The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-12-27
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON
For Dec. 20 is, ''Fa.th's Victories"
Heb. IL: 0.2Z
BY WILLIAM t. ELLIS.

Flowers grow only on stems anc roots: |
and fruit is borne by trees that grew |
long before they produced. While |
ve r n liberation atom and Sni idealism. it is
not wise to forget the forces which |
produced them. Heroes who died in |
France are only portion of the army |
of liberty; in whose ranks the angels |
see many men and women who died |
long ago, without ever witnessing the |
sunrise of freedom. All prophets and |
dreamers, all teachers and warriors
and martyr spirits, who lived and died |
for the sake of human rights and well
fare are co-sharers with the hosts
who fought the final war to save the
world. 1t is inspiring to remember the
long line of those who. animated by
the lofty spirit Of Whittier, could cry.
"Whet matter, or they?
Mile or another's day!
So the right word be said;
"Ring BELLS. in distant steeples,
The joy Of unborn peoples.
Sound, trumpets. far-off blown.
Your triumph 10 my own"
S Since today stands on yesterdays
shoulders. we do well to look back,
series Of International Lessons, to
consider of what sort were they
whose heirs we are. We know the
glory they have bequeathed to US.
tho we do not always recognize
whence 1t came. Nor are we inclined
days best boons far enough back.
The worlds onward march, until
within the past half century, has been
slow. With patience and toilsomeness
while to the most precious gifts of our
forebears. We today are travelling by
the torch lighted by Abraham and the
other patriarchs and prophets of the
long. long ago.
Everybody's First Gift to His Day.
Looking backward, to the near and
distant past, we perceive that all who
and the generations and centuries to
follow, have been persons who dared
to live their own lives. They were
themselves first of all. To them 1t
was given to discern that Gods su-
preme gift to mortal is a personality.
Yesterday 1 watched the Fifth Avenue
throngs; and truly the sight Is n
stirring one. One depressing impress
sion, however, is the uniformity Of it
all-uniformity Of dress, uniformity
of vehicles, uniformity Of usages. 1t
looks as it civilized man is bent upon
effacing all the lines and points of
his individuality. Conformity seems
to be society's ideal; non-conformity
is the hero's.
Everybody's first debt to his day is
a life-his own best and most charac-'
teristic life, as free and independent
and courageous as the life OF Abra-
ham, Before man can give any
| other gift to the world he must give
it his own personality; and that per-
sonality developed to it's highest pot
entialities. The men who change the
world are the ones whom the world
cannot change. They have a sense
of the sanctity of their own spirits.
In their souls they have heard the
divine whisper. They know them
selves to be after the image of God.
and not after any of His mere Gre
atoms. 49,
This outstanding truth from our
studies in the ancient Jewish ratri-
| archs is one Of contemporaneousness
1t makes life and faith real in the
here and now. They walked with a
living God. Their faith was in One
who was present and near. We have
to follow them in this apprehension
of -eligion that was vital and Of
their own time. To be men of the
living day we must be men. of the liv-
ing Lord. One of our mower poets.
Thomas Curtis Clark. has written:
Our faith is in the Christ who walks
With men today, in street and mart;
With those who seek Him with the heart.
His Gospel calls for living men,
With singing blood and minds alert;
Strong men who fall to rise again,
Who strive and bleed with courage girt.
eve serve no God whose work is done,
Who rests within His armament;
Our God, His labors but begun,
Tolls evermore, with power unspent.
God was, and is nd e'er slfxn be-;
Christ lived and loved-and ioves us still;
And man goes forward, proud and free,
Gods present purpose to fulfill"
Getting the Big Idea.
One who keeps watch upon the
mood of men in his own day is i'm
/, pressed with the fact that the war
has awakened dormant spiritual SEN
Minds are more alert and fearless
than ever. This war has brought
an intellectual emancipation. Men
and women are freer to think and
act than ever before. And, each for
himself. there is an amazing amount
of independent looking at things.
With facts supplied by the press, and
other imprinted facts spoken from
person to person, the public has form
ed sober judgments.
1t is reassuring to our belief in
democracy. THAT on every hand the
wise and the unfettered seem to have
reached the same general conclusion
concerning the outcome Of the war
They see it is victory by the will
of God. General Foch, and all lesser
participants in the war, acknowledge
that there has been clearly a divine
Providence in the progress of the
fight. Napoleon's cynical observation
that God is on the side Of the heaviest
artillery has been fatty disapproved:
for in the earlier stages Of the war all
the material and tactical advantages
were with the Germans. Humanity
speaking, there was no sufficient rea-
son why the enemy should rot have
won by Christmas. 1914. The only
explanation that satisfies the reverent
soldier is that the unseen legions of
God were fighting on the side of the
forces Of righteousness.
This is the faith of the cradle; and
the profoundest conviction of the
wisest philosopher: there is benign
His will to pass. God is taking care
of His world. Our times are In His
hand"
There is a Divinity that shapes our ends