The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-08-09
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON
BIZ WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
FOR August II Is Helping Others
Luke 10:25-37; Galatians 6:1-1o.



Wars Rediscovcry In Religion.
Many message f IT the churches are
coming back from the battlefields OF
France. All the world is listening for
what this Transforming struggle may
have to say pom life's yaried phases.
We instinctively know that more than
the map OF the world is being made
over in this melting pot. Since the
conflict is essentially spiritual in its
broader aspects, and since it repre-
sents a m; ghty soul-decision fo- every
fighting man, we are looking and
listening most eagerly for what the
war will have to say to mankind
concerning the things of religion.
1t is yet too early to know all. But
the one great message has already
sounded clearly. Anybody who knows
anything about the life with the SOL
diers understands that they have come
to honor the religion that is expressed
in terms of ministry. >Some church.
men have been shocked at the ease
with which the men in the trenches
have let go their hold upon the usages
and conventions of the churches. All
our fine distinctions, which Separate
creed from creed, denomination from
denomination. church from church,
have simply disappeared. No man in
uniform in France cares copper
clacker about the individual charac--
teristics which his home church
boosted. He left his sectaria nism,
aid many of his scruples, somewhere
west of the Atlantic ocean. The new
ness of his state of mind concerning
the details of his faith is hard for the
home folk to grasp. OF deep, basic
religious conviction, he has more than
ever. There is no cheap and cynical in
fidelity in the army. Men who are
daily doing business with death, in
comradeship with noble souls, do not
SCOTS at the supreme realities
Discovering Anew an Old Truth.
These men in khaki have learned
afresh. not knowing. usually, that they
are but getting q new glimpse of first
principles, the primary truth of the
teachings of Jesus. 1t has been
brought to them in two ways that
the most religious thing in the uni
verse is to lay down ones life, either
| in one act of superb sacrifice. or by
daily, commonplace acts Of service.
for somebody or something aside from
sell.
This great idea first of all CLEANS
| before the soldiers eyes as he broods
upon his own enlistment as a SOL
der. Rightly and significantly, he
calls the military life Service"
That great word is employed inter-
| changeably for either army or navy.
Every man in uniform lis in Serv-
lice" Work behind the lines, either
at keeping books. unloading ships
erecting barracks. is called, in the
American Army, the Service of Sup
plies" Fortitude for the great en-
durance of the past four years has
been put into the hearts of our fight
ing men by the knowledge that they
T. 81 <nfJ
land country and all mankind.
AS he comes definitely into touch
with religion, in camp and on the
field, the soldier finds it taking quite
different forms from those which he
knew at home. In tbs new life reli-
Chaplains and Y. NJ. c. A. workers dc
3ittle or no preaching. They seem tc
assume that the soldiers religion:
knowledge and purposes may be TAX
en- for granted. and that he may b.
depended Upon to interpret the rea
significance of what they are doing
So the days of the avowed exponent.
of religion among the soldiers arr
filled with ministry.
They serve the men with station
cry and stamps. They provide games
j from checkers to baseball. The!
keep a supply of reading matter oil
hand They run moving pictur
I
variety Of other entertainments Il
their canteens. they supply the son
diers with the things he cannot ge
: from the army, and when he zoe
into battle they follow him with no
chocolate and other helps. If he can
not write, they pen his letters 70
him. When he is in the hospital
. they visit him and do for him what
i ever service is in their power. Liter
j ally hundred and one odd Jobs ar
the major work of the Representative
/ of religion in the army. Salvatio
; Army Iassies at the front expires
l their prayers in the form of pies
f their gospel by goodies.
81 All of this is a return to the wa
I of Jesus. who went about dom
. good" and who avowed that He wa
1 come mot to be ministeyed unto. bu
r imperceptibIy come to stress service
n more than service. ii. is not because c
y their gospel. but in spite of !
I Really. the Church should be a fe
| 1owship of helpers of men, of person
| who are willing to lay down thei
lives in self-forgetting ministry I
| anybody who may need them. 1t wa
in a moment of illumination that til
| church began to call her pastors, {
shepherds. by the Jesus-name of mir
listers. Every true clergyman
above all else the chief servant of h
4
the straight and narrow way when "
i began to speak of them merely 6
preachers. Apostolic Christianity wa
marvellous manifestation of sci
forgetting service.
Applying the Old Test
One night UP at the very front, Gui
e ing a fierce battle. spent an interes
r ing hour with Chaplain banker. IT.
!. first American chaplain to lose his III
% in France. He had undergone a heav
Is day. including a visit to the trench'
n TO arrange for the transport and tder
tification of our slain Even while y
1t talked there came a call for his aut'
n mobile. which he freely placed at It
n disposal of his brother officers. II
p life was an endless succession OF tasi
or ministry: and as he poured OFT n
a heart to me there was a lament TIL
he did not have more of distinctive
a religious" sort of work When he ]
Of himself consider his activities.