The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-18
International
SunddySchooZLesson
By WILLIAM I. ELLIS.


the worlds problems and the place of
political periiS and decisions. Person.
ally, 1 cannot see it so. That turbu-
lent stretch of territory around the
head of the Mediterranean-nev
more ominOuSly disturbed than TODAY
which we call Bible Lands is still
the crossroads of earth, the place
where the great settlements or unset
Elements of history have been and
still are being determined. Despite
the assumptions which underIie the
epochal Washington conference, now
in session, the central point of interest
for mankind is that upon which the
eyes of the Sunday schools of the
world are fixed today. as they con-
slider the Apostle Paul, caught in A
mesh of politfco-ecclesiastica intrigue.
1t would be enlightening to consid-
er what may be called place provi-
dences, or the geography of power as
our thoughts are divided between
Paul. the far-traveled. at Palestine,
and present-day world leaders at
Washington. Is it probable that the
land where Christ first turned the
world upside down. is permanently
the decisive point in earth's affairs?
If so, we need to look sharply into
the issues of Islam, Zionism, national
ism, racial unrest andaEuropean i'm
perialism which converge there.
Washington will never supplant Jeru-
salem.
"A Man and Crisis.
AS Lord Bryce points out in con-
nection with the paucity of the high
est type of craftsmanship during the
war. it is not true that a great occa-
sion always produces a great man;
and it still remains to be seen wheth-
er an adequate figure will emerge ut
the armament conference. But our
lesson reveals, rising above the pomp
and trappings of state and kings and
NJ faf
of man who dominated his sur
rOundings and alone - made them
memorable. Paul looms large in a
scene where he was officially rated
only as a prisoner.
This oldest of all lessons, the sheer
greatness and supremacy of person
ality, is written on the very surface of
our theme. Similar men about him,
puffed up with a Sense of official inn
portance. played petty politics with a
great issue: Paul clave close to the
essential thing. This spectacle of the
prosecuted apostle, in all the loneli-
ness of real greatness, towering high
above the officially important ones at
whose feet he was supposed to stand,-
has countless parallels.
One such occurred recently at the
meeting of the League of Nations,
when Doctor Nansen, the explorer,
pleaded in vain with the nations to
forego their fears and their sordid
politics, and extend a brea d-filled
hand to the millions of Russian peas
ants who are starving. Writing strong
ly upon the incident, the Manchester
Guardian says, THE deaths it has
been decided not to avert are likely
to be about three times as numerous
as the total deaths of soldiers in all
the armies on both sides during the
Great War" 1t describes DIR. hansen
rs standing out, "a detached figure of
honor, courage and simplicity. rising
white and columnar out of the ranks
of the ordinary diplomatists and poll
tieians." Again. DIR. hansen strove
with them till the going down of the
sun to avert this collapse and stultf-
fioation of so much honorable pride
and so much real sacrifices. But the
powers were not to be moved.
Every detail of Pilates attitude was
theirs too, and the new Russian Cal
vary will have everything traditional
and regular about it,
Rising white and columnar,"
great man amid mean men-such was
Paul at Caesarea, the hero in man
acles.
Here we have an eternally contem-
poraneous contrast between the Paul
type and the Felix estus-A grippa
type. One was mot diSobedient to
heavenly vision" The others had left
theirsYisions and noble ideals, if ever
they had any. somewhere among the
reers- They had succumbed to the
commonest temptation of-the politi-
clan. OF late there have been numer-
Gus books and articles devoted to an
analysis of the characters and careers
of public men; it is q significant and
hopeful sign that so many of these
as in Mirrors of Downing Street.
point out and lament the decline of
moral convictions and courage as the
real secret of the failures of the men
studied. That ancient drama in cae-
sarea is strangely kin to momentous
modem meetings.
A Dangerous" Man.
A certain jurist known to me. who
is truer to his corrupt political organ
ization than to his judicial obligations,
remarked concerning a plain-sp
reformer. That is the most danger
Gus man in this county" The be-
smirched Judge really meant that the
man was dangerous to the political
tranquility of the dominant party, just
as sunlight is dangerous to disease
and as the Ten Commandments and
the civil law are dangerous to trans
gressors. By that definition, the
Apostle Paul was the most dangerous
man in Judea. His clear and fearless
voice rang out against the evils of So
ciety and of politics and of the church.
The ecclesiastics hated him with a
deadly hatred; the Roman governor
trembled before his preaching. and
the people turned into the Way that
he proclaimed.
True. his enemies had the physical
power to imprison him; but he was
still the freest spirit of the time; for
''Stone walls do not a prison make.
Nor iron bars a cage
Paul embodied the ideals of liberty
and righteousness and honor which
were the one hope of a degenerate
day Altho he was a prisoner at the
bar, he was the real leader of the force
that was destined to overthrow
Rome's imperial pagan power. This
little Tarsus Jew, at whom petty GOV
ernors and a kinglet sneered, was the
Champion of the Coming Day. at
whose feet later kings and eTnperors
were hum bly, to bow. Let US not miss
the larger issue set in array, as Festus
and Agrippa ranged Paul opposite TO
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