The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-05-01

wide is the gate and broad is the way,
that leadeth to destruction, and many
there be which go in thereat. st. Matthew
vii:13
Everyday experiences in this world
as they develop on all sides before the
eyes of mankind substantiate the
great truth that is conveyed in these
words of Jesus Christ which he utter
ed in his famous sermon on the
mount. The gate which opens on the
way to destruction is just about as
wide as the earth. The roads which
lead from it are countless. Travel
along many of them is particularly
easy for a lesser or greater period of
time. There are many false attrac-
lions builded on these highways which
are particularly erticing to men and
women. People are blinded by the
glitter Of them, 1t would seem. To
many, these broad avenues, and they
are generally ones of vice in one form
or another, are as ways lighted with
sunshine and strewn on every hand
with roses. But such people are VIC
Tins of decisions. They do not real
ize the utter folly of their endeavors
until near the end of these paths
when destruction overwhelms them.
Then it is too late. Their future in
life, if there is any left to them, is as
dark as is their future after death.
Probably the Creator of things, the
supreme power which orders the af-
fairs of life. has purposely made the
gate to destruction a wide one, so as
to test to the limit the strength of
the good life, the really happy life, the
true life would not be worth the at
tainment If 1t could be secured with
out much of effort. Nothing Is really
worth very much If it is obtained with
ease, without stern exertions and sac
rifices. The gambler who wins a lot
of money on the deal of a deck of
cards Is generally borrowing the price
of a meal from friends on a day or
two after his successful coup. The
money that came to him so easily Is
dissipated by him much easier. But
the man who works hard and long in
an honest way for the money that is
coming to him, whether 1t be a large
sum or a small one, is almost certain
always to have money in his pockets.
He has learned and appreciates the
value of it,
So it is in all other things. Those
which are worth having, which are
most desirable, are the ones which
come only as a result of an expendi-
ture of laborious energies. And be-
cause as Jesus Christ says later in the
same great sermon from which the
text is taken, strait is the gate and
narrow is the way which leadeth into
life, and few there be that find it,"
that is the exact reason why unusual
efforts should be demanded of, and
made by, everyone to find it. It may
not be as apparently attractive a way
as the wide gate which leads to de-
struction, but that is because the real
essential things for true happiness and
right living are not as readily appre-
ciated or understood as are the gross
er things of life which have well nigh
irresistible charms for human beings
and which appeal to their passions A
reveller in false philosophy once re-
marked that ito sin beautifully is to
be great" The fallacy Of such an
argument, or suggestion, is so appar-
emit that 1t emphasizes the true phil
osophy that there is nothing of the
beautiful in any sort of sin and that it
should be Stunned as is a poisonous
serpent.