The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-10-04

7
was as if the president of a great cor
poration had called aside the head OF
T a department who was ready to resign
| because his work did not go we'll, anu
| had said to him, See here, Jones, you
| have been trying to do too much work
yourself and it has got on your nerves.
| What you need is vacation, and then
| a reorganization of your department,
with more assistants to whom you can
delegate authority. Cheer up, old man;
| this business is not going to the dogs.
| l am president and / know.
So Moses was instructed to install
seventy elders, TO divide his work
| with him, and to act as buffers be-
| tween him and the irritating contact
with the crassness and ingratitude
and complaining of the people. Many
church and society needs what
Moses needed; more distributed re
| sponsibility and better system OF
| training up workers. The difference
| between success and failure in some
Sunday school classes is the difference
! between the teachers doing things
herself and getting the members OF
the class to do them.
The Travellers and the Table.
Miserable gluttons!" We cry in dis
gust at the complaining Israelites, as
we hear them enumerating, with
smacking of lips, the various kinds OF
good food which they had left behind
in Egypt They would rather be we'll
Better a Broadway restaurant with
shame, than simple boarding house
with virtue. That is the choice which
ignoble souls have been making all
through the ages.
7 This lusting for the leeks of luxury
is a universal weakness. There are
many who think of food as one of
life's great detectives; they live to eat.
Travellers everywhere talk more OF
the tables set by hotels and steam
Oh irS do nj q hP9nti0S
scenery and the Strangeness of new
places. Of the around-the-worldt tour
lists who have been in India within a
year it is safe to say that more have
been interested in what they ate than
in what they learned of India's I'M
rest. While the Puritans may have
carried abstemiousnesS too far, it is
certain that our day is going to the
other extreme, and pursuing luxur-
iousnesS in food and living to point
approaching the ignobility of these
old Jews, who priced the food of
Egypt above the high privileges of
liberty, patriotism and loyalty to Je-
hovah.
In contrast, 1 remember well the
shining face of a young English
speaking apothecary in the Zionist
Colony, Zamarine, in Palestine, with
whom I talked concerning the com
munity. "Of course" he said, I'VE do
not make as much money, or have as
many comforts, as when we were in
New York; but then, we are in Pales-
tine" Those four words I'VE are in
Palestine" were stressed with sweet
ness indescribable, as if they explain
ed everything. What were physical
discomforts as compared with the
realization of a glorious ideal? High
thoughts seem to thrive best amid
humble circumstances. Rich lives Of
ten grow in poor houses.
Too Much of a Good Thing.
wi I'D
and kicked for an insect that buzzed
against the window pane. the over
wearied nurse at length let him grasp
the wasp, and he was quickly satisfied.
The children of Israel We're tired OF
mamma, and wanted flesh. How their
weak fancy revealed in memories of
the flesh pots of Egypt! Their COM
plainings wearied Moses to the point
of giving up.
But God gave them what they
wanted. Flocks of quail came flying
over the camp, weary from their
journey over the Gulf of Akaba. and
the Israelites gathered all they want
ed. Like gluttons, they ate too much.
and were nauseated. They had cried
for meat; and meat they were given,
rich and luxurious meat, until they
sickened at the sight of it. In the
school of repletion they learned that
God knew better than themselves
what was good for them when he gave
them mama.
The abundance of quail recorded in
this story has been a stumbling block
to many, ] can testify to the extra
ordinary plentifulness of wild foul in
the East. Down in Petra the quail
are everywhere. I saw flockS of wild
geese, ducks, pigeons and quail along
the Tigris to an extent passing all esti-
mate. DR.. Hoskins tells how on the
very spot of this story his camel driv-
err caught weary quails with his bare
hands. The miracle of the quail was
a mere use of natural conditions.