The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-07-15
International
SurdaySchoolLesson
BIZ WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
For July IT is "The Conversion of
Saul.~-Acts 9:1-19.
When a Man Goes Straight.

Turn loose a mani Better than
all your schemes and organizations is
one self-starting, eight-cylindered
man in the midst of things. We are
trying to legislate and organize hu-
mainly into the Better Day; whereas
what we really need to lead us there
| is personalities, with open eyes and
flaming hearts, passionately devoted
to Gods will"
an appeal to join certain of the in
Vulnerable movements that seem to
be suffocating the good impulses of
| our time. It is more man that the
One converted Saul was worth a
whole sanhedrin of ordinary ecclesi-
astics.
| Right now, in our own troubled
world, the call is loud for great
leadership. Noble as has been the
feeding of hungry Europe and Ar
menia and China, venture to suggest
that a far greater service of the race
at the present time would be such
complete conversion to the spirit ana
program of Jesus of few of the
worlds foremost statesmen as trans
formed the famous Jewish zealot on
the Damascus highway, at noon of a
historic day.
II Statesmen Should "Get ReIigion!"
It would be indiscreet to mention
/ names; but each of us can check off
on the fingers OF one hand the world
| figures who, If they were suddenly to
experience the same sort of CONVEX
sion as overwhelmed the Tarsus
scholar, aristocrat and ecclesiastical
leader, would quickly turn the tide of
human affairs. Suppose these men
whose names are almost daily in the
| newspapers were to forego all parti-
san and selfish and sordid and ma
iEff
glowing apostles of the ideals of Je-
sus; what an effect the act would
have upon human history.
| Converted men in high places would
transform the world. Ten PERSONAL
ties-five sonalities-resolved to do,
at all costs, only what would please
Christ, would make such questions as
disarmament, world cooperation and
universal peace merely incidental, be-
cause inevitable.
Some of us who give our days and
nights to consideration of world af-
fairs are old-fashioned enough to be-
lieve that the one way out of the ex-
listing mess and muddle and misery
of mankind is by some startling con-
versions to the Gospel and Spirit and
Saviourhood of Jesus Christ.
'Impractica1?" Not a bit of it. The
most practical thing that happened in
. the whole Roman Empire for many a
long day was the sensational change
!, Of mind and heart that came to the
, bigoted, narrow, intolerant. Christian
/, prosecuting Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus,
when he was struck blind on the road
to Damascus. that he might see the
, Light. There was more of history
bound up in that one event than in
the DEGREES and deaths of a dozen
Caesars; or in the movements and
fightinss of all the armies of Rome.
Education by Conversion.
No mathematical formula can meas
ure the consequence of a great souls
becoming acquainted with Christ
J Any large look at history reveals
that the really great things have come
| to pass by the Subway. Carlyle
Heroes and Hero orship" is merely
commentary upon the truth that
God changes events by changing men,
. If we. knew enough to do so, we should
buildNour great monuments upon the
spots where new ideas and new sur
prises came to individual souls. When
guide first took me over Damascus
he naturally showed me the traditional
spot in the road where Saul was con-
verified; no man knows the true site;
but it's memorial is conterminous with
Christianity.
Tens of thousands of graduates of
higher schools of learning have gone
, out into the world" during the past
. month, confident that their education
! has equipped them for success. Most
l. of them never heard or needed the
sound psychological principle which
! we may call Education by CONVEX
sion." They need to know that a great
life purpose, master passion, such as
Christ grants and Saul got on the way
, to Damascus, is worth all the studies
! of the years.
Given such an impulse and convic-
, ton. one finds all the tools OF learning
? useful; lacking it, none of the teach
lngS of the books can avail tA make
, one a master workman in ones world.
Power comes not from complex equip
} ment, but from a supreme and simple
determination-a single eye" as the
old phrase has it. To be Christ's man.
keen on carrying out His will is better
than to be an alumnus of the creates
university.
AS If the Lord laughs at logic, we
find Him frequently upsetting the ex-
pected order of things. Thus, Saul
the master mind of the world; Saul
1.-THE university-trained scholar; Saul
the philosopher, the logician, the
netaphysician, was converted to the
new way, not by a philosophical pre-
sentation of the claims of Christianity
but by a vision of Christ; by an emo
= tional experience. "Old time religion
with its emphasis upon sound CONVEX
sion. is not SO much in vogue nova
E days; yet it was by conversions sor
/, OF earthquaking, camp-meeting con-
version at that; personal experience
devoid of all argumentation-that the
Christian church got its greatest
apostle.
one OF the Great Journeys.
1t is less than days ride by rail
nowadays, from Jerusalem to Damas-
cus-and the temptation is strong &c
digress into a description of the jour-
ney as I made it recently-but fol
Saul it was a matter of approximately
a week. He rode well equipped and
attended, as befitted a wealthy, aristo-
4 cratic and distinguished emissary d
!. the Jewish high court, of which he
s himself may have been a member
Still, despite the haste of his hot
: spirit, travelling was, as it yet is q
? lIeisurely affair in the Orient. Upon
his slow ride, with its noontide halts