The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-03-06
CBY WILLIAM T. ELLIs.)

"Dn you think the Chinese will ever
give up their beautiful and comfort
able garments for western dress?" in
quired a missionary of mandarin,
less than ten years ago.
mo. I'm sure they will not" was
the positive reply. Nevertheless, to-
progressive city Chinese, is wearing
European clothes. The craze to be in
fashion has seized China. even as it
earlier seized Japan. Half the eco
nomic and social difficulties of the
japanese nation are due to this I'M
reasoning desire to be like other peo-
pie.
There is nothing new about that.
however. Old Israel was in the same
case, at the time of our present lesson
Under SamueFs leadership something
like national solidarity had been at
tanned. Farreaching social and educa-
tional institutions had been establish
ed Song had been introduced into
public worship. Religious schools had
been founded. A simple and effective
democracy, which was also theo-
cracy, was in operation.
Every sheep thinks the grass in the
next pasture greener, ana these
Israelites, quite in the spirit of our
own young people who want above all
things else to be in fashion and to do
what everybody does" had become
infected with the microbe of emula-
ton. They were tired of being pc
culiar. All the other nations had
kings, so they wanted a king alst
With the same shallow reasoning that
has misled men and women in all
ages, they decided that to be in fash
ion was the ultimate goal. If we
were not so guilty ourselves we should
scorn these foolish, foolish old He
brews, who chose to be miserable imi-
tators when they might have been
originators.
The Chance That Was Missed.
Imagination reels as we contem-
plate what might have been the
course of history had Israel under
Samuel lived up to its possibilities.
This was one of the most tragic OF
the might have beens'' with which
the narrative of human progress is
crowded.
Instead of the world having to
wait all these centuries for democ-
racy to come to flower, in continent
then undiscovered, Israel would have
held aloft this beacon to tighten all
nations. Under Samuel the nation
was a real democracy. The people
ruled. Life was simple. The king
ship of the individual, and mis- respon-
sibility to God alone, was expressed
as perhaps never before or since.
lister justice. and to keep operative the
beneficient laws of Moses, which are
still in advance of the statutes which
govern the most civilized commun-
tiles.
This was mankind's great oppor
tunity. Israel might have led all the
world, ages ago. into the just and
brotherly life of a. true democracy,
lifting off the necks of humanity the
king-curse which at this hour is
drenching the world with blood.
What a chance to have missed! Even
the shameful failure of the Crusades
seems small alongside of this.
The Right to Do Wrong.
Since man is not a manikin or an
automaton, he enjoys the terrible
privilege of making a fool of himself.
Destined for divine ends, he may yet
go to the devil. .- The right to do
wrong. and to f1out and defy God, is
the price mortal pays for his godlike
possibilities. A free moral agent man
must be, if he is ever to conform to
the image of his Maker. He can re-
pudiate all the most beneficent plans
of God for his welfare. The sons are
not slaves.
In the exercise of this awesome
right, Israel decided that it would
rather follow the multitude to do
evil than to follow God to do right.
It rejected the divine program of a
theocratic democracy, because it
wanted to be in style. So a deputa-
ton of leaders waited on faithful old
Samuel Cone of the few characters
in the Old Testament concerning
whom the record hasno criticisnl
and told him bluntIy that he was old
and Out-Of-date, and that they want
ed an eye-filIing king, like the ma
African natives trading diamonds for
glass beads; ofAmerican Indians selling
empires for a few yards of calico; of
farmers bargaining oil lands for pal
try city houses, as we contemplate the
exchange that Israel asked.
Let US make mistake about it.
The present meaning of the lesson
which is of greatest significance to
us-is that the mad desire to follow
fashions and to be like our. neighbors
is responsible for many of the grav-
est ills of our time. National rivalry
In ornaments and fleets was a basic
cause of the present world war. The
effort to outvie one another in lux
ury-automobiles clothes of the lat
est mode, ostentatious homes and law
ish pleasure-Seeking- the real rea-
son for our hard times. Why do boys
learn to smoke and men to drink?
To be like others. of course. Most
SHINING is mere imitation.
The men who are cIamoring that
America shall join the worlds mad
race after military and naval suprem-
acy, and after diplomatic prestige,
are as grievously mistaken those
old Jews who surrendered IsraePs
right to be a distinctive nation, and a
leader of the world. The analogy be-
tween conditions in Israel at this time
of change and our own time. when all
things seem to be in the melting-pot,
is suggestive and significant.
Hunting Asses, Finds Throne.
Ability to give up ones own plans
sweetly, and to be willing to work
well in secondary place, are signs
of size and saintship. Most men, re-
pudiated as Samuel was, would have
left the people to stew in their own
juice. Achilles-like, they would say,
as they sulked apart, 1.-THE people
don't want me; now let them get
along without me-
Samuel, happily, was not of that
sort. If God could let the people have
their own way, so could he. Since
the nation had chosen the second-best
he hal 70 l-o