The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-03-15

The Prosperous Man and His Son.
The International Sunday School Les
son for March 16 is. THE Test of
Abrahams Faith" Gen. %: liz.
RY WILLIAM T. ELLIS)
81 tell you, the rich mans son does
not have fair chance in the world
today" cries ]. Campbell White. The
paradox seems startling, al first, and
then it opens into vista of great
truth. The rich mans son has too
much done for him; he does not know
how to do without anything he desires.
The element of sacrifice is missing
from his life. Nobody who has failed
to learn seIf-denial, and real service,
has ever been worth his salt. We
have a real problem in this western
world today in the over-indulged,
self-centered, irresponsible youths in
whose vocabulary there are no such
words sacrifice and subordina ton.
The son question, as a living is
sue, is brought up afresh by this Sun
day school lesson upon Abraham s
Offering UP of Isaac. the heir of the
promises, the hope of the father and
his pride and joy as well. This back
ground we must get; the fathers pride
and happiness in his son. AS runs the
Arabic saying:
is there any blessing better than a
son?
Mans prime desire; by whom his name
and he
Shall live beyond himself"
Every father dreams, dreams for
his boy. A friend once bore to a
father the news of the death of his
infant son, but a few days old. The
father was heart-broken, but his only
comment was, And I had made such
plans for him. Abraham had lived
his later life in thoughts of Isaac's
no of
Jehovah depended for it's fuIfillment
upon Isaac's life. He was the link
between the old patriarch and those
descendants who, according to prom
1se' were to be as numerous as the
stars And now, here was Jehovah
Himself bidding Abraham offer up
Isaac as a sacrificed
The Philosophy of the Altar.
We shudder at the thought of hu-
man sacrifice. Were it not a boot
less rehearsal of history. we could
recount how the Canaanites and the
Phoenicians of old, and the Hindus
and South Sea Islanders of a recent
day. INDUCED in this terrible re-
ligious rite; while Greek mythology
and modern japanese history con-
tain the same teaching OF more
immediate concern is the altar idea
in our own life. For our concern
is always with the present-day ap-
adays offering sons and daughters on
the affairs of religion and patriotism?
Do mothers and fathers still soIemnly
dedicate their unborn or infant chill
sions?
The question is timely inasmuch as
we know that myriads of young lives
are devoted by parents to fashion and
to luxury and to money-gettine. We
have cause to wonder whether moth
nf nj cfi1I
dren to God and country That idea
is commonly esteemed oId-fashioned,
one clear reason. why there is lack
of students for the gospel ministry is
that parents are not setting apart
their sons for this calling. They
shrink from the sacrince involved in
the idea of the altar. They want their
children to be prosperous and comfor-
table first of ALL
All the while, the truth lies near to
the surface that it is the element of
sacrifice which makes life great Scan
the men you know who have come to
power in the church and nation. and
they will be found to be those who have
not spared themselves The road to
leadership in things spiritual runs over
the amount of self-sacrifice Great
characters grow in the shadow of some
calvary The fairest flowers 1 found
in or near Jerusalem were in the Gar
den of Gethsemane on the slope of
OllVet, tenderly cherished by a Fran
c1Scan monk. Life comes to beauty
only as it is rooted deep in the soil of
surrender and sacrifice. A parent does
most for his child when he introduces
him to the idea that his life mas been
laid on an altar
The Test That Became a Testimony.
The iron that entered Abraham's soul
was Jehovahs demand that he should
offer up his only son. Isaac. as a sacri-
flee. At the outset, let it be said that
clearly, God asked for Isaac because
He wanted Abraham. He cared not for
the fact of the actual sacrifice. but for
the spirit of devotion. 1t was merely
proof of His own sovereignty that He
sought. God. who is a jealous God
wanted to make clear that He was God
over Abrahams life. His law runs for
ever, '"Thou shalt have no other God be-
fore me-" He will not be king at all
unless he can be king in ALL" Because
He is God. Jehovah asks complete sub
mission on the part of all who accept
Him as Lord.
The anguished father made all prep
arations Parents who have parted
from their children at duty's call know
Abraham's pangs. He loved his son
more than he loved his own life: but he
loved God most of ALL Though He
siay me- yet will trust Him. cried his
bleeding spirit. To Mount Moriah, the
rock over which the temple of Solomon
was later built (the Moslems to this
day show the legendary rock of sacri-
flee to visitors to the Mosque of
Omar. father and son repaired. three
days journey from Hebron, their home
Even the wood was prepared for the
sacrificial fire. and the deadly knife
appraised, when the angel of the Lord
interposed. The sacrifice has been
made in spirit. and the flowing of blood
counted for naught. God had ready a
ram in the thicket for the emergency.
That test became Abrahams testi-
nlony. All through the religious his
tory of the three great faiths. Judaism,