The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-22
(BY WILLIAM t. ELLIs.)


wealthy under his rich relatives Shad-
ow and who then played the fool
when he started out Independently
these are the characters in the famous
story which more than twenty-five
million Sunday school folk will study
this week.
When a point of decision and sep
aration was reached, one man chose
the country, with its open spaces and
its time to think about God and the
eternal verities; the other wanted to
get rich quickly, and he chose to be
near the most wicked city in the
world, soon moving into it. The first
man is one of the heroes of history;
the other barely escapes infamy. The
story is study in success and its
elements.
OF course the reader recognizes
Abraham, the pioneer, the pilgrim, the
progenitor; and his selfish nephew,
Lot. Back in Canaan. after the un-
fortunate episode in Egypt they fac
ed the future and chose their separate
ways.
The Man Who ''Camc Back
Abraham's principles had taken
short vacation while he was in Egypt.
In a moral slump, of which he was
ever after ashamed, he had lied about
his wife. By one of those half truths,
which are the worst kind of lies. he
had said she was his sister, and allow
ed Pharaoh to take her, thus saving
his skin at the cost of his honor.
Pharaoh was plagued because of the
possession of Sarah, and when the
truth was learned he was glad to get
rid of this visitor from the east.
This experience in Egypt, and of
Egypt stands for the world, had
shamed and disciplined Abraham. He
had learned his lesson. Morally ne
-'came back" a real instance OF the
eternal truth that God gives the man
who is down q chance to get up.
Gathering together their goods.
Abraham and Lot. with their families
southern Canaan, which in the text is
called the south just as all Arabia
is called the east by the people of
Syria. Perhaps the route of Abraham
and Lot was through Sinia and Petra.
the same which the children of Israel
followed centuries later when they
came up out of Egypt. Possibly he
crossed over from what is now Suez,
and then along the common route
along the eastern coast of the Mediter-
ranean. Far up above Sidon, on the
seashore road, I one day met a cara
van of camels whose owners were TAX
ing them down to Egypt to sell They
followed the immemorial coast route.
In form, the pilgrimage of Abra-
ham and Lot was not different from
that which may be seen today in the
same country. Slow footed and awk-
ward camels bore the tents and rugs
and primitive housekeeping utensils.
The flocks of sheep were pastured as
they travelled. 1t was the traditional
An Ancient Rich Man.
No Wall street rumors affected
Abraham's wealth. Instead of stocks
he had stock. and he could see his
wealth with his eyes every day. In
addition to his sheep and camels and
horses and donkeys, he had a store
of bullion which was carried on the
camels that were kept nearest to the
sheik himself and stored in his tent
at night. The retainerS were not only
shepherds and cameleers and hus
bandmen but they were warriors
as we'll Abraham had to be pre-
pared to defend his property all along
the way; even as when L crossed the
Jordan poor Arabs attached them
selves to my caravan, helping in the
pitching of the tent and other labor in
return for the protection afforded
them.
With riches so close to nature. it
was very natural for Abraham to be-
lieve that his prosperity was by the
favor of Jehovah, Just as Job, con-
trariwise, felt that the loss of his
focks and his herds was a clear mark
of divine displeasure.
The Place of Memory.
Travellers in ireland may occasion
ally see a returned American stand
ing over a heap of stones that was
once a cottage and muSing over the
home that. he left in boyhood. The
exile's heart returns to its place of sa-
cred memories. Abraham went back
to Bethel. There he saw still standing
the altar he had erected to Jeh ovah
when they covenanted together. What
memories sursed through his mind!
How his soul was anguished with re-
morse for his lapse in Egypt. A chas-
tened Spritualized man at the old al
tar he renewed his vows once more 10
Jehovah.
This spiritual experience meant
more to Abraham than his travels or
his accommodations of wealth. The
state Of mans relationships with
God is the supreme fact about that
man. The old inquiry. us it well
with thy Soul?" which is too sacred
to be made fippantly or by the cas-
uaI stranger, is really the most pro-
found question that can be asked
concerning any person. No other
form of welfare is comparable with
the welfare of the spirit. Not clear
ing house reports. but the returns Of
religion constitute the real index of
a nations welfare.
Such experiences of the soul as
Abraham had undergone are the sort
of thing that makes a man grow
THE Independent recently had an
article on the poise of the masters of
business and finance. They were pic
tured as serene. strong men. unruff1ed
by petty gusts and tempests, superior
to little jealouses and fears. In |
nobler degree, this was the poise TO
which Abraham had won through |
soul testing experiences and through |
a sense of the reality of his relation |
ship with his Creator.
The War of the Servants.
Thus it came about that. With |
spaciousness of temperament. Abra- |
ham could view the petty chickering's
and quarrelings of the retainerS of !
himself and Lot. The thing itself Is
as old as life. All over Arabia shep- /
herds are squabbling over pasturage, |
even as the New England farmers
bickered over the line fence. Across |
the Jordan from this very scene I
was told by a leader in the Circassian I
settlement that there had been endless
uuarreliQg and fighting between the |