The Topeka state journal., 1913-07-12
Ry WILLIAM T. ELLIs)

(BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS)
In his rare poem If" Kipling has
the pregnant lines,
If you can talk with crowds ana
keep your virtue,
And walk with kings-nor lose the
common touch"
That is a test of education Ihe
thousands of graduates who have been
sent forth from higher schools of learn
ing in the past few weeks can ask
themselves few more Seachlng ques-
tions than this. Have the ties binding
us to the common people been strength
ened?" The man who has been educat-
ed away from his kind, and into sort
of snobbery, has been hurt rather than
helped by his education. Training is not
for trainings sake, but for leadership
once accompanied a worker tor
negro welfare to a negro church in
southern city The congregation was
remarkable for while not large it was
made up of educated negroes. men anc
women who had been trained for race
leadership. But they were not leading,
They were a negro aristocracy, and ap-
parently rather proud of the fact that
the stream of black humanity which
surged past the church door did not
find these intellectual meetings con-
genial These people were out of touch
with their race. In concrete form that
incident shows the peril of a wrong
conception of the function of education
Today we study the experience OF
Moses in his training for leadership.
In the school of kings he learned how
TO deliver slaves. A favorite of royalty,
he acquired the best for the sake of
his downtrodden race. Moses never for
got that he was sprung from the mass
of the common people. He owned
deep debt to the common cause, and
he elected with noblest ambition. to
identify himself with his fellow He
brews, despised serfs though they
were. As the inspired narrative has
it he chose ito suffer afflictiOn with
the people of God rather than to en-
joy the pleasures of sin for a season
Getting Ready for Great Service.
One chivalrous, impulsive deed iden- /
titled him beyond recall with the cause
of the Hebrew slaves and made him an
exile, where his training was TO be con- /
tinued in other form. Moses did not
understand it, but he was in school to
God and so he had been sent from the
classroom of the wilderness for the
sake of a symmetrical equipment
Moses was learned in all the wisdom
of the Egyptians. The best that
could be given by this wonderful civili- !
zation to a kings son was the posses }
sion of this protege of a princess.
We have but to go to Egypt and read /
the monuments that were standing in /
his time to get new respect FOR the
school in which he was trained
The gic word preparation" shines
for all youth from this story of Moses
He did not miss the opportunity to mt
himself for the future The supreme
business of existence for youth is prep
aration. To make clean. straight,
wise character for the use of maturity
is the purpose of the years that lead
to manhood and womanhood The
greatest tomorrow in the worlds MS
tory is Just ahead of US who are alive
today There never was greater need
for men and women of vision of pur-
nose and of passion for the public vel
fare.
SDeciaI Influence That Did Not Work.
The tug of a myriad or lnVlslple
threads which bound him to his own
crowd and class We're resisted pE
Moses He lived in the environment
of an aristocrat- The most potelie
and sinister of all special ln1luencss
surrounded him, even as 1t SURROUNDS
the rich and the learned today moses
hohnobbed with royalty, and was not
naturally in the way or nearing Ihe
cries of the multitude under tne yohe,
Today there are a multitude OF men III
fhe same case who have not the moses
wisdom to effect deliVerance. flcn
men meet chiefly rich men. we an
9ravel with our own crowd. LeglSIa-
eors and Judges too often associate
only with the wealthy, and are ollhu
and deaf to the popular currents SURG
ing through the minds OF the masses.
There are few offenses IN a puolc
WON aouaI TO that of being out or
touch with his own time
Moses story recalls the opportunity
that today in unequalled measure
presents itself to the young men anu
women of promise in our land A rare
and mighty work is to be done by the
sons and daughters of wealth ana
preparation who give themselves 10 d
soIution of our many problems, winch
after all are at base only human
These knights of the new chivalry
are standing in real brotherhood with
~. T1nn
reason for believing that a crash OF
class with class will be prevented on
this continent
The CRY That Heaven Hears.
Our day is newly alert to the old
Testament's sense of social Justice All
about us are men and women fear
lessly selfleSsly champlonlng the /
cause of the oppressed. Equity in So
cial life and in the industrial realm
never had more passionate devotees
than today. The theme runs through /
all our magazine literature ana
through our daily press All legisla-
tors are compelled to give thought to +
new legislation safeguarding the well
fare of the children and the women |
who toll. The prisoner, the mentally /
deficient, and all who are in bondage
TO the thrau of sin, are finding friends /
and advocates in every walk of society. /
The glory of our day is that 1t is per- |
meated by the spirit of the first ser
mon of Jesus Christ
The expressions of mankind which |
have filled the centuries with the |
sound of weeping since long before |
the Hebrew slaves in Egypt writhed |
under the taskmaster's whip has been |
heard by heaven, and by all who have |
aught of high heaven in their minds. |
God is working his purposes out in
wonderful emancipation of the op- !
pressed and the suffering
A knightly Blow.
One day Moses struck a blow that |
made him an exile and an emancipa- /
tor. Our hearts warm to the young 1
Hebrew prince for that deed, al /
though we know that he was hasty |