The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-03-10

|
the Book of the Hebrews, and then
others still more dreadful. have been
endured by the whole Armenian ma
ton, with more than half a million
martyrdoms to its credit within the
past year.
Accepting the Evidence.
A familiar and oft misunderstood
passage occurs in this Sunday school
lesson. In our Bibles it begins a new
chapter. After reciting the long roll
of heroes of faith and their achieve
ments and characteristics, the writer
draws this conclusion:
Wherefore, seeing we also are COM
passed about with SO great a cloud or
witnesses. let US lay aside every weight
and the sin which doth so easily beset
us''-the sin of unbehef-"and let US
run with patience the race that is set
before US, looking unto Jesus, the au-
thor and finisher of our faith"
Millions of readers have assumed
| that the witnesses are the persons
who are looking at us, those among
whom we live. On the contrary. The
word is used in its legal sense of those
who bear testimony. The witnesses
who are to be taken into account are
not our neighbors, but this long line of
testifiers enumerated in the preced-
ing chapter. These are the persons
whose testimony We are asked to ac-
cept. They bear witness to the SUI
premacy and power of faith The ap-
peal is to the reasonable mind that is
willing to accept proof. Here are a
notable company of men and women,
historical characters, who have put
faith to the test and have found i. vic
torious.
The idea will bear amplification.
There is all the contrast in the world
between the real meaning of this ia
miliar passage and the way it is often
, misunderstood. We take too greatly
into consideration the opinions of
those nearest us. We are afraid of
| what they say" Mrs. Grundy is
ridicule and disfavor is the animating
motive of man.. We may be sure that
the Bible would never appeal to SO
ignoble principle. Faith is not to be
stead, the Book of Hebrews turns the
readers thoughts back to the oldest
scriptures. Faith comes by
the Word of Cod A primary lesson
of the present study is that faith is to
be found and fortified in the Scrip
lures themselves.
With the Goal in Sight.
The story was told recently to a
4 friend of how the longest run on the
Princeton football field was made;
and the narrator was the player him
self. II could hear the other man
coming behind me-thump, thump
thump. 1 cannot tell you how great
the temptation was to look back over
my shoulder to see how near the man
was to me. But 1 knew that if should
look back 1 would be lost. My only
hope lay in keeping my eyes steadfast-
ly on the goal in front of me and do
ing my utmost to reach that"
That football player did not know
it, but he was putting into the words
of a modern experience the principle
laid down in this great treatise N
Faith: Looking unto Jesus, the au-
thor and finisher of our faith; who
for the joy that was set before him.
note that here again the same prin-
ciple operates endured the Cross,
despising the shame, and is set down
at the right hand of the Throne Of
Cod
1t is the eye of vision that gives
power to the feet of faith. They who
= greatly see, greatly dare, and greatly
do. The Christian life, often likened
} to a race, is to be won only by keep
ing in view the Christ who is the be-
ginner and rhe perfecter of faith. They
to whom Christ is most real find faith
most easy. Contemplation of Him and
of His call and character, creates the
faith that conQuers. In the fullest
significanc nee of the phrase, all men of
faith are, like Abraham, friends of
God" Out of that intimacy grows
the faith that "overcomes the world
Why Some of Us Fail to Succeed.
Terse Comments on the Uniform
Prayer Meeting Topic of the Young
Peoples Societies-Christian En-
deavor, etc-for March II: THE
Causes of Failure in Life" Prov.
! 10:1-11.
Our common estimates of values
will be shifted by this present world
transformation. In the glare of a
in new light. The old, easy notion
that the people who have money and
might are the successful ones must
go by the board. On the contrary,
some persons will be forever dis
graced by the way they made money
or looked out for themselves, in this
hour of sacrifice and service. They are
failures who fall to rise to the level
own time. Only the person who
serves his day and generation, in the
noblest fashion of which he is cap
able, deserves other epitaph than HE
missed the mark
mot failure, but low aim is crime -
The most colossal Failure of his
tory is the supremacy adored Figure
on earth today. The proof of His
failure, a cross of shame, is now the
bestowed emblem among men. The
Christ who came to a Cross is lifting
up the world. His ideals, those of a
man who dared be beaten in His
days struggle, are newly the ideals of
humanity. In the light that streams
from Calvary we have to revise our
proud and sordid and arrogant no
lions of success.
Canon Farrar said, There is only
, one real failure in life possible; and
i that is, not to be true TO the best one
knows"
t The lofty soul that turns aside from
: its Calvary finds, too late, that it has
missed the road to the only perma-
> nent success.
+ Failure to be kind to ones family
+ and neighbors, and make life more