The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-16
What Happens When a Great Book
Gets Into People.
The International Sunday School Les
son for December II is Ezra
Teaches the Law" Nehemiah 8.


The International Sunday School Les
son for December II is Ezra
Teaches the Law" Nehemiah g.
BY WILLIAM T ELLIS.
- N a conservation congress
held in the South a few
weeks ago, one man made
the point that it is better
to get the great idea of con-
servation. or what another
called the principle of salvation. into
peoples minds than to teach them all
the methods of conservation extant'
Plans are merely the product or a pur-
pose Methods are the output or mo-
tive. Get the big idea into q peoples
thinking and they may be- trusted to
find ail the practical outworkings OF II
that are necessary. The best program
of moral and national reform is pas
sion for righteousness; details VIII
take care of themselves.
When one Of China's greatest states
men told me recently that he felt that
his nation needs to adopt Christian
1ty, he did not have in mind any COM
plete system Of theology: he does not
know anything about scientific the
ology. But he did see clearly that the
Christian ideal. and the Christian
spirit, are China's present need. Give
China the Book, and she will make
port in her new venture of q constI-
tutionaI form of government Give
her only the forms and methods OF
constftutfonaIism, with the old indi-
vidualistic and selfish spirit, and she
will make shipwreck of her great ex-
pertinent. The clear need of China,
as of our own land. Is for a new life
TO vitaIize the new forms of this
changing day.
Better Than Strong Walls.
The Great Wall Of North China, or
the walls about Picking and Marking,
are not any more obsolete and lnef-
Il a
modern times than were the newly
built wall of Nehemiah to keep out
the most dangerous foes of Jerusalem
They might thwart Sanballat, Tobiah
and Goshen, but they were unavail-
ing against the selfshness, pride, idol
otry and godlessness of the wandering
hearts of the Jews. The need of the
returned Jews was for the protection
that would save them from themselves.
What says Amos r. Wells?-
"CToser is the Lords protection, than
a near investing wall;
Closer than a moat about me. closer
than a tower tall:
Closer than the suit of arnOr, or my
hands and feet can be;
For against mine own assailing, his
protection keepeth me-"
the Rabylonian exile were in a cap
itaI position to adopt an eclectic re-
Lyon; and they had leanings that way.
They were surrounded by an assert
ment of creeds They were more gods
than virtues. Most of the popular d.
whites were easy-going, asking moth
ing of their devotees in the way of
moral straitness. There was free rein
for all passions in the service OF the
gods of the nations. That Is why the
Jews were so often tempted to stray
from Jehovah. A man is glad to cloak
the Indulgence Of his frailties under
the cover OF some religion
The popularity Of all sorts Of cults
in our own time is to be explained in
this same way Their moral obliga-
lions are not rigid and exacting. They
profess scorn of the old legalism of
the Mosaic law. Natural religion" is
q veritable high-brow fad IN our times.
1t is an easy creed. Tt wifi let a man
indulge his selfishness to any extent,
SO long as he is mindful to burn in
cense to the goddess of Good Form
BE polite and conventional, and you
may do whatever you please within
these wide bounds, says natural re-
ligion. which deifies the worst as well
as the best of mans nature.
Leaders, Real and sham.
Sir Robertson Nicoll, the great Brit
fish editor and critic, once gave me
his impression of certain public men
on this side of the water. Concern
ing one famous man he said that The
manages to keep just a step in front
of the crowd, and he is ever looking
back over his shoulder to see if they
are following That is a definition OF
many popular politician but the
term leader must be denied him.
The truly great statesman is the one
who leads the way to what he be-
heves to be righteousness and honor
and public welfare. He is less con-
cerned about peoples applause than
about their progress.
Fortunately. Jerusalem had that
kind OF leaders during and after the
rebuilding of the walls. Nehemiah
and Ezra cared more for helping their
people than for pleasing them. They
never hesitated to point out the dan
gers which resided in the hearts of the
Jews, as we'll as those which arose
from without the city walls. They were
true leaders, not followers of the
crowd who managed to keep in front
of the procession, like small boys run |
ming at the head of a circus parade. ]
Once the wall was finished, these |
leaders planned for great festival of |
recognition Of the law of the nation, |
which was the law of Jehovah. It is !
the degree of a community's reverence |
for law that measures its real stabi1- |
ity- common INSTRUMENTATION is |
that 1t is the volume of business that !
determines a community's strength: !
but this is not so. The strength of
the law is the strength of a peoples |
civilization. Not without reason does
the British poet of empire cry to his |
far-fung fellow countrymen:
s'Keep We the law; be swift in all ODE |
dience;
Drive the road and bridge the ford
Make ye sure to reach his own,
That he reap where he hath soWn; !
By the peace among our peoples let |
men know we serve the Lord"
A Get-Together Meeting.