The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-08
(Ry WILLIAM T. ELLIS.)


(BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS)
Despite all the bankrupt sales
that are advertised on nuse Posee . ;
in front of 'fly-by-night f merrnInt Of
which the advertisements tell, we nave
to go farther away than the East SUI SUI
of New York to find the greatesl
collapse of history; None None Oh our comnIete
smashup as when the scheme OF tlii Ils
in the whole known world GO SO pau pa
that the Almighty had to Wlnu up ~
man affairs and send the entire soclal
order into liquidation by the deluge
The REORGANIZATION of the business OF
mankind was left to Moan anu me-
sons. The old ways and the olu ,r Iaso
had made a sorry mess OF Things: Iheh
God took Noah into HIS confluence
for a fresh beginning. :.
The gospel of the second chance is
written in the Old testament Re 49, as "e so
down and OUT that it may not De,
come up and in. Last night hearo
a horny handed young man, WIN WIN
shining face, tell, in language that
would have shocked the Schoolmas-
ters of how he had been in the gutter
and in the prison cells and IN all the
other apartments of the Tar country,
but since a year ago, when ne 1oun0
Christ in a Protestant Eplscopal
rescue mission in the Sums, ne mas
been a new man, a clean man, a nap
little less dramatic form, is pelng
given all over the earth today. Goa
does provide a way or escape, even
for those who have forfeited their
claims upon society and upon heaven.
Instead of DEPRESSING into specula-
lions concerning the Babylonian YER
sion of the deluge, and other collateral
historic themes, let us keep the story
to its main line. The flood and the
covenant that followed were Gods
way of giving renegade humanity an
other chance.
SO our lesson begins, 'And God
spake unto Noah" Let us stop right
there. That is the mightiest truth of
all. 1t is greater than the flood. The
deluge in all of its aspects is less I'M
portant than the tremendous truth
that the Lord God of heaven and |
earth holds communicat ton with NOR !
tai man. This is the bedrock teach |
ing of our faith. Ours is religion
of revelation. God does express His |
mind to man. 1t is possible for hu-
mar beings to know the will of the |
Highest. Here we have a truth high !
er than Ararat, wider than the far
spread waters. And, unlike merely |
historical facts, it is a truth for the |
present time, with an application to |
every mans living.
The Great Contract.
This lesson is not about the flood, |
but about a covenant. That Jehovah !
does enter into engagements with His |
ses to them which He keeps is the |
keystone of the Christian faith. He !
loves the name of the coVenant-keep- !
ing Cod. The particular agreement
between Noah and Jehovah is less inn
portant than the principle which it .
represents God deals with man. There |
you have the truth which lifts UP our |
humanity to its highest possible place. |
AS friend holds converse with friend, !
so the Lord God of Hosts enters into
Intercourse with the men whom He |
has made and who believe in Him as |
their God and King.
Let not that truth be drowned in !
the great waters of the flood. 1t is
more than historical: it is contem-
poraneous. What God did with Noah
He is still doing with men and wo-
men today. Raymond Robbins was
lost in the frozen North. The sight
of a rough wooden cross erected by
some Christian Indian gave him a
vision of life and led him who be-
HeVed himself to be dying to enter
into covenant with the God who
expressed himself most fully upon a
cross. Now today Raymond Robbins is
on the Pacific ocean, sailing around the
world to bear to all the men he can
reach the great evangel that the
covenant-keeping God is still fulfilling
His character. And man, too, despite
his bungling and his plumbers, his
stumbling and his shortcomings, is
bearing up his end of the covenant
and striving by a power not his own
to keep the faith.
A GentIemen's Agreement.
distinguished journalist suddenly
removed from the paper with which his
name was associated. and 1 inquired
of a common friend about it. His re-
ply ran thus, Yes, he was to have
been in control of the paper, and he
expected to spend his life with it, He
made a gentleman's agreement to
that effect but 1 tell you when you
make 'gentlemans agreement you
want to be sure that there are gentle ,
men on both sides of the table, The
covenants that man makes with God ,
are sure of fulfllment, because Gods
word which never fails. is pledged to
them. The only possible doubt is on {
the man side. Gods plighted word has
never been broken. Only Noah and his
sons have failed of their share.
Thls covenant idea, which is ar +ba
base or our lesson. is native to the !
land and to the Book. The covenant of I
salt still runs Familiarity through
is still in existence AZ of t
yore. the purchase of a propert1, is
ratified by what might be called tho
pr1ck covenant. the taking of a small :
piece OF the property. A servant viii >
leave his cloak as a pledge of his cove !
nant-keeping. In our own land we sec Z
instances of the covenant
dea- There is a rural Pennsylvania
church which every year offers a red i
rose in payment of its share of tbe {
covenant by which the property was L
ong ago bequeathed to the congreea- I
ion; and the Lords Supper itself is S
out the visible symbol of a spiritual
covenant between Christ and His peo-
Die. {
The Rainbow Sign t
The man of science can tell Won ex !
aetly how the rainbow is made. The
raveler may see it in may lands. At :