The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-06-28
(BY wILLIAM T. ELLIs.)

(BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.)
Sometimes the ''oldest inhabitant'
grows reminiscent and then we are
assured of interesting stories To-day 5
Sunday school review has to do with
the life of a man, for it began and
ended with Jacob, and all its events
are in some way connected with him
or his.
one hundred and forty-seven years
was the span of this patriarch's life;
Vet the youngest reader of these lines
has lived through more noteworthy
events than Jacob, or than any other
person in history who has been dead
for a score of years if we except only
those who were contemporaneous with
the earthly life of the Son of God the
past dozen years have encompaSsed
more epochal events than any preced-
ing century except the first Wlth
Jacobs permission, we will consider
this review in the light of what one
life may see, for we would invoke
Jacobs aid to help us to be alive to
o1lr own times and their significance.
The wonders of Egypt would seem
commonplace TO Jacob could he re-
turn now and realize that within
decade the whole of the earth's sur
face has been charted; the North
Pole and the South Pole have been
discovered; one may buy maps OF the
desert of Arabia and of the heart of
Africa. Airships now range the upper
ether. and submarines pillow beneath
opaque substances transparent. HIS
tory is recorded not only with the pen.
but also with the biograph and the
photograph.
Radium has revealed an unsus-
pected world of mystery and power
We have broken up the atom, when
ten years ago was thought to be the
irreducible minimum of matter, ana
now call the smallest particle an
electron. Three British scientists
Ramsey Collie and Patterson-have
announced the achievement of the
transmutation of matter. The wireless
telegraph binds the whole world into
one neighborhood, annihilating space
Man has won dominion over such
hurtful bacteria as the yellow fever
germ, the plague germ, the typhold
fever germ, and is confident of early
conquest of the bacilli of tuberculosis
and cancer. In the realm of politics
all autocracies and absolutism have
been overthrown, and constitutional
government has become universal
within a decade. Whose is alive to the
world about him has seen crowded into
a few glorious years more of progress
than some past millenniums knew.
The World in a Lifetime.
After all so far as the individual is
concerned. it has even been true that
all of history is compressed into one
lifetime. Each of us must master the
world while he is alive. or not at all.
We must see history through these
ewes. and hear it through these ears
We must speak our message through
these lips and lift our share OF bur-
dens with these hands We must think
our thoughts with this brain, and feel
lfe's throbs with this heart Our pres Z
ent powers are all we possess, for the
mastery and for the service of the uni
verse
For all practical purposes history
begins and ends with us. Our little
DAY must embrace all the cons Of
time. To muse upon life is TO De
stirred to seriousness of view Each
of us has a life story like unto jacob s.
varying only in degree.
Every Life a Discovery.
Everybody is a Columbus. The es-
eential things must be discovered by
each for himself, as if they never be
fore existed. We cannot take Ire
ready made. Each new individual
character must go its own way OF
erad,,aI development, as if there had
not been billions of lives travelling the
same road before. Everybody must
learn to think for himself, just as II
there had never been philosophers pc
fore the time of Jacob and Abraham.
The mysteries of existence are as
.,s1,, TODAY as they were when jacob |
IsIen+ ont under the stars of Bethel |
livery one of US must enter INTO MS
ovn relationship with God, just as
Jacob had to make his own covenant |
and enter upon his own discovery we
cacb of us love and rejoice and sor-
row as if we were the hrst ana only
personalities on earth.
g II is in wondrous wisdom, that |
cd lxeeus life from growing stale |
We do not inherit existence as a cast
off garment from our fathers.
EVERY day is a fresh beginning. EV-
ar ,,oorn is the world made new ia
cob underwent the universal experience
fn his own character. So must every |
one of us
A Program on Passion.
Most of his troubles came to JACOB |
because he adopted a program instead
Of yielding himself to passion. ne
followed guile instead of goal he
vas dominated by methods instead OF |
motives. He became hunted, haunt |
ed trickster, instead of a victorious
reenant servant of God. He Travelled
sorry way to what success he acmeVea,
all because he failed to yield himsel1
10 the dominion OF the great convenant |
principle which had been accepted py |
his father Had he lived for this su-
preme passion. he would have escaped
the pitfalls of pettiness that marred |
his career.
than today Find a purpose and |
fling YOUR life into it. To forget ones |
self is as philosophical as to deny ones |
self or to enjoy ones self. Self-sur-
render to a noble ideal deserves 10 De |
called a secret of success" if any |
recipe may merit that comprehensive |
designation.
Let all the ends thou aimst at /
me thy country's, thy Gods ana /
truths"
Jacob was a son of the covenant, |
but he was not a covenant-keeping |
son Had he lived for his line in
stead of for himself the story would |
be nobler reading. He stands on the |
horizon of history, a monument of /
warning rather than a monument of
Had he been God-con-
sumed man. he would have lived a /