The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-01-21
The Road of the Royal Life.


York. for the next Lour. concerning
his innermost sentiments, and could
be certain of a true answer: would
not the result be somewhat like
this:
Mrs. Society Dame. what is your
greatest trouble?"
"Oh, l am worried about my din
ner party for Eext week; everything
concerning it seems to be going
askew."
"One moment, Madam: think a lit
tie further, and more quietly. Is that
your deepest trouble?"
A ew look comes into her eyes, and
they grow moist, as she answers in a
low voice. mo; the burden of my in
nermost heart is that 1 am not bet
ter woman and more like the charac-
ter L used to dream of becoming when
l was a girl"
We turn to Mr.. Big Business Man,
and challenge his secret He begins
to talk about .'bad Investments" and
labor troubles and too much poll
ties but we probe deeper until we
get the truth:
Yes, it IS true that my real trouble,
which confronts me during sleepless
nights, is that 1 am so different from
the sort of man 1 planned to be, and
from the sort that my mother expected
me to become. L used to want to be
noble: now am shocked to think how
/ seldom L ever crave IOr nOD1llIY- MY
| best self seems feebler rather than
stronger
/ Fastening by is a young man with
a box of candy under his arm for the
girl who has his heart Pursued to
candor, he confesses, My trouble? It
IS that I am not worthier of the girl
who has given me her love; that I am
not a nObler, Drawer, more righteous
man. 1 do want, above all else, to be
true and good. 1 suppose the preacher
] IC STV hot
my sorrow"
One by one We might arrest every
pedestrian and learn that the real woe
of the world is that it has SO seldom
its baser nature. These intimate, sa-
cred, personal and unconfided striv-
ings after a higher, purer, holier life
are the deepest solicitude of mankind.
We all have somewhat of a sense of
defeat in our spiritual ruggles- There
is that within US which tells US that
we should live more royalty than we
do. Why, then, do we not achieve a
more victorious personality? The boy
in school and the millionaire in his
stately inner office both carry this
load of dissatisfaction.
The How as Well as the Why.
| Because this mood of unrest is uni
versal and immemorial, Christianity
undertakes to meet it. With the clear
er, sterner thinking of our day we
dare even say that the Gospel must
meet mans deepest need or else be
discarded. 1t is not enough to tell
why men should be good; we want to
know how. Opposed to the tug and
drag of a lower nature which every
human being has experienced, and
! which tends to cause the level of life
to sag and slump, the Gospel really
had to offer a counteracting power.
some divine enabling which would
help men to be what. in hours of
should be-
That explains why the first records
OF the Christian church are occupied
with the descent and manifestations
of the Holy Spirit. He was indis-
pensable to the new scheme of things.
Without him. the plans of Jesus
| would not work. Deprived of the
presence of Christ Himself, the dis
c1ples needed some equivalent power.
AS mountain-top men who had been
given a vision, they perceived that
unless they had some assistance from
| without themselves they were certain
to slump to the level of the old con-
duct.
Now if Jesus had not left behind
Him power for the new life as well
as programme for the new life.
this Sunday school lesson would not
today be studied by millions, for there
would have been no Sunday school
and no church. The Spirit who came
at Pentecost has been the sustaining
| Strength of the cause of Christ He
has made possible the marvels of
Christian growth and victory. Without
Him, we should not now have the
host OF holy men and women who are
the salt of the earth The Spirit is
the Enabler who has qualified the
Church.
What Ais the World.
Ask the wisest living philosopher,
the keenest student of our own times.
what ails the world, and he will make
an answer compromising all the an
swers that we heard wrung from the
lips of the people on Fifth avenue
"Carnality: The world is fleshly-
minded. They that are after the flesh
mind the things of the flesh For
the mind of the flesh is DEATH
That is what allied old Rome, to
which city the Apostle Paul sent the
letter that we are studying today In
truth, Rome died of the disease called
carnality- Some saints, even in the
household of rotten-hearted Nero, sur
vived, by the law laid down by Paul
for there is no soil too foul for the
growing of holiness. What allied
Rome also ails Philadelphia and New
Orleans and Nashville and Toronto
and Chicago and Omaha and New
York. They are carna1Iy minded.
They yield to their baser nature,
rather than to their better.
While I am aware of possible ma
tional perils from without which may
await North America, at the close of
the present war, am less concerned
about military unpreparedness than
about spiritual unpreparedness. The
Observation-Disclosures of the people is
more to be feared than any foreign
navy. Our Observation-Disclosures is a
peril against which all patriotic
prophets should cry aloud. The quick
sands of carnality have engulfed more
nations than ever fell before conquer
or'S sword. Would that upon the
walls of our feasting were written the
history proved word, 1.-THE mind OF
the flesh is death" The measure of a
nations life is the spiritual character
of its people. There is more wisdom
, upon the subject of true preparedness
in this eighth chapter of Romans than
in all the newspaper essays and edi-
torials 1 have as yet read
The Call of the Times.