The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-04
May We Do AS We please?

Aboard ship one time I head an
"emancipated" woman declare that
respecting virtue itself zone might do
as one pleased" and it was "nobody's
business" Questioned, she at once adj
mitted that she did not believe in God
or in any absolute standards of right
or wrong. She thought God and the
Bible good for those still in the child
hood of the racei OF course it was
easy to make clear that these new
views were but the jungle come to
town in city clothes; and that from
her own low standard of seIfishness
they were inexpedient and unwork-
able. The human race as a whole, in
all lands. has learned that fact But
the incident shed light on the trend
of the times.
''In vain we call our notions fudge
The Ten Commandments will not bulge,
And stealing still continues stealing"
There are some truths and facts as
fixed as the pole star. While we are
busy making over the world we have
to take these into account. None of
cur Wanted progress has taken us
past the eternal integrities. Some of
us think so, like the negro on a sailing
boat who was given the helm and
told to steer for the North Star. In a
little time he awakened the skipper,
crying. Captain! come gimme anoth-
er start Use done sailed past that
one" Puerile blunderers. who have
mismanaged the craft of life, may
think they have sailed past the inn
movable standards of the Eternal: but
these are the persons whose folly fills
their world with sorrow and shame
and failure.
Nobody may do as he pleases. I'M
less he please to do the will of God.
For behind all and above all and be-
frv oil Ct desf he 14o rola s1xxyf Of
the universe, which is God. Boil
shevikism does not work in the moral
realm any more than 1t does in Rus
STA. Life must be kept true to its CEN
ter. else the machinery will knock and
jolt and finally collapse.
From Fetch to Nirvana.
Jungle-dwellers and oriental philos-
opher and conquering general all ac-
cept the idea of a God. 1t may be
but the mid-African's stick. or 1t may
be the dreamy-eyed Buddhist's alb
straction of Allness which he calls
r:'r ana. In its totllity, the human
race has voted stolidly for a Being.
outside of itself, to whom it owes a
responsibility.
Since the war, as not before for
generations. all of civilization sub
scribes to the creed, "y believe in God"
We hear the reverent words of Cen
eral Foch. General Pershing. General
f1d1R, AQILlTdl Beatty, anu tile OlHel
fighting men, and we agree that this
God has nightly displayed his per-
sonal providence during the world war.
We see that He is a God who fights
for Justice and Righteousness and lib
erty and brotherhood. His character
is revealed by his works.
What we believe about God is the
most important factor in shaping our
cwn conduct and character. Shallow
pated persons occasionally say, ut
does not matter what a man believes,
so long as he acts right" But history
is one long testimony to the truth that
men act only according to their be-
Iiefs. The beliefs of Luther's Germany
had to be changed by the cult of ma
terialistic philosophy before there
could be produced the monstrosity of
"kultur'' and frightfulness. las a
man thinketh. SO he is" Given a holy
God to whom people are loyal. and
you will have a holy people. Let our
boys and girls grow up untaught con-
corning God. or in circles where the
will of God is not reckIned with, and
there will inevitably follow a genera
ton of selfish and loose-living men
and women.
Collins. the free-thinker. once met a
plain farmer. and asked him where
he was going. ITO church, sir"
What ar you going to do there %
~ W9s'n n5sle e0 GOD 7 sosh great dSa
/
can that be-" HE is so great. sir.
that the heaven of heavens cannot
contain him. and so little that He can
dwell in my heart" Collins said that
this answer from the farmer had
more effect upon his mind than all
the learned books written against him.
A Man as q Mirror.
Once. in the city of Alexandria,
/ in Egypt, / interviewed Abbas Eff
| fendi, the head of the Behai cult; and
! his talk was all of manifestations
or. of men who mirrored God. He
kept returning to this idea of the
prophets as mirrors. It is a good one.
| In the greatest modern. telescope one
does not look directly at the heavenly
| bodies, but into a wonderful and per-
feet mirror. So to see God most
clearly, we must behold him mirrored
in the face of Jesus Christ. We cam
| not comprehend God in his infinity.
but We can behold him In the person