The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-09-22
For September "a is Review.-Cor
4:1-5:4
A Strong Mans stormy Career.

Strong Mans stormy Career.
Last evening l talked with friend
from Tarsus, the city in Cilicia which
was the birthplace of the Apostle Paul,
and which he declared to be no -'ean
city" AS we discussed people and
eVents-the new massacre-of winch
this is the first mention in print,
fresh outburst during the present sum
mer. in which more than ten thousand
ArmenianS have. been slain outright
the brilliant students known to us,
who had importuned to come to Amer
lea, and who have since been slain;
the Turkish officials and resident
Americans known to us-l wished that
this region of Asia Minor. so well
known to my friends and to Paul ana
to his travelling companions. might De-
come real place to the millions 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 dan
ger in all Bible teaching is that OF I'M
reality. Many persons regard these
lessons as from a book. and not from
life That the participants in the
events recorded in the quarters les
sons were as truly flesh and blood as
the friend with whom 1 talked last
night, and that all the places mem
toned are spots to which, in times OF
peace. the traveller may go, is the flrst
point to be stressed.
Every day now we read dispatches
from the Near East with a Salonica
date line. and yet few of us recall that
this is the very same Thessalonlca
where Paul adVentured and esta blish-
ed a church, and to which he ad-
dressed two of the letters which now
make up part of the New Testament
canon. Likewise Athens is a turbulent
news center. with some of the same
characteristics that it had when Paul
preached on Mars Hill. 1t is st1mulat-
ing to recall that in Athens and Tar
sus, 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 theatre of the
present quarters lessons. The Bible
deals with realities as truly as the
daily newspapers.
n Man as a Storm Center.
About once a century there arises
a man who seems born to be a world
center and a maker of history. These
men, who are bigger than their time,
and who seem to shape events to their
own personality, are always great
doors, as we'll as great thinkers. Among
them. Paul of Tarsus has a place. His
own day did not fully recognize his
greatness. Most observers thought
him only a troubler of the esta blished
order a fanatical follower of the new
sect of the NaZarenes. At first his ca
reer had started auspiciously along
conventional lines, by securing the at
tention and favor of the recognized
leaders Suddenly he broke from the
! powerful party whose protege he was.
and thereafter consorted with despised
/ Galileans and peasants, and the folk
| who made up the company nick
/ 49,
named Christians. Paui voluntarily
became a "nobody"-and thereby be-
came more potent in human history
| than any other one man.
/ There is a sad side to this strong
mans life. He was a gentleman and a
scholar, and loved quiet and ease and
| Intercourse with cultured equals. Yet
! his lot was to be a storm-center of
/ trouble wherever he went. The por-
! ton of the outlaw was hiS-deriSion,
arrests, prison, stonings and persecu-
| ton. A sensitive spirit craving the
| favor of friends. he was called upon
to be the arch opponent OF the estab-
! lished order. and therefore hated and
execrated by those whose friendship
! he deserved. By aptitude and training
a clustered man of books, he had to
travel over sea and land. amid perils
without number. OF a temperament
needing the cherishing care of a wife
and home. and with a peculiar apti-
tude for domesticity, he was driven
| forth wanderer on the earth. Gods
| knight-errant, with the world for his
family. Even Paul did not understand
| that GOD was denying him the lesser
comforts in order that he might earn
a great crown: for by his tolls an
tribulations and labors, Paul the per
secuted has become Paul, the leader OF
mankind. the shaper of races
thought the interpreter of God to
| all the world.
An Inner Biography.
BY Interviewing lessons from the
Ac-s and from the Epistles during
this quarter, the Lesson Committee
has wrought a rare service. in that il
has given a glimpse of the deed OF
the doer and of his mind at the same
time The charm of autobiography
with its illuminating self-reVelations
runs through the Lessons; ard we gel
a new understanding of the Apostle
Paul.
A rare and pertinent touch of au.
photography is found in the bit of the
second Letter to the Corinthian Chris
tians that is today's assigned portion
Verses S-12, and 1918, of chapter 4
: are thus translated by DIR. Wey
mouth:
I'VE are hard pressed. yet never il
absolute distress; perplexed. vet never
utterly baffled; pursued, yet never
left unSuccore6; struck to the ground
vet never slain; always, wherever We
GO carrying with us in our bodies III
| putting to death of Jesus, so that il
our bodies it may also be clearl,
. shown that Jesus lives. For we. aliv'
though we are, are continually sur
rendering ourselves to death for tn
{ sake of Jesus. so that in this morta
, nature OF ours it may be clearly shown
that Jesus lives. Thus we are con
: stantly dying. while you are in full
[ enjoyment CT life.
Nay. though our outward man i
wasting away, yet our inward man i
being renewed day by day. For thi
D our light and transltory burden o
e suffering is achieving for us a pre-
poHderatinS. yes, vast preponder
ating, and external weight of glory
while we look not on things seen. bu
= things unseen: for things seen are TEN
hIlt things fI1-See0 ire q