The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-12-18
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.


Clever scientists have invented scales
for measuring mental processes; but
they have not got to the point OF be-
ing able to weigh the power Of an
impression or an impulse. All the
events in creation can not determine
the effect upon twenty-five million
minds, most of them in the plastic
state of youth. of the years study. now
ended, of the heroic history of the
early Christian church
Certainly 1t has been tremendous.
The Sunday school scholars have lived
with giantS-Jesus and Paul and Peter
and Stephen and John and naDas
and Silas and James and Timothy and
DIR. Luke. They have inquired into
their motives, dissected their charac-
tiers, searched out the springs of their
great deeds They have learned the
secret of their greatness, have thrilled
in their big and conquering idea. 1t
has been a rare school for cosmo-
politics and world-seryants, has the
Sunday school during the past year.
The politicians of tomorrow will have
to reckon with it.
The Day of Worldisn.
Curiously-let us say Proyidentially
this twelve months spent in the
Book of Acts has chorded wondrous-
ly with the world thought of the times
It's broad outlook has correspondent to
the awakening of the minds of men
today. This new era of worldism upon
which the church has entered fits. like
ball into socket, into the theme of the
record of Christianity's beginnings.
That was a day of imperial concep-
hand attest that truth. Personally,
have had a peculiar opportunity to
observe 1t as l have noted the COM
ment upon "Men and Missions" and
to hit men hardest Is ''The .Awaking
World" For our day is becoming
newly alert to the meaning of univer-
sal feFment.
some Modern Instances.
There are striking contrasts and
studies alongside of contemporaneous
life. Compare that first little gather
ing Of Christians at Pentecost with
some of our modern representative
religious assemblies. Take the meet
ing in Louisville this month of the ex-
ecutive committee of the Federal
Council OF Churches of Christ In
America There were represented
more than naIf the population of the
United States. The ministry of each
than the entire Christian church at
Pentecost. What the Louisville meet
ing stands for in the way of social and
patriotic influence, material wealth,
educational leadership and religious
power, may be only family imagined.
Or look forward to the great gather
ing in Washington next May, when the
Worlds Sunday school convention will
call together representatives Of great
er number Of nations than have ever
met together in a religious capacity.
Again consider the Laymen's Mission
airy campaign, now sweeping over the
country, and the National Congress on
World Brotherhood with which 1t will
eliminate in Chicago next May. Sure
~, the mustard seed which students
0f &c vuafnhod carrrnirafn
has become a mighty forest, whose
branches cover the earth.
Then and Now.
Keeping in mind the central thought
of the developing Christian church, it is
well to contrast the feebleness of the
church then, with its potency today.
without tarrying to point out the num-
who have predicted the early demise of
Christianity, or the fierce efforts OF
kings and governments to extirpate 1t,
attention should be called to the new
vigor with which the religion of Jesus
and his apostles is spreading over the
entire earth. Next June there will as
semble in Edinburgh, Worlds Mis-
sfonary conference. met to consider
universal propaganda of the Christian
faith. The craftsmanship of Christen-
dom will be there represented. Heroes
of the faith from all quarters of the
globe viii bear with them the smoke of
this world war. 'AThe evangelization of
the world in this generation will be the
audacious watchword sounded. Does
not that recall the boldness OF the
apostles?
The background of the Acts history
IS heathendom The first attack of the
infant church was upon an environ
ment sodden In selfishness, with slav-
cry oppression. and lustful vice the
rule. Today we find the church deal
ing with a world fnterpenetrated with
the ideals of Jesus. The whole mass of
humanity has been vitalized by new So
cial and democratic teachings which it
has learned nowhere else than at the
feet OF the Great Teacher.
The Leavening Life.
One cannot turn around today with
out coming into contact with some
manifestation of the gospel. which.
when the Book Of Acts was written was
the despised and ignored teaching of
obscure men. Here one meets a bust
ness man wearing a Brotherhood button
"a cross. once the emblem Of shame
now the symbol of conquest. There
stands a great church, in the thick of
the city, commerce. The days news
paper always has some allusion, direct
or indirect, to Christianity. Saliva
ton army lassie stands on the corner,
appealing for the poor in the name of
Christ The latest popular novel makes
its plea on the basis Of a study of re-
ligion-
All the furry Of Christmas, that stirs
our hearts and the world around US
the vendors on the sidewalks, the lines
of evergreens, the shops filed with toys,
the bullying advertisements in the press.
the holiday displays, the music and the
gladness-al1 this is but an extension of
the story Of beginnings which the Sun
day schools have been studying. Who
soever would know how Christ is con-
Quering, let him look around.
Lives Lost and Lived.
This twelve months of study has had
to do with human life-human life ami
mated by the Divine Spirit What
bracing biographies they have been!
How the pulses of millions have been
stirred by the grandeur of the conduct
of these heroes, whose examples and
words now have deathless fame and