The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-28
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON
For March 80 is Gods Hand in a
Nations Life Joshua 24:1<-2S.
An Epoch Produced a Man.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

present-day discussion of the worlds
need, it is concerned with the theme
| of man for the hour. The greatest
| glory of these recent epochals days in
| the history of the western world is the
| emergency of men who under old con-
| ditions have been submerged. Within
| two short years a galaxy of men have
attained national proportions on the
basis of sheer force and ability, While
| a whole host of machine made lead
! ers' have dropped out of sight. The
! hope of thoughtful patriots in these
| latter days il that the new stress that
is being laid on the stamina of our
| boys in France will effect an increased
stability of personal character among
| the people OF the land generally. For
| it is more man that we need. We
| have been driven sharply back upon
| the old, old truth that only personality
is the salvation for the times; that all
| of the worlds needs are embodied in
| its need for manhood.
| The events of the war, with all their
homiletic character, and all their ex-
I hortation to return to the first prin
| ciples of morality and religion, will yet
| have failed to produce their ultimate
| results if out of them have not come
more men of increased might, ready
| to take up the burdens of the public
| veal Undoubtedly there is apparent
| thruout the length and breadth of the
continent a new sense of individual
| sovereignty The soldiers have taught
4 us all. Men are realizing their re-
| sponsibility citizens as never be-
fore. They are talking less about the
privileges of patriotism and more
| about its duties. The plain man in the
commonplace sphere is lifting up his
| head with a new consciousness that he
| has a right to challenge the acts and
deeds of the mightiest public servant
| Surely these are good times for man
| hood. While the .statisticians write
! the staggering figures of the new
| worlds wealth, they are overlooking
the greatest asset of all, namely, the
| sheer manhood which, in markedly
| increasing degree. is the sovereign
| characteristic of the new era.
A Man Looming Large.
What has this to do with the pres
ent sunday school lesson which-iS in
Dictated as a review of the forty years
history of the life of Israel from
the Exodus to the death of Moses,
simply that those forty years spell
one grand word of three letters-man.
| whoever peers into those dim, dull
gray years finds, looming mountain
high above the binding glare of the
desert sand-above the din of the
/ ganglfng voices of a many minded peo-
pie, the clear. strong figure of which
Il the world has said, There was
man" The greatest contribution of
those forty years was just Moses. One
mans greatness redeemed the epoch
from littleness. AS he led those SUI
|
identity, and gave to the formless mob
place forever brilliantamong the ma
tons of the world, so he has contribu-
ted to the imperishable annals of his
tory portrait of a great man, one of
the worlds very greatest.
i Moses died without ever reaching
| the land of promise. He lahore and
others entered into his rest. But m.
all canaan there was no personality,
until a Greater than Moses came,
to hot %f
all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and
equipped with the greater wisdom that
comes from communication with the
Jehovah, who had shaped IsraeTs des-
tiny and given her her law. Among
the few gre figures who adorn the
rotunda of the magnificent Library of
congress at Washington may. be seen
the figure of Moses. calm and ma jes-
tic, seeming, even in the cold bronze
as one who walked apart from the
common order of men. No better re-
view of this quarters Sunday school
| sessions can be made than a consid-
Grafton of the qualities which marked
the greatness of Moses.
Man Who Dared.
| All the worlds sa ges have declared
that courage ranks among the first of
human virtues. Moses was from first
to last man of appalling audacity
He dared attempt the highest possible
destiny for himself That takes cour-
along into any sort of life or character
that happens to come to them with the
years. Only the rare man, SO rare as
to be called great, reSOlutely achieves
for himself the character which he. in
his moments of clearest perception
has deemed worth while. The courage
that wins character must combat the
inbred ittleness of human nature
every day of life. It's enemies are
both without and within. Environ
| ment tends enmnrRSS life
rose above his environment. He was
a great man when in the court of Pha-
raoh; he was a great man when. on
, the lonely mountain side, he played
, the part of shepherd; he was a great
man when, in majestic solitariness, he
led Israel thru its forty years of wan
dering
One shrinks from saying-lest it
seem to be merely a conventionally
pious remark-that the secret of
Moses's courage was his religion. But
we have abundant record that natur-
ally he was a timid man. If left to
himself he would have spent his day
| in obScurity. His greatness cannot be
credited to natural endowment. He
| became brave because he met face to
| face with God. His courage was not
| Unborn courage, but impaired courage.
| 1t took the fear not of Jehovah to
] stiffen his backbone. That is what re-
ligion does. The fear of God removes
, the fear of man. The sublime moral
heroism of the world has mostly been
on the part of spiritually minded men,
whose cowardice has been consumed
l in the bright furnace of faith If
Moses had not first met with God, he
would not have dared to meet with
Pharaoh. There is significance in the
fact that the heroes of recent develop
: ments in American life have been for
the most part Christian men.
The Man Who Can Wait.
: The twentieth century is in such a
desperate hurry that its bridges are
= buckling. its big buildings cola psing
and its men being sent to a sanatoria.
/ a modern person almost gaspS
W h e n he n templates h e
f forty years of retirement which
< Moses spent in the wilderness
1 Yet there is no truth more