The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-01-03

The International Sunday School Les
son for Jan. Z II Jesus and the
Children" Mark. s:30-41; 1O:13-1S
(BY WILLIAM T. ELLIs.>
what terrible loneliness!" cried
Carlyle, after meeting Queen Victoria
A recent student of President Wilson's
character and work made the same
observation. The truth Is as old a
the existence Of great men in great
places: Kipling presents 1t wildly In
the poem Of "Diego Valdez, Lord High
Admiral of SPAIN" Our present Sum
day school lesson. the first In the
years series of the Life of Christ, sets
1t forth graphically and rather trag-
ically.
Every observant person must have
been struck by the spectacle OF
great president. engrossed with vast
concerns Of patriotism in a critical
era, having to give his time and
thought to filling q multitude OF small
Offices, and being torn by the chorus
of contending aspirants. Pseudo-great
men, in like case, have spurned the
hungry horde, with maledictions upon
their smallness and sordidness-
Not SO the greatest. To be patient
with petty people. to acquire their
viewpoint, to accept them as they are,
what they ought to be-that Is the
Jesus way, as set forth in this lesson.
1t Is the program Of the true great
ness, which is forever tinged with the
compassionate father spirit.
When You Are Not Understood.
Strong men do not often pour out
their souls in search of sympathy.
To share the burden of ones spirit
with q sympathetic friend Is, at some
time or other, the desire of everybody.
And that is one Office of friendship.
So Jesus, after the TRANSPORTATION,
opened the fioodgates of His inner
most being to the little group closest
to Him. They were His dearest
friends, His intimates. Who would
deny Him this boon Of friendship. the
confessional of comradeship? There
fore He unveiled to them the vision
that was ever before His own eyes, OF
Gethsemane, the judgment hall, Col
gotha and the tomb. This was His
passion, the supreme and engrossing
concern of His life. He must share
and for theirs. The very deeps of that
great soul were opened up to the vi
sion of the twelve.
But they did not understand! This
was, indeed, treading the winepress
alone. In EXTREMIST degree, then was
repeated the experience Of all great
spirits. when they speak on one plane
and are interpreted on another; when
the finest that is in them is received in
the coarsest fashion. Nothing is
commoner than this experience of be-
ing misunderstood. There Is no need
to consider ones self a martyr be-
cause Of it. Jesus. like all who have
followed in His train, plumbed the
depths Of this ordeal.
Observe well how He behaved. The
overwhelming burden on His soul, and
the unappreciativeness Of His friends.
did not embitter Jesus, nor blind Him
to the life about Him. Our sorrows
and our joys may not be permitted to
eclipse our neighbours needs. Moth
ing can be an excuse for forgetting
other people. They are not to be ig
nored, and they are to be taken as
they are.
The Squabbling Saints.
If in all Capernaum that day there
was any really good society, any spir-
Itual perception, any Christ likeness
the Twelve. Their leaders were still
under the spell Of the TRANSPORTATION.
All OF them had heard the agonized
eelf-revelation of their Leader. as he
had talked of his approaching death
and resurrection. He turned to them
bling over their relative greatness!
There are few scenes in the New Tes-
lament more tragic than this.
Analogies crowd upon our recollec-
ton. There was the unseemly strife in
Washington, few days ago, among
the temperance forces as to which
should have the honor Of presenting a
petition to congress. Then there are
those CHASTITY parodies on the under
shepherds Of Christ. the ecclesiastical
politicians. consuming the time of the
Church's assemblies with their own
petty schemes and ambitions, while the
kingdom waits. There IS the wide
Church of Christ, repeating in modern
guise this ordeal Of the Redeemer. Al
that episode at Capernaum and every
incident like it in our own day-are
travesties upon and denials Of the Cos
pei of Christ.
day. Mono Of the doct: nal errors with
which the ancient Church Councils
dealt is comparable t. it. A layman
or a minister of church. setting itself
up to have'the pre-eminence-whate else
IL this than the reputation Of the life
and words of Jesus? No schism caused
by belief or disbelief is half SO hurtful
to the kingdom. Thus to deny the SOW
ereignty Of the Lord Jesus over our
own spirits Is worse than to deny his
divinity. Those contentious, ambitious,
self-seeking. Christ forgetting disciples
were the first opponents Of religions
greatest heresy
Getting . Grip ON Greatness.
To own an automobile and evening
clothes: to know whether the entrce
comes before the salad in a course din
ner; to see ones name often in print;
and to be able to move without en-
barrassment in the circles of the So
phisticated-this Is not greatness. al
though 1t Is the commonest substitute
therefor. To be ''in the swim,' to be
worldly wise and broken to social
usages. to be acclaimed somebody, ~
and to sit in the front seats, are the
common privileges Of not a few fools
persons.
Over against this common misconcep-
zion of ereafneaa LAT IL ho x.r,4f4o,.