The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-09
BY wILLIAM T. ELLIS.

Renewing the Covenant" Joshus
24:14-2S.
BY WILLIAM IT. ELLIS.
The first test of intellectual honesty
is willingness to face and admit all the
facts. Lacking this, man is a negli-
gible quality. No milder words than
coward and weakling will serve to
characterize the person who will not
accept any demonstrated truth. This is
the heresy which oftenest parades as
orthodoxy No man is orthodox who
goes back on what is true. This pusil-
luminous course may save him some
hard knocks, but it will shrivel up his
own soul, which, after all, Is the one
great disaster most to be feared.
The call of the day is the call to
face the facts Let man examine
himself, to see where he stands on all
of lffe's big questions. Stock taking In
character is not SO common as In bust
ness. Even in the commercial world
there is occasionally to be found man
who will not admit to himself what
are the real conditions; he lodges the
crash comes. That sort of self delud-
ing temperament always comes up with
disaster. One reasonable explanation
of the many moral catastrophes in life
into shipwreck. Their life was never
steered. They had no definite pur-
poses They simply went along. letting
chance winds and currents direct tn en-.
through for themselves, or have a fire.
quent reckoning with their own life.
Stock-Taking in Life.
The wise man occasionally takes
time to sit down and cross-examine
himself. He does as Israel did, under
Joshua's dying instructions, have an
understanding as to where he stands.
Taking nothing for granted, he re-
traverses the old ground of first prin-
ciples. He goes down into Ife's deep
relationships. First, he renews his
own character: just what sort Of per-
son Is he at heart?
Then he sings a song Of praise for
his physical being. 1t rarely oc-
ours to one to be thankful for good
health until 1t is gone. Home and fam
lily are themes for meditation and
crossed in making money that he does
not find time to entertain the thought
that in his wife and children he has a
priceless fortune.
when he is promoted to a five thou
sand dollar job, or when he falls heir
10 q few thousand dollars. They are
not aware OF the greater fortunes that
come in LIES spiritual relationships;
nor frequently Is the man himself An
acceptance of the fact that
real riches are of the heart, and that
life's most important concerns are
those which belong in the realm Of the
spirit, would cause many person to
write down as his greatest asset the
old old fact of-God. He is following
the wisdom of the Israelites who re-
views his position with respect to Je-
hovah. A reaffirmation of ones fun
religious belief wondrously
clears nfe's atmosphere. For or
against, every thinking person owes
it to his own character and capabilities
to decide the question of his attitude
toward God.
The Idols Under the Floor.
"A side-IiRht upon the situation in
Canaan Is shed by old Joshua's ex-
hortation, Put away the gods which
your fathers served beyond the river"
In this plea to serve Jehovah in sin
certify and in truth there Is an impli-
cation that Israel was covertly cling
ing to the old idols.
That Is understandable. The break
with heathendom on the part of a
Christian convert requires a tremen-
dous wrench. It is a break with all
the past--with the ideas. fears, super
stftfons and associations which have
been ground into his consciousness
since earliest infancy. The wonder is
that SO many converts re-
lapse into the old worship, but that so
few do.
Missionaries have told me that
converts, instead of throw
ing away or utterly destroying their
Idols, have put them under the floors
Of their houses, SO that in case they
should ever want them again they
would be ON the safe side! In Homo |
lulu I was assured that, although the |
Hawaiian Islands have been Christian
lied, yet In the very capital Itself
a modern, civilized, American city
the old idols, rites and spirit worship /
are still practfced- |
without going 50 far away from |
home as Hawaii or japan or Canaan, |
we may ma in every one Of our North |
American cities today relics Of bar