The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-05

! Saul the head of the party. Up to
Cyprus It had been "Barnabas and
Saul" thereafter it was Paul and
Barnabas." Saul got a new name (still
Paphos in Cyprus Paul means Lit
tie" but the designation was won be-
cause he proved himself big by soul
measurement.
A Jewish sorcerer named Elymas
had the Roman proconsul, Sergius
Paulus in his tolls. There is a
whole library of literature dealing
with the aptitude of renegade Jews
for witchcraft. This man Elymas
played for high stakes; he was a dar-
| ing fellow, of the sort whom most re-
formers would prefer to deal with in
the safety of their own pulpits or
editorial sanctums. Paul, however,
| faced him in person and looked him
in the eye and told him Just the sort
or sinner ne was. - In language that
would not be permitted today in some
OF our best pulpits. Paul tagged Ely
mas with his family name as a son of
the devil. He went further and laid
the binding hand of God upon those
| evil eyes Small wonder that the pro-
| consul was converted! Men always
| are converted when they see the fear
less gospel of Christ operating with
power.
A Journalistic Stacker.
While Paul played the hero, the
| third member of the party, John
Mark, secretary and reporter, played
I am proud of John Marks journal
istic ability: he wrote the first and
best STORY" of the life and work of
Jesus But as an humble fellow
craftsman feel that he brought dis
credit upon an honorable profession
when he flunked the perils of Asia
Minor. In my own work as a foreign
correspondent I have known a few
! reporters who proved towards in dan
| ger, but they were the rare exception.
farewells at Antioch; he was a hero
in the beginning: but when Asia
Minor was reached, and the pros
poets of robbers and mobs and other
travel perils doomed ahead-and I
can testify that this is a rough, tho
turned back to safety.
| Paul was angry. Every soldier
will understand his contempt for the
| coward: for at the front, in the
great war, there was almost only one
virtue: courage. am glad that
Paul sent the timid young man off
\ with blistering words, and refused to
take him along the second time. For
| it seems as if of late the church has
lost her capacity for indignation, and
| her power to rebuke evil. Burning
and scorching condemnation of ethi-
| cal transgressions is not nowadays a
characteristic of religion. This jelly
! fish sort Of sentime ntality has scant
of the greatest interpreter of the mind
of Christ.
Nevertheless, am glad that when
John Mark repented and mended his
ways, Paul was reconciled to him;
and that John Mark later did his i'm
mortal work of writing the Second
| Gospel Ours is a religion of the Sec
ond chance.
Telling the Story.
We need to use our wits in trying
to picture the methods of the first
Christian missionaries. AS Dr. Stalker
says, I'VE naturally think of them as
the most important personages in a
| city; to us their entry is as august as
If they had been carried on a car of
victory. Very different, however, was
the reality. They entered a town as
quietly and unnoticed as any two
strangers who may walk into one of
\ our towns any morning. Their first
| care was to get a lodging; and then
they had to seek for employment, for
they worked at their trade wherever
| they went. Nothing could be more
commonplace. Who could dream that
this traYel-stained man, going from
one tentmaker's door to another,
| seeking for work, was carrying the
future of the world beneath his robe!
When the Sabbath came round they
| would cease from toll, like the other
Jews in the place, and repair to the
| synagogue. They Joined in the psalms
and prayers with the other wor-
shippers and listened to the reading of
the Scriptures. After this the presid
ing elder might ask if any one present
had a word of exhortation to deliver.
This was PauPs opportunity. He
would rise, and with outstretched
hand, begin to speak. At once the
A00QntS
the cultivated rabbi; and the strange
voice won their attention. Taking up
the passages which had been read, he
would soon be moving forward on the
stream of Jewish history, till he led
up to the astonishing announcement
that the Messiah hoped for by their
fathers and promised by t h e r
| prophets had come, and he had been
sent among them as His apostle.
Then would follow the story of Jesus.
We can easily imagine the sensa-
ton produced by such sermon from
such a preacher, and the buzz of con-
versation which would arise among
the congregation after the dismission
! of the synagogue. During the week
| IL would become the talk of the town;
and Paul was willing to converse at
! his work or in the leisure of the even
ing with any one who might desire
| further information. Next Sabbath
| the synagogue would be crowded, not
| with Jews only. put Gent1leS also, VINO
were curious to see the strangers;
and Paul now unfolded the secret that
| salvation by Jesus Christ was as free
| to Gentiles as to Jews. This was gem
orally the signal for Jews to contra
dict and blaspheme; and, turning his
back on them. Parl addressed himself
| to the Gentiles- But meantime the
| fanaticism of the Jews was reused,
and they either stirred up the mob, or
secured the interest of the authorities
against the strangers; and in a storm
| of popular. tumult or by the breath of
| authority the messengers of the Cos
pei were swept out of the town. This
was what happened at Antioch-in-
| Pisidia. their first hating place in the
Interior of Asia Minor, and it was re-
peated in 8. hundre@ instances in PauPs
subsequent life.