The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-11


BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS
81 ONCE knew man who had,
successfully and unsucceSs-
fully, asked six women to
marry him. OF course they
refused. They were right.
- Any man who will let six
women reject him cannot want any
one of them ardently enough to in
sure acceptance. In all realms OF life
the Jesus principle runs, According
to your faith be it unto you. They
who expect great things-and are will
ways get great things. This beauti-
full and pathetic old story, of heather
mothers indomitable faith, is full of
inspiration for every day life.
Everybody has an assortment of
vague longings; a few persons desire,
with unmistaken definiteness and ter
rible earnestness. some supreme gift.
These latter are the ones who get what
they want An English philosopher
and literary man of rare gifts is said
to have left unfinished manuscripts OF
no less than forty thousand different
theses. Is it any wonder that he has
left nothing of deafness Value2 He
apostle and all other achievers, This
one thing 1 do" The Canaanitish
woman may have aspired after all the
blessings of the true faith of Israel:
but her tremendous longing for the
healing of her maniac daughter OBJ
secured these. She wanted one thing
and she got it.
A few days ago I learned the life
story of a man in the middle West who
has for years been laboring to perfect
a process that will enable him to pro-
duce photographs that will retain the
sharpness and brilliancy which they
have in the bath. Literally for years,
ne was scoffed at as one of these
fanatical inventors But like hun
dreds of other "fanatical" inventors he
conquered his difficulties and has
created new order in photography.
Generations hence, families which pos
sess in all their original clearness,
these indelible portraits of their ances-
tors will thank God for man who
wanted one thing so devotedly that he
would not rest until he got it.
Wanting something Tremendously.
The trouble with many persons in
our day is that they have been bitten
by the supine and fatalistic philoso-
ply of the Orient, which is always
ready to accept things as they are.
They are not at all in sympathy with
this heather woman. They would de-
clare that she showed very bad man
ners throughout. Her presumption
for she belonged to an outcast people,
from the Jewish standpoint-her en-
thusiasm, her rude intrusion upon the
priyacv of Jesus We're all in very bad
form. And some of US today would
rather be Correct than conquerors.
This dilletante attitude toward life
is a bane of our times. The cultured
loafers and the wealthy do-nothings
smile only half indulgently, at per-
sons with a purpose and MISSION
They call them "reformers." Let the
world alone" is their motto. All the
while they cynically sheer at intensity
and enthusiasm, hard lines are form
ing in their faces, and a dull vacuity
is putting it's signature upon their
ewes. Despite the best that their mas
"a
very countenances take on look OF
jadedness and emptiness.
The secret of best living is the pos
session of a great purpose. Inc men
and women who have wanted to do
something in their time have drawn
the sting from existence. A French
writer has said, 1.-The first rule of the
man dedicated to great things is TO
refuse to mediocre men the power OF
turning him aside from his course.
They who have had enough courage TO
pursue, undeterred, a single aim are
10 be counted fortunate despite All
poet of suffering? 1t would be but to
rob him of his song. Better Tor the
sorrow of the Canaanitish woman ana
her great love and self-a1m, than tne
trivial, monotonous, futile round OF
the existence of many who scorned
her. This intense mother had the zest
OF her great pursuit, and she had at
length the superlative JOY, such as
lesser lives cOulQ IlOl hHOWJ VI gaining
the prize she coveted.
A Gem of Literature.
The whole story is so brief, and so
graphic that it may be here quoted
entire I.copy from the colloquial YER
sion called, 1.-THE Twentieth Century
New Testament"
ION going away from that place;
Jesus retired into the country round
Tyre and Sidon. There a Canaanite
woman from the district came out and
began calling to Jesus: Take pity on
me, Master Son of David; my daugh-
ter is entirely under the power of an
evil spirit But not word did Jesus
say in reply. His disciples came up
and begged him to send her away.
She keeps calling after u.s. they said.
I have been sent Jesus replied, to
no one except the lost sheep of Israel.
For all this the woman came and
bending low before him said: Master,
help met TT is not fair Jesus re-
throw II to dogs. Yes, Master she
said, for dogs do feed on the scraps
that fail from their owners table,.
your faith is great was his reply to
And her daughter was cured that very
moment"
TIE Caste Question.
Snobbishness and provincialism Gre
ate caste. If we knew all we would
love all. Israeis contempt for the
heather. which the disciples shared,
was really due in good part to ignor-
ance; even as is the supercilious attl-
tude of this western continent towards
two-thirds of the human race. There
are multitudes of men who, despite the
I,aymen's Movement campaigns, still
think that the best we can do for the
non-Christian peoples is to make them
like ourselves. That we may have
aught to learn from them never en-
ters our self-satisfied heads.
None the less, that is exactly the
lesson Jesus was trying to teach his
bungling disciples He wanted them
TO get the lesson of faith through this
moor woman who was outside of the
covenant. Korea and Japan and China
and India and Africa rise up in tes-