The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-11-03
For November is 'Shipwrecked OF
Melita. Acts 27:38 to 2S:10.
The Hero of the Maltese Cross

\ MellIa- ,--AclS Zf.oo TO
The Hero of the Maltese Cross.
| Iron Crosses and Victoria Crosses
and Crosses of the Legion of Honor
are mentioned often these days in the
dispatches from Europe In this old,
old message from Malta, we SEE the
knightly figure of a hero who may be
said to have won the Maltese Cross
the cross that stands for the fourtold
qualities of Reverence, Obedience.
Courage and Service Whose wears q
maltese cross should think Of the
Apostle Paul and of these four virtues,
inscribed one on each arm of the cross
There is enough .'acuion" for a mo-
| ton picture in the present Sunday
school lesson. At first, we see the
| numbering Alexandrian grain ship,
tossed helplessly by the ''Eurociydon."
or northeasterly storm. Dr.. Luke s
wonderfully accurate account of this
hurricane is verified by many records;
in 1855 it caused the death OF 500 per-
sons in a Malta harbor. The British
government reports say that it has
| been "a constant menace to ships at
anchor; and therefore the new Nom
arch Shoa1 Breakwater was built. In
PauPs case the mariners We're at scar
in the colloquial meaning of that
] phrase; they knew not where they
were or whittier they were driving.
The vessel, after fifteen days of being
battered by the waves, was little more
than a. log on strange sea-
| Then land appeared, with bay and
a beach. If only the ship could be
driven upon thatl Everything was
sacrificed for the sake of a possible
landing: all that man hath will he
| give in exchange for his life. So the
! precious cargo of wheat was thrown
overheard. The cables were cut and
the anchors left in the sea. Rudders
were Embossed and everything made
clear. Then. with sail up they let her
drive for the beach. But they missed
it. The ship struck part way in to
shore, and the huge breakers began
to pound and batter the already weak
! ened craft. The ship was doomed
Only the promise of Prisoner Paul,
that all should be saved, buoyed up
their hope.
| True to type-frow the real man
| energies in crisisi-the soldiers pro-
posed to kill the prisoners Each
after his nature: the emergency re-
vealed Paul as a helper, and the bru-
talized soldiers as slayers. Life meant
as little to them as to the Turkish
siayers of innocent Christians. As
ever, mans past rallies to his res
cue, or doom, in an hour Of peril.
Paul had proved himself such a one
that the centurian spared all the prfs-
oners for his sake. So it is that the
principle of NERVOUSNESS runs thru
| life.
|
! some on spars, some on bits of furni-
/ true, each bit of wreckage carrying a
passenger, the entire company escaped
| to land. The word of his Lord to Paul
J had been indicated. Once more the
/ greatness of this one ernergent per-
sonality was revealed.
What Trouble Does for Man.
In this shipwreck story many a per-
son reads a parable of his own ex-
perience. The ship of prosperity has
gone on the rocks: but from it he has
| escaped with his life, and more life
| than he ever knew before. Some
men have never known their real treas
ures, of Self-reliance, of family happi-
ness, of faithful friendship, of filial
| devotion, until what they had been ac-
customed to call their fortune sud-
denly was lost to them. The suprem-
acy of the undismayed soul shines out
in the night of trouble.
81 have walked on the Mount of Gladness,
l have wept in the Vale of Tears,
And my feet have stumbled ofttimes, /
trod thru the path of the years;
Yet my heart has ever lifted its song OF
| To the God of all eternity, who has kept
| in my ways.
Tho alone l tread the winepress, or kneel
1 know he has never forsaken, and that He
| 1eadeth me.
Tho 1 walk thru the valley of Shadow,
For my God is the God of the fathers, the
God of the unafraid!
Safety often comes by disaster. We
find our soul when we lose our es-
tate. Some men will never look up
until God throws them on their
backs" OF old the Psalrnist wrote
the truth, in multiplied phrase, that
in his distresses he discovered God.
This world war, despite all the
ca1amities it is bringing upon man
kind, has caused whole nations to
slough off the thick overlay of sor-
teredness and pleasure-loving and
pride that encased them. They have
found their souls in this furnace of
affliction. With one voice the seers
and prophets of our day are predict
ing that a purged and ennobled hui
mainly, a diviner order of society, a
truer organization of brotherhood,
will be the sure consequence of this
unparalleled travail, this shipwreci,
of the old order 1t may we'll be that
future generations will declare the
war to have been worth all it cost.
Malta Alloy!
There is more excitement in Malta
today than there was the day the
Alexandrian grain ship went aground
For the island is Mediterranean base
of the allied warships, and these are
stirring times among the people
Again we find that our course of les
sons has landed Us at a present center
of wor1d-interest. The fleet makes
such busy times for Malta that the
people scarcely miss the tourist mar.
ket for Maltese lace and Maltese
, | CurioS.
This island upon which Paul and
; MS companions were wrecked-the
Biographies call the spot st PauPs
Bays one of the great little
places of earth. It is a rocky bit OF
, land, seventeen and one-half miles
long and eight and three-quarters
miles wide. almost midway between
Europe and Africa in the Mediter-
ranean-one hundred and forty miles
from Europe, and one hundred and
eighty from Africa, but only sixty
miles from the island of Sicily II