The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-12-29
In the Religious World
What the Church Folks are Thinking
.ABout and Doing. Religious NeUS
From Everywhere.
Az SCHOOL LESSON AND YOUNG PEOPLES TOPIC

~
ernor, and the Jewish priests. who loved
religiousiy more than righteousness; and
the rabble moved by the mob spirit
thirsting for the blood of him who had
no other goal than their service
Ono Man Who Came Short.
plate had the greatest opportunity
in all history to be a man, brave, true,
strong. but he showed himself only a
groyelling, small-souled, cowardly
weakiing- He was afraid of losing his
job: he lost his soul instead. He
shrank from losing the favor of the
powerful, SO he lost the respect of
himself and of all men. He wanted
to be popular; he was more concerned
for this than to be honorable; and
down this slippery path of vanity he
went to the mire of eternal shame and
dishonor. The man whose vision is
not single to principle. to duty, to
truth, is bound some day to sit in Pr
late's seat, and probably to repeat Pr
late's sin. There is tonic for red blood
in the spectacle of Jesus in Pilates
'Ecce- Homo He proved himself true.
The heart of every strong man leaps
as he behOlds the spectacle. Jesus Is
the worlds eternal example of how a
man should meet life's hardest vista |
tions.
What Of the Rabble?
This trial was a testing for many
and we are considering it in the light
of the testings that come to men and I
women day by day-but it was Pc
culiarly a testing of the multitude. II
was their opportunity to substantiate I
their hosannas of a few days previous. |
They were, in terms, given occasion to /
choose Jesus or an outlaw. But alas |
for poor. weak humanity, straying like I
sheep. their ears were open TO the pof- /
son of the evil whisperer. Almost any I
average crowd may be stampeded, in /
witness fashion.
Barabbas. The crowd is ever ready /
to cry, cruelty himi" and, maddened {
by its own shouts. to seek the end it /
demands. Mob law is not a discovery /
of our own day. The lynching spirit,
with all its beast passions. broke out I
that day 1000 years ago in Pilates
judgment hall. In sharp and dramatic /
contrast with the yelling multitude is /
that solitary figure. splendidly indivi-
dual and independent, standing out +
alone for the truth, an eternal sum-
mons to all brave hearts to dare to be
singular for righteousness sake.
A Kings Sacrifice.
The tragedy that followed has been
the theme of the most moving words
that human tongue has since spoken.
A King, guiltless, Lamb without
spot or blemish, was slain that his
kingdom might be established and
that his friends might have life.
Christ died with sinners as well as
for sinners. AS he had shared the
hard lot of common humanity +
throughout his life that nothing might
be lacking, so in death he was one of
a little company to whom fate was
doing its worst. We look upon tn q
scene with the eyes of the twentieth
century, but to the multitude who
passes by on that day IN April a. p.
80, there was scant difference in the
criminals The completeness of this
humiliation can not be understood
by
temple be rent in twain in token that
new and living way of access to the
Father had been created For this
was the significance of Calvary The
forms and types and ceremonies. was
no longer needed. Jesus was showing
at this tremendous cost to himself that
there was a straight path back to the
dering child of his. To prove him ]
self mans brother. and to show that {
Gods other name is Love, the Christ {
such suffering as no mere
mortal has ever known. He died that t
we might live. In his death was the
final and complete proof of his
divinity
The whole significance Of the cruel !
ixion passes our knowledge. We can {
not tell the how and the why OF 1t all {
We know but this, and 1t is the only
ground of our faith in God and of our {
hone for redemption, that Christ died {
make it easier for US to understand ,
Sod, that he died that we might have :
he life which he had known with the
Father His sacrifice is our salvation.
A Kings Triumph.
If the Cross were the end it would S
nave been well for the human race if t
he blackness of that nOontide mid 7
night had never lifted. But Christ {
was not born to be defeated. The !
Jesus who lived in Galilee now lives !
n glory. The salvation which he pur- :
chased by His life. his death and his :
Using again, is the best possession Of J
every son of man. The brightness OF
ife has always been overshadowed by )
L grim presence which has stalked be
side 1t. Next to the great fact of life :
has been the fact of DEATH mankind's
most weared enemy. Into a world :
overshadowed by this grim presence
,ane the news that one man had risen y
rom the dead This signifed, If true I
har the long reign of death was over. [
'Intimations OF immortality" human