The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-28
INTERNATIONAL,
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
BY w. T. ELLIS

]
! Psalms 123. 1924
| Seeing the Near in the Light of the
Large.
/ Within the past week 1 have traV-
| eled from the shores of the Yellow
sea, past the Great Wall of China, and
the fertile fields of Manchuria into
the mountains and the great green
valleys of Siberia. an imperial realm.
\ Within that time l have had TO race
and discuss the Chinese question, the
J Japanese question and the Russian
Fouestion with the relation of America
! to them all. Whatever else may be
said of such a strenuous week, 1t Ger
tainly helps one TO see things IN the
large The incidental and the detail
| become lost in the general. One must
deal with large units; which seems
/ particularly easy to do as 1 look out
of the windows of this Siberian eX-
: press across vast spaces OF grazing
! land. with lakes and rivers, ana the
! blue hills beyond, and the Mongol
nomads standing to gaze as the train
glides by.
| Somewhat similar in effect to the
| tourney l am at the moment taking
! is this quarterly review of the Sunday
| school Lesson 1t sweeps a wide hori-
Zon, ard deals with succession OF
great events and movements. An hon
| est study of this lesson. with what IL
| involves, would give one the essential
/
which is the ability to perceive things
/ in their larger relationships, with a
| true historical perspective. Well do L
| remember an address by the late Blsh-
| op Fowler of the Methodist Episcopal
! church. in which he set forth the
march and campass of the Russian
nation, and its possibilities. More
/ definitely than any other one single
| experience in young reporters life,
| that great speech did for me what
oN-re Tr,F mol Sr7fa-
day School Lesson will do for other
young people-set them to cultivating
ar international consciousness. For
/ the only way to be a really up to date
and efficient person is to keep in mind
what has been and what may yet be,
in the whole large scheme of things.
A village mind is inadequate simply
because il does not take all the factors
into consideration.
Getting Gods Viewpoint.
Two little keys that help unlock
the mysteries of providence are the
quotations concerning God, My
| ways are not your ways and with
Him thousand years are as a day."
That is to say, God always sees things
in the large. He does not look thru
any mans spectacles. All His ways
with men comprehend large units of
time. His plans do not all work out
in a year or a century or a mil
lennium-but they all eventually
work out. Human views are made
quate, because they take account of
only a small portion of the great pat
tern of Gods weaving. We think in
small terms about Gods large plans.
The near misfortune means more to
us than the ultimate outcome Pri-
vate soldiers are often interested only
in battles, whereas commanders in
chief are concerned with the entire
campaign. To the Jews driven into
I oil II H.. H.
skies had fallen. In their place of
short vision. it was impossible to see
the great and beneficent purposes of
Jehovah in that stern experience.
Yet the exile was needed by the Jews
and by the world.
Into these dark days about which
the Sunday schools have been study
ing came the prophets who tried to
, help people to see things in the large,
and to point out the relation between
cause and effect. This prophet gift
of patriotism,
Which sees beyond the year.
Thine alabaster cities CLEAN,
Undimmed by human tears
alone sustains a people in a dark
time. If there were no prospect of a
long tomorrow, to justify today, we
should be of all men most miserable
A heaven is indispensable to any hap
Ply conception of earth. Every mother
; who has given her son a sacrifice to
the great war would indeed sorrow
as one who has no hope did she not
believe that God is working out in
our time some great purpose, which
is worthy of the best. This sense OF
forming part of an infinite and eter-
5 nal plan is one of the Hottest con-
ceptiOns possible to mortal. 1t links
him with the beautiful hereafter
wherein all things are made perfect
Holding Steady Today.
I The experiences of these old Jews
/ do not particularly interest US except
as they have a bearing upon our own
time. That the hand of Jehovah was
in the history of Israel concerns US
T less than that His hand is guiding the
e course of events in our world of the
here and now. And this is the very
, truth for today. Near views may be
l disconcerting, and the tangle of things
r Nnay seem ineXtricable, but the larger
, view-the look from Gods side of the
dark cloCd--reveals the outworking OF
> designs so vast that there must be q
> commotion in heaven.
n Our day seems to be the fruitior
7 time of history. The goals for which
> the prophets and patriots and seer:
agoniZed are now in sight. This is the
. day of universal emancipation. OLD
r shackles are being broken and old en-.
= Slavements ended. Entire nations arr
coming into the light of freedom and
self-government- Exiles are returning
s home. Social injustices OF immemor.
= ial antiquity are being righted. De
. spite the great war. hatred between
men and men, class and class, is di
= minishing
Il With a new sense of racial solidar
@ ity and interdependence, we are set
= ting about the task of retaining al
the waste places of earth, so that thu
s hungry everywhere may be fed. Bur
: denS that have been on the backs O
2 the depressed classes since the begin
ming of organized society are beint
lifted, Wealth, as well as opportun
r, ity, is finding a juster distribution
Best of all. a new sense of human
rights is being learned in the sever,