The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-04

There IS no use lodging the ldct
that, altho the subject of this sunday
School Lesson, which millions of folks
are scheduled to consider, is PAU at
Jerusalem" the real theme of discus
sion in most classes will be Christian
ity at the Washington Conference" or
1.-THE Crisis at the Crossroads.
Never in all the years L have been
studying professionally the trend and
temper of public life and thought on
this North American continent have |
found such a widespread, deep ana
manifest interest in any current SUD-
ject, Z barring the war itself, as nave
discovered with respect to the ap-
proac chine, conference Upon the limi-
tation of armament. In recent weeks
have travelled turnout the eastern
half of Canada. and from Boston to
Minneapolis, to Kansas City ana TO
Washington, covering most of the
great cities between these points. Ev-
erywhere have found thoughtful per-
sons, and church folk in particular,
looking forward to the momentOus
meeting of Armament day. There ex-
lists a new popular alertness to great
events that is a heritage from the war
awakening. We may well expect sur
prising results from this critical meet
ing that are not scheduled on the
agenda. This column could be filled
with significant symptoms of the
aroused purposes Of people every
where.
Some Lesson Links.
So this is the background of our
common thinking, as we take up the
lesson theme. Summarized, the story
is that Paul, in spite of dire warnings.
persisted in going to Jerusalem. There
he stirred the Christian leaders with
the narrat tive of what God had done
in the Gentle world thru him. At this
center of conservatism, under the
shadow of the very heart of Judaism,
the church leaders were still rather
timorous about the relations of the
Jews and the Christians. So they per-
suaded Paul, in order to prove HIM
self a good Jew, to share a religious
vow in the temple with four men. He
did so-and was seen in the temple
courts by his enemies from Asia Mi
nor, who accused him of taking Cen
tiles into the holy place. Whereupon
the fanatical mob tried to lynch the
apostle.
Roman law interviewed with its sol
diers, and barely saved his life. True
to his ruling passion, Paul preached to
the mob that was trying to kill him.
He was about to be beaten in prison,
when he disclosed his Roman citizen
ship. Then to clear up the question
of his offense, if any, he was taken
before the Jewish Sanhedrin, whom
he set by the ears by raising party
shibboleth; as a Pharisee, he claimed
the duA6TeIlCe OI tIldI party anu SO III
Vided the councils judgment. Later,
forty Jews bound themselves by an
oath to kill Paul; but his nephew
learned OF the plot and warned Roman
officials, so that the prisoner was
spirited away by night to Caesarea.
Such is the dramatic tale. 1t is
meaty topic for discussion; and not
altogether lacking in analogies to the
situation developing in another world
capital, within the approaching week.
The Conference at a Capital.
If even great old Paul did not feel
free to play a lone hand in his day,
how much less may any man or ma
ton in this time? For the unity and
efficiency of the cause of righteous
ness and religion, it was necessary to
meet in conference at headquarters.
Church councils have been a necessity
of religion; and international confer
ences are d necessity of civilization
Nobody outside of Thibet can nova
days contend for the policy of national
isolation. For weak or for woe, all
peoples are today bound up in the
one bundle of life.
This trip to Jerusalem was good
for PauFs party, and it was also good
for the Jerusalem leaders. Each
needed the tonic or restraint of the
other. The one sure way to prevent
divisions is for people to meet famil-
iarly and frequently. You cannot hate
the man you really know. For an in
dividual or for a group, it is better to
meet for frank. free discussion, rather
than to nurse grievances in seclusion
and silence. The bare fact of the
meeting of the nations at Washington
is in itself great achievement.
The Passions of the People.
There is something fine in all of US
which makes US prefer to contemplate
the good and the beautiful, instead of
the evil and the ugly. We would all
rather think about the happy homes
and fine people and many other at
fractions of our community than of
the base and criminal element which
turks out of sight. It is more natural
to dwell upon the sublimities of PauP5
character than to contemplate the
hideous passions of the mob. Natur-
ally we give more thought to the ideals
of the Washington conference than to
the sinister forces in the world which
it is designed to eliminate or over
come.
Nevertheless, if we are ever going to
accomplish anything in the world. we
facing facts squarely. Our God is Il
God of things as they are-and of
things as they ought to be. Mob-mind
constituted the substratum OF old
Jerusalem life, as of the life of most
cities today. Dark and deadly pas
SlOnS OF nate ana rear ana pTeJuQlcS
and unreason held sway. Blind big
otry needed only occasion to bring it
rushing forth to riot and ruin and re-
prisal.
We must be fearless enough to ad-
nit that back of the washington con-
ference, and threatening its very ex-
istence, are the darker moods of man
kind-selfish and ruthless national
ism; religious and racial bigotry;
petty insularity and provincialism,
and goddess greed. These forces want
their own individual ends before ever
they make concessions to world wei
fare and permanent peace. Just as
the Jerusalem mob cried throatily
concerning Paul, Away with him!'-
significant repetition of the very
same words that assailed Paul's Mas
ter on the identical spot, a few years
earlier-so there is the fearsome pos
sibility that all the Christian idealism
of the Washington conference may
have to give way before the hate
H.,