The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-12-27

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Old History with New Meanings.
The International Sunday School Les
son for December % Is a Review OF
the Years Lessons.-Heb. 11:17-31.
BY wILLIM T. ELLIs.)
At this backward looking time of
the year 1t is appropriate to look still
further back than the petty concerns
Of our own past twelve months.
Frankly. most of us think in very
small terms. We are cellular. paro-
chial, provincial. A long look at
history tends to emancipate us from
small fears. It helps us to see things
in their relative Importance and 80
delivers US from the thraldom of
trifleS.
A few days ago. in a dining car.
q new waiter asked the steward IL he
Vichy water. The French steward
went into a paroxysm of contempt.
''Serve ice with Vichy? Why, every
body knows that ice is never served
with Vichy." So he .spluttered and
fumed unwilling to let the subject drop
for an hour later. Did not the guest
pity him, for having as walters such
dolts as did not know better than to
serve ice with vichy? One guest did
pity him, but not for the reason he
supposed. Millions Of better men than
he, in every respect except a knowledge
know anything about Vichy. and don't
care. The stewards trouble was the
trivial one of a soul that has shriveled
to the size Of the petty tools of his
who is troubled by forks and spoons
and table garniture; and who need to
think back upon the great men who got
along without any of these encum-
ORANGES of modern civilization. 1t
would be wholesome for all of us to
of petty usages. Let us call the Bible
patriarchs to our aid to deliver US from
the blight OF httleness of soul.
Mankind's Long Journey.
How old is man? Three million
years." answered a recent magazine
article. Frankly, we do not KNOW"
answer the wise scientists. Geology and
anthropology have given US glimpses of
the long, long journey the human race
has travelled; and our school children
talk learnedly about the stone age and
the bronze age mot knowing that these
earth); but all we really do know.
from credible history, is that so long
as we have been able to read his con-
temporaneOus records. man has had
the same essential needs and traits.
The history that is truest to type is
tht Old Testament. Here we see the
race developing, acquiring larger rela-
tionships and wider horizons, and being
disciplined for the business Of life and
moral responsibility. There are some
changes which the centuries do not
make-and this truth may be stressed
without limit, since our day. with its
amusing and amazing egotism, Is in
clined to believe that within a decade
or two it has advanced" beyond the
old landmarks. Thus, the need Of pure
family life must continue to the end
of the race. We shall never outgrow
the necessity for moral standards. The
call for the exercise of sovereign will
power on the part of every person is
abiding. Sin still works as a perma-
nent factor in human society. Most of
all. God abides All these factors and
forces We find in the Old Testament
history which we have been studying.
and a contemplation of them is in
volved in any reasonable consideration
of history.
The Greatest Truth OF All.
One overshadowing truth. the old
est and greatest, yet also the newest
and most intimate. has been studied
during this years lessons. That is
the truth of the existence and char
acter of a Divine Being. No fact is
SO contemporary as the fact of God.
I'm the beginning. God" so began
our lessons. AS the opened eyes of
John saw it. He is the First, and the
Last. the Alpha and Omega, the gen.
Grating Cause and the final Adjudi-
cation. This Hottest theme that ever
commanded human consideration Is
Man is related to God by the very
nature of both beings. The present
character of this relationship Is more
important than the Mexican ques-
ton, the state of business. the affairs
or the holidays. and the problem of
getting along with other people. If
God bulked larger in our thinking, the
things that disturbed US in life would
bulk smaller.
AS it was in the beginning Of the
first man, and as it will be at the
deathbed of the last. God is the SUI
preme question. Any mind that tries
to get along without reclining upon
God is not doing justice even to its own
man power. AS Mt. Hermon domi-
mates the landscape Of Palestine. so
does this truth tower above all else In
these lessons.
Texas, for Instance.
If we may shake ourselves loose from
the things near and small, and take a
fearless look at the task Of organizing
human life along the best lines. We APP
proximate somewhat the genius of this
Old Testament history. Away back
there Gods task was to develop a peo-
pie qualified to lead the world into its
highest life. AS we look over the rec
ord it seems. to Judge by our little two
inch standards. that the undertaking
was full of slumps and plumbers and
imperfections.
But, be It remembered, states are not
made by machinery. Take Texas, for
instance. All that the civilization or
the old world acquired through labori-
Gus centuries is following the Texas
~,fo xr-it1 fen I<.ou d0o
the bison roamed, within the memory
Of living men, the college boys now play
football. The dugout and sod house
are being supplanted by modern homes
OF convenience and refinement, such as
the poor Of the old world never aspire
To no old In hoc0nninR a