Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-09-15
STORMY CAREER
OF STRONG MAN
Greatness of Paul of Tarsus MOI
Recognized in His Own
Day
(By William T. Ellis.)


Last evening I talked with friend
from Tarsus. the city. in Cilicia which
was, the birthplace of the Apostle
Paul. and which he declared to be
mo mean city, AS we discussed peo-
pie and events-the new massacre-of
which this is the first mention in print,
a fresh outburst during the present
summer, in which more than ten thou
sand Armenians have been slain out
right; the brilliant students known to
us, who had importuned to come to
America, and who have since been
slain: the Turkish officials and resi-
dent Americans known to us-I wish
ed that this region of Asia, Minor. so
well known to my friends and TO Paul
and to his travelling companions,
might become a real place to the mil
lions of Sunday school members who
are now looking back over three
months Of Sunday school lessons. all
laid in this part of the world. The
greatest danger in all Bible teaching is
that of unreality. Many persons re-
gard these lessons as from a book.
and not from life. That the partici-
pants In the events recorded in the
quarters lessons were as truly flesh
and blood as the friend with whom 1
talked last night, and that all the
places mentioned are spots in which,
In times of peace, the traveller may go,
is the first point to be stressed.
Every day now we read dispatches
fro mthe Near East with a Saloniki
date line, and yet few of US recall
that this is the very same Thessalonica
where Paul adventured and established
church, and to which he addressed
two of the letters which now make up
part of the New Testament canon.
Likewise Athens is turbulent news
center, with some of the same charac-
teristtcs that 1t had when Paul preach
ed on Mars Hill. 1t is stimulating to
recall that in Athens and Tarsus, and
elsewhere. one may still see, as I have
seen, the very structures on which the
Apostle Paul looked. So the first aid
to imagination, in connection with the
present lesson. is the fact that the
world war is just now at an acute
stage in the very theater of the pres
ent quarters lesson. The Bible deals
with realities as truly as the daily
newspapers.
Man as a Storm Center
About once century there arises
man who seems born to be a world
center and maker of history. These
men, who are bigger than their time,
and who seem to shape events to their
own personality, are always great
doers, as well as great thinkers.
Among them, Paul of Tarsus has a
place His own day did not fully
recognize his greatness. Most observ-
ers thought him only troubler of the
estaolished order, fanatical follower
or the new sect of the Nazarenes At
first his career had started auspiciously
along conventional lines by securing
the attention and favor of the recog-
ni2ed leaders. Suddenly he broke
from the powerful party whose pro-
tege he was, and thereafter consorted
with despised Galileans and peasants,
and the folk who made up the com
pany nick-named Christians" Paul
voluntarily became "nobody''-and
thereby became more potent in human
history than any other one man.
There is sad side to this strong
mans life. He was a gentleman and
scholar, and loved quiet and ease
and intercourse with cultured EQUALS. |
Yet his lot was to be a storm center
or trouble wherever he went. The
portion of the outlaw was his-deri
sion, arrests, prison, stonings and per
secution. A sensitive spirit, craving
the favor of friends. he was called
upon to be the arch opponent of the
established order, and therefore hated
and execrated by those whose friend
ship he deserved. BY aptitude and
training clustered man of books, he
had to travel over sea and land, amid