The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-08-04

In old Stirling, Scotland. is simple
grave covered with evergreens, to
which lofty spirits from all the world
make pilgrimage; for beneath that
mound rests what is mortal of Henry
Drummond. Greener than the grave,
though, is his memory as the author
of 1.-The Greatest Thing in the World"
AS the many millions of Sunday school
mem bers turn to study the present
lesson, the thirteenth chapter of Cor
inthians, the thoughts of most of them
will revert to the peerless exposition of
the passage in Drummond's little clas-
sic. Every member of every Sunday
school class in the world should either
read, or hear read, this week Drum
nond's immortal book.
And the chapter itself, PauPs apos-
trophe to love, the climax of the
great apostles writings, should be
committed to memory No comments
| can equal the power of the text itself.
1 quote from Weymouth's New Tes-
| lament in Modern Speech as making
| clearer the original Greek.
IF I can speak with the tongues of
men and of angels, but am destitute OF
| love, I have but become a loud-soun6-
| ing trumpet or a changing cymbal. II
| possess the gift of prophecy and
am versed in all mysteries and all
knowledge, and have such absolute
faith that 1 can remove mountains, but
am destitute of love, 1 am nothing.
And If 1 distribute all my possessions
to the poor, and give up my body to
be burned, but am destitute of love.
| it profits me nothing.
| Love is patient and kind. Love
knows neither envy nor jealousy. Love
is not forward and self-assertive, nor
| boastful and conceited. She does not
behave unbecomingly, nor seek to ag-
grandize herself, nor blaze out in
passionate anger, nor brood over
wrongs. She finds no pleasure in in
justice done to others, but joyfully
sides with the truth. She knows how
to be silent. She is full of trust, full
of hope, full of patient endurance.
Love never fails. But If there are
prophecies, they will be done away
with; if there are languages, they will
| cease; If there is knowledge, it will
be brought to an end. For our
| knowledge is imperfect. and so is our
prophesying; but when the perfect
state of things is come, all that is i'm
perfect will be brought to an end.
When 1 was a child. I talked like
| child, felt like a child, reasoned like
a child; when I became man, 1 put
| from me childish ways. For the pres
ent we see things as if in a mirror
| and are puzzled; but then we shall see
| them face to face. For the present
the knowledge gain is imperfect; but
then shall know fully, even as 1 am
FULLY known. And so there remain
Faith, Hope, Love-these three; and
of these the greatest is Love-"
The Love-Law for Nations.
or late months there has seemed
special Providence in the ilmeli-
ness of these Sunday school lessons
| planned by the International Com
nittee long before the war broke out.
Here we have, at the hour when the
world needs it so sorely, a. mighty
concentration of thought upon the
| character and place and power and
workability of love. All persons who
think are bordering how the nations
may come together in concord once
more. Lo, here is the law, made
clear by the pen of inspiration. The
hour has struck for historys greatest
expression of love. We have tried
pride's way, and powers way, and
fears way, and ambitions way; now
let US try loves way.
Nothing in all the world is at the
present moment more real need than
| just this, that men and women every
where should make a conscious effort
to be more loving one to another. HUI
mainly has been divided into two
camps by the war. Now we should all
enter the camp of love as captives of
| God. The bitterness and hatred of the
early stages of the war are passing.
Let us thank God for that With
careful reconciliation, as we consider
or discuss any phase of the war, let US
seek to follow loves rule. This is more
| than passive neutrality: 1t is a divine
attitude toward friend and foe alike.
Arising above preconceptions, it dares
| try to realize, at the most difficult
time, the Pauline program of love.
Frankly, unless we Christians are
| loyal enough to our faith to be willing
to try to love one another-to love the
Germans, if we are pro-Ally; and to
| love the British, If we are pro-Ger-
mantle world will be a welter of
hate and bitterness, even after the
| treaties of peace are concluded Shall
not the Sunday school and the church
| try to get above the fog of clouded
thinking by climbing the mountain
| of love?
| "IntereSted' or Loving?
One of the CHASTITY travesties upon
love which has developed since the
war Embossed a flood of suffering upon
the world is the practice of being lin
terested' in some one or other group
OF victims for the sake of promoting
ones own advantage, socially, finan-
clally or politically. Actually, there
are women and men who are deliber-
ately and cold-bloodedly climbing
upon the heaps of slain Armcnians
and Serbians and Poles and Belgians
to higher social position for them
selves. 1t has become "the thing" in
a jaded society to be interested" in
war sufferers: SO ambitious social as
pirants do not hesitate to cloak their
own miserable and selfish little de-
signs beneath the awful sufferings of
the hungry and homeless and heart
broken. Relief work. is shame
lessly used to promote publicity for
ones self and projects. One wonders
If there is anything more horrible and
l1nhuman on the battlefield than this
spirit of selfish exploitation. That a
person is interested in a cause or a
need means little in these sophisticated
days.
have personal knowledge of a
prosperous woman who is more lin
terested" in foreign missions than in
any other subject. She talks the
| theme ard reads missionary ma gaines
and books and attends all the. mis-
sionary meetings within reach. Re-
Gently she went to missionary meet
ing-in her automobile-and when the
offering was taken she put in a dime,