The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-12-05

lation and reform and religious work,
we cannot be blind to a great danger
which lies athwart this path. 1t IL
nothing less than the tendency to re-
gard lightly or to ignore entirely the
TACT OF sin. We are building pro-
sudden transformation of life into good
ness and happiness. without giving heed
to that grim reality which we have
come to name sin. So long as sin
abides. sorrow and suffering and unso-
cial deeds will remain. We cannot set
the world right until we provide for the
claiming or overthrow Of sin. If men
and women are free to go on shining,
every social programme of helpfulness
will be nullified. Instead of new and
beautiful life. we shall have death and
| desolation. The law runs inexorably:
THE wages Of sin is DEATH" Our day
needs few things more than it needs a
deep sense of sin, and longing for sim
lessness.
Times without number it has been
said that Christianity is no. q lesson
| In subtraction, but in addition. II am
come that We may have life, and that
We may have it more abundantly.'
Christ takes away from a life nothing
worth keeping and adds to it every
| thing worth having. Like Solomon to
the Queen of Sheba, He adds gifts "of
his royal bounty"
Two families, close friends, were
discussing their life plan. Said one,
I'VE have been laying by so that at
the age OF fifty we may quit work and
enjoy ourselves. We hope to travel
and rest and do all the things we
have desired The other man Of the
group said, I'VE have spent most of
our income. aside from what is needed
for the protection of old age, as we
haV mt int
life. We have tried to be alive to
many interests and many friends, and
We know. whatever befalls. that moth
ing can take from us our stored up
the second was wiser. Deliberately to
choose to enlarge ones life-one's
sympathies, interests, capacities,
knowledge. friendship and service
is to seek the way Of life.
We may ask the world for what is
due us; but when we face God and
eternity 1t is not justice we cry for,
but the free gift Of life and mercy.
passionate longing for God is the
surest sign Of spiritual life. The old
Hebrew Psalmist gave words to our
deepest yearning when he cried, LAS
the heart panteth after the water
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee,
o God.'' Joseph Parker once said a
wise word that is pertinent here: For
my own part I do not confess to know
God intellectually. believe with Sir
William Hamilton that to comprehend
God is to be God. Yet feel my need
acutely as to make it easy for me to
believe that He is Himself creating
that hunger of the mind and heart"
"Oh. the littleness Of the lives that
we are living! Oh. the way in which
we fail to comprehend, or, when we
do comprehend. deny to ourselves the
bigness of that thing which it is to be
q man. to be a child Of God!'
SEVEN SENTENCE SERMONS.
Charms strike the sight but merit
wins the soul-Pope.
If a man will not know his sins, his
sins will know him; the eyes which
presumption shuts. commonly despair
opens'-Thomas Adams
And thrusts the things we ask for in our
faces:
= =
Every believer is Gods miracle
Bailey.
= = =
If We abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ask whatsoever We will,
and it shall be done unto you
John 1857.
Through all the years Of all this life
Be with me- Lord!
So shall the days and weeks and years
Be threaded on q golden cord,
And all drawn on with sweet accord
Unto Thy fullness Lord;
That SO, when time is past,
By grace. 1 may at last
Be with Thee, Lord!
John Oxenham.
=
What makes life dreary is the want
Of motive.-George Eliot