The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-21
International
SundaySchoolLesson
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
For October 20 is 'PauTs Last Journey
to Jerusalem. Acts 21:1-17.
The Dignity of the Doomed.

|
awes western beholders. have seen
the same quality in the starving Chi
nese. In noble souls the presence of
peril, or the sure approach of disas-
ter, calls forth the finest qualities.
Those of US who experienced the air
! raids of London and Paris learned
| deep lessons in how various types of
! persons behave in danger. Most of
| us know men or women smitten with
incurable diseases: and their strong
| serenity is a Christening spectacle
| Franklin Lanes Il accept" as he
faced the inevitable, ran like a tonic
! injection thru the whole social arterial
system of our western world.
| Beneathr all the superficialities of
| our times lies this noble spirit of
strong and simple resignation. Many
millions are studying it, this week,
( specifically in the case of the Apostle
| Paul: but it was not distinctive of him
| exclusively. He shared it with null
titude of persons, now living, and with
others long dead. It was the hall
mark of that noblest Hero of eternity,
the sensitive Lord Jesus. who went
| unblinkingly to a cross which He did
not deserve and could easily have
| escaped. Jesus and Paul are in the
| forefront of the fraternity of the fear
| less. They are captains of the goodly
company of the dauntless-souled.
Crises only reveal character; they
! do not create it. Paul was in his great
hour only the contamination of what
he had been thru the years. Small
spirited, self-indulgent souls are the
ones that scream and struggle and
shame their spiritual birthright in
hours of calamity. 1t is those who
have lived greatly who die gloriously
A persons nature is not transformed
in extreme experiences. Facing Jeru-
salem, with the sure testimony that
bonds and Affections lay that way,
Paul could declare to the weeping cid
ers at Miletus, 81 hold not my life of
any account as dear unto myself, so
that may accomplish my course and
the ministry which I received from the
Lord Jesus; to testify to the grace of
God" That is, pain or pleasure. life
or death were relatively unimportant:
duty was all
Our Misguided Friends.
CounseIs of caution and cowardice.
rather than of courage, are commonly
to be expected from friends. When
the comrades of the great apostle de-
sired him to dodge his doom, they
were running true to friendship
form Rare is the loved one who will
incite us to do the difficult, the dar-
ing, the desperate deed. The devil
who in the wilderness tempted the
Master to take the easy way to do
miniOn now does his work thru friends
who usually give thesame sort of ad-
vice. Paul's disciples and associates
tried to deter. him from the danger
Gus course$little thinking what a NOR
al collapse it would have been for that
doughty old soldier. now grown gray
on perils, to turn his back upon any
hardship.
Alas, that our best friends should be
our worst tempters! Yet so it is. Why
is the complaint SO general today that
the youth OF our generation is soft"
and pleasure-loving and lacking in
high purpose? Simply because pa
rents, with misguided affection, want
their sons to "have a good time" Life
is made too easy for modern young
people. The stern rigors of discipline;
the pre-eminence of principle, which
ever puts duty above desire; the ne
cessity for self-denial and laborious
tasks-these are not the fashion to-
day. Parents are no longer Spartan:
we love well, but not wisely There
fore youth spends more time at the
dance than at books. Our love for
our own is not great enough to hold
them hardly to their highest and most
heroic possibilities. We persuade
where we know suffering awaits
them.
Those friends of Paul, like most
other friends, failed in friendships
highest function: for a mans best
friend is the one who helps him to be
his best self.
On To Jerusalem!
In a gush of agony, the venerable
man who was the center of all this
prophecy and pleading narrated in our
Lesson Scripture cried, what do ye,
weeping and breaking my heart? for
I am ready not to be bound only, but
also to die at Jerusalem for the name
of the Lord Jesus"
A peep into the Greek original of
this story reveals the interesting fact
that the phrase, breaking my heart"
means not causing me grief" but
rather 'impairing my purpose; break
ing down my resolution" Paul was
not agonizing because his friends were
giving him grief, but because they
were seeking to destroy his decision,
interfering with his determination to
do his duty. The Apostle cared more
for his task than for his comfort.
Surely, here was "a man of blood
and iron"-to use a phrase misapplied
to q militarist. His was red blood, rich
in personal affection: what 81 human
figure Paul is in this narrative! This
is not mere philosopher or propagan-
dist, or theologian or ecclesiastic. but
a friendly comrade, warm and glowing
in his personal relations with individ-
uals, whose heart dripped blood for
those he loved. But he was a man of
iron too-with a will that even such
an avalanche of misguided devotion
destination and his duty: to Jerusalem
he would go, and neither foes nor
friends could stop him.
Thank God for the persons who are
going somewhere! In a day of drift
ers we exult in men who have convic-
tons and courage and who keep stead
lastly on to great goals, however much
the fashions change. Such are the
hope of our troubled time.
The man who is really going some
where always takes others along, or
leads them after him. To the credit
OF the friends who tried to dissuade
Paul from going to Jerusalem, be it
recorded that they went with him, in
spite of the danger ahead which they
saw so clearly. Something of their
leaders heroic spirit entered their own
hearts. Always the best method of
getting others to do the right thing
even when it is difficult. is to go
straightforwardly on doing it our
selves.