The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-07-13


by his own employees. II the sovereign
ty of the Lord Almighty means any
thing it means obedience to his laws.
The God i'm a Box
While watching Shinto festival in a
remote Japanese village, I was ap-
preached by native who knew a few
words of English. He said, pointing to
the careening ark which shouting, dane
ing devoteeS were carrying on their
shoulders, God in box" Thanking him
for the explanation, began to muse on
the fact that the gods-goGs who can he
be made by hands, gods limited by hu-
man forms and attributes. The God
whose worship alone is universal dwels
not in temples made with hands; the
heaven of heavens cannot contain him.
and his ineffable greatness is beyond
the grasp of mortal mind.
Because Jehovah is not little god,
but the Great God, deserving and desir-
ing direct worship and allegiance. and
Jealous of aught that would come be-
his finger wrote on the stony tablet the
second great Commandment, Thou
shalt not make unto thee a craven i'm
age, the likeness of any form that
is in heaven above. or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth; thou shalt not bow
down myself unto them nor serve them;
for the Lord thy God am a Jealous
God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers
upOn the children, upon the third and
upon the fourth generation of them that
hate me; and showing mercy unto thou
sands of them that love me and keep
my commandments.
That is spoken like a God sure of
himself and his rights, and one of all
embracing vision and large purposes.
Whoever stoops to idofatry-be 1t idol
atrv of the golden eagle, of self, or of
some other petty object of Worship
is bound to have a reckoning with the
Almighty, who is beyond all power OF
representation, and who will share his
throne with none. -...s,--' g. b. -.. 3.
A Nation of Swearers? -. p
The charge is frequently made
overseas that 'in this new world west
of the Atlantic there has grown up a
race of swearers-the. most profane
people upon earth, Certainly there is
a greater variety in the profanity or
the west than in the stereotyped
speech of those who live nearer the
uninventive east; and it may be that
this unlovely pre-eminence has been
earned. Nobody will deny that there
is altogether too much cursing and
swearing in our land and time; and
that the practice is not only trrever-.
ent, and in defiance of the third Com
mandment, but also that 1T stunts in
tellectual growth. .
A thinking man has no need to
swear: he has a voca bulary of definite,
meaningfu1 and appropriate words.
He is able to express his own mean.
ing, in all the intended shades, with
out borrowing from the battered and
street-worn speech of the tough and
the rowdy. Profanity is more than
immoral; it is vulgar and ineffective.
It. is not the clustering man who
swears that fmpresses his ideas upon
the world or makes things move; 1t IS
the quiet, self-respectfng man of
ideas. who chooses words as a me-
chanic chooses tools, each fit for it's
own special task.
If any Sunday. school teacher. whose
sphere touches real life, Will only keep
his ears open for an hour he will
hear abundant reason for utilizing the
potent agency of the Sunday school to
help curb the days proclivity for pro-
family, which is of q piece with the
ages spirit of irreverence. For the
best of arguments against profanity is
that which underlies the admirable
Roman Catholic Society of the Holy
Name" namely, respect for the
name and personality. of Him of whom
the inspired pen wrote Holy and
reverend is His Name" .s s-fer..s
If the man of the street is hit by
the sweep of this third Command
ment, scarcely less is the man of the
prayer meeting. Says Bishop Chad
wick: THE name of God is abused
when the insincere and hollow. pro-
worShips, honors Him with the lips
when the heart is far from FIim-nay,
when one strives to reclaim his fellow
sinner by the use of good and holy
phrases in which has own belief is
merely theoretical"
Quite as cutting is this further ex-
tract from the same meaty writer.
Ihere is a large and powerful school
or religion in our own day, whose dis
c1ples talk much more of their own
n on ft@s-- l.,
Paul did. and much less about God
and Christ. Some day the proportions
will be restored There is profanity
that is born of religiosity as truly as
thinking irreverence; both alike vio-
late the third commandment. Neither
his friends nor his foes may trifie with
Jehovah's majesty
Mans Veal Gods VIII.
The Hindus have perfected religious
observances to the point of ludicrous-
ness; they have piled rite upon rite,
upon practice. until the original idea is
hopelessly obscured. That man is far
wiser than the ordinary Hindu -wor-
shipper who can make aught of sense
or reason out of the tumble of per-
formances to be witnessed any day in
Benares. The same danger besets
every religion. There is more of John |
Milton and the other Puritan fathers
the Apostle Paul. Reformations are |
as necessary in religion as in politics. |
Take this fourth commandment, for
example, through which, by the way, !
every week automobiles go dashing !
and golf balls, tennis balls and base
balls go hurtling. Even at the risk |
Of shocking some reader, let me say |
that Standardization is by no means |
anonymous with Scripturalism. The |
Jaw has become overlaid with inter- !
probation. One of the most pressing /
needs of present day Christianity is a |
fresh, honest, unprejudiced and con- |
structive presentation of the Sunday |
question. At present 1t is too largely I
confined to the hurting of futile pro- |
1ibitions. which the preachers them
selves do not always observe against |