The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-01-04
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

BY WILLIAM r. ELLIS.
1t is easier to lift ten-ton block
of marble to the top of tWenly-Slory
building than it is to elevate the
thinking of some persons by even a
few degrees. Most of US prove tnat
we are little folk by the way we tnlnK
mostly of little things We nave so
habituated our brains to dealing IN
small parcels that they can scarcely
lift heavy load. He said, ana she
said,'' and ''she wore, these are the
phrases that float into our ears as we
pass through the thronglng ways OF
life; and they register the callore OF
peoples minds. The pett1ness OF
fashions and looks and play ana gos-
sip hold most of us in thrall. Let US
at least be big enough to own up that
we are little folk.
Which means that we have not
come up to specifications. God never
meant man to be so small. He alone
of all animals is made to walk up
right. with his face to the SKY. In
every human being inheres the posi-
bility of a dfviner measure OF ME
Man was made to think Gods
thoughts after Him. And by provi-
dence and by revelation the Lord has
been trying to elevate US 70 a truer
apprehension of our possibilities. We
have a great Creator, who has set US
in a great world, and given us great
capacities. The Book that best shows
His mind is on lofty plane, and study
of it produces e-mindedness. The
majestic opening of the inspired rec
ord, which the Sunday schools study
today, should chasten and eXalt the
thinking of every reader. Let us study
afresh this natchless summary of the
creation.
s'In the BEGINNING
Why bother to read so oldfashion-
ed a book as the Bible when the
sporting page of the newspaper. and
the five cent magazine of get-rich- |
without-work stories, and the 1lctloh
that we would not want our mothers
to, read, lies at our hand! II IS not
smart to be religious.
A sufficient reason for turning ones
thoughts to the sublime narrative of |
beginnings is that it expands ones
thought power. The effect would be |
wholesome if our day, with all Its de- |
votion to the ephemeral, could con-
template that remote period when |
nothing that now is was. Salutary re-
suits would follow an attempt to con-
slider chaos.
AS Carlyle said, THE universe is the
realized thought of God Amid the
silences of the vast void, amid the
darkness of the night that preceded
the sun, amid the unthinkable form
1essness of q universe in which all
things were without form, it is easy
to conceive of a supernatural eternal,
self-existing and all-cOntro1ling Crea-
tor AS Addison's noble lines testify:
The spacious armament ON high,
With all the blue, ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining
frame.
Their great Original proclaim
The God in a Box.
One day in rural Japan, I saw an
idol festival, wherein a Shinto ark was
carried in procession. A japanese
who had been in Hawaii and could
speak some English volunteered to
me the explanation, God in box" The
incident recurs in connection with the I
old question, rs your God big God
or a little god? '' Do you worship a
do or g CPpa- l.
tor of the universe your God? i
That is the most pertinent question
as we stand in the presence of the
first chapter of Genesis. In an earlier
day, before we could read the state
ly steppings of the Creator in the
hills and valleys, in the minerals I'M
der the earth. and in whole contin-
ents and seas and stars, We held a lit
tie and literal Interpretation of this
story. We accepted Bishop Ussher's
chronology, which fixed the date of
Creation at 1000 B. c., as being as {
true as the text of Genesis itself. We
could not think OF any other kind of s
day than our kind. and so we me-
chemically compressed the processes
of creation, which consumed unmeas-
ured millions of years, into a week of :
six days such as our clocks measure. | !
In all our theology we accepted our
own trivial standards as the ultimate.
Then We called science goddess not {
seeing that within the broad lines of |
the creation story-necessarily broad
for the centuries which knew naught
of geology or astronomy-lies space
for all the testimony of science.
Lord Kelvin's Testimony. II
In testimony to his own declaration
that Scientific thought is compelled to
accept the idea of creative power" the {
great scientist. Lord Kelvin, said .
Forty years ago / asked Liebig walk 6
ing somewhere in the country, if he be- V
]ieved the grass and flowers which we I
saw around u.s. grew by mere chemical .
forces. He answered, No, no more than c
could believe that a book of botany V
describing them could grow by mere &
chemical forces " The quotation sug- t
Sests the familiar words of Bacon '
"a little natural philosophy philos- S
ophy. and the first entrance into '
but much natural philosophy, and wad- !
ing deep into it. will bring about mems y
minds to religion. r
There is no real conflict between +
revelation and science. The Genesis q
story could not, in the very nature of :
the case. be a detailed scientific =
trea tise, incomprehensible to mankind i
at the time it was written. But it is 1
far more 1t is a statement of the +
Verities that lie behind and :
all scientific teachings. What =
may be comprehended in the grand :
of the bible record is pointed
out by Tarbelrs Teachers Guide:
g He made the stars Also Five little :,
words: and only two words in the :.
Hebrew. That is all We are told of the
mighty universe of stars. We are told
nothing of the far-stretching limits of -,
nebular masses. with their problems u
unsolved and perhaps insolvable: moth =
ing of the deep silence and solitude y
the immeasurable vastness of inter- I
stellar space: nothing of those stupen- Q
dous systems of star on star moving 0
in, orbits of complexity beyond the +
keenest mathematician's skill. yet all I