Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-01-02

He turned to them for sympathy
and found them squabbling over
their relative greatness! There are
few scenes in the New Testament
more tragic than this.
Analogies crowd upon our recol-
lection. There was the unseemly
strife in Washington. q few days
ago. among the temperance FORCES as
to which should have the honor of
presenting petition to Congress.
Then there are those CHASTITY paro-
dies on the undershepherds of Christ,
the ecclesiastical politicians. con-
suming the time Of the church's as
semblies with their own petty
schemes and ambitions, while the
kingdom waits. There Is the wide
spread ambition for place in the
Church of Christ, repeating In mod
ern guise this ordeal Of the Redeem
er. All that episode at Capernaum
and every incident like 1t in our
own day-are traversities upon and
denials Of the Gospel of Christ.
This Is the supreme heresy of our
day. None of the doctrinal errors
with which the ancient church
councils dealt Is comparable to 1t. A
setting itself up to have the pre-emi-
nence-what else Is this than the
repudiation 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 sover-
eighty of the Lord Jesus over our
own spirits is worse than to deny
His divinity. Those contentious. am
bilious, self-seeking. Christ-forget
ting disciples were the first expo
nents of religions greatest heresy.
Getting Grip on Greatness
To own an automobile and even
ing clothes; to know whether the
entree comes before the salad in a
course dinner; to see ones name
often in print; and to be able to
move without embarra ssment in the
circles of the sophisticated-this is
not greatness, although 1t is the
commonest substitute therefor. To
be 'in the SWIM" to be worldly
wise and broken to social usages. to
be acclaimed a Somebody" and to
sit in the front seats, are the COM
mon privileges of not a few fools
worthy persons.
over against this common miscon-
ception of greatness, let it be writ
ten clearly that the truly great
qualities are the simple ones. This
Is hard for some persons to grasp.
But consider for a minute the ut
terances Of such men as Wilson,
Roosevelt, Lloyd George and Abra-
ham Lincoln-are these the abstruse
and complex sophistries of cunning.
worldly wise men? On the con-
trary, all these show their greatness
by daring to stand for the funda-
mental CT 1nI
these same virtues. His gospel is so
plain that child may crap it. He
put q child into the midst OF His
angry and ambitious followers, and
held up the child qualities, and the
idea OF service, as the most desirable
in life.
A Prescription For Success
Nothing is more needed in a
democracy than these same ideals of
Jesus. His counsel is fundamental:
"If any man would be first. he shall
be ~f@*-%* servant to ALL" There
we have the soundest advice upon
Success ever given. That teaching
works. In fact, like all the other
truths He sets forth, Jesus embodies
this in His own life before He put it
into words. He proved 1t.
That door Is open to everybody.
There is literally nobody who can
not serve. We may lift lame dogs
over stiles'--and get after those
who lame them. We may remove
banana peels from the sidewalk, and
help keep folks from throwing them
there. There are always the hungry
of body and spirit to be fed. I know
a man who always gives an extra
penny to the newsboy. and another
who is careful to write letters of
coincidence. For person with a pas
sion for service every day is full of
glorious opportunities. Never mind
about recognition: that was the mi
crobe that troubled the twelve. Just
to be helpful is to walk the way
charted by Jesus. and hallowed by
His own footsteps.
Do we seriously mean that Jesus
mere laid down program for life?
Nothing less than that. He counsels
His friends to be the servants of
ALL But surely He does not mean that
we are to serve the proud, the unde-
serving. and the unapprecative
God is kind to the evil and the un-
thankful" What people think and
say does not affect the truth which
Jesus has indicated that all who
follow Him should serve and serve
and serve--and die to serve, if op-
portunity offers.
Too Much Powder and Paint
One who travels extensively notes
that there seems to be altogether
too much powder and paint used on
women's faces: too much dining at
restaurants and too little hospitality
IN homes; too much attention to
clothes and too little to raising
children; too much "smartness" and
p-to-dateness," and too little re-
gard FOR the old-fashioned conven-
tons, such as the sanctity of the Ten
commandments. for instance In
word, there Is too little of the child
heart manifest among men and wom-
en-.
Even in our garish and glittering
times we perceive that the simple
hearted, unsophisticated. home-keep-
ing folk are the best ones to live
with Even uttermost worldliness
cannot help paying this tribute to
the child heart, which Jesus set up
as the standard of His kingdom. For
1t Is not by cunning, and not by
worldly wisdom, but by child-like-
ness that we inherit what Jesus left
for His friends. Sincerity and sim
plicity. truth and teachableness. are
the kingdom qualities.
The Indignation of Holiness
Let nobody suppose that the sim
pHcitS anu BentienesS OF the ideals
Of Jesus mark Him as a weakling. In
this lesson we find that the gentle
Jesus, whose patience seemed limit
less. and who could endure neglect
and even insults to Himself, famed
forth and was moved with indigna-
Ion" when He saw His stupid dis
ciples turning children away. from
Him. Look out for the holy wrath of
l great saint. Jesus opened the walls
If His intense feeling, and poured
hem upon the heads of His blundar-