The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-09-28
BY WILLIAM T, ELLIs)


are fairly staggering. The worthwhile
ness of this is, of course, determined
by the result in personal character ana
in human service. The proof of ma
chine is not in the number or speed Of
its wheels, but in the nature of it's OUT
put. Assuredly, the lives of some of
US would count for more if We were
less busy.
Now that we have studied for three
months a period of half a year IN the
life of Jesus-six crowded, intense
historic monthS-we cannot help re-
marking how much greater was the
product of this short space than OF a
lifetime of our whirring years with
their modern machinery which gives
one man the strength of a thousand
The homely, everyday and greatly
needed lesson for practical life as we
survey these few weeks out or the az
tivities of the Master, is that we shouid
endeavor to make our lives truitIul m
definite results Much of cur restless
striving gets nowhere; we run IN
circles.
one sixth of the entire public career
of Jesus is comprehended within the
period which this quarters lessons nave
covered. Here we find Him in all CHAR
acteristic activities.
Mission and a Ministry.
Back of the BUSINESS. lay those quiet
wears of preparation which are ever
reckoning the reverent student The
three decades of Nazareth life were
the root of which the three public years
were the fruit. Before our minds eye
rises the figure of the Greamy-eyed,
solitary lad, brooding amid the hills
and caves of Nazareth; and the silent,
gentle helpful Carpenter whose shop
was place of resort for little children
and for the troubled in heart. All of
the life of Jesus was dominated by the
thought of the work that awaited
Him.
That spirit which regards life as
mission has taken strange hold of our
own time Everybody is made to feel
that he must do something to justify
his existence. Parasites are prodded
from every angle with reminders of
their ignominy. Once the idle We're
counted the aristocrats; now the high
est honor is reserved for him who does
most in social service. The whole en-
phasis of life has changed. almost with
in a generation. The old cry, 1.-THE
world. owes me living" has given way
to IT owe the world life
No great amount of scholarship is
needed to enable one to trace this re-
YnarSable DEVELOPMENT back to the min
tStry and message of Jesus. In an I'M
examp1ed degree. He has impaired His
own passion for helpfulness to our own
time His peerless brother-spirit is re-
fected in our new social sense of hu-
man solidarity. What means this
phenomenal present political campaign
in the United States, which in import
ant respects is more nearly attuned in
its utterances to the ethics of the New
Testament than any other in the coun-
try's history? How explain the extra
ordinary specialization Of Great Britain'S
political program today? The answer
Inustbe looked form the biography Of
Jesus.
The Master Words.
This Man, who was more than man
70
which His own GaliIee responded:
and which, far more marvellous, have
Increased power in this distant day,
in nations then unknown. He spoke
with authority; and His deeds at
tested His words. At His command
inanimate nature gave obedience, and
human life and death yielded to His
SWAY. Six great miracles were studied
Nv the Sunday schools during TINS
quarter. The students were brought
face to face with the unique sovereign
~ of the Son; who proved His unity
With the Father by doing works which
belone, onlv to God. If we accept the
record of the New Testament, we are
hound to acknowledge Jesus as mere
than a peerless religious Teacher; He
must have been the accredited pleni-
notentiary representative of Jehovah.
These miracles, which include three
of the greatest ever performed by the
Master, the feeding of the 5000, the
sitting of the tempest, and the raising
of Jair11s' daughter, set the country
side at gaze. They have been the Won
der of mankind ever since The natural
mind has found them hard to believe;
thew were beyond the natural order
But so was Jesus. The occasion ana
need were unique. AS the klne
seal was proof of Cyrus authority,
so these wonder-works were the au-
Identification, the seal, the sign of the
sovereignty of Jesus Christ. The com
ing of God to earth in the person OF
His Son was itself a miracle OF Sucn
astounding Importance that alongside
of it, nothing else seems impossible
The Immortal Stories.
How little has survived of the world s
literature! Since a period at least
thousand years before Herodotus, men
have been writing history, religious in
struction and fiction. Yet President
Eliot engages to put what is most
worth Vile of it all on a five foot
shelf. In this collection. much is un-
known to the average intelligent per-
son. But nobody in all ChristendOm is
ignorant of the words of Jesus. How
largely His utterances bulk in the
worlds thought. Allusious to His say
ings are in newspaper editorials and
political platforms, in novels and in
PHILOSOPHERS, and in the common speech !
of every day.
Eight of His parallels We're stud
leo III lulS QudAlSA- 4nSy were IalSS
and incidents of common life filled
with a larger spiritual meaning. Jesus |
saw in everything about Him a re-
minder of the eternal verities. The |
grass, the flowers, the birds, the sea, I
the farm all were filled with spiritual 7
to Him, and all helped to !
make vivid His Good News from the I
Father. What parallels He would /
draw from this wonderful life of to-
day, with it's radium, its x-rays, its
chimes, moving pictures, airships, cleo
tricitv and other MANY inventions.