The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-12-10

| Last night at a banquet / watched
nearly three hundred strong men lis
tening spellbound to one layman's
story of his personal religious expert
ence. He was only a business nan.
! Innocent of a theological training
and I suspect also of college course,
he used none of the tricks of the pro-
fessional speaker. yet he thrilled his
| hearers as few skilled orators could
do. That company of alert and dis
! eliminating men listened intently. as
out of a full life the layman related
the spiritual significance of his per-
sonal experience. 1t was reality
speaking to reality, life to life.
Something akin to that was the
power of the ancient layman who be-
came an immortal voice: Hosea, the
only prophet who was a native of the
whose words are todays Sunday
school lesson. We have no trace Of
Hosea's having ever attended a school
of the prophets He was merely a
tremendously, and did not miss the
spiritual significance of experiences
that would have blighted a less er
man.
Greatest of Prophets; for at its root
the word Hosea" is the same as
Joshua and Jesus" and it means
a saviour. Both Hosea and Jesus are
the suffering servant, by the
knowledge of himself shall my right
eous servant justify many"
Jereboam sat on the tottering
throne of Israel at this time, and
Uzziah ruled in Judah, and doubtless
neither of them reckoned seriously
with the personal tragedy of this one
man. Yet Hosea's life story is
deathless message to each new gen
Grafton of humanity.
The Storm That Drives Home.
The highest use of any life is as
an Interpretation of the mind of God.
Find out what God means by what
He is doing with you. Hosea exen.- |
plifies the value of discovering the
spiritual significance of a personal eX-
perience. What says Browning p
'I count life just a stuff
To try the souls strength on" |
Personal providences mean some
thing as they enter every llte. Let US
not miss the message i am IN Ine
passing through dark days; I don
know " hat He is trying to make out
of my life, but 1 want to find out
should be sorry to have to undergo
these experiences without catching
their meaning and message" Every
providence has a purpose. Hosea's
domestic disaster made him
prophet.
the northwest whom a traveller saw
driving his flock out into the teeth OF
a heavy wind; they faced the storm
all the way to the pasture.
''Why don't you find more shelter
ed feeding grounds?'' asked the trav-
eler.
Don't you see," said the shepherd.
eff a blizzard comes the storm VIII
drive the sheep homer"
So it is with the storms of personal
experience. They are meant to drive
the spirit home to God.
How else can we interpret the world
woe of today? Is not the growth of
the sacrificial spirit, which the whole
world is learning in the red school
house of war, but an education in the
of God? Humanity today is
entering into a knowledge of Christ by
a Gethsemane experience. The storm
of war is driving the suffering sheep
home to the Shepherd and His fold.
We are unable to think of the world
as undergoing the present crucial ex-
perience without the prospect of learn
ing from it the supreme lesson of God
as a Refuge and Father.
The F'aithIess Wife.
No bitterer experience can come to
a man than that which befeH Hosea
His wife was faithless: yet he remain
ed faithful. The earlier chapters of
the Book of Hosea tell the tremendous Fl
story. We should read in its tragic
light the flippant tales of marital in
fidelity which are daily aired in our
divorce courts. In some circles all
sense of the Nervousness of adultery
has been lost The Book of Hosea re-
vealS it as it is.
Dean Stanley has, with great deli
cacy, recounted the life tragedy of
Hosea: !
shared in the misery brought ON his
by the PROFICIENCY of the age. ! /
IN early youth he had been united in
with a woman who had
fallen into the vices which surrounded
ler. He had loved her with a tender
owe. She had borne to him two sons
Ind a daughter; she had then de- l
serted him, wandered from her home {
ALLEN again into wild Righteousness, &
Ind had been carried off as a slave.
from this wretched state, with all the
endernesS. of his nature, he bought I
Ter, and gave her one more chance l
# recovery by living with him, l
hough apart In his own grief for his s
,wn great lamity-the greatest that
an befall a tender human soul-he =.
vas taught to feel for the Divine grief
'ver the lost opportunities of the ma y
ion, once SO full of hope" :
Why Boys Leave Home. r
The folly of Hosea's wife seems d
ucceeded in proving that wickedness d
s wise Every neighborhood wonders il
fresh over each new experience of the +
10Y who plays the prodigal 1t is the
MYSTERY or Jolly, why a young man
hould desert the full table of his :
ather's house for the husks of a far n
ountry. Prudence, sagacity, self-in- Z
interest. all must be flung to the winds q
efore boys and girls can turn their I
acks on innocency and peace and .
ure love, and seek the painted imi- 4
atoms af Hfes good things beyond =
he pale of Righteousness and law.
There is never a sinner who has
inned greatly who would not say with c.
is dying breath that he had been a =
DOL. There is never a man who has II
one wrong himself who would ad- q
Use his son to do the same The Z
leasures of sin are apples of Sod N
M turning to ashes in the mouth. 7
Ill =,