The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-07-23

THE mills of God grind slowly
but they never cease to grind. The
one thing that Providence seems to
have most of is time. Having time,
it seems easy to have patience Most
mortals are short on both. Few per-
sons know the divine art of waiting
What we want we want in a hurry.
All our desires must be granted over
night. With the impotence of chill
dre1, we expect all the desirable things
we seek in behalf of the world to be
accomplished straightway. 1t IS a
rare commentator upon current his
tory who is not openly critical because
human society has not suddenly been
made over after the war
Just as David found it a long, weary
way to the throne of Judah and a
longer way to the throne of a united
Israel, so it is with most persons in
pursuit. of life's goals. David had
battle and courtiership and royal ia
vor and exile and persecution and
the caves and the mountains and the
wilderness. He had run the whole
gamut of normal experience, in his
eventful journey between a sheepfold
and a palace
The Belgian Artists Feat.
A great goal is worth a long journey.
For d, days provisions one may walk
to the corner store: but for the feast
ing OF the spirit upon the riches of the
Old World one must take a long and
costly trip Little things are easily
gained; great ends are secured at the
cost of time and effort and skill. A
Belgian young woman has spent thir-.
teen years, and undergone great priva-
lions and tolls, in order to make a tap
estry rivalling those of the old masters.
Now that she has succeeded, she has
been honored by king, and by court, by
| her~native city and by the masters of
art, and the tapestry is to be sold at
! fabulous price. She could have paint
ed thousand "pot-boilers'' during
this time. as most of us would have
/ done in her place, but she would not
have given the world q. treasure. Her
road to a throne, like David's, was
long and hard. but it was worth tray
cling.
All that David underwent was es-
| sential to his arrival. Not an expert
ence could have been feregone, else
there would have been missing a
necessary span of the bridge. All was
required for his training and equip
ment. Well could the harried and
| distressed hero repeat to himself his
own Shepherd Psalm, "He leadeth
me-" No person has ever greatly
served his world who has not learned
to see that the experiences at which
he most chafed and fretted were
necessary for his preparation. God
does not put His children thru need
less discipline.
have watched the japanese work
men make cIoisonne, and the process,
1 after it has proceeded to a certain
extent, seems to be merely one of re-
peated burnings and polishings. Long
after visitor would suppose the vase
to be finished, the maker subjects it
! to rubbing after rubbing; and, in the
/ case of the finer grades, the last stage
| is a slow, careful rubbing by the hu-
p oil
| art take to complete its work. Shall
the human soul therefore grumbIe be-
cause it takes time, and patient ex-
perience. to bring it to it's true worth :?
Mushrooms and Oaks. s
| Sturgeon once said something to
the effect that when nature wanted
a mushroom it could be produced over
night; but when an oak tree was
wanted, it needed decades and CEN
turtles. One of the problems of the
newly Fich%who seek to create great
| estates in a few months or years, is
to secure cid trees that shall be prop
| erly placed. Only partly has the skill
of the nurserymen in plant removal
come to their aid, for trees can be
I grown only by time. Similarly, when
| God wanted a David for the throne
of Israel. He would not pluck him
unripe. The process that makes the
| great and beautiful tree was employed,
and the first element in that is time.
No wonder the Psalmist was con-
tinually exhorting his soul to wait pa
tiently upon the Lord.
Discipline is but another word for
| Notwithstanding for the task.
David was being prepared as the
great king, whose glory in the sacred
] story was to be collapsed only by that
of his own Greater Son. David might
have rea ssured himself, all along the
way, that he was on the way to a
throne. that he was being made fit to
become king. A lumberman once
| told me that the finest grades of tim
Der are those which come from the
tree that has been standing out in the
open, where all the winds of heaven
have buffeted it. The fiber is tougher
| and more closely wrought than in a
! forest-grown tree. Aaversity has been
the blessing of the tree, as it WERE
I just as the life which has not been too
| highly sheltered is fittest to serve its
time. Difficult experiences are almost
sure sign that God is doing some
| thing special with Ione's life.
Place or Fitness?
| There are more young persons who
are looking for jobs today than are
| seeking for work From every quar-
ter comes the cry that workers, of all
kinds and degrees, are more interested
in wages than in production. Quality
/ has deteriorated in almost all lines Of
merchandise. This is because we
RAdCG RlcE IMAM IllISSS. NOW
il is clear that God cares more for
quality than for position. and for char
acter than for reputation Even more
| than He wanted David to be king of
Israel. the Lord wanted him to be a
/ kingly man. He was supremacy in
terested in the soul OF David.
! Unpopular as the truth may be to-
/ day it nevertheless is eternally true
that it is better to be a big man in a
small place than a small man in a big
place. In other words, it is more worth
while to be than to seem. have
! known more than one great man of
/ whom the big world never heard: and
Il have also known not a few tragic
/ instances of little men occupying great
positions, for which they were not
| fitted. This entire Lesson may be con-
sidered from the angle Of the prepara-
! ton ef<a spirit for a work. 1t repre-
sents the selfcitude of heaven for