The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-08-06

|
! OF youth eager to make the most of
himself and to solve the riddle of two
worlds, hungry for better soul food
than he had yet tasted, nobly moral
Is 1t any wonder that the heart of
Jesus warmed to him? He had lived
| an exemplary life, conforming to the
best standards he knew, and there was
no boastfulness in his frank confess
| sion of this.
What he needed, like myriads of
conventional, correct living young
men and women of our day. was some
grand Transforming passion. born of
the spirit of self-sacrifice. 1t was for
him, as the instant diagnosis Of Jesus
pointed out, to do the high, hard
thing: to break the letters that bound
him to his spirit starving convention
ality; to sell his all. for instance, to
give the money to the poor. This sug-
gestion of Jesus was not primarily for
the sake of the poor, or of the money,
but for the sake of the young man.
The world needs lives touched with
the fires of vicariousness more. than it
needs doles of gold.
"Preposterous!" instantly cried out
all the inbred sentiments of the young
man, in response to the counsel of
Jesus. Such a stripping of himself of
his wealth would mean a descent from
his accustomed station in life; it would
make him just like the common ruck
of people, and all his hereditary arts
tocracy revoIted from such an idea.
He would no longer be the model
young man, praised and honored, but
merely one of the mass of the poor.
OF course he had not peered into the
profundities. of life which were in
the mind of the Lord; nor had he
scared to the heights of the ideals of
Jesus. He did not even realize that
Honor and shame from no condition
rise.''
Remember, he was still young; and
in the neophyte stage treasure in
IRea frr+sa
gible as compared with the power and
liberty which money brings here and
now.
A Missed Opportunity.
So great was the CONSERVATION of
the young man at the radical PROPOSE
ton of Jesus that he failed to catch
its real point and climax: And come,
follow me-" He was so engrosSed like
many other honest seekers since, with
the things he would have to give up
that he utterly lost sight of what he
would get. Dante pictures this young
man as wandering through the Infer
no, searching for his lost opportunity.
To him had come the supreme occas-
ion: his miserable store of gold so held
his eyes that he missed it.
For was not this an invitation to
join the apostles? Had not Jesus Of
fered to the young ruler, to whom his
affection had gone out, a place among
the Twelve? That day he had the
tinguished group of mortal ever writ
ten in fadeless letters on history's
pages Perhaps, as DR.. Peloubet sug-
gests, he might have become the bus
mess man of the college, instead of
Judas. To think that he might have
eternally served and influenced the
world as one of the intimates of Jesus,
even as John and James and Peter
have done; whereas he lives only as a
bad exampleI
We never know what we miss when
we turn deaf ear to the intimations
of a higher, diviner life and calling.
There are multiplied agencies of Chris
tianity going up and down America
calling the choice youth Of the col
leges to dedicate their lives to the
service of Christ. The machinery for
securing recruits for the ministry and
mission fields, was never before so
elaborate; yet recruits seem harder to
get than ever The great Edinburg
conference made it plain that the call
Of the hour is not for money, but for
life. The story of the Rich Young
Ruler is being repeated today; still as
of old, to the missing of true riches.