The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-03
For August is .'Manasseh's Sin and
Repentance."-IIC hron. 33:1-20.
A Good Fathers Bad Son.

A Good Fathers Bad Son.
The great plains of western Amer
lea do not .ypify life. The latter is
downs. History is succession of
mountain ranges, valleys and short
stretches of plain. Progress is not
a steady rise upward. 1t is inter-
rupted by many declines and depres-
sions- Reform is voted in today and
voted out tomorrow.
Hezekiah reigned righteous1y, and
it seemed as if wickedness was at an
end; but his young son, Manasseh,
succeeded him and all the old evils
came trooping back into power again,
reinforced, it seemed, at the moment,
tenfold. The lesson of this experience
of old Judah is one with the lesson
for today; for good people everywhere
need to learn, perhaps first of all, not
to grow discouraged. Most of the
triumphs of evil are due to the weari-
ness of the good. Thru the jaundiced
eye of the discouraged reformer it
may seem that Truth is forever on
the scafford, Wrong forever on the
throne" With better vision, how
ever, he would learn that,
Behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above his own"
A Boy in Peril.
Why should strong fathers so often
have Weakling sons? Primarily, per-
haps, because a hot house is a poor
place to grow boys. Fathers who
have achieved often make it too easy
for their sons. The latter are kept
out of school in which the parents
learned their most impe rtant lessons.
1t is the rare father who fully real
ICES, lit is good for a man to wear
the yoke in his youth" Yet that boy
who is not brought to school to dis
cipline, who has not learned the
significance of must" and to whom
duty is an unknown fact, is boy in
serious peril.
The worst fact about the good King
Hezekiah was his son Manasseh. For
one thing the lad came to power too
early, tho there is a sense in which
of the world. Every true man is
more concerned for the health and
happiness of his child than for the
prosperity of his business, or for any
honor that may come to him person
ally. This headstrong youngster who
fell heir to Hezekiah'S throne ruled
consciously, which is always a bad
thing for a child. Under evil court
influences he became a reactionary,
and there is no reactionary like a
young one. The worst old fogies are
the young men. The conservatism
some to progress. This boys state of
mind boded worse for the kingdom
than the wickedness of half a dozen
aged kings.
Cutting Loose From the Past.
Many there be like Abraham, who
set out from Ur of the Chaldees, but
few there be like him, who keep on.
The price of progress and liberty is
too high for most to pay judah had
$50 out the right way. 1t would ap-
pear as if she had learned her les
son well enough to continue therein:
but. alas! most of her virtue seems
to have been in the possession of the
good king, and now he was in the
sepulcher of his fathers. So at the
touch of boys hand the wheels of
progress were stopped. The nation.
almost in a day, went back to the old
forsaken idols, just as certain mis-
sionary to Africa has abandoned
Christianity and civilization and be-
come chief of cannibal tribe. To
this decline of Judah the famous cpl
gram could be applied: sit vas worse
than a crime; it was a blunder." Even
if the nation had not approved OF
Hezekiah's new way it might at least
have gone forward somehow, in its
own paths, without reverting to the
ways that had been so manifestly
proved to be evil. Yet when nation
is no telling where 1t will stop. Usual
Nv it winds up on the level of the low
est, as Judah did. Mannasseh truck
led to the basest sense of his lime.
He erected affairs and idols, and Gre
ated the worship of many gods. He
went to the very limit of heathenism.
Perhaps he did not Intentionally go
there, but he drifted and the drifter
is likely to land eventually at the
! very end of the stream. 1t takes reso-
luton and moral courage and constant
intellectual activity to maintain a
spiritual religion. When man.. f
a people stop thinking, and cease to
be actively aggressive concerning re-
ligious ideals then the loss of real
religion is an almost inevitable conse-
quence.
Bad Signs and Good Times.
This is an ugly, discouraging story,
one calculated to shake a mans faith
in humanity. 1t makes one almost
wonder why the Lord does not let us
go to the dogs. 1t is easy to under
stand the story of the flood, and of
Sodom and Gomorrah, after one has
contemplated unreined humanity.
Even in this enlightened year of our
Lord, nineteen hundred and seven
teen, it is still an uphill fight to main
tain the lofty standards of a pure re-
ligion, even as it was a way back in
the sixth century, B. c. One has but
to scan the advertisements found in
many of the reputable newspapers.
of fortunetelIers and clairvoyants and
palm readers and spiritual mediums
and what not, to have the question
raised in his own mind, as to wheth-
er there is not as much superstition
and idolatry in our own land and time
as there was in old Judah, when
| Manasseh sat on David's throne. Ma
ture, and presumably intelligent per-
sons are still looking for their des-
tiny in the stars. or a greasy pack OF
cards or an old tea cup instead of in
the will of the Infinite. When we
| consider the number of persons who
will not sit at a table in company
of thirteen, and who have cold chill
over the breaking of mirror, or the
| splitting of some salt, we wonder if we