The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-08-14
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
One of the everyday tragedies OF NE
Us the breaking of old ties by progress
sive persons who have gone into ne"
life. Young people who have LETT the
humble old home to go to college re-
turn AMI find themselves living IN a
different world which does not speak the
language of that in which they are
aeSred. All about US we see prominent
and successfQul men and women con-
corning whose families we never IN
Quire. They have had to make fresh
life for themselves. Some are all TOO
quick to break with the past, ana 10
. forget those to whom they owe al !;
but even many who would carry their
Families and old associates with them
Hud it impossible so to do. Paul, the
great apostle to the Gentiles, was new
ertheless a Jew. and his heart ever
yearned for his own people. Daily ne
prayed for them. and with all his tact
and tenderness and wisdom he sought
to keep in close relationship with them.
Whenever he approached new com
nlunity it was to the synagogue that he
Immediately repaired. His pride was
that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews.
Yet alas, his own people continually
cast him cut.
Despite innumerable mobbings, Paul
kept his Hebrew affiliations. In the
present lesson we find him ending MS
second missionary journey in order 10
go up 20 Jerusalem to fulfill VOW he
made the long journey up to the city of
navid-with the tnextingu1shable love
for that spot which has characterized
the devout Jew throughout all ages
end in the temple courts he fulfilled all
the rites of an orthodox Jew.
The Things Men Celebrate.
Nothing IS said in the record about
the reception given the great. apostle
by the church at Jerusalem. Apparently
he had no triumphal entry. 1t is more
than possible that the Judaized Chris
tians were cold to this apostle to the
Gentiles. 1t is more probable, however
that the historian. with a fine sense OF
the evangelizaticn and not the home
jubilations. Luke. ike Paul, had SUI
preme interest in the field
Paul was rot one Of those missionaries |
who make more noise at home than they
DC abroad; whose work looms larger
IN the printed reports and in the telling /
10 hOTe churches than 1t does before |
the eyes of those who actually see 1t
or the ground Nor was he of that COM
pany of evangelists who employ press
agents to report their successes in dis
tant fields to the centers from which
they draw, or hope to draw, stipend.
For to PauPs mind the work was the
thing. His heart yearned for the battle
ground like old DR.. Hunter Corbett, who
would not wait to finish his term as
moderator of the Presbyterian General
assembly, but who FASTENED back to his
field in China. He would rather preach
in the China village than preside and
be nonized at elaborate functions IN
America. Of him it is told that return
ing to China from a furlough he began
TO preach to the natives as soon as he
set foot upon the jetty, even before he
had greeted his family.
An Echo of the Baptist.
Ar interesting figure enters the story
fere, one Apollos. an Alexandrian Jew.
He was of the type of the scholarly man
of letters, ready in debate and equipped
ty research for thorough controversy
The Alexandrian spirit. which applied
the Greek standard of scholarship to
the Hebrew scriptures. was personi1ed
In ApolloS. Now Apollos knew John
the Baptist teaching, and the promis-
ed Messiah. but he was ignorant that
Christ had already come and lived and
5ied. Yet he was true to the best that
he knew, and lip to the limits of his
knowledge he preached his gospel in
Ephesus, powerfully confounding the
Jews.
The churches which are not awake to
the whole truth are typified by Apollos
ard his FL hesian converts. We recall
and the Coptic church. and the Greek
shurch, and the Orthodox Russian
church. which, through intellectual tor :
or ami spiritual decline, have lost
Christian church. What shall we say
@ them? Shall we follow in the train
If the Christians of an older day and
rand .hen rs heretics? Surely not.
The temper or the time is TO lead all
hese on to a fuller knowledge. Upon {
he best of what they have the compile {
eI structure of Christian truth should I
,e reared. That, happily, is the mood 9
# the day
That. too was the mood OF Pauls day
Apollos was not cast out as a hereto. a
there were two friends Of the gospel, '
AQuila and Priscilla. who seem ever to 9
ave been satisfied to keep in the back a
round ard TO he helpers of others. n
What part they had as the strengthen
rs, supporters, and comforters of Paul L
We can only imagine. When they learn c
Use up in The synagogue and hurl crit ?
cisns at his head. nor did they set to
lowing that subtle current of censor r
BUSINESS which is swifter than all the a
yaters that girdle the earth. Instead, | c
hey took him aside and expounded to
i'm fully the way of life. Would that
ur churches werc full Of AQuilas and q.
'riscillas! Then the preacher who is -
oW criticised for his cruditieS and raw ~
eEses and blunders and shortcomings r.
;culd be helped. in quiet. brotherly ~
ashion, to fulfill a larger mission. Who :,
Dows but that even this preacher, "
ruth you yourself know. may yet be a,
veritable Apollos? W
Religions Best for An. m
Ephesus was the great commercial fl
metropolis of Asia Minor. It was a "l
ity Of diverse peoples and multi tt
udfnous interests. Later in Chris OF
Ian history it became known as the
ome of the Apostle John. and the pl
hurch at Ephesus grew to be a in
christian stronghold. When PauI pl
rived there he found company of a
eIeverS who had been taught by T.
-pollos. When he asked them if thew m
XII
sv
!; T !;
/ nj.