The Topeka state journal., 1919-12-12
shame's Symbol, victory's Emblem.

45r27; 1s:25-27.
Shan1e's Symbol, Victory's Emblem.
Americas most famous business
man is also lifelong Sunday school
| teacher. The older he grows. the
stronger is the hold of his Bible-class
and brotherhood upon. him. Recently.
l went thru three morning services
with hiTn-an "inner circle" Bible
class a large mems brotherhood and a
| church service. He himself spends all
| of Sunday in the big downtown
church of which he is an officer, or
else visiting the sick in the neighbor
hood. What most interested me was
| the hold that the crucifixion of Jesus
| has taken upon this mans thinking.
| Again and again he adverted to it as
| the very center of Christian faith and
| hope It was he who started the
| crowd of men singing, "At the Cross,
at the Cross" When a returned
| prodigal, an ex-convict, testified to
the change made III his life by the
/ Crucified Christ, this great merchant
not only approved it publicly, but later
spoke to me privately of the signifi-
cance of the testimony. In the
famous old church with which his
name is associated he has seen the
| miracle wrought times beyond num-
Der. of men and women whose lives
were made clean by the blood of
| Christ
| Musing upon the theme, memory
| harks swiftly back to France and to
| Macedonia and to Palestine, where
| rows upon rows, acres upon acres, of
little crosses mark the resting place
| of the soldier dead. This has been
the war of the cross By some i'm
/ pulse deeper than reason, the nations
! have chosen the cross symbol for the
| fallen - Protestant England. once
atheistic F a e. Catholic Italy,
1 1lT-fh lEiF ID
Greece. All accept the cross as the
significant memorial of the mem who
have laid down their lives for the
cause. Instinctively, we have placed
them in fellowship with the Saviour
who has given the cross its mean
! ing of victory and of viea robustness.
Crosses at Mount Sinai.
Is it not becoming clear that only
the Cross will save our troubled time &?
! We have tried legislation and arbitra-
| ton and war and a council of nations ::
yet still the unrest of humanity grows
| apace. All that wisdom and law could
do has been done; but in vain. There
! is knowledge enough in the world to
save civilization; and law enough; and
material force enough; nevertheleS.
organized society is in a desperate
case today.
I am reminded of a spectacle which
| 1 observed at Mt. Sinai last summer.
!
| Law, and all the surrounding peaks,
are iron crosses, erected centuries ago
by devout Greek monks from st.
Katherine's monastery At pains and
personal risk. they placed the symbol
of our faith upon those rocky peaks;
sensing the great truth that the Noun
tain of the Law, without the sign of
Love and Sacrifice, is incomplete.
Moses is inadequate, except as he leads
to Christ. Mount Sinai is bare and
barren; Mount Calvary blossoms with
flowers.
Panicky persons are crying for more
law, more force, more jails, more ma
chine guns, with which to meet the
menace of red radicalism.
Their plan is futile. Only new
spirit of Society, and in all classes of
society, can save us from this hate
begetting program of violence. That
is the spirit of the Cross. OF course
swe should deal vigorously with law
breakers. all lawbreakers, regardless
of class; But even when SO doing the
motive needs to be the motive of Cal
vary, which is to save. Love to the
point of self-sacrifice alone can deliver
the world from the menace of bitter
ness and selfishnesS and VlndlctiVe-
ness and ass-spirit-
Tire Unchastencd Nations.
Il Real radicalism is. in dictionary
sense. the getting down to the root
of things. The superficial thinking oi
the Bolsheviks is not genuine radl-
II calisn1: it is the most obvious and
shallow sort of unreStrained Sett-Ipter-
est If the thinking people of today
would really turn radical they would
quickly perceive that at the root or a
successful social order, even as 1t was
put at the foundation of our constitu-
tionaI democracy, there must be the
spirit of good will to men, and of the
subordination of the desires of the in
, dividuaf FOR the sake of the commun-
. ity. True radicalism digs deep until
it comes to the cross foundation.
Apply that test to the times The
common cry is that the world needs
to be reformed. Assuredly- And tc
be remade. Yes. And to be relied
Doubtless. And to be reorganized
Admittedly. And to be re-educated
Without question. But beyond al
these needs, and underlying them eV-
cry one, is the all-pervading need thai
the world be saved-saYed from it.
self and its old self-centered nature
which the preachers calI-sin; saved
: from foolish leaders and fatuous re-
formers; saved from theorists and
demagogues; saved from needless fol
! lowers of everything that is new, and
saved from the blind obscurantisn
which clings only to what used to be
War has not chastened humanity:
sorrow has not chastened it; nor YET
hunger or cold or vast social unheav-
ais. Is it not time that We turn aside
from our cheap and futile devices fol
{ lettering life and kneel at the foot ot
the Cross, where peace has ever beer
found by the peRitent? We have
failed to save ourselves: why not lei
the Christ save us? His yearning fol
Observation-Disclosures
SThe George n