The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-10-03

29-42.
After the War Careers.
Returning soldiers find after-the-
war work irksome. 1t is hard to set
tie down to a want ad basis. Life at
home seems trivial and monotonous
for many service men: their souls,
which once scaled the glory heights,
seek larger satisfactions than the daily
round of life in a shop, an office, or a
store. This is one explanation of the
tendency of some men to deal dras-
tically with economic and political
/ conditions.
| Wise national leadership will util-
| lie the restless spirit of the soldiers
| for the attainment of the loftier levels
| of life to which all the world aspires.
| Not by depressing, but by nobly salts
! flying the larger impulses of men are
dangers to be escaped and prizes
chance to be the best and do the most
! of which they are capable. They
saved the world from destruction in
/ France and in Flanders and in Tur-
key: may they not save the world for
| reconstruction in the homeland?
Always the spirit of high adventure
and of pioneering has burned in the
| breast of young men. They are the
| ones who desire and who dare. Long
ago two such, jewellers in land which
| is today a problem place. center of
| world events, had put the spirit of the
| Quest above business and the money
making, above Housekeeping ease.
| above the conventional routine Of
their friends, above the ordinary
| pleasures of youth. They set out to
find and follow the best. That made
them disciples of hairy desert proph-
/ ct named John the Baptist. AS far
as he went they accompanied him;
| and thus were prepared to go farther
In their example we find a message
for high-souled, restless young men
| today. The Leader whom they fol-
| lowed is still calling for recruits who
will go the limit in the work of MAX
| ing over the world by showing its peo-
pie a better way of life.
Things We Outgrow.
Dozens of officers and enlisted men
in France and elsewhere have told
ME that they cannot go back to their
old jobs; they have outgrown them.
They want something better suited to
the new power which they feel re-
surgent within themselves. We do
outgrow tasks and books and leaders.
A few evenings ago I picked up a
book which has been in my library
for twenty years. When l bought it
I found it vital and helpful. Now it
| leaves me cold; it seems to be almost
juvenile in the way it states perfectly
obvious truths. The book is no longer
for me; 1 have advanced beyond it.
| L
| have advanced because Of it and
others like it; we may not forget our
early helpers, in books and work and
t friends.
The two Galilean fishermen about
whom the Sunday schools are study
ing this week outgrew their life by
the lake, and sought the best leader
ship into a larger satisfaction they
could find. Then, in time. they out
grew John the Baptist-though he
saw 1t before they did, and pointed
them to a Leader who can never be
outgrown; who is today as far in ad-
vance of the greatest explorer into
) twentieth century life as he was in
advance of Peter and John. This is
the secret of intellectual and spiritual
strength; follow the best you know
until you find a better. Go with any
prophet of light as far a he can lead
you-and then go on to the greater
1t is the glory of the teacher that he
sets a few of his pupils to travelling
farther than he himself can journey.
: When the Jordan Rolls.
; have lately seen the Jordan river
: where it tumbles joyously out of the
Lake of Galilee. over rocks and amio
t beautiful oleanders, and also down BY
= Jericho where it flows sluggishlS
by the soil thru which 1t has come
into the Dead sea. Most of the Length
of the Jordan is deserted of human
! habitation today; and along its banE
l the British and Australian soldier:
did brilliant fighting during the war
In the time of our Lesson it was more
populous, for to the eastward lay thu
great Greek and Roman cities which
! are now only basalt ruins on the up
lands of Bashon and Moab.
BY this river, which has come tt
be a literary and religious symbol O.
decision Tnhn
7 preached in such virile tones that hi
. world thronged out to hear him
9 Whenever a man comes from God
r with a vital message which he cal
? apply to his own day, and express il
o | the speech of the people, he will b.
discovered by the multitudes. Johl
! did not need to employ a publicit.
= | committee. No group of leading citi
: zens had to underwrite or employ him
e He did not have to secure an adyan
:, tageous site for his auditorium. In
o stead, he spoke living word, of
a from the haunts of men. and the PEG
o pie thronged to 1t. Ordinarily, nova
e days, the public objects to travelling
as much as mile to church.
y One proof of Johns real GREATNESS
: was his consciousness of greater t
p come. He had none of the egotisn
of the average professional evangelist
He called himself only a voice; an,
accepted his function as merely tina
d of a fngerboard marked Behold
The next best thing to being a doctor
in the presence of illness. is to be abb
II to show the patient the way to
II physician who can surely heal. II tn
a problems of our time BATTLE us, W
know One who has a solution 70
them The least of US can introduc
our needy world to the Christ wflor
e the Baptist heraIded
!" Unexpected Seekers.
IS At dinner one night this year 4
= the British embassy, Constantinoplt
where the talk had ragged fast and fur
II iously upon world politics. there fell
few moments wherein neighbors con
versed by twos, and the distinguish
,s soldier and statesman by my sid
spoke feelingly about the spiritual as
- pect of the present crisis. Later a