The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-17

becoming ike Him, Tor we Snau see
Him as He is.
In his best known poem. Sidney La
nler analyses the characters of the
great teachers and leaders of all time.
In each there is found some lack or
defect, except in the life of Jesus,
whom the poet apostrophizes as THE
Crystal Christ:
But Thee, but Thee, o sovereign Seer
of time
But Thee. o poets Poet, Wisdoms
But Thee, o mans best Man. loves
best Love,
Q perfect life in perfect labor writ.
o all mems Comrade, Servant, King,
What if or yet, what MOLE what flaw,
what lapse.
What least defect or shadow of defect.
What rumor tattled by an enemy,
OF inference loose, what lack of grace
Even in fortunes grasp, or sleeps, or
oh. what amiss may forgive in Thee.
Jesus good Paragon. thou Crystal
Christ %
a school for the teaching of Christ
likeness.
Occasionally the physicians report
a case of arrested development The
child has failed to grow, in body or
in mind. The sadness of it is beyond
words. Violent disease or sudden
death is less melancholy than this.
And in the spiritual realm there are
analogous instances. Some Christians
simply do not mature. They remain
babes to the end. The experience
which made them Christian is all the
religious experience they ever know.
The Bible has opened no new vistas to
them. Prayer is no more precious as
the years pass. The worship and work
and fellowship of the church are no
more priced than at first. The deeds
of a disciple do not become more nat
ural. In short, there has been no
growth. These stunted saints have
not matured toward the Christ stature.
We grow like that to which we as
pire.
The manysidedness of Christ reminds
US that disciples may be different from
one another yet all like unto Him.
Helen Knight Wyman has a poem on
the many ways in which Christ minis
tiers to His friends:
What was He, yesterday
A friend most deari
Then hasten thee to that Friend
Still He is near
What was He. yesterday?''
A Staff and Stay!
Now is the time to lean
Lean hard today"
What was He, yesterday"
My Shepherd kind
Then, follow where He leads,
Pasture to find
What was He, yesterday?'
My guiding Light
He can illume the way
No longer bright.
What was He. yesterday"
Saviour divine!
Then lay on Him. today,
All sins of thine.
And if. today, He fills
Thy every need,
Thou can'st forevermore
Trust Him. indeed!
The stature of the Lord Jesus was
not of itself reached by work, and he
who thinks to approach its mystical
height by anxious effort is really re-
ceding from it.-Henry Drummond.
7 pray Thee, Lord, that when it comes
to me
To say if 1 will follow Truth and Thee,
Or choose instead of win as better
worth
My pains some cloying recompense of
earth
Grant me, great Father, from a hard
fought field,
Forespent and bruised, upon a battered
shield,
Home to obscure endurance to be borne
Rather than live my own mean gains
to Scorn.
Far better fall with face turned toward
the goal
At one with wisdom and my own worn
soul,
Than ever come to see myself prevail,
When to succeed at last is but to fail.
Mean ends to win and Herewith be
content
Save me from that. Direct Thou the
event
AS suits Thy will: whereer the prizes
go,
Grant me the struggle, that my soul
may grow.
Edward Stanford Martin
SEVEN SENTENCE SERMONS.
Great souls have wills, feeble ones