The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-12-08
Daring to Defy the Devil.

Terse Comments on the Uniform
Prayer Meeting Topic of the Young
Peoples Societies Christian En-
deavor, etc.-for December 10:
defy EVIL Kings 21: 1924
Billy Sundays power has often been
studied and variously interpreted; but
certainly one factor in it is that he is
a good hater of evil He not only ad-
vocates righteousness, but in season
and out, with picturesque vocabulary,
he dares to characterize sin He is
not afraid to talk about the devil. The
evangelist reaches heights of power in
his terrific arrangements of sin. In
this he shows that he knows life. Sin
is a factor in every persons existence.
Whenever We are honest with our
selves, we know that Christianity
mean war against evil, in society and
in the individual heart. The faith
that fears to fight finishes in failure.
were souls that stood alone.
'. lille the me1 they agonized for hurled the
contun 6iouS stone,
Stood serene. and down the future
Saw the golden beam incline
the side of perfect justice, mastered
by their faith divine,
By one mans plain truth to manhood and
to Gods supreme design.
BY James Russell Lowell.
A boy 1 know skinned a skunk the
other day. His family had to drive
him out of the house for a bath and
clean clothes. He protested that they
were fastidious, that it wasn't so bad
and that there was no use making fuss
about a little bit of smell. The trouble
was that he had been so close to the
horrible odor, for so long time, that
he had got used to it. His olfactory
sense of values had been warped. That
is what is happening to many persons
with respect to sin. They have toler-
ated it for a time, and so have lost
their realization of its awfulness.
That to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Seen too oft. familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace"
A capacity for adherence is
Christian grace. "Abhor that which
is evil wrote the doughty apostle. He
meant that. Abhor evil, loathe it, defy
1t, excoriate it. No person can go far
in the Christian life without a sense
of repugnance to sin. One of the deep
dangers of our time is that we shall
tolerate evil and evildoers. We sit at
dinner with men of unclean life and
receive socially notorious political cor
ruptionists and give our hand and our
smile to lynchers, and are untroubled
by the private dishonesties OF public
men, even receiving them into the
church
The practice of discipline has been
almost wholly IOSt the CHRISTIAN
church What if every congregation
that contained men of known evil life
or dishonest business practices were
ito call to confession and penitence, or
else to cast them out of the member
ship of the body? What a national
sensation would ensuei Yet the church
needs nothing more to be cleaned up
according to the New Testament
standard. Let a passion for a pure
church take hold of Christendom and
we should see the greatest revival of
religion the world has ever known
A more militant ministry would
mean a mightier message and a more
victorious church
In lax times We are prone to forget
that our New Testament contains the
story of Christ. with a whip of cords,
cleansing the temple
In the plastic time of youth all of us
dream of daring to be true to our
ideals, in all knightly courage. Alas
that so often the compromises of ex-
pediency blur our vision and sap our
courage Thomas S. Jones has put
into verse the lament of many a man:
Across the fields of yesterday
He sometimes comes to me.
little lad just back from play
The lad | used to be.
And yet he smiles so wistfully
Once he has crept within,
l wonder If he hopes to see
The man 1 might have been.
Scissors and Shears at Forbes s-Ady