The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-10-24

TerSe Comments on the Uniform
Prayer-Meeting Topic of the Young
deavoF. Baptist Young Peoples I'm
Ton, Epworth League, Etc.--for Oc-
tober 25. Topic-"Foreign Missions:
F1deIia Fiske. and Missions in Per-
sia." Mic. a: III.
BY WILLIAM r. ELLIS.
Persia. is once more a center of
world interest. For decades and CEN
turtles she attracted little general at
tention, and had come to be remem-
bered chiefly in connection with the
ancient glory Persia the great, the
world conqueror, had sunk into an
parently out of tho path of
progress. The worlds great high
ways of commerce and inter-
est passed by her. She was looked
cadent nations. The average newspa-
per reader could scarcely tell in what
part of the world Persia lies. Now all
is changed. The electric current that
seems to be energizing> the spirits of
the older peoples has swept through
Persia. At present she is ION the
wire" in newspaper parlance, almost
daily. The tumults. of revolution and
reconstruction rend her. ProgressiVes
and reactionarieS are cannonading
eah other in the streets of the nations
capital All is uproar and turmoil as
the world looks on wonderingly and
uncomprehendingly Yet the student
of nations is calm; for he perceives
that the bloody rendings and pains
and shrieks are but the accompani-
ment of the birth of new life. The
people have been granted a constitu-
ton. Self government is in sight; and
the country is so determined to pos
ess this glorious reality that it is will
/ ing to fight for it.
What is the yeast which has raised
| this great ferment in Persia? Let us
admit freely that the new ideals of
! liberty, and of the dignity and worth
and possibilities of the individual man,
| introduced by the missionaries, are in
good part responsible for the new
| spirit in Persia. OF course the news
| papers have found their way into be-
nighted empire, and the reports of
emigrants have been powerful factors,
| also. But these are only indirect ex-
pressions of that same new life which
the gospel produces. Wherever the
| teaching and spirit OF Jesus are car
ried, there they are certain to beget
new independence, new courage, new
| love of liberty, and new power in
the assertion of the inalienable human
rights.
| Because Persia has been granted a
| constitution, it must not be supposed
| that her troubles are over and her
needs ended. Now, as ever before, she
| requires the tightening counselS of the
| gospel. The missionaries, who have
( been her truest friends In the past,
| have more opportunities for usefulness
| now than ever. In this crisis time,
| when lives are imperilled, it behooves
all lovers of the kingdom to remember
| at the throne of grace the men and
women who are laboring in Persia for
the coming of that kingdom which is
more glorious than any constitutional
| government.
Fidelia Fiske was great because she
greatly gave herself to God and to
Persia.
The present emergencies of the old,
old ideals of liberty IN Persia, for
| which it would seem many men have
vainly given their lives in the past, re-
call the great truth which Albion w.
Tourgee expressed in his poem:
! / am dusti
Altho He slay,
I Yet will 1 trust
Through all the fray
In Him
So boosted one.
Breasting battle Just begun.
The noon tide came.
The soldier faced the sheeted flame,
Defying WEAKNESS and woe,
And giving ever blow for blow.
From out the din and dust
OF that world fray
He shouted still,
In accents shrill:
"Altho he slay.
Yet will 1 trusti"
The night came down.
10, stark and prone
The warrior lay. Above him thronged
The tide of those who smote and
wronged.
The fight was DER; the wrong had
won;
The earth no better, now twas done!
His blood soaked up the dust;
L b In,