The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-05-07


thoughtful and watch the world.
Whichever way one looks upon the
horizon trouble appears; one sees ma
lions in commotion" everywhere.
Peace seems almost as tragic as war.
The high idealism of the days of bat
tie is being dissipated; craftsmanship
in the old world and politics in the
new are under a blight. Selfishness
is ascending the thrones of earth.
Churches report spiritual deafness
and decrease of membership.
Such is the state of society, in one
seeming 1t all recalls the dark days
of our Lesson, when the Ark of the
Lord was captured by the Philistines,
after the Israelites had been terribly
defeated. To a short view it appeared
that utter ruin had come upon the ma
ton.
Yet at once we are struck by the
fact that this bit of ancient history,
appointed for the study of millions by
far-yisioned committee of scholars
possessing historical perspective, Is
treated only in its relation to one man
and his family. The assigned Lesson
topic is not 1.-The Defeat of Israel by
the Philistines," or 1.-The Capture of
the Ark of the Covenant" but simply,
Eli and His Sons" Is the essential
fact in the great story the personal
history of one family? So it seems.
Who Is the Successful Man?
throw all the old standards in the cru
chile, suppose we make this Eli study
an occa sion for diScarding, for the mo-
ment, the popular measures of mans
achievement. Up until now the palm
for success, the world around, has
gone to the man who has achieved the
most money, and consequently, the
most power. Philosophers turnout
the centuries have in one way or an
other shown the fallacy of this view.
I
aimed at the error of making riches
the gauge of success Dean Swift bit
ingly said, You may know what the
Lord Almighty thinks of money by
the kind of person He gives it to-"
Our own day is ready for the propo-
sition, at least theoretically, that the
ruthless pursuit of material wealth is
chiefly what has made a mess of the
world. We assent to the contention
that a man must produce some better
proof of success than the mere posses
sion of money Our common sense
tells US that some of our ghastliest
failures are men who have made"
millions. Every reader of these lines
can pause here and name over to HIM
self wealthy men who must be writ
ten down as unsuccessful.
Without running the gamut of the
various forms of achievement that are
better than the acquisition of money,
his sons. to advance the generalization
that no man is wholly successful who
/ had not reared worthy sons. Suppose
we were to develop the habit of ask
ing about every man not, How much
| is he WORTH" but always, How are
i his sons doing? What sort of boys has
] he reared? ?" Upon the man whose sons
turn out badly the brand of failure
would then rest. Such an arbitrary
standard would, like all other fixed
measures, work individual hardship;
but the principle would make for a
| better world.
! Remedy for Today's Ills.
| Assuredly neither Bolshevism nor
reaction is going to remedy what is
wrong with our times. Nor will pro-
| hibition on woman suffrage orr single
tax or new political parties or the cur
! ious spiritual cults that offer them
selves by the dozen.
This new standard of success will do
so.
| When the training of sons-and i'm
pliedly, of daughters also-becomes
THE supreme business of society, its
one accepted evidence of success in
| life then all that is wrong will be
made right. Men will no longer toler-
ate conditions that are subversiye of
proper collaborating. Likewise they
/ will turn to all the forces, such as
home religion, which make for char
acter in children. If sons are to be
the principal product of life, and the
one test of a mans powers, then other
interests will fall into their proper and
proportionate places.
/ Whatever is wrong will be made
right when men develop an ambition
! to be, above all else successful fathers.
| Eli personified what was amiss with
Isreal. He had position, the highest
in his nation, and he had power, as
I
| good" man. But a failure. He had
neglected his sons By so doing he
had permitted and encouraged rotten
ness in the very fabric of the state
Eli was a monumental failure, like
thousands of modern men who have
seemed great.
The Price We Pay.
A certain eminent LAWYER gave stated
| afternoons and evenings, and all of
/ Sunday, as well as summer holidays,
! to being with his sons. What availed
fame and fees if his family failed ?
He knew that no substitute may be
hired for a father; the greatest teach
ers cannot take the place of a parent,
to be loved and admired and followed.
Right here is the pinch of the prob
| lem of many men. high price must
be paid for success in parenthood. 1t
| takes more brains and character to
rear a fine family than it does to
make million dollars. It may sound
easy to serve as the head of a family
but every good father knows other
wise. For one thing. a man cannot
lead his son in a direction in which
| he is not going himself. There is no
corrective for character like the
fathers job of being a pattern. The
! true parent must be able to say, like
Jesus and Paul, Il have given you
| an example" If fewer parents lived
for show and vanity and pleasure and
I r1a I, L.
of national perplexity in the frivol-
ity and carnal- dedness of our
youth.
Most child-problems are really par
| ent-problems.
| If there were fewer failures at the
Eli job there would be fewer Phine-
bases and Hopkins
Also there is the other side to the