The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-05-20


BY all We leave or do
The silent, sullen peoples
snail weigh your gods and you.
Take up the white mans burden
Have done with childish days
The lightly-proffered laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise,
Comes now to search your manhood
Through all the thankIess years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers
The Surrendered Birthright.
All the prophets from Isaiah down
to the writer of today's editorial, have
sounded the same summons of fidelity
to ones own divine mission. Israel
had beautiful birthright, holy her
itage; she flung it away for the sake
of the outgrown idols OF her neigh
bors, such as Abraham had turned his
back upon more than a thousand years
before. Just so, as the older nations
emerge from the thraldom of class and
caste distinction toward democracy,
there is plainly noticeable in the west
ern contirent, which may reverently be
called Gods new experiment station
or laboratory tendency to the crea-
ton of these elsewhere discarded caste
lines. No duty confronts North Amer
lea more severely than that of fighting
relentlessly for its sacred bequest Of
i democracy. There is an American
type-there is a peculiar and divine
reason for the existence of this fresh
! civilization; there is a provide entail
world-purpose in the erection on this
lovely continent of a new order of So
ciety. This is the last citadel of dem
ocracy; the last great arena on which,
seemingly, God chooses to work out his
precious principle of a nation of equals
who will yield allegiance to him, and
bear testimony to his truth before the
nations. The fulflment of this ideal
| is such high office of patriotism that
all mere office-seeking. monograph
bling, self-servipg ambitions shrived in
to condemned ignobleness alongside of
it.
Always, like the suspended sword of
Damocles hangs the dread possibility
of repeating IsraePs blunder, and be-
ing discarded and punished. The vine
yard that will not bear fruit will be
laid waste. The judgments of Jehovah
are sure; never yet has mortal might
or majesty evaded or withstood them.
For heather heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to
guard
For frantic boast and foolish word
Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord!'
A Sign of Destiny.
High living" is a sign of low life.
Just as mental excitabiiity indicates
extravaganza and extremism-the mad
quest of the unusual-are evidence of
a waning vitality in society. The re-
sort to artificial stimulus is as certain
token of weakness as the call for the
galvanic battery or oxygen tank in the
sick room is sign of extreme danger.
The prophet pointed out to Israel the
woes of drunkenness and of extrava-
gance and the oppression of the poor
by the rich. That way, always, in the
long run. comes disaster
Nobody in his senses would pre-
scribe aceticism for society: that is a
danger which nowhere portends. But
a measure of self-denial, Including alb
stinence from strong drink, is surely
a sign of social strength: equally with
the remedy of the oppression of the
Door The gfst of the indictment of
Isaiah is that "they regard not the
work of the Lord''--they leave God
out of account Surely it is within the
bounds of moderation to say that this
is the supreme offence possible to
Christendom. L have heard many and
various charges against the British in
India. butt the worst and most far
reaching of all was that expressed to
me by a Judge of the high court, when
he said: Most Englishmen in India
disregard Christianity, and their ex-
ample is not such as to lead the ma
tives to value religion, their own, or
any other
That man was not talking missions;
he is a Brahmin, but the peril of the
decline of the religious spirit in the
East was clear to him. Gradually there
has grown up in my own mind the
conviction, which Isaiah clearly ex-
pressed concerning the Orient he knew
that the underlying problem of the
grave and complex questions of the
East today, is this one of keeping the
oncoming hosts of western educated
youth loyal to the best Ideals of re-
ligion. The key to the puzzle of civ
ilization is-God.