The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-06-20

Be kindly affectoned one to another IN
brotherly love; In honor preferr1ng one
| another.-Romans xi:1O.
Until a few days ago there lived In
Omaha a humble citizen named Nor
ris Christfanson. He had his friends,
| no doubt, but the world at large knew
| him no more than it knows any of the
countless. human atoms that go to
| make UP society. Then, in five minutes.
| Morris Christensen became one of the
worlds heroes, a hero fit to stand with
the greatest. And the next day. they
buried him. Yet he did not die until
he had given supreme testimony to the
fact that the greatest thing in human
life is the passion for service, the de-
sire to do good to others.
He was walking about with his little
son. They fell through its covering into
cistern of water. The sides were
smooth and Shiny. There was nothing
on which to climb. He could not swim
and the water was seven feet deep!
Animal nature, coupled with human
intelligence, could have saved him. He
could have put the child under his feet
and, by standing on the boys body,
raised his head above water. His rea-
son must have told him this. His desire
for 1ife-the first great law Of self
preservation-must have urged him to
do 1t. Even the gross materialism OF
many men would have excused him.
But he made the decision that proves
the taking on by the human being of
an allegiance to a higher law than
that of elf-preservation-the law of
love. Morris Christianson, making the
oh lift
ed the child above his head, and stood
there drowning, while aid came for the
little boy. Think Of It! The waters
roared in his ears with the thunder
of a tempest His lungs labored, and
blood surged to his heart and head
until his agony must have seemed I'M
bearable. He know that this thunder
in his ears was the roar of death. Ev-
cry instinct called upon him to strike
out with his arms, to seek for crevfce
in the wall with his fingers. to put
under his feet anything on which he
might Standard live. But he did not
yield A statue Of dying humanity, he
stood with the child upborne, as the
Jewel Of love Is upheld in an over
whelned and submerged world, and
when aid came and lifted the child
from his upstretched hands. the great
man under them sank down Into the
water and died. Morris Christianson,
rising for a few moments to the height
of human nobility, went over to the
majority, where If knowledge pene-
trates the veil, the spirits of those who
have died for others must have met to
greet a kindred soul.
John FTske, the evolutionist, did
much for modern scientific thought
when he showed that the family, the
home, unselfishness, the passion for
service, came into society with the in
FAINT. The human babe Is SO weak, so
tender, it must be cared for sc, long
that round it's cradle grow UP all that
makes for sweetness and light and
altruism in the family and in society.
Unselfishness must finally redeem So
ciety itself. From the cradle has spread
the passion, until it rules men as well
as women, fathers as well as mothers
and takes in all the world in divine
impulse ON the part Of men to lift up
and save a drowning world as Morris
Christianson uplifted and saved his
child.
The old tradition, full Of flint and
flaw" Is passing away. The love OF
the Omaha hero may. have been but
the love of a man for his child. But
it was love. 1t mastered him unto
death. And love, like hate. cannot be
localized. 1t is the latest thing to enter
life. 1t will one day dominate he
world. And in that day the problem of
the rich, of the poor. Of the labor ques-
ton, viii be solved. But he who is the
servant Of all shall be the greatest.