The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-17
For August 10 is Finding the Book
of the Law."-II Chron. 34:14-33
Getting the Book That Gets Us.

first meets the masters of literature.
Shakespeare. once but great ma ne,
becomes a land of Arcadia; Tepny-
son moves the noblest sentiments of
his heart; Browning summons him
to the souls home on the heights
Scott leads him into the golden fields
of romance. and Hugo shows him
that he is a blood brother to all hu-
mainly. The ending of these begin
nings who can tell?
Especially momentous is the occa-
sion when a person of sensitive na
ture first finds the Bible for himself
as a living book, and not as mere
article of ecclesiastical furniture. He
has known it always as a repository
of texts from which sermons were
preached and as a book much affect
ed by religious people. But of a sud
den, in a shining, tranfiguring hour
he realizes that the Book is for him
Observation-Disclosures it is athrob with
present import, that it is delicately
attuned to his Immediate need and at
titude, and that it is directly for him.
a clear, insistent and authorize live
message of duty and destiny.
The discovery of the Bible. as each
person makes it for himself, is as
great an occasion as Columbus dis
covery of America, or as King Jo-
siah's discovery of the old Book of
Law. This is the one vital, compre-
hensive, power-imparting and eter-
naily contemporaneou volume 1t
continues year after year, to be the
best selling book of the week" 1t
is as its name declares, The" Book
A Kings Treasure.
1t was while treasure hunting that
the priests found among the silver
and gold of the temple the better
riches of the Book of the Law. 10
siah had been instituting reforms.
as last weeks lesson showed, and in
the progress of the work this partic-
ular and precious roll--possibly the
original; certainly special and au-
thorized copy-was unearthed. The
discovery recalls the principle that
we get light as we go on; the con
verse of which is that Every duty
we omit obscures some truth we
should have known" Because the
temple had been neglected, its guild
ance had been lost
Some of us cherish the hope that
after Jerusalem passes out of The
power of the Turk there will be mo-
mentous discoveries in the subter-
ranean chambers and passages of
Mount Zion. Many priceless treas
ures that have been lost may be re-
covered. What if the Ark of the
Covenant should be found?
Occasionally a miner or adventurer
discovers a lost mine" Lost arts
there are, also, and lost peoples. There
are even lost Bibles today, as is
Josiah's time; preacher rescued one
( from an ash barrel, and it now adorns
the pulpit of a great New York
church. Some Bibles are lost in the
bottoms of trunks and in garrets; and
some are effectively lost in glass cases
and on parlor tables. In every case it
is dire calamity when a person or a
people lose the Bible.
| 1t was a special copy of the law
that was found by the priests; in he
sense that ones own Bible is dearer
I q n oil
than any other there is difference
in Bibles. The passing of the cum
| bersome family Bible is not to be re-
GREETED where it is supplanted by the
more convenient and disable individual
Bibles in the best translation. He
! is poor indeed who does not possess
his own Bible, more familiar to his
fingers than any other book.
King Josiah found his in a temple.
/ That is where it would naturally be
| looked for; altho it is sometimes lost
from modern churches People go to
church to find out what the word of
God is; they do not want a garbled
edition of the daily paper, nor some
of the times, nor even mans ingenious
| comments on the Book itself: they
want the word, plainly and directly
presented and explained.
| The Corner Stone of Reform.
| This great find was exactly what
{ was needed TO j REFORMS
deep and abiding. There is no Fer
manent basis for religious progress
| except a generally read Bible. Tt ere
/ is a deal of talk today about an "ethi-
/ cal revival" but no merely ethical re-
vival can come to stay; it must be
sustained by study of the Scriptures.
Impulses and emotions pass. the Bible
| remains. No matter how many con-
verts a revival may gain, most Of
them will lapse unless they are fed
and nurtured by intelligent. persistent
study of the quickening Word. Il Is
a portentous fact that only where
the Bible has been a living book has
Christianity flourished in vitality and
| fruitlessness. Many a soldier will tes-
| tify that it was worth his while to go
into the trenches to become acqua mt
ed with a pocket Testament.
Even a purely secular body like the
National Education association, has
spoken out in unmistakable terms
concerning the indispensability of the
Bible in any complete scheme of mod
ern education. The pre-eminent i'm
portance of the Bible in public in
struction and progress is indicated by
HuXley's saying, The Bible has been
the Magma Charta of the poor and Up
pressed"
After ALL the world needs and must
have some invariab BILE rule of con-
duct. The final appeal is not to con-
vention. reason or conscience; for
those are IalllDle- l ne supreme court
of ethics is the old Bible, which has
for centuries moulded the lives of the
best people of the world.
\ Book That Does Things.
No other writings have the Bibles
power to make men squirm. 1t has
the keenest, subtlest, most biting and
most burning language ever penned
as we'll as the gentlest, tenderest and
most comforting. The power of the
|. Book to move men to action is pro-
digious: it has caused wars, over
turned empires and been the domi-
mating influence in shaping the course
of history. 1t has nerved men to bat
tie and it has bent them to the dus
in contrition. The power of the sim
pie Word of God to transform lives