The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-11-03
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
BY w. It. ELLIS

events down out of the realm of I'M
reality 1t is hard to realize that hat
Doctor Luke wrote in the Book of the
Acts is as accurately historical as the
events we read about in our newSpa-
pers. Paul was a real man, who swan
ashore thru real water from the wreck
of real ship on to a real island, at a
point that may to this day be visited
Kindlings, Viper and a Man.
Since the Maltese who watched the
escape of the shipwrecked crew and
passengers We're neither Greeks nor
Romans, they were, in the speech of
the day, called "barbarians' or for
eigners.' They received the strangers
with more courtesy than is often
shown to aliens in our own land. The
weather was cold and rainy. SO the ma
tives kindled a fire for the comfort of
the strangers
Easily first among. the bedraggled
crew that had been driven ashore by
the storm was Paul, the deliverer of
them all. He might reasonably have
held a levee and received the congrat-
u1ations and thanks of his shipmates-
That was not his way. When the
spirit of service grips a man it makes
him a helper in things small and great.
Even as Jesus helped out in a social
difficulty, at Cana, so Paul quietly set
about gathering firewood. When we
were boys we had difficulty with the
fellows who would not do their share
of work for the bonfire, and we had
a slogan chip or rum" which meant
get busy or get out!" Paul was ready
for even small ways of mfnistering to
men. After all. every great life of SER
vice is made up of small deeds often
repeated The Pauline spirit breathes
thru Maltbie d. Babcock's lines:
30 Lord, I pray
That for this day
] may not swerve
BY foot or hand
from Thy command
Not to be served, but to serve.
'.This too L pray
That from this day
No love of ease
Nor pride prevent
My good intent
Not to be pleased, but to please.
"And IL I may
I'd have this day
Strength from above
To set my heart
In heavenly art,
Not to be loved, but to love-
Bearing an avm1oad of firewood,
Paul approached the blaze, and the
warmth of the fire drew from out the
heap viper, which, viper-fashion,
fastened itself to his hand. "Aha."
cried the superstitious natives; ga
murderer. He escaped the sea, but
justice has got him. A perfect case
of circumstantia1 evidence. Men have
been hanged for less. With popping
eyes, the group about the big fire
looked to see this victim of the wrath
of the gods swell up and fall dead. In
stead, Paul shook the creature into
the fire: if he had been a modern sem
timentalist, or an Indian Jain, he
would have set it at liberty and pro-
vided food for it. Then the weather
gape of easy public opinion swung
round to the cry, He is a godi" He
ewass neither a. criminal nor god, but
every Inch a man and a friend of
man.
From that experience of Paul, with
his subsequent sojourn in the house of
Governor Publius, whose father he
healed is dated the evangelization of
the Island of Malta. Tradition says
that Publius became the first Christian
bishop of Malta. That the people of
the island remained faithful unto
death we know from the Inscriptions
on the martyr graves in the Maltese
catacombs
So the knightliest of all the figures
associated with Malta left his impress
unto this day. To him history has
given the Maltese Cross. inscribed on
its four arms with the qualities which
this story exemplifies: Reverence,
Obedience, Courage and Service.