The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-06-29
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
by w. T. ELLIS

| service. '-lSa- Oh. b.
Heroes and "Slaclers,'' and Why.
! Like a burning hand thrust out of
the far past of Palestine and Baby
lonia, to throw light upon the living
issue of courage versus cowardice,
heroes or 'slackers,' comes this mes
sage for the millions of Sunday school
members from the old book Of Isaiah.
1t is as pertinent and as aflame as
If kindled yesterday in the office of
a great editor or prophet. Human,
personal, vital, the summons is like a
great recruiters call.
Old Isaiah comes right down to date
to help us clear up our foggy think
ing. He fulfills the living prophets
| office of helping men to see their
present life in the light of eternal con-
siderations. What every true preach
er in Canada and the United States
should be doing in the present crisis,
this ancient Hebrew seer accom-
plishes For there is no denying the
fact that many persons are not seeing
straight upon the tremendous issue
raised by the war. They are still talk
ing in terms of personal comfort and
safety and profit. They argue as if
enlistment were a matter of indi-
vidual caprice or convenience. Where
as the whole problem is one of per-
ception of great spiritual truth, and
a realization of the Eternal.
Formal religion helps little in
crisis like the present,-tho, as
Canadian leader said to me recently,
There are no slackers in the church
es." Men of the churches. he meant,
have been kept so squarely up against
ideals and duty that it is almost in
stinctive with them to answer the
great call. A mans conduct in a
crisis is usually determined by his
habitual attitude toward God Real
greatness comes, as it came to Isaiah,
by a vivid, real and immediate sense
of the Supreme Being. Getting a
clear vision of God makes the hero;
lack of it the Stacker.
The Look That Made Hero.
In a troubled time, when self-inter-
est was enervating the men In hlgh
places, who should have been the
| foremost patriots, this man Isaiah was
given a glimpse of Jehovah, high and
lifted up, amid all the glory of the
train of heaven. The majesty of the
| Most High was unveiled to him Tor an
| instant. That which the seraphlm
could not behold with unveiled face
was permitted to mortal-for man Is
! famed in some things above the an
| gels. The ascription of the seraphtc
host was Holy, holy, holy, is the
Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full
of his glory"
That look made Isaiah a hero. He
rightly valued himself in the light of
Gods greatness Nothing so teaches
true humility as a sense of the High
| est To know relative values is the
first essential of wisdom. The slack
err has seen only himself: that is
why he is a coward, and bent on saw
ing something not worth saving, his
ignoble self. Whereas, could he but
view things in due proportion, and ac-
quire a sense of his insignificance ex-
cept as he serve the will of God, he
would at once possess that which
cannot be lost, a heroic spirit.
- H.
possession of millions in our land and
day, they freely give up their dearest
at the call of patriotic duty. What
parent would not rather give a son
to death for noble cause than to
have the mere physical companionship
of a coward? Who would save the
body at the cost of the soul? The
touch of God upon the spirit makes
the hero, even as it did of Isaiah. 1t
was negro poet, Paul Lawrence Dun
bar, who wrote the days message into
verse:
Long since, in sore distress, I heard
Lord, who prevailest, with resistless
Ever from wal. and strife keep me away,
| My battles fight.
II know not if play. the Pharisee,
And If my brother after all be right;
But mine shall be the warriors plea to
Strength for the fight,
81 do not ask that Thou shalt front the
And drive the warning foeman from
my sight;
Strength for the fight
when foes upon me. press, let me not
Not think to turn me into coward flight.
only ask to make my arms prevail
Strength for the fight!
Still let mine eyes look ever on the foe,
Still let mine armor case me strong and
bright;
And grant me- as I deal each righteous
Strength for the fight.
"And when, at eventide, the fray is done,
My. soul to Deaths bedchamber do Thou
light,
Rest from the fight"
Getting Down to Basis.
Why did Britain lose the choicest
of her young manhood in the earliest
battles? Because her best were first
to leap to the fray. They instinctively
obeyed the impulse of their blood.
''Noblesse oblige" had been taught
them from infancy. They were the
or is all and life itself a little thing.
Jauntily they Jared forth to death, be-
cause to them duty and patriotism and
ohivalry were very great, and mere
existence an entirely incidental mat
ter. That is why the churches of Can
ada have been the first to feel the
depletion of young men.
After all and under all, it is ideals
that count. And ideals are chiefly de-
termined by what a man thinks about
God. If he have a great God, who
is incarnate Truth and Justice, a God
whose love is represented by sacri-
flee, a God who expresses himself in
the life of His crucified Son, then
that man will not hesitate to sacrifice
himself for the divine ideals of JUS
tice and truth and love. In the very
spirit of the Deity whom his soul