The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-06
BETTERED BY THE BOOK.

and drew his head down till her lips
touched his.
BE1TERED BY THE BOOK.
Terse Comments on the Uniform Pray
er Meeting Topic of the Young
Peoples Societies-Christian En-
deavor, Etc.-For April 4 Chris
tan Duty and Privilege. Bible
Reading" Ps. 1895.
Conventionally pious advice is read
the Bible" But the Bible is so big.
and sc varied and so full of things so
hard to understand, that the very
magnitude of the task deters many
persons from undertaking it at all
Why not go step at time? Ignor-
ing, for a moment, all the other books
of the wonderful collection, let US con-
centrate attention upon the first vol
ume of the immortal library. Here is
the Book of Genesis, which, except for
some dry spots, is most interesting
reading. 1t is one of the books which
a person has to know if he would
make any claim to being cultivated.
All literature is full of illusions to it
and quotations from it. 1t is book
that has dared the biggest themes
With divine audacity, it undertakes to
tell of the beginnings of the universe
of God, or man. of sin, and of history's
springs. The most that mankind
/
from this Book of Beginnings
The greatest books are those which
make the reader greater.
Who can remember the best selling
books of a year ago? Where are the
volumes that were hailed as epoch
making and the teachers who were
| to revolutionize thought? Forgotten
and neglected. most of them. But STILL
In increasing numbers, the world is
buying and reading the poems penned
by Hebrew poets three thousand years
ago. Favored tho they are by the
open air of Judean hills. by the court
of an Oriental king, by the trials of
wilderness wanderings, and by the
fiery furnace of slavery, exile and
persecution, the Psalms vet sound A.
universal note: They are eternally
contemporaneous. The heart of hu-
mility everywhere responds to them
They voice the deepest sentiments of
mankinds soul
Ihe men who wrote the Psalms dip
ped their pens into the blood of their
! own hearts: and only literature so
written is forever read
When We would pray. we find the
Psalmist has better words than our
own; when we would be grateful and
glad his strains become ours, when
again we discover that he exper-
fenced our exact case, and has ex-
, pressed 1t; when sense of our sin
overwhelms US, we find no words to
voice the souls cry like Davids; and
when our souls aspire after God,
water brooks, then we instinctiyely
turn to these ancient meditations to
give articulation to our profoundest
emotion. There is scarcely a mood to
which the human spirit is subject
that is not perfectly mirrored in this
most wonderful book of poems, the
Psalms of Israel
Over and over again men have said
that if they were to be cast away on
! a desert island with only one book,
/ they would chose for that book the
Bible. Such an exile would read Of
tenest. next to the Gospels the mex
haustible book of Psalms, with it's
comfort and its inspiration.
The hard headedness of the Book
of Proverbs is its most striking quail
ty. 1t treats of the common themes
Life as alert men know it is rnirrored
in these pages. The people we all
meet walk thru the book Here is the
the world, with honeyed words
meant only to facilitate his own
ends; here are the sluggard and the
TOOL; the usurer and the boaster; the
StdIlet WOIudH anu the QTunkdrQ, the
courtier and the slanderer; the jeal-
Gus person and the envious; the faith
full friend who is closer than {. broth
er, and the righteous man who is as
bold as a lion. A veritable portrait
gallery of human life is the Book of
Proverbs, and who SO studies it we'll
may find his own image and the
I labeled likeness of all classes of per-
sons with whom he is likely to meet,
The aim of the popular modern
books is to make easy reading" for
the multitude. The old books cared
only to impart profound truth
Wrestling with these trained readers
to think. That way came the strong
minds and intense views of our, fore
fathers We read more than they did,
but we read easier books, and think
less 1t would be a fine service to the
! world if this weeks Christian En-
deavor meeting should inspire a host
OF young people to undertake the
high, hard task of mastering the
Book of Hebrews, in the New Tesla
but easy tasks are not what the pres
ent generation needs To master the
profundities of this great bit or writ
ing-to rise to its alpine heights of
outlook-to share its daring glimpses
into eternity-is an intellectual and
spiritual feat better worth while
than the reading of hundred of the
! popular" modern books
LESS BAKERS WHEAT
Washington ApriI 6-Wheat con-