The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-17


aid. John the Baptist. was set aside
! when the clamorous multitude fol-
/ lowed Him into His lonely retreat.
Most of US would have resented
with impatience this intrusion, COM
j planning bitterly of the invasion of our
privacy and our rights: and of Aour
past services and present WEAKNESS.
Not SO the Master He thought of the
WEAKNESS of that host who had fol-
lowed Him faB afoot, and who were
weary, hot, tired and hungry. Their
quest for Him must have thrilled His
| compassionate heart. Every instinct
! of shepherdhood and Saviourhood was
I, set vibrating by the spectacle of a
multitude in whom another would
| have beheld only a curious mob of
| sight-seers.
There is prevalent idea that this
zeal for the people is a modern cult,
a sort of socialism. Absurd, 1t is as
old as the Bible; and it had its rise
in the Spirit impaired to the friends
and reveaiers of the Father in Heaven
A hymn of present popularity is God
Save the People"-which was written
by Ebenezer Elliott about hundred
years ago:
when wilt Thou save the people?
o God of mercy, when
| Not kings and lords, but nations.
Not thrones nor crowns, but men.
| Flowers of Thy heart, God, are they,
! Let them not fade in sunless day.
| God save the people
Shall crime bring crime forever;
Strength aiding still the strong?
| Is it Thy will, o Father,
That men shall toll for wrong?
| No.! say the mountains; Nor the skies;
/ Mans clouded sun shall brightly rise.
! And songs be heard instead of sighs.'
God save the people.
when will Thou save the people?
/ God of mercy, when!
! The people, Lord, the people.
| Not thrones, not crowns, but men.
God save the people, Thine they are;
Thy children. as Thy angels fair.
| Save them from bondage and despair.
| God save the people
| Tethered by a Short Rope.
/ All of us, the most affluent and the
most ascetic, are tethered by short
! rope to the primitive needs of the body.
Saintliness cannot subsist without food
tho it needs less than gluttony. A
physician has said: 1T only takes
Ione-third of what the average person
eats to support life: the other two
thirds go to support the doctors" ''Life
is more than meat"-but it is also
meat, as Jesus clearly showed in the
miracle of the eeding of the five thou
sand.
In the presence of a hungry null
titude, the disciples wanted to send
them away. That very human char
iacteristic earned i'll the army the en-
titlementz Passing the buck Divest
yourself of responsibility-that is the
main idea which has made expert
seIf-excusers of all of us, in a sort of
apostolic succession to these disciples
who wanted OF shirk all obligation for
the crowd.
But the way of the Master was
greater. Give We them to eati'' What
| a commandment for, today. 1t implies
multiplied power as well we'll as
multiplied store. Gods servants are
Ienabled by Gods commands. Why
-
yearHings of the people: give We them
to eat"-right here and now, in your
own shop or office or school or neigh
| borhood. There is satisfaction fol
/ human ills in the spiritual riches which
Christians already possess.
| How the disciples must have stared
| at the incredible command of Christi
| With five loaves and two small fishes
| they were to feed more than five
| thousand orientals, whose appetites at
| a free feast is proverbial. They could
not see it; neither can a preacher see
| were he is going to get a thousand
sermons in the next ten years; or a
| writer where he is to find thousands
Of articles and ideas in the same time;
| or a home-maker how she is to cock
more than ten thousand meals in ten
! years. or sew on thousands of but
| tons, or scrub faces time beyond
| counting, or wash countless thousands
of dishes Nevertheless, the principle
| that applied to the disciples still pre-
| walls; Go ahead with your duty;
| you possess more than you know.
! Trust yourself for larger things, and
trust God whose word you obey.
| 1t may seem like an anti-climax
to the lesson, but because it is an
essential part of the teaching of the
story, and because it is decidedly a
| truth for the time, we remind our
selves of the message of thrift which
comes from the twelve baskets of
| gathered fragments, after the mir
| acle had been wrought Our Lord
| Use a Lord of ordered life and law.
| The solicitude of the Master for the
fragments of food should quicken re-
| spect for all means of sustenance of
| life Our western world, SO spend
| thrift in the past of natures lavish
resources, needs now to learn to save
as well as how to make. Our wasted
food would feed one of the hungry
| smaller nations.
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