The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-15
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

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BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS
E-HE logic of many persons to-
- p day slips a cog when they
get to thinking on religion.
OF real atheism there is al
most none: everybody ae-
cepts the truth of a Supreme
Being, who guides and govern the af-
fairs of men. But not everybody sees
that this God, if he be Lord at all,
must have authority as well as power:
anything else is simply unthinkable-
A sovereign without a kingdom or a
sceptre is no real sovereign Ii Goa
be granted authority then he must
simply must-exereise some sort OF
discipline and require some sort OF ac-
counting of those who are subject to
him.
Thus we find ourselves face to face
with the reasonableness of a Judgment
Day; although it is not uncommon Tor
people to try to eliminate the Judg-
ment Day by the simple process OF
shutting their eyes to it. Our be-
logged minds do not welcome the IDEA
of our responsibility to God-the idea
which Daniel Webster said was the
sublimest that had ever entered his
mind. The latest fashions in religion
do not call for a judgment day:
The popular God of the illogical and
superficial crowd is a loving, indulgent,
easy-going spirit whose character is
depicted as the sort of habby love
which these forceless ones know: be-
ing without dignity. rights or author
Sly, the subject of every Yagary of
these erratic minds. The God or
multitude Of people is conceived OF as
possessing no moral sense, except
blind beneyolence, which will disregard
all moral delindueneies and lavish re-
wards upon fatuous speculations. A
man of common sense, with some idea
of cause and effect and of the eternal
fitness of things. must be repealed by
which is popularity proclaimed today
in the name of divine love. Well
does Lew Wallace say, and show, in
''Ben Hur'' that better law without
love, than love without law"
When the Gentle Eye Flashed.
Everybody who reads and thinks ac-
cepts Jesus as the most loving example
of humanity, or representative of d.
vinity, that the earth has ever seem
He loved to the limit. Greater love
hath no man. than this. The cross is
the seal of his last full measure of de-
votion. Yet Jesus, the self-emptylng
and compassionate, preached jucg-
meut day. His lofty words upon the
subject are today's Sunday school les
son. His knowledge Of GOD and man
made clear the ineVitableness of a
time when man, the free subject of a
divine Sovereign, should one day rem
der UP an account to his Lord. we
can imagine the flash in the eye of
the gentle Teacher, as he told his hear
ers Of that day, when all Of earth s
mistakes would be rectifed, and the
despised Son of Man himself would be
vindicated.
The dramatic truth upon the awe
someness Of which the old painters
loved to dwell is that the Judge will
be he who is now the judged. The
suffering Savior. upon whose case
every mortal must Sit in judgment as
truly. as did plate, is one day to be
enthroned as supreme arbiter OF all
men The Redeemer who came in
humiliation is one day to come in
glory. His day is marching on" The
Son Of Man is also the King OF kings
He who stood, bleeding and insulted,
before the multitude, is to have all
nations arrayed before him.
The stress which Jesus lays upon the
word nations" in his statements con-
corning this grand assize is significant:
1t seems as God deals with the world
dividuals. There is something sacred
about nationality. The feeling of ma
tionalv consctousness is today being in
tensifed to rare degree all over the
earth. It is one of the notable phe-
nomena of our times. This western
world, too, is emerging into a new
consciousness of her might and mis-
sion. May she never lack prophets to
hold her steadfast to her obligation to
the Most High.
Each to His Own Place.
In childhood's days we ran in
crowds, each with his own particular
cronies. The group instinct intensifes
with age, so that "cliQues" are the
problem OF high school and colleges.
Kindred spirits are drawn together;
one neighborhood has one class Of peo-
ple, another a different class. On ship
board, in summer hotels. in restaur-
Rnts-everywhere, in short, the law
of attraction holds good.
So it seems but q natural outworking
of a reorganized principle that at the
Judgment Day the King should de-
clare q separation, each going to his
own place. Indeed, the separation
had already been made sure by the
character of the judged: It was not the
word of the shepherd that made the
sheep sheep or the goats goats. We
go to the group or class for which we
have fitted ourselves. Even the con-
demned viii recognize the justice of
their separation from the Lord; they
will see that they, being sthey are,
could not be happy in the company
of the blest. Ignorant peasants would
not enjoy the society of kings and
philosophers. 1t to his own place that
each one of us goes. Heaven is for
condemnible.
Men and women are preparing for
their future abode, even as the flu
ture abode is preparing for them. The
Kingdom to be inherited by the bless
ed is prepared for you from the foun-
dalton of the world" All things, on
earth and in heaven, are making ready
for the reign of the good. The triumph
of truth, the advent of that glorious
age of which prophets have dreamed
and poets have sung, is surely draw
ing on.
The Great Dividing Line.
DR.. Talmage once pointed out that
while society divides mankind into
many classes, by innumerable hori-
zontal lines, Jesus divides the world
by a single vertical line--on the left
the goats, on the right the sheep. The
only important classification in life
IS that between the good and the bad,
Upper classes and lower classes are
not sufficiently distinctive; but good