The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-03-21

But know of q Name, .. Name. a
Will set this land on fre."
Tho Marrow Gate.
Some folks are mot pleased with
Jesus because He IL too much of a
democrat. He does not smake allow
ances'' for a mans social or financial
but insists upon treating
all men. in the same way. Thus. He
has neglected utterly to provide a
special entrance into His kingdom for
and Pullman cars.
He. frankly says that the door is a
narrow one-such as the little chill
dren, and the unencumbered, may
pass through easily. But the man
through. As for the person who will
not surrender his bulky. holdings of
wealth. of pride, OF sin. of self-right-
eousness. OF good deeds made for
mans eyes-well. there simply Is no
admittance for that man. The king
dom is made up of those who can pass
through the gate.
OF course, that IL SO of all king
doms-the kingdom Of good society,
of public usefulness. OF knowledge
and of friendship. There must be
giving up before there can be q going
all portals. They who will not sur
render time. ease, self-indulgence, ig-
norance or bad manners, cannot hope
to ascend into any of the kingdoms
of success. Otherwise the unfit and
the uncongenial would swamp all the
places of responsibility. and chaos
would result. Heaven must be made
up of the heavenly. else it would not
be heaven. So while its gate is open
it is also narrow.
When the Door Is Shut.
A terrible possibility was suggested
by Jesus in this connection. Most OF
us shrink from talking about it. Some
gether. But Jesus said that there
came a time when the gate was shut.
Then they who had spurned its open
invitation began to hammer frantically
for admittance. But they could only
look in from without, and know them
selves rejected.
Awful! We shudder at the picture.
Yet q few minutes of honest thinking
shows us that this is not only just.
but inevitable. If all who despised
permitted to make themselves his
guests, whenever and however they
pleased, the home would cease to be
his and become theirs. 1t would lose
the character he gave it, and take on
the lawlessness of his enemies. If the
wicked were permitted to enter heav-
en- and have their unchanged way
there, how soon would heaven become
like a hell? All the Implications of
a moral law require that the door
not heed the conditions Of admittance.
The shut door is a possibility confront
ing everybody who has not accepted
Christ's invitation Of the open door.
A sting is in the tail OF
intimation is that it was the &C.
clesiastics Of his day, the scribes and
the pharisees, whom Jesus said might
be shut out. They thought to ride full
panoplied and pridefu1 into the king
dom. simply because they were they
Instead, he pointed to vision, now
being realized, as the very ends of the
earth are thronging into the kingdom.
'And they shall come from the east
and west, and from the north and
south. and shall sit down in the king
last who shall be first, and there are
first who shah be last"
Some great reversalS await us In
heaven. Earth's iniquities and fnjus-
tees are all to be Strengthened out
and this need alone is sufficient to re-
quire a heaven-and many Of earth
lowly shall become the high In heaven
Social justice" the dream OF earth's
best today, will be realized in the king
dom OF heaven
The Business OF Getting Ready.
Terse Comments for March %. "Our
Society Training School.
22:6.
(BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.)
Ten thousand minds have perceiv-
ed the great truth contained in the
| tom and reformation" Over and
over again it has been said. Better one
former than ten reformers.'' The idea
runs straight down to the root OF
things. To set the world right, individ-
ual men and women must be started
right. A society made up Of persons
| whose basic ideas are wrong is we'll
nigh hopeless. That is why the pri-
mary mission Of the church is to es-
| tablish right ideals in the mind Of
youth. Therefore the Sunday schoo
| and the Young Peoples society. These
are scientific efforts to train boys ant
girls. young men and young women
into the distinctively Christian ideal o.
| life and service.
i The man whose youth has beer
| crowded with base ideas and prac
tees is not likely ever to become al
active force for Righteousness.
Back Of my house. growing fla
! against the wall, is a good-sizet
! apple tree shaped like a candelagra
Early training did it, of course
Gardeners can make trees take an!
shape they wish, If they begin earl!
enough. In the garden Of an Indial
palace I once saw a collection o
trees formed like a dozen or scor
OF different animals. Human live
are like trees, in that they may cas-
lily be shaped during their earl,
growth. Because Christian Endeavo
has been at work upon millions o
plastic minds, this world Ia a bette
place to live in; and the Christial
, good.
A gentleman who is the head Of
, department in one of the great cor
: porations of the city met a Chris
tan Endeavor graduate on a trail
| q few days ago, and began to ask hir