The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-12-21

The International Sunday School Les
son for December % Is a CHRIST
mas Lesson Isaiah 9:1-I-
CBY WILLIAM t ELLIS)
To write Ga Christmas peace may
seem incongruous amid the eiang OF
war and rumors of worse war W ner-
ever We look we see marching armies
on these days preceding Christmas a
Great cloud overshadows the earth Yet
we remember that the Prince of Peace
Himself said that He came to bring a
sword. His cause has travelled over
bloody battIefields through long cen
turtles, but however dreary the nlgn-
way. the goal is universal peace. Let
us not confuse the Incidental with the
eternal The agonies of earth which
we now witness are but the birth
throes of a new order, in which Christ
will be king. and peace will prevail
This is the task of Christmas 1t
seeks to make a new heaven on earth,
wherein men may dwell in love and be
as brothers. a new mind is to be found
among men, and it is a mind of peace
and of yearning for human welfare
The Bethlehem music is heard more
widely today than year ago. The angel
story is being contemplated by tens OF
thousands who gave it no thought in
1911
War in the Manager Land.
Even we who are so near the event
may perceive the OEerrulnS prov luellCo
of peace in the troubled occurrences
Of our own time. This Turkish war,
despite its staggering cost to nations
and to families, has served the Christ
mas mission. 1t has lifted aloft the
supremacy of the old ideals of justice
md liberty and love 1t has shown
the power of the Christion purpose to
break ancient expressions. The land to
which the Prince of Peace came is now
disuaught by the horrors of war, yet
every observer may see that the to-
morrow of the people in the Ottoman
Empire is to be Iker to the era of
peace and good Will foreseen by the
prophet of old
The universal hesitancy and grief
with which the seeming necessity for
been a striking phenomenon of the
worlds attitude toward present events
in Turkey Never before was there
such a widespread bending of the best
efforts to find Iath of honorable
vision. like unto that of the prophet, of
the place and prominence of peace in
the worlds thought The goal that was
Iirst glimpsed by the prophets who told
of bethlehem is coming clearly into
sight in our own time.
Peace for the Plain People.
Back of the battle line of dread war,
we perceive the plight of the plain peo-
pie. Humanity has resolved that not
only in that land where the Christmas
star has shone, but throughout the
whole earth. injuctices shall cease.
those injustices which are worse than
war. We shall need better perspective
TO enable US TO apprehend clearly the
transformation in human rights and
human welfare that is coming to pass
in Turkey today. As the prophet fore
told. the yoke is being lifted, the staff
IS being raised. and the oppressor's rod
IS being broken We are on the way
10 the fulfiIlment of the rest of the
prophecy, that all the paraphernalia of
war shall be but as fuel to the fires of
peace.
\ battlefield may be a strange place
20 look for the Christmas motive, yet
we cannot forget that victorious Bull
Earia came to her efficiency as a ma
tfon largely through the efforts of Rob
ert College, a Christian mission insti-
tuition The ideals of Christ have made
Bulgaria a self-respecting, efficient ma
ton, valiant to confront Christendom's
historic oppressor. The Christmas
Ieaven is similarly at work all over
the earth
1t is better to De alive now than to
have lived in that uncomprehending
day when Joseph and Mary made the
hard journey from Nazareth to Bethle
hem. Nevertheless, devout hearts still
cry, with Miss Proctor,
''Oh to have dwelt in Bethlehem,
When the star of the Lord shoae bright!
To have sheltered the holy wanderers
On that blessed Christmas night;
To have kissed the tender, way-worn feet
OF the mother undefiled,
And with reverent wonder and deep de-
light
To have tended the Holy Childp'
Bringing Christmas Down to Date.
The modern notion of scientific sur
veys in all imaginable fields OF effort,
but especially in social service, has
borne interesting fruit in unexpected
ways. Thus the ground has almost en-
tirely been cut from under that type of
humanitarianism which deprecated the
Churchand exalted the social settle
ment- BY calling the roll of social
workers, We have learned that the
great majority of them are Christians:
that they got their impulse from the
church; that they go forth as represent
ing the church, and that the money for
their support and for the maintenance
OF social service generally comes over
wheImingly from Christians. Back of
the royal tide of social passion of our
time is the motive of Christ Which came
to the world at Christmas time.
4 thoroughly modern and yet entirely
characteristic and evangelical interpre-
tation of the Christmas spirit is that
peuned by President William Dewitt
HYDE of Bowdoin College in The Con-
''Christmas Gifts Through Christ's Dis
cfples to the World He apostrophised
Crist in four of dis aspects:
Child of Bethlehem, Lover OF Little
Children.
May the gladness of Thy Birthday
in our happy hearts and homes make
us eager to give all children:
Immunity from faint Of hereditary disease |
and degeneracy-
Protection from injurious work. and guild
ance into congenial vacations.
Fairgrounds. clubs and leaders for eyer
else and recreation
Schools that train together hand and
brain and heart and will