The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-01-02

The International sunday School Les
son for January is Goods Patience
With Israel."-Judge 2:7-1s.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
If, Just for this one New Year sun
day, Mr.. Average Man could olsca ~
his shallow. sophisticationa aca,,ire
for q few hours the spirit OF sou ~
wisdom, he would surely go apart IL
q time and take cOunsel W.
grandfathers and with MS sranuo
dren. .+
This Ia a critical time; the most
critical in all the history OF the Wol.u
There never has been a new AeaI
season so solemnizing as the
To meet the call Of our great gay SUI
cessfully. must look backward anu
forward: listen to the past anu s,.. ~ ' 10
future; weight our responsiveness ~
those who have gone before ana 10
those who come after us.
Opportunity, the mllIons wnu
base their serious thinking largely on
the International Sunday School Les
sons. will find stimulus for the pres
ent occasion in the new course oI ieS
sons in Cd Testament history WINCH
begin today. The opening stuoy rs Gr
q people who had gone back on theis
Rrandfathers. They were the tnlro
generation. Direct contact with the
great personalities of the earlier DAY
had been lost.
Like the rest u U.s. lhOy -
built that they needed great leader
ship. But these Hebrews had to lace
fresh and difficult problems alone.
They were call-d upon to stand on
their own feet. and to prove by them.
selves their fidelity to their past ana
to their future. A searching question
concerning them-as concerning US
is, Were they of the sort to Whom
grandchildren could look back In
pride?
Scripture: "And also all that genera
ton were gathered until their fathers:
and there arose another generation
after them, that knew not Jehovah,
nor yet the work which ne nao
wrought for Israel. And the children
of Israel did that which was evil in
the sight Of Jehovah, and served the
Baalim; and they forsook Jehovah,
the God of their fathers, who brought
them out of the land of Egypt, and
followed other gods, gods of the peo-
pies that were roundabout them, and
bowed themselves down unto them:
and they provoked Jehovah tol
anger"
After Joshua, What?
The city of Philadelphia has of re-
cent days come under the spell of a
powerful personality. BILLY" Sunday
begins on the day of this lesson an
evangelistic campaign in this city OF u
million and a half of people. On many
counts it is the most significant re-
ligious enterprise attempted in an
American municipality within the
memory of the present generation.
A stir Of hope and a thrill Of exalta-
ton has been in the hearts of anxious
observers as they have beheld the way
in which the conservative old Quaker
city has arisen to the approach of this
religious leader. Hundreds of thou
sands of men and women have gath
cred in bi-weekly preparatory prayer
meetings. The ministers have assem-
bled from time to time in the largest
clerical gatherings the city has known
for a generation. Tens of thousands
Of men have already been added to
Bible classes. The daily newspapers
are full Of news Of every phase of prep
aration for the campaign. The
churches are athrill with expectation.
so that observers say. The revival had
already come"
on the need for Joshua. The church's
cry today Is for great leaders who can
rally her forces for conquests common
surate with her might and her obliga-
lions.
The momentum of Joshua and his
associates had carried the Israelites
into the third generation of life in
Canaan. The pioneers had set them
going and they had continued under
this impetus. Joshua and Caleb alone
of all who entered the Promised Land
had carried with them personal memo
accompanied the deliverance from
Egypt. After the death of Joshua
there remained the elders who had seen
the mighty works of God in the first
overcoming of the land. These men
had possessed first hand, experiment.
al Knowledge of what Jehovah could do.
When the New Generation FOrgets.
Nnw tho
ing the dangerous experiment of liv-
ing on second hand religion. They
had failed to acquire fresh, vital,
personal knowledge of the ways of
God. The pressure of the peoples and
the customs about them had steadily
and insiduously counteracted the
forces of heredity. The tug and pull
of heathendom at times proved greater
than the personality and memory Of
the fathers. There had been failure
TO root out the idolatry and the evils
of the land-a failure which is a temp
tation that always besets good peo-
pie. In conSequer ce, the children of
Israel were left environed by a Sc
ductive philosophy Of creed and con-
duct which threatened the very exis-
tence of their religion and mission.
There came a great slump in the life
of the Jews.
A prevalent American notion is that
when on Broadway one should follow
broadway fashions. The bright lights
of the Great White Way" of the me-
tropolis are as the light of life to null
titudes of thoughtless persons. The
standards which are almost wholly
sensual. and which place outward
seeming above inward being, are ac-
cepted as prevalent and mandatory.
Most of the men and women who pa
rade Broadway in the neighborhood of
Forty-second street would be ashamed
TO be seen walking there with their
old-fashioned parents. Never mind
what the parents would think: that
is another story.)
The biography of a myriad of youne
people today is written in the words OF
the lesson. They forsook the Lord
God OF their fathers and followed
the gods of the people that were round