The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-02-27
International
SundaySchoolLesson
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS

By WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
For February 20 is .Christian Liv- |
ing."-I Peter 2:1-25. /
Better Than Bolsheyism.
Theoretically. the Bolsheviks want
to get rid of ancient, eviis in human
society. and to Substitutes a fairer and
more fraterna1 order. The real Boil
sheviks and most OF the curious as
them. have made blunder SO big and
so old and so common that only a
sense of sympathy with the desire 20
right vast wrongs keeps US from call
program calls for the recontruction of
the world from the OUTSIDE. They
would blow up the old house, and
build a new one, without plans, or
| models, in the hope of improving the
disposition of the dweller therein.
Or, to change the figure, they are
trying go tie good fruit on bad trees;
instead of grating or replanting.
| In a word. they ignore the immuta y
bic law that effects follow causes
| The only way to get a good world is
| by making good people NO matter
how radical a person is, It he Is not
: righteous, he cannot contribute to the
betterment of society. Because SO
many Bolshevik leaders were avari-
cious and ambitious and selfish and
cruel and unloving, poor Russia has
| had a reign of terror. The recent
| shortcut to the millennium has led
only to hate and hurt and hopeless
ness.
Better Than King.
So we turn with relief, and strength
ened conviction. to the page of Chris
| tan ethics, out of the writing of Peter.
the disciple of Jesus, which is the
current Sunday school lesson. Here
we find set forth clearly the days big
! oil I1rr
land and the laundering statesmen of
Europe, could only go TO Sunday
school today and learn this funda-
mental teaching, what a change it
might make in current history. Peter
shows that the natural and inevitable
consequences of becoming Christians
are to develop the qualities ana char
acteristics of Jesus. If the world
were to follow Jesus, it would go right.
The old-fashioned cure for new-fash-
| to become followers of the Christ.
whose social law of righteousness
eyentuates in something better than
Bolshevisrn, namely, the kingdom OF
| heaven.
Come to- think of 1t. our modern
radicals are repeating the blunder of
the Jews who antagonized Jesus. They
wanted a kingdom and suddenly
transformed social order. Therefore
they refused to accept anything SO
near at hand and natural as a man
from their midst, with a message of
amended conduct. George Macdonald
has versified the idea beautifully:
| ''They were looking for king
/ To STAY their foes and lift them high:
| Thou cam'st, a little baby thing
That made woman cry.
20 Son of Man, to right my lot
Naught but thy presence can avail
| Nor the thy sail
MY how or when thou wilt not heed,
| But come down thine own secret stair,
That thou mayest answer all my need
Yea, every bygone prayer"
AS Peter Put 1t.
But to the text of the Lesson itself.
which the International Committee has
appointed for this weeks study: I
quote the Weymouth translation:
/ Rid yourselves, therefore, of all de-
ceitfulness, of insincerity and envy.
and of all evil-speaking. Thirst. like
newly-born infants. for pure milk for
the soul, that by it you may grow up
to salvation; if you have had any ex-
perience of the goodness of the Lord.
Come to Him the everything Stone,
rejected indeed by men as worthless,
but in Gods esteem chosen and held
in honor. And be yourselves also like
living stones, that are being built up
into a spiritual house. to become a
HOIy pFl6SJ1lOOu OIIeT Sac
rifices acceptable to God thru Jesus
Christ.
Dear friends, I eptreat you as pill
grims and foreigners not to indulge
the cravings of your lower natures;
for all such cravings wage war upon
the soul. Live honorable lives among
the GentileSs in order that, altho they
now speak against you as evil-doers.
they may yet witness your good con-
duct, and may. glorify God on the day
of reward and retribution.
For it is an acceptable thing with
God. if. from a sense of duty to Him,
a man patiently submits to wrong,
when treated unjustly. If you do
wrong and receive a blow for 1t, what
credit is there in your bearing 1t pa
suffer for it you bear it patiently, this
is an acceptable thing with God.
''And it is to this you were called;
because Christ also suffered on your
behalf leaving you an example so that
you should follow in His steps. He
never sinned. and no deceitful Ian
guage was ever heard from His mouth.
When He was reviied. He did not an
swer with reviling; when He. suffered
He uttered no threats, but left His
wrongs in the hands of the righteous
Judge. The burden of our sins He
Himself carried in His own body to the
Cross and bore it there. so that we.
having died SO far as our sins are
concerned. may live righteous lives. BY
His wounds yours have been healed.
For you were straying like lost sheep,
but now you have come back to the
Shepherd and Protector of your
souls"
The Pilgrim Path. -.
Old worldly wisdom, as we see 1t
today making shipwreck of the peace
for which our boys fought, thinks that
the most desirable state of things
come by force and bargaining and i'm
perialism. It has not been cured of
the king-idea even by the world war.
So it bribes and intrigues and deceives
and fights to effect its own selfish
sovereignty. blind to the weller of woe
and war that it is breeding. Over
masses of mankind European diplo-
macy tries to set up its sway on the