The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-10-29
International
SundaySchoolLesson
By WILLIAM t. ELLIS.

By WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
For october 81 is "Hew Down the
Corrupt Tree-World's Temperance
Sunday. Matt. 7:1329.
As Storm Clouds Gather.
A distinguished newspaper editor
sat on the corner of the table, his leg
swinging and his face bent soberly on
! the floor, while a member of his staff
recited the results of a wide and close
study of present political and social
| conditions in the eastern part OF the
| United States The findings were
grave and thought-compelling When
| the editor spoke it was to say, Its
leader the people want, a leader
somebody they can trust and follow to
/ the limit. What can they do with
( out a LEADER"
That is putting a finger on the CEN
! ter of things. Our ears are deaf
ened with jangling voices, clashing
| opinions, confusion of PHILOSOPHERS.
There never before were so many
speakers and writers telling people
| what to do in a time which all
grave and determinate. Candor COM
pels US to declare, tho, that most of
these persons do not know what they
are talking about. Their trumpets
! sound in uncertain tones They
| themselves need to be taught and led,
rather than to teach or to lead. Men
want surer, clearer tones before they
will listen. The world awaits an au-
thoritative voice, a trusted guide
Such a One appears in today's les
son. When Jesus had concluded His
| discourse upon the principles of the
Kingdom of Heaven the crowds were
filled with amazement at His teach
ing, for He had been teaching them as
One who had authority, and not as
their scribes taught"
That same Authority is the One
available and adequate Leader for our
cropping, bewildered world. The wise
Christ who has outtaught all the
sages: the sure Christ of the fearless
brow; the understanding Christ of the
sympathetic heart, has moved down
the ages from His Galilee home and
now stands at the crowded cross ways
of life, offering Himself as safe
guide for the worlds hayward feet.
That the Master Who poke of old
beneath the soft Syrian skies, and by
the ripping lake that He loved, is also
the present Saviour for the here and
now is the first truth to be gotten
from this Scripture. AS sings that
bouyant young knight of song, Joyce
Kilmer, who tho dead in France still
speaks in living tones:
mo longer of Him be 1t said
He hath no place to lay lis head.
''In every lard n constant lamp
Flames by His small and mighty camp.
There is no strange and distant place
That is not gladdened by His face.
''And every nation kneels to hail
The Splendor shining thru its veil.
''CIoistered beside the shouting street,
silent, He calls me to His feet.
And thru my lips that uttered sin
The King of Glory enters in"
A Brave Mans Warming.
Sentimentalists and mollycoddles
have usurped the leadership of Jesus
in His church. The predominant reli-
gious teaching of the day is soft and
unreal. 1t is devoted chiefly to the
minor and passive virtues, and lacks
the virility and tang of the open-air
utterances of the out-of-doors Man
who, while seated on the slope of
a Galilee hillside, surrounded by a
rabble, talked in quiet, colloquial
speech the most radical teachings of
history. There are too many repre-
sentatives of the negative qualities of
religion who would scarcely speak an
uncharitable word about the devil
himself. Their preaching is sweet"
and "beautiful"-but as harmless as
a small boys spitballs against the
school house wall.
Not so Jesus. He bluntly faced
facts His was a message of the real.
No Everything and everybody is all
right" for this Militant. He knew
that there were evil men in the world,
some OF them in high and holy places.
Jesus was the arch-critic of Things AS
They Are. His daring assault upon
the entrenched interests of His time
was the direct occasion for His cruel
fixion. Observe the ringing courage
and manliness of this fragment of the
Sermon on the Mount which is as
signed as the present Lesson:
Beware of false teachers-men
who come to you in sleeps fleeces,
but beneath that disguise they are
ravenous wolves. BY their fruits
you will easily recognize them. Are
grapes gathered from thorns or figs
from brambles? Just so every good
tree produces good fruit but a
poisonous tree produces bad fruit.
good tree cannot bear bad fruit,
nor a poisonous tree good fruit.
Every tree which does not yield
aside for burning. So by their
fruits, at any rate, you will easily
recognize them.
Not every one who says to me,
Master, Master, will enter the King
dom of Heaven; but only those who
are obedient to My Father who is
in Heaven. Many will say to Me
that day:
Master. Master, have we not
prophesied in Thy name, and in
my name expelled demons, and IN
Thy name performed many mighty
works?
and then will tell them plainly:
Il never knew you: begone from
Me, you doors of wickednessT
Prophets for Revenue Only.
One reason why so many leaders are
hating and hampered is that they are
after something for themselves. They
want an office or an income A IA
nous American evangelist has made |
more than million dollars by his
preaching-and most of il is invested
in mortgages on farms, altho he does
not appear personally in these trans |
actions. especially when mortgages
have to be foreclosed. OF course the /,
decline and relative failure of the man
as preacher is explained by the sim |
pie fact 1 have stated. Even the most |
charitably inclined person knows that |
no man can properly grow rich by |