The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-08-03

! rlcner with possession Eye HdtH hoI
| seen, nor ear heard, neither hath en-
tered into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them that
love him.
The Gem That Needs No Art.
Alone among precious stones, the
pearl needs no aid from the art of man,
1t has always been a synonym for
beauty and pricelessness. Even the
polished diamond has not the soft and
lovely Iustre of perfect pearl. So
Jesus cited the parable of the pearl
merchant, who found that there was TO
be had one pearl of great price, sur
passing all others that he had known.
Therefore he sold all that he had and
bought it.
This is a picture of the man seeking
the Kingdom who goes diligently out in
pursuit of the very best Other re-
ligions may be like lesser pearls. but
the Kingdom which Christ preached was
the great pearl fro which all others
should be sold. There is much twaddIe
talked in our time about comparative
religions, and the equality of ethnic
faiths; and about any religion being
good enough If a man only believes it,
In this parable we have the mind of
Christ upon his subject. The King
dom of Heaven is the pearl of great
price. The teachings of the Master
was Seek We first the Kingdom No
other interest in life, material, social
or spiritual, should be allowed to stand
IN the way of the search for that
treasure which once glimpsed makes
the soul thenceforth dissatisfied with
lesser pearls.
Sorting the Catch.
Somewhat like unto the lesson
studied in the parable of the tares. was
the third one told by Jesus in which
He hkened the Kingdom unto a net
when was cast into the sea and gath
cred in of every kind of fish When
] tn RSIa
sat down and gathered the edible and
marketable fish into their boat, and
threw the others overheard again.
This Is somewhat a missionary nara
Bile, for in it's beginnings the church
GOES gather in all sorts of people.
mere must be a testing, here as we'll
as hereafter Thus in Korea at the
present time the Christian church is
being tested by fire and by prison and
by death. Only those who are willing
TO endure persecution for the Names
sake Will care to continue to wear the
name of Christian. 1t is a notable fact
concerning missions, however, that up
TO tho present, so far as reports have
come to this country, no Christian
among all the hundreds of Koreans
who have undergone persecution, has
expressed any desire to give up his
faith.
The parable of the net is a remin-
der of the comprehensiveness of the
Kingdom. No one sect, no one church
no one creed, no one people, is suff1-
Gent to compromise the Kingdom of
Heaven. The spirit which rules out
other faiths and other disciples is not
the spirit of Christ. The religious
charlatans who came along with pecu-
liar interpretations of scripture, say
ing to their deluded followers, You
alone are the elect. you alone have
wisdom to see the whole truth, you
alone are the people, are running
counter to the genius of the teaching
of Jesus
One more point the parable of the
net has for us: It takes two worlds
70 set things right in this universe
While we rejoice over the ameIiora-
ton of social conditions here and now.
we yet cannot get away from the
truth that it needs heaven to straight |
en- out earth's stangles- The adjust
merts are made at the end of life's
long day.
The Wise Householder.
70 His intimate friends who caught the |
meaning of these teachings, Jesus said
that they, as instructed teachers of the
kingdom of Heaven, were like unto the
householder who produced from his treas |
to say, the teacher of the Kingdom needs
all the new truth that divine wisdom can |
lmpart but he also needs to hold fast
to the old. Our times want all things
new; novelty is the passion of this age.
People have itching ears. They think
that it is not the old gospel that will salts
~ them, but the newest Of new teachings.
But he who is a qualued Kingdom scribe |
brings forth from his stores both the old
and the new
The truth of this in the case of the dis
ctpleS was shown by their subsequent eX-
periences. Several of them became au-
thors of books of the New Testament, and
in these they illuminated their Kingdom
tea ching by both the wisdom of the Old
They proved themselves worthy of the
COMMUNICATION of their Master.