The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-08-01
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON
For August Is, christian Worship"
John 4:1-24.
By WILLIAM t. ELLIS.


John 4:1-24.
Musings in Old Jerusalem.
Writing, as I am, in an upper room
in Jerusalem, this seems peculiarly a
place lesson, atho it is a seasonable
word for all the world. The story of
terview with Jesus, is local in its set
ting and in its spirit; for this is the
center of religious antagonism and
bigotry. 1t is general, because this is
the day wherein the world is glimps
ing new and larger conception of
the God who is Spirit, and who
must be worshipped in spirit and in
truth.
When this befuddled time of ours
gets its ideas about God Strengthened
out it will find that many other mat
tiers have likewise been cleared up.
Altho they do not realize the fact,
many liberal" persons nowadays
have conceptions of the Supreme Deity
that are as narrow and inadequate
as those of the earliest Hebrews who
worshipped their tribal God on these
hills.
The modern misconception con-
sisted in regarding God as a Social
Program, or Economic Higher Law,
or vague Spiritual Urge, or a Su-
preme Necessity for keeping the lower
classes in order. 1t is no exaggeration
to declare that multitudes of educated
men and WOMEN have no thought of
God except as a factor in social recon-
struction. He is that, but he is in
finitely more.
A Highbrow Blunder.
God is not a Social Program. God
is not a Special Partner with the
American Eagle, or the British Lion,
any more than with the Prussian
Eagle. He is not a citadel for CAPT.
talism nor a banner for Bolshevism.
To regard him as a mere adjunct of
political and social reform is impiety.
There Is need for clear thinking
here. While God has a relation to
everything human, he is first of all
and above all else, the Eternal Deity,
the uncreated Creator. the Ruler of
the universe, the King of kings and
| Lord of lords. He is SO exalted in his
character and rights that he is en-
! titled to worship from all his crea-
lures. Man can have no other rela-
| tionship with Jehovah until he bows
down before him in alteration.
With all it's defects, Mohammedan-
ism has done one thing for two hun
dred million members of the human
race; it has taught them the greatness
LOT God. The Moslem is reverent
whatever else he may not be- The
| God breathes thru all the thought of
Islam. No Moslem ever cheapens God.
| He cannot conceive of the ineffable
| One whose name is holy and rever-
| a
scheme or plan of mortal. They I'M
derstand that our God is not a little
| God. but One whose ways, tho past
finding out, are always right.
Mems attitude toward the League
of Nations and upon the Peace treaty
matters less. Infinitely less, than their
views upon God. Society is shaped by
| its sense Of the Supreme. Everything
we are or do is affected by our ideas
| of God. When we lift up the popular
! =
! holiness and Justice of God we are
adopting the most direct means of
serving our time. That is why the
| Church is a more important present
factor in our troubled life than any
political party or organizat alton. or any
us worship and bow down; let us kneel
| before the Lord our maker"
Where Christians Squabble.
A few miles from where I am writ
ing, near the well of Jacob about
which the lesson centers-a well that
still supplies water-in the town of
/ Nablus, there survives, oppressed but
squabbling, a little group OF Samari-
tans, the descendants of the people
to whom the woman of our lesson
| belonged. Still the Jews will have
no dealings with them, nor will the
Moslems. They are not counted good
| Jews, having blended with the heather
| at the time of the exile.
| Religious antipathies are stronger
| in Jerusalem and Palestine than any
| where else on earth. 1t is not merely
| that Moslems and Christians clash;
| but both unite to oppose the Jews,
| because of Zionism, who, in turn, are
split up into irreconcilable parties;
and Greek Christians. or Orthodox,
are bitter against the Latins. OF Ro-
| man Catholics; and both are rivals of
the Gregorians, or Armenians, and OF
the Copts. There are other sects and
sub-sects here, and they all quarrel
one with ANOTHER. A few weeks ago
there was a fight, at Easter. between
rival Christians in the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre.
| Nevertheless. there are nobler and
| wider influences at work. There is
| abroad in Europe and the Near East
just now commission of American
| churchmen, extending invitations to
a world conference on Christian unity.
They report the rise of a new spirit
| OF eagerness for oneness and cessa ton
Of strife and for return to the wor-
| ship of God himself There are tokens
on the horizon that churchianity and
'soctarianism and narrowness are on
the wane: and that the world will turn
in simplicity and reverence to the wor-
| ship of God and his Son, who are in
all churches and beyond all churches.
When we come to the hour for scrap
ping our ecclesiastical ma chinery it
| will be to the text, God is a Spirit:
and they that worship him must wor-
ship him in spirit and in truth"
From Sinai to Zion.
Recently I have been at Mount ST.
mai, where Jehovah the universal Law
( maker revealed Himself; now am at
Mount Zion, where Jehovah the Fa-
Their and the Savior revealed Himself.
Amid these scenes, trodden by the feet
Of C.od's Drophets of old and by His
beloved Son, 1 have got a new sense of
the greatness of God Himself and of
His program for the world. The vast
ness Of the divine design. at which
Jesus could only hint in His talk to the
Samaritan woman, is appearing in our
time. We behold nations in a ferment
which is primarily spiritual. At bot
tom, the worlds unrest is a reaching
out after a Satisfaction which is real
~. s....I Va :. I.i-. A.. r,ts