The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-21

death that filled His thought. Much
as the life and words of the Master
mean to mankind, it is His death that
crowns and explains all. The Cross in
terprets both time and eternity.
"Under an Eastern sky,
Amid a rabble's cry,
A Man went forth to die
For me.
"Thorn-crowned His blessed head,
Blood stained His every tread,
Cross-laden. on He sped.
For me.
"Pierced glow His hands and feet,
Three hours DER Him beat
Fierce rays of noontide heat,
For me.
"Thus vert Thou made all mine;
Lord, make me wholly Thine:
Grant grace and strength Divine
To me-"
The Leader of All Heroes.
In the background of our days real
thinking lies the memory of our SOL
diers who in the war proved the I'M
derlying courage of our race. We do
not talk much nowadays-not enough,
sureIy-of these heroes who so val
iantIy went lover the top" When
our fevered world comes to itself we
shall more clearly understand the
place and the glory of mat unsur-
passed revelation of heroism. Then
we shall rightly appraise the charac-
ter of the boys who waited in the mud
and cold for the zero hours; and who
open-eyed entered into the jaws of
death. This memory is one of the
most precious assets, of our civiliza-
ton, to be handed down as a standard
to all succeeding generations.
Properly and appropriately, We
speak of it in connection with the ex-
perience of Jesus, who. allseeing and
unfearing, went steadfastly up to
Jerusalem, where awaited Him a hor-
ribIe fate of which He was fully
ticle of the shame and suffering was
hidden from His eyes. AS our Les
son text says: And as Jesus was
going up to Jerusalem, He took the
way He said unto them, Behold, We
go up to Jerusalem; and the Son Of
man shall be delivered unto the chief
priests and scribes; and they shall con-
|tdemn Him to death, and shall deliver
Him unto the Gentiles to mock, and to
scourge, and to cruelty; and the third
day He shall be raised up"
What a Hero was our Lord! And
what a leader for stout-hearted youths
today.
Enter the Ambitious Woman.
Like a dash of cold water on the
pale face of Jesus, came an Interrupt
ton from the mother of James and
Lord had opened His heart to His
friends. He had given them a glimpse
Of His deepest experience. In most
sacred confidence, He had shared His
innermost feelings with them. Instead
of receiving in turn understanding
and sympathy and the fellowship of
comprehending friendship, He gets an
ambitious request for political prefer
menti While He had been talking
of the sublimities. they had been
thinking of the positions they might
attaini Like the dying wayfarer, who
had pleaded in vain for some one. to
hold his hand. Jesus had been rebuffed
cruelty in His outreaching for SYM
pathy.
Zebedees wife was an ambitious
woman. an early representative of the
familiar and universal type of woman
who seeks to further the fortunes of
her men. She was proud that her sons
were in the inner circle of the great
Teachers friends. She believed in
Jesus, after the vague, misunderstood
ing faith of most of His followers; and
she expected Him. as the Messiah. to
set up a temporal kingdom. In that
kingdom she wanted her sons to have
the highest places.
We may not be too hard upon the
mother of John and James. Women
and men of her state of mind have
persisted turnout the Christian CEN
turtles, withstanding all the clear reve-
lations of the mind of Christ and the
monitions of the Spirit. Ambition in
the church is one of the multiplying
forces that Christianity has still to
endure.
A Modern Version.
I know one layman, once a delegate
to the highest court of great Ameri-
can denomination, who in impulsive.
honest indignation, once spoke out
against a shameful political organiza-
ton that was electioneering for the
highest office in the church'S gift. His
simple, direct and hot words of con-
domination wrecked the plans of the
machine" for that occasion--but he
himself was subjected to such obloquy
and scandalous Misrepresentation that
he has never since been near an &C.
clesiastical gathering.
For, says he, fIf the highest officials
and leaders of the denomination are
so committed to these base practices
of political chicanery and trading and
tics the most elemental statement of
the historic Christian teachings con-
corning the governance of the church
by the Divine Spirit, then see nothing
for me to do but TO bear witness
against such practices and ideals by
abstention from all participation in de-
nominational affairs. There is too
much constructive work to be done for
the kingdom for a man to fritter away
his energies by trying to circumvent
those servants of the evil one, the &C.
clesiastical politicians. I shall bear
witness against them, even as Jesus did
against the same breed in His day, but
I shall not turn aside from the service
to which I have been called in order
to combat or overturn Them
This theme. of the place of worldly
ambition and despicable politics in the