The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-16

| expected attack by kneeling at the
brook, with arms laid aside. With this
picked three hundred, Gideon, having
| been still further treasured by g
dream which he overheard one of the
| enemy relate, routed the INDIAN foe
New Ways and Weapons.
A man who was showing me over
his industrial school in India lament
ed that 1t is SO hard to teach an In.
dian new ways; he wants to weave
plough and drill just as his ancestors
did thousands of years ago. Wise mer
nave made the same observation con-
corning twentieth century Christian
work Outgrown forms and methods
are chung to as tenaciously as If they
were inspired and sacred. The mod
ern world is not ministered to by the
modern church in modern fashion.
The possible bigness, adaptiyeness
and contemporaneousnes of Chris
tan service are yet to be realized
Untrfed agencies must be employed
II all the men in all the world are to
near the gospel. The eagIe-eyed
CHINA is proved by nothing more than
their determination that O. modern
daily newspaper of civilization, in the
chinese tongue, and edited by Chris
tian men, is one of the most needed
missionary agencies of the time,
This Gideon was a man of ideas. Next
to character, brains is the best equip
ment for life's long battle. The son of
Joash was fertile in strategy; mill
tary pioneer. He told off his 800 into
three companies. Into each mans hand
he put trumpet, a pitcher Cred earth
enWare vessels are almost as cheap and
common as dirt in the Orient) and a
torch. The earthen Jars, or pitchers,
were to conceal the torches until the
psychological moment.
Thus the intrepid 300 surrounded the
Mid1anite camp. AT a signal from
Gideon the pitchers went Crashing to
ground hn Her1& -
In the startled eyes of the rudely awak-
ened host, an emblem of the leadership
of a company, so that the 300 invaders
looked like 800 troops. The trumpets
were simultaneously sounded, and. with
q shout. The sword of Jehovah and
Gideon the faithful Israelftes saw the
foe fee in panic. each turning his
frenzied weapon against his comrade.
In this first mad rout there was ap
parently not a blow struck by Gideons
band; 1t was victory of faith.
What Hit Wall Street.
Thoughtful persons are reader now
than they once were to believe in VIC
tories of faith. They see the Gideon
story repeated over and over again. Re
Gently Wall street underwent a dire
panic. What caused it? The hosts of
conservatism and honesty did not go
up against the leagued gamblers with
arms, not yet with legal injunctions.
The towering castles of speculation
ing before the faith of the common
people. The latter believed in truth and
Justice and a square deal; they were
determined that Misrepresentation
should be overcome. Their faith con-
quered, and Is conquering.
be- This modern instance is but one more
revealing of the truth that the greatest
forces in the world are spiritual. The
latest popular novel relates the fortunes
of an English Quaker who felt called"
to a public career in Egypt. The simple
faith of David CIaridge sustained him
against all the wiles of the Orient. He
won, because, as he believed, God fought
with him. This is the strength of pres
reforms, as it was the strength
of Gideon's band. The consciousness
that God was on their side was the root
of their victory. A sense of inyiuri-
bility is the divine right of every per-
son who believes that his cause is also
Gods cause. All the modern Midianites,
no matter how numerous and powerful,
must be put to rout before Gideon's
battlecry, which is the name Of Jehovah.
SEVEN SENTENCE SERMONS.
The majority of men who are lost,
are lost not because they are criminals,
but fools; not because they have
sought wickedness, but drifted into 1t; |
not because they purposed folly, but |
simply because they never had a wise |
y H.
Prayer is the cry of faith to the ear |
Of mercy. It is not eloquence, but |
sarnestness; not the definition of help |
essness. but the feeling of 1t; not |
1gures of speech, but conjunction of |
souI.-Anon.
I will not faint, but trust in God
Who thus my lot hath given.
He leads me by the thorny road,
Which is the road to heaven
Christina Rossetti.
There is not a heart but has its mo-
nents of longing-yearning for some
hing better, nobler, holier, than it
Knows now.-Beecher.
Thou shalt be served thyself by every
sense
of service which thou renderest.
e. B. Browning.
aisfied with what life now is; he
ought every day to be looking forward
o some of the possible improvem ents |
Edward Everett Hale.
% -
Present tests are for future trusts
haltbie D. Babcock.
NEWS AND NOTES.
Newspaper space by the three-co1-
INN measure, is being bought by the
cnlcago laymen who are running the
'orrey evangelistic campaign This
avish use of space Is not only for the
advertisement of the meetings, but