The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-01-12
For January IA is John the Baptist
and Jesus.''-John 1:19:34.

and Jesus."-John 1:19:34.
\ Big Man Who Took Second Place.
| AS now, so it was in the day of
| John the BaptiZer. A new day was
dawning, a new era was about to be-
gin. the old order was drawing to an
| end. So there had to be an Intro
Queer of The Things That Were To Be.
! Somebody must needs speak out fear
lessly-somebody who saw the made
quacy of the old and the character OF
the new. A crisis without a prophet
would be only a calamity.
Then, as now, the Interpreter who
| stood between the two times was a
preacher of righteousness. In all the
| high hours of life We listen to the man
who speaks for God and the eternal
verities. That is why the real preach
! er, the man whose eyes and ears and
! lips have been doing business privately
! with God, is having today his oppor-
tunity of ages. At a time like the
present, there is supreme need of men
such as John the BaptiZer-free men,
who nave been in the desert, open
souled and alone with God; fearless
men, who are not interested in holding
a job or filling pulpit but in speak
ing a message that is vital enough to
| be sensational; humble men, who are
| content to pass the laurels and the
| honors on to others, if only they may
point the way for stumbling feet; God
the divine realities, and the appearing
of the Redeener who comes bringing
| salvation
There are such men. Successors to
John the Baptizer are with US today.
Some are ordained ministers of the
Gospel; some are social workers and
publicists; some are writers and some
are teachers. They are seers of God,
who know how to suffer but do not
know how to keep silence. All of them
are, like John, needless of expedi-
ency: but expediency is not what the
world needs most nowadays. We al
ready have enough of it to wreck the
| nation. Society is overloaded with
conservative, prudent, cautious, tact
full and sophisticated leaders," our
hope is not in them, but in the few
who dare smash precedent, violate
convention. ignore expediency, and
blaze forth with Gods clear word OF
| truth concerning our own day.
What if they are martyred for their
! message? Like John, they have borne
witness to the truth, and that is the
highest success possible to mortal. In
olden days the words witness and
martyr" were used Interchangeable
so that the martyrs of Christ were
called witnesses" John had his head
cut off long before he saw the tri-
umph of the kingdom he proclaimed;
but John has a place in the gallery OF
earth's few immortal names. Some
thing of the flavor of his character
fingers in the lines of Louis INTER
meyer:
God, tho this life is but a wrath,
Altho we know not what we use
Attic we grope with little faith,
Give me the heart to Highland lose.
Ever insurgent let me be,
ra s me more dfTng than devout
And fill me with buoyant doubt.
open my eyes to visions grit
With beauty and with wonder lit
But let me always the dirt,
And all that spawn and die in 1t.
open my ears to music, let
Me thrill with springs first flutes and
But never let me dare forget
The bitter ballads of the slums.
From compromise and things half done
Keep me, with stern and stubborn
pride;
And when. at last. the fight is won.
God, keep me still unsatisfied.''
A Sensational Preacher.
Two Johns figure in this story, ant
: both shine in reflected light. One i.
John the Evangelist, who wrote the
book we are studying and who was a
first a disciple of the other John. Thi.
central character. John the Baptizer
was a second cousin Of Jesus and him
self the child of wonderful birth. A
Nazarite, with unshorn locks and lif,
of abstemiousness was John, the will
derneSS- dweller. He had lived apar
from men in the majestic spaces anC
silences of the desert: for one mus
have time apart from the world if on,
is to serve the world. Why should w;
expect the modern city pastor, slav,
of a telephone, of countless commit
tees and card-catalogueS and socia
engagements, to have a clear, ringing
vital message? The poor man doe
well if he keeps up with his engage
ments and escapes nervous prostra
ktion. Only the man with courage tt
insist upon solitude can speak tn,
fresh and living word of peace ant
power to harassed and over-drivel
world.
"a freak" would be the name tina
| cynical and otherwise Jerusalem
men about town. naturally applied t,
John. He did not wear the clerica
garb of his time, with bordered rob-
and ostentatious phyla cteries. DIR
James Stalker describes his appear
ance tersely:
His hair was long and unkempt
and his features were tanned will
the sun and the air of the desert
Probably they were thinned, too, b,
austerity; for his habitual food wa
of the simplest order, consisting onl,
of locusts and wild honey. Locusts
drled ana preserved, form still, at tn
l present day, an article of food in tn
east, but only among the very poor
people in the least degree luxurtou
! or scrupulous would not look at it
5 Wild honey, formed by hives of bee
: in the crevices of rocks or in riftet
trees. abounds in the desert-pla ces o
l Palestine, and may be gathered by an,
one who wanders there. The raimen
of the Baptist correspondent with hi
] food, consisting of garment of tn
r very coarsest and cheapest CLOTH mad
} of cameps hair. The girdle of tn
= Oriental is an article of clothing o.
which a great deal of taste and ex
i pense is laid out. being frequently
:, fine material and gay coloring. wit
:. the added adornment of elaborat
! needlework; but the girdle with whicl
Johns garment was confined was n
e more than a rough band of leather
e Everything. in short, about his exter