The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-05
International
SundaySchoolLesson
M WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

CAristlaH Living. -MattHeW vi 1888
The Big idea for the New Times.
Little children all over the world
sing, in many languages,
II think when read that sweet story of
When Jesus was here among men,
How he tosk little children, Ike lambs
should like to have been with Him
then"
3. Age does not outgfew the longing
thus expressed in childhood's hymn.
To have seen Jesus, to have heard His
voice, and to have touched HIS hand
what supreme privilege that would
have been! This same yesrning it is
that has sent millions of pilgrims to
the Holy Land and that draws throHgs
to every lecture upon the sacred
p ptsa dealing ss with the theme Of the
life of Christ. Every reYefent traveller
shares the emotions which Richard
Watson Glider expressed ia his poem,
In Palestine;"
AT last The very land whose breath He
The very y,sTys nils His bruised feet did
This is His eiivet; on this Mount he
As do new. and with this same surprise
Straight Down into the startling blue He
OF tie fair. turquoise mid-sea of the
OF the fair. straight, misty. dream like
OF Hoab,ie how eiese it looms TIE sane sd,s
About these feet the flowers He knew SO
Back where the eity's shadow Slowly
climbs
There is wood of Olives gaunt and gray
And centuries old; It holds the name 1t
That night Of agony and bloody sweat
! tell you when locked upon these fields
OF twilight. or what time the Orient sun
Made shining Jewels of the barren rocks
Something within me trapbledi for I
This picture once was mirrored IN His
This SKY, that lake, those hills, this love
To Him familiar were; this is the way
To Bethany; the red anemones
Along yon wandering path mark the steep
To green -embowered Jordan, Ali Is His
These leprous outeasts pleading piteeusly J;
This troubled conntry.-troubied then as
And wild and Raody,=-this is His own
On such a day, girdled by these same
Prest BY His dark brOwed, sullen. Orient
e On yendey mount. spotted with crimson
He closed his eyes. il. that dark tragedy,
Which mertal spirit never dared to sound.
God I saw those Eyes in every
threng."
All study of Christ's teachings is a
struggle to get thru the convention
allied, familiar language back totsthe
reality of the person and the inessags.
Once we share the poets glow, and his
experience, we are far On the way to
an apprehension of the living force of
the words of the Master. They are not
mere calendared 'Lessonn% to be
conned. part of the rote and ritual of
religion: they. ere the flaming, ALL.
alive message of the warin-hearted
Deliverer Of our day. the present
Christ who is the twentieth eentury's
one supreme hero and hope. What
He has to say. in His great kingdom
utterances. is as vital and urgent and
eontemporaneous as If it had never
been spoken before.
The Vine on the Housetop.
Upon the occasion of one of nav
visits to'the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem last year, I
was of specially honored party who
were guests of the Greek monks who
are attached to the church. So we
were especially conducted over the
whole structure, Including the attached
monastery of the Orthodox church. AS
travellers and students know, this
ancient pile that has clustered around
the reputed tomb of our Lord is a
huge conglomeration of buildings.
Walking on the high roof of the
church of the Holy Sepulchre 1 was in
terested to observe an old and huge
grape vine, furnishing an arbor for the
monks and bearing it's fruit in season.
upon inquiring I learned that the vine
Is a remarkable one, for it has its
roots In the original soil far down by
the dark and crowded Church of the
Holy Sepulchre; but that it comes M.
thru passageways and crevices, to the
sunlight of the roof where its fruit
ripeps and is gathered.
Inat extraordinary persistence of
plant lie amid adverse conditions ia a
notable horticultural incident. even
apart from the sacred association of
me plant TO me, the vine typified the
ssnessase OF the Master. Its roots are
1ar oack in the soil OF GaliIee: hut its
strength has survived the centur;es
ana all manner of untoward circunI-
stances; and it is today bearing it's
Iuliest and richest fruit in the sunlight
ot our own day. The nourishrnent
.nat this generation needs is not to he
round IN any new-grown plant Of a
season; put IN the Vine of Life: whose
Il en - ior the healing of the nations.
Not back to Christ" is the cry for
Inc nour. but Forward to Christi,
ror HIS teachings and His snirff are
stiil far in advance of the most rsfi1
cal and reasonable and righteous Mt
.eiahce Tor our times. A host of loose
y ~ nkihg persons are parroting the
iaea that Russia Is affording>th most
,advanced" teaching for civilization.
Nonsense. The very thing that a;is
Russia is that its latest theories are
with the old and out
worn dogmas of hate and cruelty ana
selfishness and class-consciousness and
tyranny. Russia, like the rest of the
world, will have TO move forward TO
me Jesus-standard of new spirit and
attitude and motive, wherein the love
OF man and the law of God will have
free sway. The most modern message
for this troubled earth is nothing else
than the Sermon on the Mount which
the Sunday schools are at present
studying.
An Old Message for New Times.