The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-26

SleSh, WC4A-OLOh0I1 Pd1AOI a
favorite at afternoon teas. He re-
sembled one of those disconcerting
Quakers with a concern who were
so afire with Gods message that they
often trampled on the petty conven-
tionalities.
1t is wholesome for us to pause, in
the light of this crude, stern. elemental
figure of the old Hebrew prophet and
contem plate our preSent-day Solicitude
over the millinery and methods and
minor matters of religious procedure.
Gods great hour has struck: shall His
church still beguile herself with toys
and trifles? The challenge of Amos
to us, as to old Israel, is to open our
eyes and our hearts and to return unto
the God of our fathers.
One point more of present peril
nency about Amos. He began his
preaching by pointing out the case of
the surrounding nations-DamaScus,
GAIA, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab
He grasped the truth that God deals
with nations, as we'll with indl-
viduals After he had caught the ears
of Israel by this method, he turned
swiftly and fearlessly to statement
of the sin and duty of Israel and
cation of his texts, prepare to meet
thy Cod "Seek the Lord and we
shall live by pointing out the evils
of his own day and his own people.
The book is at once sermon on re-
pentance and on social justice Hate
the evil, and love the good, and eStab-
lish judgment in the gate: 1t may be
that the Lord God of hosts will be
gracious unto the remnant of Joseph"
One of our own poets has put the same
message thus:
Hold We the Faith-the Faith our Fathers
sealed us:
Whoring not with visions-overwise and
overstale.
Except We pay the Lord
Single heart and single sword,
OF your children in their bondage
He shall ask them trebletalet
Keep We the Law-be swift in all obed
fence
Clear the land of evil, drive the road and
bridge the ford.
Make We sure to each his own
That he reap where he hath sown;
know We serve the Lord!
The Best for the Nearest.
Terse Comments on the Uniform Pray
pies Societies, Christian Endeavor,
etc, for November 2S-'Home Mis-
sion Work to Be Done in Our Com
Inunity.-Luke 14:15-24.
The man who is worse than
heather, according to the Apostle
Paul, is he who, fails to provide for
his own. That applies to religious af-
fairs as well as to material things. The
divine injunction to the apostles was
that they should begin at Jerusalem.
Home comes first. The person whose
interest in China is so great that he
neglects Christian work in his own
is not to be called mis-
sionary enthusiast: he is merely an ill
balanced fanatic. In this day of in
creasing missionary interest we may
not lose sight of our primary respon-
SibilitieS to the opportunity which is
nearest. Work abroad should be
preceded and accompanied by work at
home. Usually, fairness compels me
to add, it is the person whose sense of
responsibility for the uttermost parts
in labors for his immediate neighbor-
hood. Among the heroes of missions
must ever shine the names of the men
who helped give and save this home
land to a Christian civilization.
Home and foreign are pernfcfous
words that will one day be eliminated
from the missionary vocabulary. 1t is
fields up into sections that provoke
partisanships. Moreover, it is beyond
the power of man to make the division
fairly. Who can tell where "home"
token shall we determine which is
which? Holy writ defines it: 1.-The
field is the world
There are no geographical lines in
Gods thought of missions. He $50
loved the world"
The man who invests his life in
helping to fix and ennoble the ideals
of a community in its formative
patriot.
The modern pastor of a downtown
city church is nowadays as truly
home missionary as is the circuit
riding frontiersman.
Let me live in house by the side of the
road
Where the race of men go by
The men that are good and the men that
bad,
AS good and bad as 1.
l would not sit in the scorner's seat,
Nor hurl the cynic's ban.
Let live in a house by the side of the
Sam. Walter Foss.
Every Christian has his own par
ticular mission field. 1t is his own
no one else can occupy it. There ara
deeds to be done, and words to be
spoken, which he alone can do and
speak If he fail in that field it may
even mean the failure of the whole
this special, individual work that we
must render an accounting at the
great day of judgment
TO be a good neighbor to the nigh
est alien is one expression of patriot
ism and of religion.
The time has come to ask. What
is home missions?" If in that term
is included the needless duplication of
churches in small communities,
for the sake of perpetuating
names or gforifying denomi-
national agencies, then the great
Christian public will turn its back in
disa pprovaI. But if by home missions
a practical, organized effort to give the
conserving and trans
forming power of the gospel to every
last man ard woman under our coun-
try's flag. then the judgment of
gives hearty favor and