The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-07

Cnap. 8.
Getting the Big Idea Fixed"
In a conservation congress held in
the South one man made the point
that it is better to get the great idea
of conservation or what another
called the principle of salvation, into
peoples minds than to teach them all
the methods of concentrations extant.
Plans are merely the product of a
purpose. Methods are the output of
motive. Get the big idea into a peo-
pies thinking and they may be trust
ed to find all the practical outwork-
ings of it that are necessary. The
best program of moral and national
reform is a passion for Righteousness;
details will take care of themselves
When one of China's greatest states
men told me that he felt that his ma
ton needs to adopt Christianity, he
did not have in mind any complete
system of theology; he does not know
anything about scientific theology.
But he did see clearly that the Chris
tan ideal, and the Christian spirit. are
China's present needs. Give China
the book, and let her people grasp its
genius and she will make port in her
troubled venture of a constitutional
form of government. Give her only
the forms and methods of constitu-
tionalism. with the old individualistic
and selfish spirit, and she will make
shipwreck of her great experiment.
The clear need of China, as of our
own land, is for new life to vitalize
the new forms of this changing day.
Better Than Strong Walls.
The Great Wall of North China, or
| the walls about Picking and Marking,
are not any more obsolete and inef-
fective for purposes of defence in
these modern times than were the
newly-built wall of Nehemiah to keep
SALEM They might thwart Sanballat,
Tobiah and Goshen, but they were
unavailing against the selfishness,
pride, idolatry and godlessness of
need of the returned Jews was for the
protection that would save them from
themselves. What says Amos r.
| Wells p
| Closer is the Lords protection, than a
| near investing wall;
Closer than a moat about me, closer than
Closer than suit of armor, or my hands
and feet can be:
| For against mine own assailing, His pro-
| lection keepeth me-"
The Jews who had returned from
the Babylonian exile were in a capital
position to adopt an electic religion;
and they had leaning that way. They
were surrounded by an assortment of
| creeds. There were more gods than
virtues. Most of the popular divinities
were easy-going, asking nothing of
straitness. There was free rein for all
| passions in the service of the gods of
| the nations. That is why the Jews
were so often tempted to stray from
Jehovah. 4 man is glad to cloak the
Indulgence of his frailties under the
cover of some religion.
Is The popularity of all sorts of cults
in our own time is to be explained in
this same way. Their moral obIiga-
| lions are not rigid and exacting. They
a of he oil Loo Of
the Mosaic law. Natural religion is
a Veritable high-brow fad in our times.
| 1t is an easy creed. twill let man
/ indulge, his selfishness to any extent,
SO long as he is mindful to burn in
! cenSe to the goddess of Good Form
Be polite and conventional, and you
| may do whatever you please within
/ these wide, bounds. says natural reli-
/ gion, which deifies the worst as well
as the best of mans nature
Leaders, Real and Sham.
1 Sir Robertson Nicoll, the great Brit
ism editor and critic, once gave me his
impression of certain public men on
this side of the water Concerning
one famous man he said that He
manages to keep just a step in front
OF the crowd, and he is ever looking
back over his shoulder to see if they
are following" That is a definition of
many a popular politician; but the
term leader" must be denied him.
The truly great statesman is the one
who leads the way to what he believes
to be righteousness and honor and
public welfare. He is less concerned
about peoples applause than about
their progress.
Fortunately. Jerusalem had that
kind of leaders during and after the
rebuilding of the walls. Nehemiah and
Ezra cared more for helping their
people than for pleasing them. Ths-
never besitated to point out the dam
gers which resided in the hearts of
the Jews, as well as those which arose
from without the city walls. They
were true leaders, not followers of the
crowd who managed to keep in front
of the procession, like small boys run
ming at the head of a circus parade
Once the wall was finished, these
leaders planned for a great festival OF
recognition of the law of the nation,
which was the law of Jehovah. 1t is
the degree of a community's reyer-
ence for law that measures it's real
. stability. A common misapprehension
is that it is the volume of business thai
/. determines community'S strength;
but this is not so. The strength of the
law is the strength of peoples civil
izatfon. Not without reason does the
, British poet of empire cry to his far
flung fellow countrymen:
Keep We the law; be swift in all obedience
Drive the road and bridge the Ford.
Make We sure to eacn his won
That the reap where he hath sown:
By the peace among the peoples let meI
know We serve the Lord"
A Get-Together Meeting.
Many cities in the southern ano
western parts of the United States
! have entered upon a regular cam
paign of advertising and promotion
, They have adopted slogans and en-
bfems. and assiduously WOO increased
prosperity. The first step in every
such campaign is to get the people
together, and to make them feel theii
? civic solidarity. No committee Of
business men can boom a city sue.
: cessfully unless there be present the
t genuinely unified community con.
seriousness.