The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-10-08
Z Equipped for a Crisis.

Equipped for a Crisis.
No thoughtful person who has
visited Europe since the war has
failed to return home without a warn
ing concerning the gravity and
growth of the present world crisis. All
sorts of remedies and preparations are
proposed, many of them hysterical
and absurd; and many wise and work
able.
expressed upon this subject are too
general and too large. 1t is easier to
tell what a vague they or 'we''
ought to do than actually to inau-
gurate something practicable.
It. is time to wake up to the truth
that Wharf.-The world. and this favored
land especially requires to equip it for
the present crisis is not comprehen-
sive and governmental in character;
but that it is as oldfashioned as the
New Testament.
All that we need to consider to
make the country strong and fit for
these critical days. is mirrored in the
present Sunday school lesson upon the
baptism and temptation of Jesus. Only
by the preparation of the individual
can the community be saved. A new
spirit in men and women will but
tress society against the tests which
lie ahead of us. Like the Master
Himself, all of us need a more than
natural enduement for the supreme
trials that our chara cters and our
civiliZa ton are about to encounter.
Facing Fundamental Facts.
Our day is rich in schemes and
theories If intellectual astuteness
could safeguard human welfare. so
much of the horizon would not be
dark and red. Whatever brains and
wisdom can do is being done to re-
construct the disintegrating old world.
raj
ter are on the increase
This is no place to go into the de-
pressing recital of what has befallen
and is befa1ling~this old world of ours.
Each breeze that sweeps the ocean"
brings tidings more ominous than the
last Here in the new world, too,
there are multitude of disturbing
manifestations. A recent magazine ar
ticle enlarges upon the appalling in
crease of crimes of embeZZlement: vio-
ucated and flliterate. The quality of
trustworthiness, it declared, is dinnin-
ishing to an alarming extent. Prof.
teering grows apace. Moral laxity is
en- the increase. We have not been
able to stand up under the strain of
phenomenal prosperity and war-pres
sure.
All of which compels us-te face the
fundamental fact of life, which is
Wrapped up in momentous expert
ence of Jesus. Temptation, fierce and
formidable, is the inevitable lot of ev-
cry person. To meet it, the individual
must be prepared in his own soul by
an enduement from God Himself. The
thing cannot be accomplished whole
sale: one by one each life must be
made ready for the test which, in the
aggregate, may have such vast social
consequences.
A Peep at the Home Folks.
While the general view of world
wide political and social and economic
conditions may be depressing, there is
only cheer in a study of this Lesson,
and of background conditions in our
Christian land. The baptism apd
temptation of Jesus are filled with
optimism for mankind. They tell of
the way out. For the Master won thru
to victory and peace by no power or
method that may not be His disciples.
This summer my travels have car
ried. me into the homes of scores of
average folk, in smaller communities.
What l have found has heartened and
thrilled me. The eminent leaders of
Christianity may disappoint one; but
there is only encouragement in the
simple goodness and God-fearing faith
of the plain people. The salt of the
nation are this uncounted and some
times forgotten host of homes where
life is animated by a desire to do the
will of God. These unheralded Chris
tians, who do not make public speeches
or write to the newspapers, whose gu
preme ambition is to do what Jesus
would like to have them do, are the
bulwark of civilization, the hope of the
world.
Bible-reading patriots are the best
guarantee of the preservation of our
liberties. Would that every troubled
and pessimistic leader of men and es-
pecially every Christian official, could
go out into the country and meet
them. 1t would hearten every CITY,
spoiled man and woman to catch a
glimpse of the countless homes where
love rules, where the old-fashioned
domestic virtues persist and where
the standards of Christianity are I'M
Quesuonably accepted as the measure
of life.
BY Jordan's Bank.
Somehow, it makes the Master seem
more like ourselves-whfch was His
constant desire-to know that He
Joined the crowd of heart hungry ones
who thropged to the Prophet of the
Jordan to be baptised. Jesus identi-
fled Himself in every respect with U.S.
He was tempted in all points like as
we are" He walked the common
ways of life, seeking spiritual REIN
forcement even as we seek it likewise.
Nor would He permit John the Bap
fist to dissuade Him from fulfilling
all righteousness. 1t was His mission
to tie Himself to the ordinary folk by
every holy bond, every spiritual usage,
every common experience.
Tho John thrust upon Him the
argument with which so many of us
beguile ourselves, that He was superior
ITO the ordinary needs of the general
run of men, the Saviour waved him
aside.
The example strikes straight home
to. the burning question of church
membership. Sabbath observance and
the like. If the Lord went with the
multitude into fellowship with the di-
vinest usage of His time, we may be
sure He would be found on the Sab
bath worshipping in the house of God
rather than resting on the golf
course. or bending over trashy litera-
ture.