The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-02-11
International
SundaySchoolLesson
BIZ WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

For Feb. 13 Is, lessons on Citizen
ship."-Matt. 22:15-22, 34-40.
Aristocracy Confronting Democracy.
Persons of short views think that
our days issue is new. Far from it.,
The question which is racking this
old earth today is almost as old as
the race. In some form or other the
conflict between the served and the
servants; between aristocracy and de-
mocracy; between privilege for few
and fairness for all, has ragged since
the first records of organized society.
1T flared up in vividneSs when de-
mocracy was incarnated in Jesus, and
the aristocratic order of His day
sought to suppress Him and His dan
gerous teachings.
AS His life of paradoxes drew to fits
close, in inward calm and outward
turbulence. Jesus clashed almost daily
with the leaders of the privileged
group in His nation. Evidently His
doctrines and His personality had
stirred the established leaders to their
depths So by wiles of cunning they
thought to extinguish Him: an open
conflict they feared: for vested inter-
ests and Things as They Are" al
ways nurse fear in their hearts. Our
present Lesson deals with a duel be-
tween Jesus and emissaries of the
Pharisees and the Herodians. or mod
crate nationalist party among the
Jews.
A Fighting Hero.
1t was in the thick of a splendid
fight that Jesus fell. If there be any
reader who still clings to the ancient
notion that Jesus was pale, anaemic,
shrinking, clustered saint, strong only
In the passive virtues. this is the time
to take down the four inspired biogra-
plies of Him to read anew that hero
tale of a Captain battling to the end.
In vigorous and unconventional verse,
Ezra Pound portrays the Master as
ting his lines in the mouth of Simon
Zelotes, after the1Crucifixion:
''Ha' we lost the goodliest Fere o. all
For the priests and the gallows tree?
Aye lover He was of brawny men,
o. ships and the open sea.
"when they came wi host to take Our
His smile was good to see.
First let these gor quo our Good1y Fere.
or I'll see ye damned says He.
"Aye He sent US out thru the crossed high
And the scorn Of His laugh rang free,
why took We not Me when l walked about
Alone in the town.? says he.
ooh we drank His Hale in the good red
When we last made company.
No capon priest was the Goodiy Fere,
But man o men was He.
'I ha' seen Him drive hundred men
WI bundle o. cords swung free,
That they took the high and holy house
For their pawn and treasury.
They'll no. get him a. in book, think,
Tho they write it cunningly;
No mouse of the scrolls was the Goodly
But aye loved the open sea.
.sTf +ha,, think tbnv Tho s1orad nur CoodIv
They are fools to the last degree.
Tho 1 go to the gal1ows tree.
aye ha' seen Me heal the lame and blind
And wake the dead says He.
'Ye shall see one thing to master all
'Tis how a brave man dies on the tree
"a Son of God was the Goodly Fere
ha' seen Him COW a thousand men.
ha' seen Him upon the tree.
HE cried no cry when they drave the nails
And, the blood gushed hot and free.
The hounds Of the crimson sky gave
But never cry cried He.
81 ha' seen Him COW thousand men,
They whined as He walked out calm be-
tween,
WI His eyes like the gray o. the sea.
Like the sea that brooks no voyaging
With the winds unleashed and free,
Like the sea that He cowed at Genseret
WI twey words spoke suddenly.
"a master o. men was the Goodly Fere,
A mate of the wind and sea;
Fere
They are fools eternally.
81 ha' seen Him eat o. the honeyeomb
Sim they nailed Him to the tree"
Courage and subtIety were both
needed in the great struggle between
Jesus the Democrat and the cham
pions of the intertwined religious,
social and commercial aristocracy.
They were men of guile. He was a
teacher of candor. Yet in every bat
tie His discerning spirit of truth got
the victory.
Strange BedfcIlows.
Expediency and self-interest effect
discordant alliances, as our present
world reveals; and of old, as today.
Politics makes strange bedfellows."
Aligned against Jesus were the strict
Pharisees, the Nationalist, or anti
Rome party, and the moderates, or
Herodians. With deep craftiness they
tried to overtake. their previous fall
ures to e1itrap Jesus by this time
bringing Him into public opposition to
the jealous ana WdlcnIuI Roman au-
thorities. Then Rome would do their
dirty work for them. and they would
stand aside unscotched by either party
to the strife. 1t was a deep political
strategem, in which the leaders kept
themselves out If sight. For in the
background iurked that fox" Herod,
affrighted by the rise of every new
personality; and the arrogant leaders
of the social-political-e or
ganization that ruled the Jews A
common fear of Jesus, and a panicky
desire to get ride of Him, bound these
antagonistic groups together.
In Cairo / once watched a govern
ment official, whose nickname was