The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-08-20

I
Laying down Joseph Conrad's novel.
Lloyd Jim" a thoughtful woman re-
marked, What that man needed was
a belief in divine forgiveness. That
would have given him a fresh start,
and taken him out from under the
shadow OF his own fall
What Lord Jim" needed, and what
this whole wicked world e-eninent-
ly needs today, is what King David
found sense of Gods forgiveness.
| following confession and contrition for
a realized sin.
Befog the issues as we may, and
dazzle and deceive ourselves by big
! modern words of statecraft and
| philosophy. the truth still stands stark
and clear, that the nations and peoples
| of the earth have sinned sorely. have
| broken Gods clearest laws. and are
today still following the desires Of
their own hearts.
| What aiIs our time is sufficiently
/ pressed by the huge little word, SIN,
We are in trouble, because we are
/ in sin. Peace has departed from the
nations because men and women are
! not at peace with God. There has
| been iniquity and transgression of the
! Divine commands on a colossal scale.
| All that is evil in the human heart Gas
well as most that is good-which is
another story has been given free
play in the past six years. And still
/ there is no worldwide sense of peni-
tence and amendment. The world has
gone wrong because it has gone from
/ God.
This Impenitent World.
This is an hour for straight think
| ing. Present issues are too grave for
self deception. Honest men and wom-
en- want to know the true significance
! of these troubled times. On every
Dside of the horizon trouble looms.
Wars weigh down our hearts to de-
preston. National ambition and greed
/ seem unchecked. Hidden forces of.
! selfishness operate assiduously, in the
| face of all changing conditions. Pride
| and lust of power stalk thru the
council chambers Of the nations.
! Nowhere, except among obscure
Christians, is there manifest spirit
of penitence The world seems not
/ to have been chastened by the war.
| The graves in France are forgotten.
The high and holy pursuit of our AL
| lied War Aims, with their pledges OF
peace and justice and democracy, are
no longer mentioned. A policy of
has taken possession of the nations.
The cry of the little nations seeking
elemental rights, still rises daily TO
| heaven. Capitulation and compromise
! go hand in hand with bargaining ana
/ traffickings in human welfare. There
/ is no thoughtful reader of the days
news who has not been deeply dis
appointed in the world after the war.
| What is wrong? What is lacking?
Where is the remedy?
| Most simply stated. 1t seems that
/ the nations have forgotten God. There
/ is no crying aloud to Him TO pardon
/ our national and personal sins. HUI
initiation and confession over our
wrong-doings is not the DOMINANT
| note. pride rules our life" We are
limpenitent. Neither the sinfulness of
our own sin, nor the holiness of an
eternally just God. dominates u.s. In
stead of being prone on our faces in
contrition before the Lord, pleading
| for His pardon, we are arrogant and
lf-complacent.
| The Day After.
| Searching our own spirits, and the
| life of our day, like a surgeons
scalpel, is this old, familiar story OF
the heart-cry Of penitent David. He
had sinned sorely in his adultery with
Bathsheba. Against all his own IDEAS
| against his spiritual past, against his
/ teachings and his practice, against
brave soldier and true man, Uriah,
/ and against the clear law of Jehovah
1 he had Extraordinarily, ignobly, Gull
] pabIy, inexcusably offended. So deep
was his wrong that it went beyond ms
violations of the sanctities of life and
/ became a transcendent sin against
Jehovah.
Then, as all sensitive spirits ineyita-
bly, do. David suddenly came to him
l.
OF his misdeed. Into the depths OF
remorse his soul plunged. Black was
his mood. He saw himself in all his
/ Nervousness and loathsomeness.
| There is hope for such a man.
Before the penitent there stretches
path to pardon. 1t is the calloused.
Iinsensitive, self-complacent violator of
/ the divine law of whom we despair.
In his anguish of spirit, David turned
/ to God. Out of his hearts bitter cry
I ~
| His darkness has become light Tor
multitudes. For David realized that
there is forgiveness with the Lord:
and that when he is prone on his back,
| a man may look up. Who that has
really lived, and caught a glimpse of
himself in the mirror of Gods Holt
ness, does not echo this this prayer OF
! David?
Have mercy upon me. o God, ac-
cording to Thy loving kindness. Ac-
cording to the multitude of Thy ten
der mereies blot out my transgres-
sions. Wash me thoroly from mine
/ iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. Against
Thee, Thee only, have 1 sinned, and
done this evil in thy sight, that Thou
mightest be justified when Thou
Ispeakest, and be clear when Thou
| judgest. Behold, I was shapen in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me. Behold. Thou desirest
truth in the inward parts, and in the
hidden part Thou shalt make me to
know wisdom. Purge me with hys-'
sop, and I shall be clean; wash me.
and I shall be whittier than snow. Make
me to hear joy and gladness, that the
bones which Thou hast broken may
rejoice. Hide Thy face from my sins.
and blot out all mine iniquities. Create
1 in me a clean heart. o God. and re-
/ 0au- riRhf SF1irif within Cast
me not away from Thy presence, and
take not Thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy sal
walton, and uphold me with Thy free
spirit. Then will I teach transgress-
ors Thy ways. and sinners shall be
| converted unto Thee. Deliver me
from bleodguiltiness. o God, Thou
!. ca ~ -. .i.,, Ia