The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-08-05

| progressive and unconventional Is TO
be misunderstood. Not cnl.- the child
rem Of darkness, but also the jewellers
in the twilight, will oppose the heralds
of the better day
No lesson of history is older or
palmer than this, yet every day some
new servant of the pubic veal will
persist in being surprised or grieved
because estimable persons do not un-
derstand or approve of rim. To work
/ in any way that counts for the better
ment OF the present order is to win en-
emies. That fact should be written
early and often in the reformer's plat
form; none the less it should not make
him bitter or martyr-Iike; it is merely
a part of the days work. as bugs are
part of potato-raising. The active
worker in neighborhood politics, in
church affairs, or in any other depart
ment of human welfare. must expect
understanding Misrepresentation
and even active enmity.
How the Fire Was Lighted.
The sense that God has spoken to
him is the prime Characteristic of
every great prophet. whatever the
vehicle of expression of his message.
jeremiah describes himself sufficiently
as one "to whom the WORD of Jehovah
came" There is no need for other
biographical details; God spoke to
him; that was his call and his equip
ment and his credentials. The story of
Jeremiah's call his overwhelming
sense OF unworthiness, ard his exalta-
ton to the place of the prophet, which
! is above that of kings, is nowhere more
adequately told than in This quotation:
IT have appointed thee prophet
unto the nations
'sThen said I. 'Ah, Lord Jehovah!
behold. I know not how TO speak; for
am a child
"But Jehovah said unto me, Say
oI,s I.ss IN n az
ever I shall send thee thou shalt 60,
and whatsoever 1 shall command thee
thou shalt speak. Be rot afraid be-
cause of them; for I am with thee to
deliver thee, saith Jehovah.
Then Jehovah put forth his hand,
and touched my mouth. and Jehovah
said unto me, Behold. 1 have put my
words in thy mouth: see, I have this
day set thee over the nations and over
the Kingdoms, to pluck up and to break
down and to destroy and TO overthrow.
to build and to plant
Well may the teacher of his fellows
cry. with Miss Havergal,
Lord, speak to me. that I may
speak.
In living echoes of thy tone"
Quite understandable and praise
worthy is the recent action of a sue
cessful minister over a large church,
who resigned his charge in order to
spend a year apart from men, not. for
rest or recreation or intellectual study
but simply in order that he might hear
more closely the voice of God, and Gull
tivate his own inner life Each in his
own way must-yes simply must-se-
cure this detachment from the throng-
ing world, in order to get the word
which qualities him to speak and to
! live. Only they can lead men who
have at seasons gone aside from men
in order to be in fellowship with the
! Unseen.
The Plot Against the Prophet.
The man whose ears have been open
to any great word of God cares as little
! for mems praise as for their blame.
jeremiah feared not the face of man,
because he had looked INTO the face
of God. His messages were not sweet
and soft tickling his hearers ears. He
spoke of dread judgment to come upon
the apostate nation. Because he fore
told the destruction of Jerusalem the
| blind and erring leaders of his ray,
purVeyoFs to and prohters from the ma
tons sin, thought to destroy him.
/ Siencing the hell-buoy 5oes not re-
move the rocks; but that fatuous error
| Is one common to all enemies of the
truth. So they set about the death of
the fearless jeremiah.
AS if he cared! Nobody can be so
II
spoken the word of the Lord. The
prophet bothered nothing about his
/ life; that was merely a trumpet
through which the Lord spoke, and If
silenced on earth it would only grow
more jubilant about greater messages
| in heaven. So Jeremiah fiouted his en-
emies, speaking his woyd up to the
very last. Perhaps 1t was the high un-
concern of the Prophet; perhaps it was
a winged shaft from his culver Of
truth, finding tardy Judgment in their
| hearts; perhaps 1t was long slumbering
conscience at last awakened=What-
ever the reason, certain OF the elders
recalled King Hezekiah's nobler way
with the Prophet Micah. Thus every
good deed in the past rallies to the re-.
! enforcement of the present good:
Micah and Hezekiah, both faithful
though long dead, came to the succor
of an imperilled prophet in the day of
their children's children. Whenever
virtue and nobility seem not worth
while, to any spent and discourage
man, let it DE remembered that they
may be the salvation of children yet
unborn. To betray the honor of the
present. either in the single soul or in
the state, is to sell the future into
bondage. jeremiah emerged from his
present trial scatheless, because he
feared not death. and because his pre-
decessor in the prophetic Office had
been true man under worthy SOW
ereign.
The Man of Patience.
Terse Comments for August 2, Les
sons from Great Lives" VIII Job.
Job. SILT: 42:1-s.
(BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.)
/ Jobs adVeFsities were fiultipIied and