The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-14

money: therefore He cried that We
cannot serve God and Mammon. He
in behalf of the poor. only because He
wanted the young mans life, and saw
that his life, otherwise SO fair, was in
the grip of his fortune. The world
has greeted with incredulity the an
nouncement of the remuneration of q
legacy OF a million dollars by Massa-
chusetts youth. The state of the pub
lie mind is such that it is difficult to
entertain any other thought than that
money is the principal thing.
So long as money thus rules life.
Jesus will be kept from the throne of
sovereignty. That is the clear and un-
welcome teaching of the Bible. Money
as servant must always have place;
money as master challenges the very
kingship of God. Our young people
must be taught-chiefly by the prac-
tice of their elders-that money is not
the principal thing. Unless we can
produce generation of Christians
willing to be poor, we shall fail to
make the first of all preparations for
facing the tidal wave of revolution
that is sweeping the world.
1t is slowly being forced into my
consciousness that the lesson of the
Russian aristocracy was all in vain so
far as the privileged peoples of the
western world are concerned. I saw
many instances of the utter inability
:
that their money would not always
purchse them special consideration.
To them it was simply unthinkable
that any revolution which dethroned
the rights of place and property could
continue. Alas, that blindness has en-
tailed the loss of many thousands of
lives, and misery beyond reckoning.
Please God. we shall never see any
thing like the Russian revolution in
his land Nevertheless. there is un-
der way an irresistible social movement
which will reformulate values. and curb
the peculiar privileges and power of
mere money. That grim fact gives
present point to the teaching of the
Lesson.
Living for Things Worth While.
After His staggering words, about
the rich mans entrance into the king
dom of heaven being as difficult as
the passage of a camel thru a needle
eye, Jesus proceeded to set forth to
His amazed disciples the worthwhile
ness of service and sacrifice for the
kingdom. Mere invectives against
wealth will get US nowhere. The way
OF the Master was to present the bet
ter part, the joy and privilege and re-
ward of serving His kingdom.
He offered the rich young man the
career of all careers. Then, as now,
rich men were common; and, save for
his inglorious contact with Jesus. this
nameleSS young man passed on into
the obscurity of the merely rich Well
has it been said, 1.-The rich mans sons
do not have a fair chance in life
Doomed to be nonentities or worse
| they go thru the years as leaners upon
life, instead of filters of life. Most OF
them do no high deeds, serve no great
cause. leave no noble mark upon theiI
generation. What a chance the rich
young man in the lesson story was
given by the Master,
And he missed it. But stay;~what
I of ourselves and our sons? We are
alive in the most plastic and porten-
tous era in the worlds history. Great
events are shaping on every hand
One man, with vision and courage
may do more than was possible to 9
hundred men a century ago. What g
day to be servant of the living God
a true brother of all men, and a
builder of the kingdom of heaven or
earth. He who puts Christ first to-
day lives the life that lasts.