The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-04-24
When Youth Goes Up Against Giants.
The International Sunday School Les
son for April 25 is David and GO
liath."-I Sam. 17:3S-51.
(BY WILLIAM T. ELLIs.)

son for April 25 is David and Go
liath."-I Sam. 17:3S-51.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIs)
AS always, when unfamiliar war
burst upon its gaze, civilization cries
only boys," 1t has never been other
wise: all the great wars have been
begun by armies of youth Youth IS
the fighting time The hot blood OF
early manhood is heroic. lit dreams and
1t dares. If the supply of young hearts
should fail, there would be no wars
waged against heavy odds of oppres-
sion, injustice and poverty. was
there ever a great reformer who did
not become such in the days of youth?
Men and women past middle life are
not enlisted anew in any of the mighty
battles for God and humanity.
No; it needs a boy David to run
enthusiastically to run-toward the
heavily-armed giant who approaches
The heart of veteran soldiers turn
to water before the taunts of Goliath;
but David is but quickened for the
struggle; and he gives a word OF falth
for every heather taunt. With the
story of David and Jonathan before
us and with all history supporting 1t,
the marvel is that so many of the
causes which call for heroism do not
make their appeal to the colleges, the
young peoples societies, the Sunday
schools, instead of wasting time cultl-
waiting the favor of the established
and the great. President wilson re-
Gently said, with characteristic cour-
age, when pleading for the education
of souther mOuntaineerS, TT is very
amusing sometimes to see the airs
that high society gives itself. The
world could dispense with high society
and never miss it High society is for
those who have stopped working and
no longer have anything important to
do"
Before we go into the days SESSION
upon David and Goliath, let us get
real grip upon this underlying truth,
that youth is the time of heroisms-
Then it is that courage is greatest,
patriotism is pureSt, ideals are knight
lest and religion is most genuine and
natural. Every person OF advancing
years needs to fear. even more than he
fears the hardening of lis arteries,
what Longfellow calls,
"The hardening of the heart that brings,
Irreverence from the dreams of youth
Enter the Giant.
The combat between Goliath and
David has passed into proverb- No
Old Testament Incident is better
known. 1t is one of the hero tales of
religious history that has fired the
faith and fortitude of generations.
In accord with the ancient usage
of trial by champion, the Phtlist1nes,
who had been routed by the bravery
of Jonathan and his armOr-bearer,
and had marched against the Israel
ties, offered to stake their case on
the proweSS of the giant Goliath, a
heavily armed warrior more than nine
feet tall. Day after day this bluster-
ing fellow came out into the valley
between the two armies, which were
encamped about sixteen miles south
west of Jerusalem, and uttered his de-
frances The IsraeliteS had no cham
pion to put forward. Day after day
this huge Philistine made them eat
dirt. The shame of cowardice was
eating into their souls as actual defeat
could not do.
Then appeared from Bethlehem,
bearing food to his big brothers in the
army the shepherd boy David, son of
Jesse. Simple, unsophisticated, think
ing in the clear, broad lines of those
dwelling in the open, he was astound-
ed by the spectacle of the humiliation
of Israel by the giant. He had not learn
ed to condition truth or bravery or
patriotism: he could understand risk
ing ones life in pursuit of duty-had
done it, in fact-but he could not COM
prehend how a child of God could be
a coward.
Indiscreet remarks to that effect
earned him a severe rebuke from his
big brothers, who did not relish hav-
ing heroism talked in the presence of
their cowardice. Persons who have
compromised with evil resent the rash
audacity of reformers. The petulence
of "stand-patters" who should be
counted upon for righteousness, is
person to bear than the open assaults
of those whom he expects to find ar
rayed in clear-cut opposition. David s
brothers wounded him more deeply
than it was in the power of Goliath
to do.
Persisting in his purpose (for the
courage of perseverance is usually
as greatly needed by a hero as sheer
audacity in the face of danger) David
won a chance to go up against this
heather tower of inSOlence. At first
they tried to outfit him in SauPs
armor; but David knew that every
man fights best in his own way. He
roes are not custom-made. So on a
camp-follower in Israel looking on
eagerly and pityingly, and with many
feeling stabs of self-accusation, the
shepherd lad sailed forth jauntily to
pion, at the hour of his daily defiance.
A Shepherds Sling-PIus
Mrs Grundy first makes slaves of
us; then she uniforms us, making each
slave as much like the other as posi-
BILE. She irons out our individuality
and suppresses our personality. The
great game of society is to reduce
everybody to a dead level of uniform
ity and conventionality. A man whose
lot is cast much with Society said to
recognized south of Market street is
not to be nice" The world, given a
choice in the matter. wants no soldiers
who are not outfitted in Mrs. Grundy's
establishment in the camp of the
Israelites, when they tried to fit David
out in the armor of Saul.
Those clear eyes of David, which
were more accustomed to the life OF
the open field than to that OF the
camp or court, perceived plainly thai
his strength lay in following his owr
fashion, and in being true to his per.