The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-26

prOgramme-the critic, who always
follows in the wake of every construc-
tor, somehow has a way of making it
appear that he could have improved
things. The subtle insinuation which
entrapped Eve was that man could de-
wise for himself = better fortune than
God designed for him. OF course this
was an insult to God, though flatter-
ing to Ewes vanity. The deepest ir-
reverence and lack of faith is thus to
question his wisdom and his love.
What would have been success for our
first parents would likewise be success
for the most modern of their descend
ants, namely, instead of trying to carve
out a career for themselves, to discover
and follow the divine plan for their
life. Apart from the line of Gods pur-
pose a man can come to nothing but
failure. The FIRST sin was close kin to
all the world of SHINING that has fol-
lowed in its wake, inasmuch as it was
lack of faith in God.
Like a good wife. Eve shared with
her husband She had been deluded
into believing that it was we'll to eat
the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and
when she divided with Adam there
seems to have been no thought in her
mind of tempting him. However, he
paid dearly for her sin; thereafter, she
who was created from the side of man,
to be his equal and helpmeet, was con-
demned to be subject to her husband.
The fall had compensations. it brought
always does; and if Adam was driven
from paradise because of woman's
weakness. she went out with him to
make a new paradise of earth, as she
has ever since been doing.
The First Excuses
Some fashions change and some do
not One which was set in the Garden
Of Eden has persisted. in growing pop
ularity. down to the present day,
namely, the fashion of making excusef
for our blunders and offenses, instead
Of standing up manfully and acknowl-
edging them. Has mistake been
made somewhere in the office? See
how everybody. and the real culprit in
particular, tends off blame by ingen-
ious excuses. Persons who are really
stupid at every other art show them
selves skilful in evading responsibility
for their shortcomings Adam first
began this unmanly practice, when
called to account by the Lord in his
place of hiding. whittier his conscience
had driven him (when man lost his
innocence he gained a conscience).
Adam ungalIantly laid the blame on
his wife. Eve followed her husbands
example and laid the blame on the SER
pent--lower than which it could not
go.
As matter of simple truthfulness
each of us is to blame for his own sin
ming. Every attempt to place the re-
sponsibility elsewhere is only a confess
sion of weakness and cowardice. No
body is ever made to sin by anybody
else; each child of Adam is as free
moral agent as were his first parents.
cestors will not add the offense of
cravenness to his outer SHINING, but
will stand up stoutly under the burden
of his own deeds.
The Light in the Gloom
The very first mention of the labor
question is to be found in this third
chapter of Genesis. All the strikes and
boycotts and strife, open and secret,
between employer and employed, bark
back to the day when labor was made
a curse, instead of a delight. In his
estate of bliss, Adam doubtless toiled
but it was easy, congenial and remun-
erative labor. Outside of Eden, though,
work became repellant, hard and toll
some One commentator (Quarry)
says, Dislike to labor in due modera-
ton is itself a sinful consequence of
the fall. and the natural reluctance to
excessive labor makes the necessity of
it, which a state of society that is part
ly the result of sin. a real punish ment.
The inequality in the amount of labor
each has to perform. the differences in
its kind, the discomfort that each feels
with the irkSomeness of his own work,
of which he is sensible, as compared
with that of others, which he does not
feel, and therefore does not think as
great as that of his own labor; the diff
f1culty that so many find by their ut
most labor to maintain their existence
in selfish and rapacious world-all
these, and many other effects of hui
man sin, have made the labor that
would have been mans happiness in
his innocence, and SO often is his hap
piness now, to be at the same time a
In all this gloomy story there is one
ray OF light; man went out from the
Garden Of Eden with a candle of hope
in his hand. To the serpent God said
and woman lifted up their heads al the
word-'I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed; it shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel" One
has only to look around at the outcrop-
ping sin on every side to realize that
the latter part Of this prophecy is trua.
The fangs of the old serpent have been
buried deeply in the heel of mankind.
On the other hand, the seed of the
woman is surely crushing the serpent's
head. Ever since that first signal vic
tory in the Garden, evil has been fac
ing ultimate defeat This article is
being written on the other side of the
earth from where it will be read. and
can testify that there is slow
steady and visible increase of the reign
Of the woman's Son. whose reign is
over the nations of the
SS0l Ill LII SpIt6 Oh III Q1SCOuTd RemSnIS
and setbacks. the truth of God is over
coming the evil one. Old Satan's sway
has been wonderfully complete in
many places, but it is assuredly being
broken The world is growing better
and the second Adam is restoring ali
that was lost by the first.
Victor or Vanquished-Which?
Terse Comments on the Uniform
Experimenting Topic of the Young