The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-05-06

4
dollar. Although only a lad of sixteen
when called to the throne of Judah,
| UZZiah proved that he had the true
king stuff in him. Incidentally. it is
| plain that his father had brought to
| the fore a group of great men to De
advisers and administrators. During
| the fifty-two years of his reign he
maintained what his father had won,
/ even renewing the war with the Naba-
/ teams of Edom, and fortifying the
boundary of the kingdom towards
Egypt He did more: he enlarged the
territory and prosperity of the land
which he had inherited The country
or business house or patient that is
merely holding his own is in a rath-
er serious condition. The boy who is
not an improvement upon his father
is not altogether a success If pro-
gress is the law of life. tLen each gen.
Grafton must do better than the last.
A better possession bequeathed to
Uzziah than the impregnable rock city
to the south, was a wise counsellor, in
the person of Zachariah. A friend is
the best fortune. The young man who
has as intimate an older man who has
looked deep into life is better off than
the one who has inherited a million.
OF this Zechariah we have only this
record in the Bible: he had under
standing in the visions of God" What
a biography: That meant he was wise
with the highest wisdom. He knew
the best philosophy that this world or
the next can impart. In all measured
carefulness it may be said that the
finest equipment for life is the posses
sion of that quality best described by
that oft-misuSed term, spirituality.
Let intimacy with God be real to
young person, and he has the nearest
approach to the philosophers stone
that may be found in this world. WITH
out keen religious sense a person is
without the highest of all possible hu-
man qualities.
The Soldier Farmer King.
The difference between Moslems and
Christians-speaking broadly of them
as types of civilization-is that the
Christian is q builder and the Moslem
is a waster. Civilization has deterior
ated, rather than advanced, wherever
the followers of the Prophet have held
sway. The same classification holds
good concerning individuals. Some
persons are pullers-down, and some
are builders-up. To the glory of Cz-
ziah it must be recorded that he i'm
proved upon his inheritance. He took
what he had got from his father and
made it better. AS behoOved a mill
tary monarch, he made the army bet
ter. He not only organized his citi
zen soldiery, but he also equipped it
with the latest and the bes+ weapons.
Under his wise stimulus. the science of
war was promoted, and he put into use
new catapuIt invented by one of his
own people.
That was good, but he did still bet
ter. Then. as now, militarism spelt
hardships for the people. No nation
can live by the building of dread
naughts. The productive arts must be
given first place. And this Uzziah did.
He is written in history with this tri-
butte, which must be remembered
a Ion with tho 70 Of n
tuous sin, HE loved husbandry.'' No
body can at heart be very bad man
who loves the kindly earth and it's
pleasant fruits. We do not read that
Uzziah loved war; he had to be dill
gent in it, of course; but his own pas
blooming with harvest of golden grain,
and the trailing vines of the purple
grapes.
He doubtless cared for the spectacle
of well drilled army but he also
liked to watch the peaceful procession
of maidens to the wells at evening and
morning. So we read that he was a
Well-digger; no more inheritor of
other mems 1abors he. In the East, to
this day, people use the old wells,
which have been doing service for
centuries. They do not think of dig
ging new ones for themselves, in more
convenient locations. Similarity, peo-
pie would rather quarry the brick and
stones of ruined cities than make their
own; the city of Samarra, along the
Tigris, is entirely built of the ruins of
the city esta blished by Haroun er Ha-
shid's son.
Towers of defense in the desert, for
the shepherds, Uzziah also built-just
such towers of mud brick as are to-
| day the outstanding feature of the
Landscape of lower Mesopotamia. Real
concern for the vital interests of his
people cannot be denied to this ruler.
The Things of Which We Are Proud.
If the angels have any sense of
| humor, they must find this passing
show of human life greatly diverting.
Consider the strutting and posing and
boasting, all for no juStifiable reason.
The people who are proud because of
their wealth, not a dollar of which
they ever earned for themselves-how
amusing are they; even more SO than
the new-rich who have made their
rant for pride, at least. Or consider
the multitudes who consider them
selves better than the common run of
us because some long-dead ancestor
was distinguished. See the mad
scramble to join the Daughters of this,
and the Sons of that. Or consider the
foolish women who regard the posses
sions of mere physical beauty as set
ting them apart from and above their
sisters, and entitled to special consid-
GRAFTON. If beauty itself confers rights,
what about the queenly and beautiful
Kurdish woman whom saw the other
day, staggering along with a huge bur-
den on her back which no American
stevedore would think of carrying? Or
that other girl, with classical features,
who was carrying water for a whole
khan full of horses and cattle?
Quite in a category with all this is
the pride which we detect in Uzziah.
The record runs that HE was marvel
lously helped, till he was strong" So
| it was not of Uzziah's merit that his
success was achieved. He had no
right to be proud. All he was and had
done he owed to others. but especially
to the divine enabling. AS the revisers
have rendered several passages in the
New Testament from the active to the
passive, we are to be "strengthened,'