The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-05-16

men from becoming Dao ana at the
same time to know what to do with
bad men who are determined to keep
themselves bad ana make others like
unto them. The child of the highest
civilization and the son of the deepest
savagery are here seen upon the same
level Human life is uncomfortable
where sin taints and wrecks the gains
both of thought and of material en-
deavor. Education, culture, wealth
what are these worth where depraved
passion has made them all its slaves?
A millionaire's home on Murray Hill
becomes quite as horrible a hell as any
Mulberry street sub-tenement when a
conflagration of evil passion burns
unchecked.
The story of the deulge, well-nigh
universal tradition, gives us certain
mercy, moving thru the tragic and
terrible events of life toward an ulti-
mate triumph of goodness over evil.
Sin ScIf-Dcstructivc.
The story of conditions in the an
cient world before the time of Noah
corresponds to many a dark narrative
of later ages. Evil is increasing
among the children of men. The hour
when the creator looked forth upon
the works of his hands and pro-
nounced them very good seems to
have passed. never to come back. The
deeds and the desires of men wax
worse and worse. Horrible crime and
passion produce more daring designs
and imaginations, which in turn bear
swift-maturing fruit. Where will the
broadening cycle of depravity end .?
Seemingly only in the self-inflicted
destruction of the sinners. Let US
eat and drink for tomorrow we die!"
Sin is suicide. 80 Israel, thou hast
destroyed myself" is the phophet's
true Interpretation of the nations
plight in a later age of its career. So
fell ancient Greece, perVerting it's love
of beauty into unbridled lust, and de-
basing its power of noble thought to
lowest levels of casuistry. So fell
Rome in the hour of her greatest
wealth and worldwide possessions. So
will fall any nation, and city, and
home, and soul, that lets sin have free
course The worst penalty of sin is
sin working out it's own nature and
producing its inevitable sequences.
Have the fires of hell cooled because
men no longer believe in a literal and
physical flame of birthstone? Not so.
When a soul going on in the self de-
structiOn courses of sin comes to say
Myself am hell!' he is reaching the
limit of conceivable agony.
The Sphere of Moral Surgery.
What is Gods way of meeting this
mad rush of humanity on the tobog-
gan slide of ever-deeper sin? Shall
, world of beauty and wondrous pos
sibilitY lie fallow and idle because
man, the glory and crown of creation
has blotted himself out of existence?
! What is the remedy? One that in its
terribleness shall fit the awful malady
of the patient
Here is a cancer sufferer. The lit
tie spot of diseased tissue, seemingly
so trivial, is spreading. Every day
sees larger raVageS of the devourng
| demon. Skin and nerve and sinew
proach. Agony, indescriba BILE now,
and presaging worse things in the
| future, is the victims lot. What shall
be done? A poultice? A perfumed
lotion to counteract the offense of the
senses? Concealment by bandage
and elaborate screening? No. There
is only one resort. The operating ia
ble-the keen, glittering knife, whose
swift movement shall go faster and
further than the cancers progress.
And so the surgeon stands prepared,
bending above the diseased tissue, and
ready for his work. Is he merciless
as his strokes cut and cut again? Is
it cruelty to thus mutilate? No, it is
supreme mercy; it is greatest kind
ness.
Even so the story of the deluge
stands out as the earliest and subIim-
est representation of a. divine mercy
that shrinks not from moral surgery
where nothing else will avail. To save
hopelessly bad; to~replace contagion
by isolation; to look beyond the ter
rible processes of the immediate pres
ent to the results that in due season
shall appear-that is divine. 1t is
Gods way where no other way will
avail. 1t is divine wisdom where hui
man devices are avowedly helpless.
However awful the ira gedy. however
fearful the picture of desolated realms
and countless corpseS as the waves re-
cPdP "a he
thought of humanity's doom if left
to itself to continue unchecked the
course of self-destructive madness
which was invading all realms of
mans being.
For be it ever remembered the story
of the deluge does not end as the
waters reach their utmost height, and
the inundation of plain and valley and
hillside comes to its climax. God has
not forgotten what has been blotted
out of sight by the rising and engulf-
ing pillows. The end? No, the end
is not yet. Some things are indeed
ended but only that others may begin.
What next?
The Stimulus of Fresh Start.
Who does not respond to such an
incentive whenever and wherever it
comes? The new year. after the
weeks and months of the old one have
been crowded with mishaps and fail
ures and follies: the new home, where
old associations are gone, with their
enticing temptations; the new task
with better adaptation to ones pow
ers and ones likings-all these things
send a thrill of new purpose into the
soul that has grown burdened and
hopeless under old conditions.
Here was the merciful purpose of
God, revealed clearly in the outcome
of this tragic chapter. but to be equal
ly attributed to every portion of it A
new start for world that had gone
wrongi The dove that flies forth and
comes back with the first symbol of
cheer goes out again and returns no
more. The ark, its purpose achieved
is abandoned. its one safe voyage d
sufficient return for all the labor spent
upon it. The preacher of righteous
ness delivered. not alone from the per-