The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-07-06
(BY wnLIAM T. ELLISD


Heaven."-John 6:51.
CBY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.)
Look into the fashionable restau-
rants of the great cities, or hearken
to the between-meals conversation OF
passengers aboard ocean liners, and
you will be compelled to ask whether,
after all, considerable number of
people of this world do not live to eat.
The unabashed interest of some in the
dinner table, and their serious con-
Germ over the viands, savors of unre-
finement to a western-bred person.
who has been taught to believe that
the mere qualification of his physical
wants. while naturally important, Is
scarcely n subject for conversation in
polite society
The truth is. however, that the
number of persons who will go hun
cry for the sake of an ideal is quite
small; the emanc1pated Jews were
not among them. When the pangs Of
hunger attacked them, they forgot all
about the joys of liberty, about the
crossing of the Red Sea, about the
mira cles if the plague. about the Pass
over and about the twelve springs at
Elm, and remembered only the flesh
pots of Egypt They preferred bread
with beatings to hunger with honor.
n Man Must Live.
So long as there are scores of thous-
andS of men and women in this land
who pay the price of dfshonor, OF the
ance at actual crime, for the sake OF
holding their present positions we
must go lightly upon these newly-de-
Iivered slaves The argument, "A
man must live" is the cOmmOneSt JUS
tification for unmeasured evil-doing.
Because a man thinks he must have"
a certain social position, a fine home,
fashionable clothes, elaborate meals,
and a variety of entertainments. posi-
tions of trust are violated, banks are
looted widows and orphans are rob-
bed the laws of the state are broken,
and a stream of dishonesty, shame and
suffering is let loose upon the world
And all because men of today, like
the Isra elites of old, have not the wit
or the stamina to put first things first
Men must have only if they can live
as men of honor.
One ailment of these wanderers, as
of persons not few today, was their
inability to take long views, either
backward or forward. They could not
see beyond the present. When L shlv-
cred in the cold of Manchur1a
thought that l would never again
grumble at heat; but in India a tenn
pelature of $50 degrees smote me just
as hard as if I had never known zero
weather Past and future were blot
ted out for these Israelites by the
consciousness that they were hungry;
if they could only be fed, they foolish
" reasoned, they would mind no other
ills
Facing the Verities.
A certain mild-spoken son of
preacher remarked, in commenting
upon one of his Boyville quarrels.
don't know why it is, but somehow
never get to be really good friends
wit ha fellow until 1 have licked him.
There is a philosophy lying back OF
the youngsters remarks. JehoVah
could never get along with his chosen
people until he had shown them his
sovereignty. and tht they were de-
pendent wholly upon him. Now once
again in the wilderness, as in Egypt
and at the Red Sea, the Israelites had
to be brought face to race with the
great verify, that it is God who pro-
vides.
This was the lesson which was being
taught. line upon line, precept upon
precept." in that forty-year session of
the Wilderness school. The Jews had
to learn. before they could become in
truth a nation, that Jehovah alone was
God. and that he was their God, their
guide their protector, their provider.
Proud man has to be made aware of
his insufficiency; earth is utterly de-
pendent upon heaven. In the face of
a storm, drought, a flood. he is as
helpless as a cockleshell upon the
wind-tossed ocean. To learn the ex-
istence of heaven it is worth while to
feel the shaking of earth beneath ones
feet.
The tremendous and vital truth of
Gods providence may not be obscured
by secondary causes. What if he
chooses to send our daily bread by the
way of the wheatfield, the miller and
the bake-oven, instead of by rain from
heaven. AS AIaltbie D. Babcock sang:
Back of the loaf is the snowy flour,
And back of the flour the mill;
And back of the mill is the wheat and
the shower,
And the sun and the Fathers will"
Greedy and GrumbIrng.
In certain continental countries the
newspapers have prison editors;"
cheap hirelings who bear the legal title
of editor. but whose sole duty it is to
go to jail for the papers offenses
against the rigorous laws affecting the
freedom of the press. This sort OF
editorial scapegoat must be a con-
want to blame all that goes amiss
upon somebody. Now those migrate
full slaves, the whole congregation of
the children of Israeli turned against
their leaders as soon as they felt the
pinch of hardship. Hear them:
Would that we had died by the hand
of Jehovah in the land of Egypt,
where we sat by the hesh-pots, where
we did eat bread to the full; for We
erness to kill this whole assem- bly, with
hunger"
Poor Mosesi He deserves the SYM
pathy which every great leader always
deserves and rarely receives; and es- |
pecial commiseration should be ex-
tended to him because he had to work
with an uncommonly forgetfuI I'M
grateful, unappreciative and rebellious |
aggregation Of followers. Everybody |
finds it hard to work with people, ana |