Setting Traps For Rats And Mice And Men

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 247, 18 October 1941, Page 6

Setting Traps For Rats And Mice And Men

people who live in old houses know that early in spring, when "young men's fancies lightly turn to thoughts of love," rats from all around, following the Pied Piper of a similar inclination, run in search of nesting places for their wives and youngsters. By Rev. C. W. Chandler To anyone who doesn't like rats, the mere setting of the trap is enough to send cold shudders down the spine. It's a positive nervous strain making sure it doesn't go off while being placed, ever so gingerly, on one of the larder shelves. Not less distasteful is the job of releasing the dead rat into a hole in the garden next morning. One holds the trap at arm's length, like one of Bateman's famous "mixed bags." The whiskers, the nasty long tail, and the eyes with their glassy stare seem to have a curdling effect on one's blood, like a junket tablet in a bow! of milk. The rat being duly buried, the trap, which now seems to be contaminated, has to be reset for the following night. The Trap Setter

Writing about traps reminds me of the very interesting Greek word from which we derive our word "scandal." It is skandalon, and it means a trap-spring, or a cause of ruin, destruction or misery. For instance, the familiar verse in Matthew XVIII: "Woe unto the world because of offences; for it must needs be that offences come: but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh." There we have skandalon or trap-spring in three places. "Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not?" How well the Pharisees had laid this trap, but how perfectly did Jesus "touch off" the spring without being caught when He replied: "Render therefore untoi Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." Then consider how skilfully Our Lord Himself laid a trap for them when, in reply to their question as by what authority He did these things, He said: "I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell Me, I in like manner will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John's, whence was it? From heaven or of men?" "And they reasoned with themselves (nosed round the trap), saying: 'If we shall say: From heaven, He will say unto us: Why did ye not then believe Him? But if we shall say: Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet'." The trap that doesn't go off is a tribute to the wiliness of its intended prey. ♦ * # ♦

Modem jurisprudence has a lot to learn from the Apostle Paul. His legal training stood him in fine stead wfren he became a "Counsel for the Defence of the Faith" which he had formerly prosecuted. I have often wondered whether university professors use the incidents recorded in Acts 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26 as examples of masterly pleadings of a worthy cause.

The Pleading of Paul "Then Agrippa said to Paul: Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretchea forth the hand tin true oratorical fashion) and answered for himself."

"I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things I am accused of the Jews. Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews; therefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently." The regal head must have stretched the kingly diadem upon hearing these opening words of this graduate of Tarsus. Paul proceeded with his defence. There was no need in that Court for cries of "Silence!" The patient hearing for which he had pleaded was being granted him—nay, he compelled it. They were awestruck. "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian," interposed the astounded monarch. "I would to God that not only thou, but that all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am —except these bonds," replied the prisoner at the bar.

But let's return to our traps. Consider the shrewdness of Paul's defence before Ananias the High Priest. The little Jew took stock of his audience. He saw that some were Saducees and that some were Pharisees, and so he decided to put, them at variance with one another.' "I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; of the hope of the resurrection of the dead I am called in question." The trap was laid. The Saducees believed not in the resurrection. Immediately "there arose a dissension between the Saducees and the Pharisees, and the multitude was divided." The trap had gone off and 'Paul had won. , On the following night the Lord Himself stood by Paul and said, "Be of good cheer, for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must i thou bear witness also at Rome."

Pitiable indeed is the lot of those who cannot be thrilled by the strength and cleverness of Paul's defences. He was one too many for them all.

"I appeal unto Caesar," he cried. "Then unto Caesar thou shalt go!" Paul had conquered. He thereupon journeyed to Rome at the Government's expense, and if any yachtsman or mariner wants to see how much Paul knew about seamanship, let him read Acts xxvii., which forms the climax of Luke's stirring narrative of the early Church.

Patron Saint of Medicine And to-day is the festival of that self-same Luke—evangelist, beloved physician, and writer of the Third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, from which the foregoing excerpts from Paul's speeches have been taken. St. Luke should be the patron saint of medicine, and if the medical fraternity could see their job in the right perspective, I think that they would all give thanks to God in His Holy Temple on the morrow, for the privilege they enjoy m "going about doing good, and in healing all manner of sickness and disease amongst the people." Certain clauses in the Social Security Bill might have been occasions of offence, trap springs, impediments or skandalwn (to use the Greek root), but one good purpose has been served by the dispute—it has given ample testimony of the high sense of responsibility ' with which the doctors discharge their onerous duties to the public. The approach of doctor, schoolmaster ana priest to the mystery and majesty of human life and personality should be the same. By the "laying on of hands" should each be separated for his work. To enter any of these professions without a deep sense of vocation is to be utterly unworthy of the trust Imposed, for knowledge is as much a gift of God as grace salvation.