The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-22
For February "a is The Growth of
the Kingdom" Mark 4:21-34.
Our Times and the kingdo pm.

the Kingdom" Mark 4-2134.
Our Times and the Kingdom.
So loud is the thunder of battle
guns that some of US cannot hear the
still, small voices of our day. We
watch the waves, as daily recorded
in the news from the front, but We
miss the tides. Things obscure trends.
And after all, IS President Wilson has
made clear even to the most needless,
this war is being fought for certain
long ensuing and abiding goals which
reside in that realm of the spirit. Our
armies are fighting for the coming
of that kingdom OF righteousness on
all the earth Of which Jesus taught
So it Is timely that the Sunday
schools of North America should de-
vote a lesson to the parallels OF the
growth of the kingdom of heaven.
Seeds That Split Stones.
A seed fell into a creNice in rock,
where dust and soil had gathered. A
tiny green shoot soon appeared. This
grew into a sapling: the sapling grew
into a tree. and, 10. such was the power
rock was -sundered. There are SEEDS
of new ideas sprouting in our time In
the cracked rocks of ancient customs
and conservatism. Because the SEEDS
seem little, foolish men have dlsre-
garded them. If there is any lesson
S
story of the mustard seed, as told by
Jesus, it is that what is despised to-
day may be mighty tomorrow.
While we study the parable of the
insignificant little seed that became
a great plant, let us give a glance IN
passing to the amazing 1oiiy Oh Or
ganized Christianity, which has ever
shown itself strangely blind to the
tendencies of its own times, and
which has been at no pains to guide
the shaping forces of life. Such
potent agencies as the Sunday School
and the Young Peoples Society have
had to come to their greatness OF
power before ever the organized
churches realized their potentialities.
Who, among all the leaders of Chris
tendon, would think, it the business
of the church to encourage choice
young men to go into Journalism. not
for purposes of religious propaganda,
but for purposes of human service
and kingdom ministry? So. too,
young men and young women become
teachers of the young without ever
an inspiring or guiding word from
their religious leaders. Who gives
heed to the men who draw the pic
lures of the periodical press, which so
affect the thinking of the masses!
Has any ecclesiastical assembly ever
devoted five minutes to a considera-
ton of the power of the song writer,
or even of the men who determine
the character of a nations humor
l know a little woman who writes
hundreds of Sunday school songs,
sung by the very little children
songs that make an abiding impress
sion upon the plastic mind of youth:
I doubt, though, if she has ever had
a word of praise or encouragement
or suggestion from any CHRISTIAN
leader of our time. The truth is
the churches are culpably derelict in
undertaking and ignoring the forces
which fix the ideals of our day. The
seeds and saplings that are to be-
come the trees of tomorrow might
be better for little tending
Patience With the Seed.
All the great forces grow silently.
There is less power in a noisy crowd
than there is in the retired thinker in
his study. The philosopher. the in
yentor the scientist, working apart
from man, unheeded and unappraised
by even his nearest neighbors. may be
setting into motion forces-which will
profoundly affect the life of tomor
low. All about US the mustard seed
parable is being enacted. Let US learn
its lesson and not despise the day of
small things.
Nobody has such faith as the farm
err. He spends winter, spring, and
most of summer in preparing for his
harvest. With seed in the ground. he
he waits. The seed cannot be hurried
if it is &c bring forth good fruit. New
ertheleSs, the farmer is an incurable
optimist. He expects a harvest. altho
he recognizes that it takes a miracle
of nature to produce it every year.
In religion, too, something of the
same patience with the seed is need
ed The Christian church has under
taken to raise a worldwide harvest.
AS yet, the seed is only terminating in
H. T., r1l-
India, there has been a wonderful
sowing of Christian truth. but the full
harvest is not yet. All over that won
derful land an observer may see the
mustard seed of truth sproutiIS and
he has faith that the day is to come
when that great tree, whose leaves
shall be for the healing of the nations,
will result. But patience is needed.
Here is an article of every Chris
t1aE's creed that should permeate all
ms thinking: whether we watch it or
not, whether we understand it or not
the kingdom of heaven is growing and
coming. In ways beyond our ken.
and by agencies that are past human
grasp, that kingdom. which means
mans veal as well as Gods glory is
steadily rising toward it's fitness of
dominion.
Some Kingdom Blunders.
There are three classes of people
wt.o especially need the teaching of
this parable of the mustard seed, for
tney are Numbering in the matter of
the Kingdoms coming
First. there is the kingdom-to-come-
1n-a-hurry crowd They are sure that
the millennium will dawn tomorrow.
They see in every express train and
cloud-piercing airship a fulfillment of
the prophecy that men shall run to
and fro over the earth. Few of these
are gifted with any historical sense
and they are ignorant of the fact that
their same type of character got Just
as excited over the Introduction of the
stage coach. In the wireless telegraph
and in the discovery of the North pole
they see signs of the swift coming of
the kingdom They have no patience:
they cannot understand any other
time than the present day: their sense
of proportion is lacking. The present
world war is to them an evide nee that