The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-02-16
For February IS is, Jesus Heals a
Nobleman's Son.''-John 4:43-54.
When a Mans Son Is Concerned

For February Is is, Jesus Heals a |
! Nobleman's Son."-John 4:43-54.
When Mans Son Is Concerned.
! He was a nobleman. Yet he was
in trouble. That does not accord with |
our modern notions. If a man has |
wealth and position he has the things
most desirable. as most people look
upon life. There are no ills that
money cannot heal, according to the
popular view. To be rich and to have
a high social position is the supreme
ambition of so many persons that we
may fairly call it the ruling passion of
| the time.
OF those who do not consciously
aspire to be rich. an alarming pro-
portion are cynical and bitter to-
ward the wealthy. This undercur-
rent of hostility toward the prosper
| Gus is one of the ominous signs of
the times. The simple fact that the
central figure in this old story was a
nobleman is enough to rule him out of
the sympathy of an extreme group of
social agitators in our day. Let one
whose own loyalty to the great mass
of people, who are poor in this
| worlds good, has never been ques-
toned, declare that the hero of this
Bible story was a nobleman in all
meanings of that term; and his story
is told with unequivocal commenda-
ton. He is one of the large number
of well-to-do and even distinguished
persons whom Jesus honored with
His friendship when on earth. Those
| persons who would wage a class war
get no encouragement from the great
arbiter of the days social ideals.
This lesson makes clear that the line
of division which Jesus would run
thru society is vertical, and not hori-
zontal.
AS for the absurd notion-as per-
nicious as it is absurd-that to be
rich is to escape trouble, this story
should dissipate it entirely, and make
clear that essential happiness or I'M
happiness is in no wise dependent
upon the worldly state. For this
nobleman, who was one of King He
rods officials. was in trouble, the
worst sort of trouble. Loss of position
and wealth he might face with forth
tude, for that would be merely a mis-
fortune in estate; instead, he was con-
fronted with sorrow of the heart, and
a loss that would last as long as life
| itself That was real trouble. The
person who has his loved ones about
him, in health and undimmed affec-
ton and unsullied honor, knows moth
ing of the sorrows that count. l have
a friend, eminent in the commercial
! world. and free at almost any time
to command one of the most con-
spicuous business positions in the
land, whose real burden is the loss of
his only son. That is what has put
the deep lines into his face-and, Incl
dentally, made a saint of him.
Make no mistake about this: the
only place person can be really SER
| iously wounded is in the heart. There
| still haunts my memory a fragment of
a conversation I was one day forced
to hear as I sat writing in one of the
| reception rooms of the Waldorf AS
toria hotel, New York. A distinguish
ed-looking man, and his deliberately
dressed son-in-law. were discussing
the family skeleton an unwise
daughter and her foolish husband
The WEAKNESS of heart-break in the
fathers voice was beyond the power
Of all wealth to remove. A parent
, puts all his happiness in the keeping
Of his children.
. do you know that your soul is of my soul
a such part
h That you seem to be fiber and core of my
heart?
I None other can please me or praise me as
o Remember the world will be quick with its
blame,
( If shadow or stain ever darken your name.
i Like mother, like son. is a saying so true
The world will judge largely of mother
o Be this then your task. if task it shall be,
8 To force this proud world to do homage to
y me-
e Be sure it will say when its verdict you've
[. She reaps as she sowed. The man is her
, | son. ="
s The Helper of Sons.
n Life wears a different aspect when
9 seen across a baby's cradle. To have
/ become a parent has changed many
a a frivolous girl into a noble, God
!. fearing woman; and many a careless
:. man into a champion of the best
e things, and seeker after God. Be
!, ing parent makes it easy to say
!, | with new meaning and dependence
: and sincerity, "Our Father" Even
l. the worldliest mother teaches her
child an evening prayer and sends it
y come, we all feel our especial need OF
4 God. There are problems connected
: with sons and daughters which can
4, not be solved apart from the help OF
a the Heavenly Father.
n Most naturally, this Capernaum no.
y bleman did what myriads of fathers
,r since have done: when in trouble over
20 mis- son, he turned to Jesus. All, the
h prayers that storm heaven, night after
lie night in behalf of these sonsi The
K Heavenly Father and the Heavenly
y Son understand every thro b of the
M parent heart. Surely, no other errano
l. to heaven finds more sympathetic at
n tention than these pleas for sons and
is daughters.
e So long as Jesus was mere sub
+ ject of countryside speculation, th5
= lnobleman could discuss Him careless
% Iy and with detachment; but when his
is son fell i'll, esperately i'll, then the
IL mans interest became personal ano
D. intense To him Jesus was no longer
h the subject of casual debate in the
,e baths and at dinner tables but ar
only hope of deliverance. Religion
- became to him at once the most per
| sonal thing on earth. In Jesus he
saw the one chance for his sons life
There is profound educational
principle to which the experience OF
| millions has borne witness, implied
in this phase of the lesson. 1t is thai
| fathers do most for their sons-most
in the way of everyday prudence, as
well as on a higher plane-when they
put the boys into vital contact with
| Christ The surest way to avoid the
| heart-breaks that come from children
who go wrong rs to make them early
friends of Christ. There are no wilC
| oats for the Christian boy; the wis