," has
no parallel in his utterance his
magnanimous spirit is typ1t1ed by the
words, my hearts desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they mlgnt
= COZ
give US the true measurement OF this
giant in chains.
ST Appeal to the Emperor"
The humbIest Roman citizen could
appeal from the decision of any judge
to the emperor himself. When the
sycophantic Festus suggested. to curry
favor with the Jews. that Paul consent
to the Improper procedure Of stand
ing trial in Jerusalem, the great saint
blazed forth in words of manliness
that thrill the reader:
mo; I am standing at the EN-
peror's bar, the place where l ought
to be tried. 1 have not wrongeu the
Jews, as you yourself can see clearly
enough. If, however. I have done
wrong, and have committed any
offense deserving DEATH I do not ask
TO escape it; but if there Is nothing In
the accusations of these people. no
one has power to give me up TO them.
I appeal to the emperor
The die was cast; all the machina-
tions of enemies were thwarted; to
Rome Paul must now go. conveyed
over the safest route by all the power
of Caesar. What a strange way to
fulfill his eager expectation to meet
with the Christians at Rome! Some
persons, with more of the protoplasm
in their composition than is proper
for man in this stage of his de-
velopment, cannot understand why
men should be stood up for their
rights Their conception of rights are
of things to be surrendered. They
Christians is underfoot. Paul knew
better. He saw clearly that there are
times when to stand for rights is to
stand for God. Truth and justice
is man in COOLEST guise when he is
championing truth in the race or
1eagued wrong.
Truths utter sacredness is an old, old
note that needs 20 be sounded again
and again. There is timidity abe ut
organized and vested religious inter
ests that, forgetting Jesus and Paul,
and all their noble train, inclineS 10
make compromise with expectancy
s'for the sake Of the work" A., the
good work in the world is not so i'm
portant as the utter freedom of truth.
It IS better that all endowments he for
feited, all religious organizations dis
tntegrate. and all ecclesiastical struc-
lures crumble into dust than that
chains or muzzles should be put upon
truth. A poet Of today, Edward 8. Mar
tin, ringingly says:
81 pray Thee. Lord, that when it comes
to me
To say il 1 will follow truth and Thee,
or choose instead to win, as better
worth
My pains, some cloying recompense of
earth
"Grant me, great Father, from q hard
fought field,
Forspent and bruised, upon battered
Home to obscure endurance to be borne
Rather than live my own mean gains
to scorn.
'Far better fall with face turned to-
ward the goal,
AT one with wisdom and my own worn
soul,
Than ever come to see myself pre- vail,
when to succeed at last is but to fail
'Mean ends to win and Herewith be
content
Save me from that! Direct Thou the
event
AS suits Thy will; where'er the prizes
Grant me the struggle, that my soul
may grow"
A Trial as a Function.
Court rooms crowded with men and
women, representatives of wealth and
leisure, are no new spectacle. When
King Herod Agrippa II came TO con-
graduate the new governor of JuGea a
fresh trial of Paul was held for his in
terest. The occasion was Respondent
with social lustre. In the center o. The
eumptuous court room-the very one il
which his rotten father had fallen dead
while being acclaimed a god-the in
A 0rrirlnQ and hca1ifiPrfI AiSSn-
lutte sister wife were seated upon royal
tRIooI VIII T~II,s