The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-06-13
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON
BIZ WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

By WILLIAM 7. ELLIS.
For June Is is "Prayer."-Luke
1S:1-5, 9-14.
The Look That Lifts Life.
In the east beggars abound. Many
are of a squalor and effectiveness
that passes the knowledge of the west.
It is a fayorite device in Egypt for
begging children to go about almost
entirely naked. Another trick is for
them to sit hunched up in rags, head
between knees, in apparently speech
less misery, alongside of a wall on a
popular thorofare. The prevalence of
mendicancy in these Oldest parts of
the world is one of the sights that
sadden travellers eyes. Jesus knew
these beggars, and healed some of
them. But he never held them up as
type of prayer.
That is an important point to per-
ceive in taking up the .old, yet ever
exhaustless subject of prayer. All our
understanding of prayer depends upon
dicacy. God never portrayed his chill
dreH as beggars,at his gate, He is not
a detached, impersonal Oliver of aims.
The attitude of the person who prays
is rather that of a child toward a
father, than of a beggar whining for
ty, God has given man the right to a
Eflial relationship with himself He
abates no jot of his effable sover
eighty; nevertheless, he teaches us to
say "Our Father
Over and over again his tender
truth is taught. The analogy of the
parent is employed to make clear the
idea that Gods thoughts toward us
are father-thoughts; and that he seeks
from us the loving, dependent rela-
tionship of children. Like as a ia
Their pitieth his children, so the Lord
pitieth them that fear him." When
we pray, we are turning, as naturally,
| properly and instinctively as children
to father, to One whose love is as
in granting the requests of his chill
| dren.
The Up-Looking Life.
The Epworth League has for its
motto. Look up, lift up" That is to
say, ability for service results from
| devotion. Prayer precedes power. 1t
is the unlocking life, the one that
ward relationship, which walks most
serenely and helpfully among men.
Prayer is an act; but it is also an-at-
Etitude--the Godward turning of the
soul at all times. This spirit reverent-
ly and modestly takes God into ac-
Icount in its daily affairs. Nothing
happens to it: all is ordered by a
benign and wise Providence.
Would we know the secret of the
placid, beautiful faces that we occa-
sionally meet; of the spirits that are
unruffled by the. daily trials; of the
/ joy that does not 1anguish on the
| dreariest road? This is the answer:
these are the upward-looking souls
Their sense of God is so real, and He
| is to them so near, that nothing less
/ a ut
because they are ever in prayer. Life
is to them a continual looking unto
lJesus."
1 Only yesterday, OFF here in Egypt
4 I visited a veteran American mission
airy who is confined 10 his bed by ill.,
ness. It CHANGED to be a day of great
tanxiety for him, as for his associates
fThere have been developments in the
Egyptian crisis that may turn the ma
tive sentiment against all things Amer
lean, to the serious injury of the mis-
sion work that has been building up
4 for three-quarters of a century. Was
that veteran excited or, fretted? Not
at all. His smile was as serene, his
face as untroubled as has been its
wont turnout the years. - He. has a
watchful eye upon current events:
but he also has a trustful eye upon
the Ruler of events. He walks quietly
and beautifully among men because he
talks confidently with his Father in
heaven.
Getting Relations Right.
Perhaps some practical persons
say that this is dry sxbject that
the International committee has as
signed for the present lesson; they
would rather have a discussion of cur
rent problems. Wait moment. Much
as I should like to see all intelligent
persons aware of the world and the
current vexatious questions, hard as
l am working to interpret fairly and
without bias the complex and omirous
Near Eastern situation l say frankly
that deem it of far more practical
i importance for people to get fresh
hold upon the reality of God than to
master all the intricacies of oriental
statecraft; and 1 would do or say any
thing within my power that would
send Christian people to their knees in
I renewed devotion. There is no meas
ure in the universe more practical"
at the present time than that men
and women should pray, pray with
out ceasing." Only as we lay hold
on God can we get any mastery of
social and political conditions that
grow more ominous.
If there is one bad idea that ought
! not to persist after the world war it
/ is that more physical force is the
ultimate solution of problems. That is
a pagan notion, which should have dis
appeared from the present generation
when the might of Germany was
broken. This belief in the omnipotence
OF the guns is one of the world
greatest dangers. So is trust in mere
statecraft and worldly guile. What a
muddle these have made of the ma
tionsi From this angle, it seems to be
growing worse. instead of better.
Our times are out of joint The
machinery of civilization is knocking
and banging and rafting. Something
has gone wrong. What is it? Moth
ing less than that it lacks adjustment
at the Center. Once let the world get
right with God, and it will straight
way get right with itself. A fresh con-
seriousness of spiritual obligations and
relationships would solve all our ques-
tons A return to God would be a re-
turn to sanity and safety If we could
only get men to saying together in sin