The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-08-28

i The Program of the New Order.
| The International Sunday School Les
son for August 20 is Paul on Chris
tlan Love- I Corinthians 1S:1-1a.
BY WILLIAM r. ELLIS.
The widespread social unrest is one
| of the portentous signs OF the present
time. It affects not merely America
and Europe, but even the older
| nations of the Orient. So marked has
become the feeling of popular restive-
ness in the United States that even
the far secluded United States senate
has felt it. Along with this social I'M
rest, has gone an increase of popular
power in government which assures
| to the reformer an increased measure
| of expression. There are undoubtedly
serious changes impending in the So
| cial order. To that truth NO careful
student of the times can be blind.
But how are these changes to come,
and what will be their nature? Here
arise perplexities. Win the new order
be some one of the multiform phases
of Socialism. Is a new government
scheme to remedy all the ills of the
day, and to satisfy all the loudly
voiced longings of the people? Prob
ably not, for the simple reason that
the deepest and most permanent fac
tor in life is human nature. When
royalty fell before Communism in
France, wild orgy of selfishness,
vindictiveness and personal aggrand-
lzemenG enSu6QS lot human nature
remained the same under the Com
mune that it had been under the
Monarchy. Before We can hope for
any successful or permanent anchor
alton of human society, there must be
change for the better in the nature
of men and women.
The Best for the Basest.
Once again the question arises;
How? That is a concern for the pro-
fessor in the university and for the
man of the street. 1t is no abstract
and detached theory, of no interest to
the plain people. The best means of
improving human nature lie behind
every one of the so-called burning
social questions. Right here we link
today to the apostolic age in Cortnth
We find the apostle Paul giving
counsel of perfection to the rottenest
city of his time. Corinth, whose de-
basement was a proverb, had yet been
made over, in a portion of its citizen
ship. by the teachings of Christian
missionaries. Now to this city, which
practised the basest perversion of
love, Paul gives his sublime truth of
the supremacy of the highest form
of love. This new religion" which
Paul propounded was several leagues
in advance of the latest theories and
prophecies of the most advanced"
thinkers.
If people would give less serious
heed to the day-by-day sensations of
the news dispatches, and read their
Bibles more, they would quickly per-
ceive how tremendously its program
for a new order surpasses the latest
innovations and theories. The New
Testament scheme of life is not mere
ly religious, but reasonable as well.
1t has the advantage over others in
that it has been tested, and it has
worked. Conditions for its proving
could not be more adverse than they
were in Corinth, yet there. in that
bestialized city, this Gospel erected q
beautiful fraternity of men and wo-
men who lived by the royal law Of
Christ.
The Finest Love Poem.
The Corinthian background should
ever be kept in mind in reading Paurs
letters to his friends in Corinth. Dur
ing the year and a half of his sojourn
there, these converts had become very
dear to the apostle. In writing to
them about the things that were most
worth while, and the gifts and graces
to be coveted earnestly, he deliber-
ately chose the one virtue of love. and
exalted it in this most majestic of all
the love poems in human speech:
IF l speak with the tongues of men
and of angels. but have not love, I am
become sounding brass, or a changing
cymbal. And if I have the gift of
prophecy, and know all mysteries and
all knowledge; and If I have all faith.
so as to remove mountains, but have
rot love, / am nothing. And II be-
Stow all my goods 10 IeeQ the poor,
and IL I give my body to be burned.
but have 10 love, 1t profiteth me moth
ing. Love suffereth long. and Is kind;
love envieth not; love vaunteth not it
self, is not puffed up, doth not behave
itself unseemly. seeketh not its cwn.
is not provoked, taketh not account of
evil; rejoiceth r OF in unrighteousness,
but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth
all things. believeth all things. hopeth
all things, endureth all things. Love |
never faileth; but whether there be
prophecies, they shall be done away; |
whether there be tongues, they shall |
cease; whether there be knowledge, 1t |
shall be done away. For we know In
when that which is perfect Is come.
that which is in part shall be done |
away. When I was a child. ! spake as
, child. I felt as a child. thought as a
child; now that I am become a man, /
( have put away childish things. For
aow we see in a mirror. darkly: but then /
face to face: now I know in part: but
hen shall know fully even as also
,aith, hope, love. these three; and the
greatest of these is love-"
A New Word.
The word which is the refrain of
his sublime passage was a new word
II Greece. The average reader does not
lries everywhere have to coin new
words. The languages of the people to
which they go do not have the termin-
'Iogy for the lofty sentiments represent
ID by Christianity. At this time there
s a debate among the missionaries in
China as to what Chinese words shall
De used for God" and for ''Holy Spirit"
{ is suggestive to consider that a whole
1cdy of ethical and spiritual conceptions
save been gwen speech around the
.arth by the teachers of Christianity.
Thus Christ introduced into human
peech a word which it had not possess
d before. The old English version rem