The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-05-13
International
SundaySchoolLesson
For May is, is, Working With
Others"-I. Cor. 12:14-27.
BIZ WILLIAM T. ELLIS.


n OthefS."-1. Cor. 12:14-2T.
The Bible Kind of Socialism.
Because of the company it has often
kept, the word socialism is in rather
bad rspute AS q word. it is really
igood one, for it gathers up the idea
iof working together of all people for
1.-THE common welfare. 1t stands for
Fellowship and brotherhood and serv-
ice. The idea back of it, which is the
important thing, is a Bible teaching
lone important phase of which consti-
ltutes the present Sunday School Les
son.
There is nothing in Holy Writ to
support the class conscious, hate
filled, destructive conception of new
tsocial system which is widely prev
talent in the world today: Commun
ism, or Bolshevism, sauarely and
definitely parts company with the
Bible and the leadership of Jesus. But
There is an abundance of teaching in
Scriptures for the creation of a new
land nobler ana fairer and more fra
jtefnal order of human life.
This Lesson is based on one of these,
a fragment from the great document
which the Apostle Paul wrote to the
Christians inECorinth. That ancient
city is itself g ruin. as 1 saw a couple
Eof years ago. but the principles of
Paul are today more powerful and
tquote:
~N Paurs Pungent Parable.
For the body Is not one member,
but many. If the foot shall say. Be
| cause I am not the hand, am not of
the body it is not therefore not of
the body. And if the ear shall say,
Because I am not the eye, I am not
| of the body it is not therefore not
of the body. If the whole body were
an eye, where were the hearing? If
the whole were hearing, where were
the smelling? But now hath God set
| m q n lQRh
body, even as it pleased Him, And If
they were all one member, where were
| the body? But now they are many
members, but one body And the eye
| cannot say to the hand, I have no
need of thee: or again the head to the
| feet, I have no need of you. Nay,
much rather, those members of the
body which seem to be more feeble
are necessary; and those parts of the
| body, which we think to be less hon
ora BILE, upon these we bestow more
abundant honor; and our uncomely
parts have more abundant com eliness;
whereas our comedy parts have no
| need: but God tempered the body to-
getheE, giving more abundant honor to
! that part which la eked; that there
should be no seAism in the body; but
that the members should have, the
! same care one for another. And
whether one member suffereth, all the
| members suffer with it; or one MEM
/ 1
! joice with it"
A Recipe for Restoration.
| Was ever the great idea better put?
| Our days northumberland
| economic, industrial, religious, po-
litical-are largely a matter of human
beings knowing how to work well to-
| gether If governme and groups
| and individuals could subscribe hon
estly to Paul,s parable of the body
and its members, most of the present
difficulties of the world would vanish.
Restoration and reparation wait upon
cooperation.
Trouble has come from the stupid
notion of various parts of the body
of human society that each is the
head, and that the rest Of the body
is wholly subordinate to it. OF course
this idea is absurd; but then most of
our sins and blunders are really fool
ish A trunkIess head is as futile as
a headless trunk The interdepen-1
dence Of mankind, as humanity is now
slowly learning, is a truth that really
takes precedence of the independence
OF any part of mankind. Every days
issue of the paper is eloquent with IL
lustrations of the'Wprd: No man liv-
eth to himself, and no man dieth to
himself"
Mischief has been made by the lodg-
ing OF the same idea in the heads of
Northumberland there is usually room
to spare in any head where this con-
ceptiop abides. Some persons. think
that they have a sort of divine right
to headship. Pre- eminence is theirs,
they believe, by the wisdom of the
Omniscient. They openly avow, or Sc
cretly believe, that God means them
to be privileged and~powerful; and
that they have no obligation to the
great body of their fellows.
These are the irritating men and
women who are inflaming the sore
MI In nd q
points of human contact. They simply
are unaware of the divine law that all
of US are meant to be workers togeth-
er, one with another; and that the
only dishonor attaches not to place or
position, but to failure to be a worker
The Mistake of main Street"
Anybody can be a success in a
dream world. To shut ones self up
within ones self, having little or no
real contact-with other persons, is the
easy way of living an idea life-in our
imaginations. There are countless per-
sons, who believe themselves superior
souls, who thus evade the actual tests
of life. Most suicides and other fail
ures are of this morbid, self centered,
interpretive group; who have been
accustomed to call their isolation by
all other names than it's real one
which is eowardice.
Let US not dodge the clear truth
here. God has put US all in a world
of men and women. He has decreed
that it is not good for one to be alone
Life has been so organized by Him
that we are dependent upon human
relationships. He has made US, in the
Bible phrase, Members one of an
other" To carry out the fundamental
programme of God for the race we
simply must learn to work together
Moreover, fellowship with folks is
one of the rewards of existence It
is a happiness, as well as a duty, to
work with other men and women:
and to learn how to be a good fed
mankind.
Half-baked young persons usually
think themselves of a different stuff
from others; and quite better than
the common run of men and women
These notions are merely growing
nains.n uSua llv c1lred nv time. aIthn