The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-01
INV wIII,IAM T. ELLIs.)

snaaol, of cultivated people. This is
s'eugenics" or the science or pelns
well born or of race betterment- II
stands for the big idea that society
owes it to itself to improve the sloch
of mankind. There is a souho pA9iS
for the principle, though 1t o1teh runs
ont in faddish and foolish notions 1t
is really no new idea; Coo mas peen
busy with the science of universal
euganics since the beginning of time
The story of Noah is but little
studv in Gods school of eugenics. For
the divine economy has ever hao re-
gard 10 the fitness of the race IN
His own way and in His own time Goa
has eliminated the unfit, and provided
for the dominance in life or the peo-
pies who come nearest to representing
His idea All of human history IS a
series of experiments !, IN 4n u rise and
eugenics. We may read the rise anu
fail of nations by the light OF TINS
Greek word; since it is clear tnat tnere
has been an overruling ana ofn1uscieht
Providence that has lifted up nduonS
that were worthy to rule and put them
aside when they became unit. mat
process is still going on.
A Long Look at the Human Race
distinguished British scientist
celebrated his eightieth birthday
few weeks ago by declaring that there
had been practically no improvement
in the human race in seven thousand
years. OF course he was testing with
the facts 1t may be true-and 1t IS
significant that it was famous evoIu-
ZIONIST who uttered these pesslmlstlc
words-that the human body and
brain and character are essentially no
more capable than they were millen-
NUNS ago, but it is undeniable that
new ideals have come to dominate hu-
mainly. The man who says that the
world is no better than in the days
when the many toiled as slaves under
the lash of the few in the valleys of
the TigriS and Euphrates, and when
life was cheap and the will of the king
was supreme, is ignorant of the stead |
lily growing idealism and human1tar- |
ianism of the race. New conceptions !
of human rights and human liberty |
have become dominant; mans vision |
of justice has broadened; mercy is a |
better understood word; the constant |
state of war has given way to reign !
of normally peaceful civilization. This |
whole world in our own day is COM |
ing anew under the sway of the ideal |
ism of Jesus
The siftings of the centuries are still !
continuing. We have seen, within the
lifetime of every reader of these words, /
once powerful nations pass into posi- !
lions of marked inferiority. Where is !
Spain, that once ruled the world? What |
is left of the Turks proud power? Who
now sings the song of Persian imperial
ism? In the very regions of the Noah
story the traveller finds the Arabs
along the rivers a degenerate, diseased
and disappearing people. The great
problem of European politics today is a
problem of the pre-eminence of Slavism
or Germanism. The next few decades
will determine which is the more fit
to dominate the map of Europe The
reverent student of history is we'll con-
tent to watch the processes of the
years, assured that they are the certain
winnowings of the Almighty. who is
having His way with mankind, even
as when He precipitated the floods up
on the Mesopotamian valleys.
The Fact of the Flood.
There is no doubt about a great flood
early in the history of the human race, +
somewhere near its place of beginning.
The Babylonian tablets tell the story;
Chinese literature holds it; central Asia
cherishes the tradition; the North
American Indians, who probably came
from the same region, bear legend of
similar purport. The late President
Harper sets forth the historicity of the
deluge as follows:
I'VE may regard the deluge as his
torical fact preserved in a multitude of
forms, AN actual and terrible event
which made SO powerful an impression
upon the imagina tons of the first par
ents of our species that their descend
ants could never forget it. This cata-
clysm took place near the primitive i
cradle of mankind and previous to the
the principal races were to descend
The deluge a fact; it was a part
of a great plan; it's record as handed
down to us in the Hebrew Scriptures
is the one clear. distinct account, and
when compared with the other accounts
bears on it's face the indications of its
divine origin
Little Ideas of the World.
There is no need to believe that the
world that was submerged was the
world We now know. 1t is to be re-
membered that the Genesis story was
written in terms of the knowledge of
the time, and that the world was a
little world, which had not yet pene-
trated to the east of Asia or the west
of Europe. Not all people now living
study geography or even know that
the world is round. Millions of
the adult Moslems today think that
Constantinople is really the greatest
capital of the earth and that all peoples
are predominantly Moslem. The Chi
nese used to call all other peoples for
eign DEVILS They thought only in
terms of their own neighborhood Thew
were provincials. The area of the flood
was probably restricted area, con-
fined to the cradle of the race in the
Mesopotamian Valley. and only those
concerned in the great tragedy assumed
that the whole world was overlooking. |
1t was not rain alone that caused
the flood ION the same day were all
the fountains or the great deep broken
up and the windows of heaven We're
opened" The Persian Gulf at the per-
iod of the deluge extended far up into
the region which We now know as
Mesopotana That it was at enc time
or another subject to immense up
heavals, and may easily have caused
great tidal waves, is clear by the fact
that the old gulf is still dotted with
great mountains. The Moslem tradition
says that the ark landed -ot on Ararat
but on Jebel Judi, snow crowned
mountain In KurdiStan on tha aaStar,