The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-09-28
IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.
What the Church Folks Are Thinking About and Doing
Religious News From Everywhere.

I would work with God, must be willing
| to take time as Moses did
] A very human man, and no demigod,
was this Moses; his fits of Impotence
| link him closely to the common run OF
US. Yet these only serve to throw into
high relief his essential patience When
| he found what was Gods programme.
he was willing to wait on It. HIS
+ natural irnpulsiveness is shown at the
| slaughter of the Egyptian, became well
refined in before he reached Mount Nebo
and had his first and last look over the
Promised Land. Write it deeply that
| patience must be at the foundation OF
/ greatness of character.
| "Where There Is No Vision"
Where there is no vision the people
PERISH says the wise man. The saliva
men of ina gination who dream dreams
and see visions This Moses had sec
ing eye. He could see God in the bush,
he could see God on the mountain top,
he could see a nation in a brow-beaten,
spiritleSs horde Of captives. Countless
obstacles confronted him in the great
task ne undertook but he had the gift
Of seeing through and over the OBJ
stac1es to the victory which lay beyond
This power of vision, which rises above
he petty circumstance and which does
not magnify the near at hand into the
iI-important, is vital to poise and pow
| = in life.
If some people had a little more
vision. they would be able to take
square look at the pettiness, puerility,
sordidness and vanity of their own
lives They would see the incense
Quentialness of most of the pursuits
that engage their powers. They would
be spurred to live for ends worth lfv-
ing for. Canaans. flowing with milk
and honey, are the inheritance, not of
the grumbling ones who are con-
cerned primarily with food, raiment
and physical comfort, but of those
who pursue great ideals. This west
ern world is a product of vision Its
greatness is assured until it loses Its
vision. That would be a worse calam-
ity than the greatest financial panic
that could overtake the country.
The Essence of Patriotism.
The patriotism of Moses was linked
vi ally with his spirit of NERVOUSNESS,
which is the essence OF patriotism.
Moses lived and labored for the sake
of others. His tolls were not his own,
but his peoples. He loved his fellow
countrymen better than he loved his
life For their sake he was willing to
be accursed; for their sake he dared
the wrath of Jehovah; for their sake
he underwent all the rigors of the
wilderness; from the first blow that
felled the brutal Egyptian to the last
sublime strain of his dying song, his
thought was of Israel and not of him
self. The devil looks out for number
one; so do a great many people. But
all those who bear in their spirits the
marks of the truly great, which is to
say the marks of the LORD Jesus, have
a concern for their fellow men. They
are burdened by SOciety'S woes; the
ills that afflict mankind touch their
hearts. Their lives are given, not to
any bread and butter existence for the
mere maintenance of their physical
selves. but to the great causes of hui
man service and sentiment. There is
one invariable test of greatness-no
man is more than commonplace and
small who is looking out primarily for
himself. In this sense number one"
indicates the lowest grade.
1t thus comes about that the world
calls to its places of leadership the
men whose unself1shness it has tested.
In the long run, mankind know the
lovers of their fellow men. The laws
of the game of politics were violated,
politicians said, by the failure of
James G. Blaine to attain the presi-
dency of the United States. Yet the
explanation is of the simplest. Blaine
was fundamentally only interested in
James G.. Blaine He was a self-seek-
ing politician, not a great and self
sacrificing patriot. Society ever de-
mands the Moses virtues of vicarious-
ness of the man whom it calls to its
head.
The Interdependent Life.
The department idea Of life has been
talked about a great deal lately. Be
cause the richest man in the world rath-
er boasts of the fact that his life IS di-
vided into compartments, unrelated one
to the other. others are being taught
that a man cannot divide his life up in
to sections. to be judged only by certain
parts In the judgment days of time
and eternity, a man must stand by his
whole character, and by all his deeds.
1t It noteworthy that in the prepared
life of this man Moses each part was
built upon the other. He could not see
it at the time-no man was ever able
to measure his own life while it was
in the process of construction-but sub
sequent events proved the vital import
ance of each experience in the life of
Moses. Because the material of his
whole life was sound and good, God
could use 1t for a great structure.
This interdependence of the parts of
life explains many human mysteries.
We cannot understand the experiences
of the moment until they are long past;
then we see how they and they alone
made possible future greatness. The life
that Is in Gods hands is bound to be-
come a symmetrical life; but this can
seldom be seen while the parts are be-
ing fitted together. Moses at Pisgah
had his first vision of his own life in its
completeness.