The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-02-03
BY WITLTANf T. ELLIS.

" AAA44ALA4tA H AsA+A@Ae's
The difference between a common
Kitchen poker and a keen Damascus
sword Is chiefly fire. One has not been
tempered, the other has. In like man
nler, the difference between a raw. I'M
mature and Inefficient life and the life
that is fit master of its own powers
and steadily pursuant Of q great puf-
pose, is principally fire Nobody IS
ready to 10 great service in the world
until he has. been tempted and tested;
10 run the gamut of the normal nu+
man experience it was essential thal
Jesus should undergo his great temp
Gati0n.
The merely good man. whose char
acter is clean and whose impulses are
right, can never be counted upon as
a force for righteousness until he has
done battle with evil, Not without rea-
son does the wise Book lay stress upon
the value of the oVercomerS. SeQues-
tered. sheltered, unassailed virtue sig
nifies little; it is the life that has fought
at close grips with the world, the hesh
and the devil, which becomes q servant
and saviour of its fellow men Hot
house plants bear no fruit for the feed
ing and healing of the nations
The Great apprenticeship.
A baseball team goes through a long
and difficult course of training before
il is ready for the great games Every
mighty work is preceded by prepare
tions hard experiences may often be
accepted as Gods preliminary 10
high mission. Jesus went off into the
wilderness before he took ND his work
with the multitude, and tasted forty
oays-a fast which throws Hood OF
light upon his physical vigOr- We must
walk apart from men in preparation
If we would walk before them IN power.
Loneliness is price of leadership.
We know that the tenn tat1oE was
Jesus final equipment for his life
work Though it is not to be supposed
that he was not tempted throughout
all three years of his ministry; but
what was his equipment for his temp
tatiOn2 There is no sadder spectacle
in our modern city life than that OF the
boys and girls, young men and Wo-
men, who are forced to battle for their
characters, for virtue and even for de-
CeucV. without any moral or religious
equipment How is a young person to
keep clean and true and noble when
he has not been trained in the value of
purity and honor? The wonder is not
that so many fall beneath a eity's
temptations, but that so many come
off VictOrs.
The Master himself was prepared
for the struggle by a mind and spirit
saturated since childhood with the
great principles of morality, righteous
ness and the divine law. He had an cit
IS written for every move of his ad-
versary. Not once was he caught IN
armed. the sword of the Spirit, which
is the word OF God. was ever IN
sheathed and in his hand. Parents are
doing better by children than they
dream when they drill into them the
mighty words of Holy Writ and the
noblest passages of all literature.
Is There a Devil?
Gould Jesus have fallen beneath his
temptation i'm the wilderness? Some,
emphasizing his divinity, say not. Then
the whole scene is as
IL Il
ocean"
The tragedy becomes a farce. use
less to man and meaningless to the
Messiah. For if Jesus could not fall.
he was not really tempted. A few min
utes' study of the situation shows that
any son of woman who is living today.
and who is fighting over the same old
battle. Not only was His temptation
real but it was resisted by no power
which is not at the command of the
humblest Christian in the world. Be
cause Jesus conquered we may con-
0uRr and In that He Himself hath
suffered. being tempted. he is able to
succor them that are tempted"
There is a fashion in these days of
po0h-poohing the idea of a personal
devil. Few, however, have gone so far
as to deny the existence of evil. Yet
evil cannot be a mere abstraction any
more than good. Both must be incar-
sons. Personally, I prefer TO believe
I'm "a malignant personality outside Of
myself and my fellow men as respOn-
sible for the rampant evil which 1 see
al every turn, rather than to believe
that men themselves are so dia bOliC-
ally constituted. Between q deVilish
humanity and superhuman devil, I
choose the latter.
OF course. there is evidence beyond
this as to the existence of a personal
Rnntr "a
world has learned most that it knows
concerning spiritual truths. declares
uneQuivocallY the existence OF Satan
and his legions. The passage now be
ing studied affirms that it was cid
''diabOlis'' himself who sought to lead
Jesus astray: that was a task he could
MOI entrust to any of his underlings.
Must Man Liver
This mighty fighter in thousands oil
years of battle with humanity is e
shrewd general. He knows the point
Of attack to choose; he always fights
along the line of least resistance. So he
sharply and subtly suggested to the
famished faster that he make tbs
stones lying all about him in reality
what they esembled-fiat 1oaves o1
bread. Why not? Nobody was more
deserving of food than he. He had The
power. Or did he There was the
point of the temptation. IF thou ar
the Son of God. command that these
stones become bread" The fact of hi.
Sonship and mission had been the bur
den of Jesus meditation for forty days
Here was a proper occasion on which
TO put the question to test.
Ah;. but to do so would be. first. tc
follow the tempter's lead, and l
would, secondly, be to demean his higf
gifts. His exalted powers were not his
for his own satisfaction, he would no
turn to his own material advantage his
divine powers. his birthright: no EsaJ
he. With his mind filled with a sense
of the loftiness of his mission Jesus
made answer. 1T is written, Man shall
not live by bread alone" Later he
taught THE life is more than meat"
There you have the complete ana
final answer to the cheap philosophy Of
our time which excuses all sorts ol
moral failure under the specious pIei
"a man must live" So whimper.
the highwayman. the saloon keeper
the thieving capitalist. the boodlina
LEGISLATOR and every other type of cor
md mr. fraf-Y- Individual