The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-09
International
SundauSchoolLesson
By WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
For June IL is Jeremiah Cast Into
Prison.'-Jeremiah 37:1-3s:13.
Prisons or Palms for Prophets.

For June IL is Jeremiah Cast Into
Prison. jeremiah 3T:1-3S:13. ,
Prisons or Palms for Prophets.
Pollyanna is more popular than
jeremiah. Most of US would rather
I have s"glad books than true books.
/ OF all the new religions which spring
up in abundance in our vagrant-
J minded era the most popular axe
/ those whose creed is one of smiles
and sunshine and genial good-nature.
/ Everything is lovely" sing the mod
ern prophets and prophetesses. Sin
! is an error: all is good and beautiful.
| A few more smiles and kingdom come
will have arrived
Far be it from US to discourage op-
timiSm-altho the best of many cur
rent definitions of the pessimist is
that THE pessimiSt is one who lives
with an optimist." Sensible folk, who
face life's realities, know that the pro-
fessional optimist's creed is superb
cial and shallow, and that it does not
take account of the facts of existence
as any open-minded person perceives
thenf. ignoring evil is no remedy for
it; the true optimist is the one who
| is bent on removing evil and its causes.
The Man Who Faced Facts.
Just as. it is with the, world today.
so it was in old Jerusalem on the
eve of the downfall of the nation:
some men refused to face the facts
Wh1ch confronted LneI1, because InOSe
facts were unpleasant. And when
clear-seeing olds jeremiah, the prophet
of Jehovah, who had consistently been
pleading with and warning the people
from the days of King Josiah, cried
aloud the incscapable truth, he was
thrown into prison.
That is the fate which goes with the
job of being a prophet. Nobody can
deal sQuarely with the grim realities
of life, in the large and in their rela-
f{nnShin sfT1rf Ia ~
preacher. The flatterer and the syn
cophant, the coiner of pleasant
phrases and the re-teller of humorous
stories, may for a time be in demand
name will never be written on the roll
of prophets who prepared mankind
for new eras. Real prophets are like
lier to find their way>to dungeons than
to public position. Mankind do not
want to hear the truth that means
change and betterment, by the route
of repentance and restitution. To
declare the whole counsel of God" is
likely to make a prophet uncomforta-
Bile.
Nevertheless, in an over-propa-
ganded and misled day, we need moth
ing more than, great prophets of God
who will see and say the truth for the
times. 1t is generally perceived now
that the supreme shortening of the
war era, and of our postwar expert
ences, has been the lack of function
ing prophets: men of God to interpret
the deepest meaning of tendencies and
trends and conditions. To the teacher,
to the preacher, to the editor to the
parent, to the writer, and to all others
who stand in places of leadership and
authority, the summons should be
sounded in clarion tones that our
present day needs most of all brave
souls of the jeremiah type, who have
listened to God. have looked at the
world, and haYe dared to speak the
uttermost truth they have learned.
Old Times and New.
Back of the situation IN old Jeru-
salem which caused Jeremiah to be
cast into a dungeon was the simple
fact-startlingly like the outstanding
generally were not informed upon in
ternational conditions. The people
and their leaders were long upon
local news and gossip. but short on
the real tidings of the times. They
could not be made Ito understand that
great cosmic. forces, the messengers
of God, were afoot, and marching to-
ward the recreant Jews and their
capital Chaldea and Egypt, the dom
inant empires, were in struggle for
world mastery; and the fate of the
chosen people was involved.
In awesome parallel, there is today
being waged, over the very same re-
giOn, a new struggle for supremacy by
the two principal European powers;
as well as a greater and more inclusive
struggle between the two major polit-
ical ideas of our y-self-governmen
and Imperialism. Just as the leaders
and citizens of Jerusalem ignored the
impending clash between Egypt and
.Chaldea, lulling themselves to rest in
a false sense of isolation and security,
so the western world is today slumber-
ing serenely under the influence of
the drug of distance and detachment
and destiny, needless of the vast
forces that are now loose in Bible
west thereof. We scott at as Jere-
miahs the men who lift warning
voices of the approach of danger. In
childish ignorance, like that of the
Jerusalem leaders, we assume that by
shutting our eyes to facts we render
those facts powerless. True interpre-
tiers of the times we are prone to call
"gIooms'' and "joY-killers" and "pessi-
mists." If older ways prevailed in our
days we should put them behind bars.
The Fellowship of Prisoners.
Whoever goes to Jail for the sake
of truth and righteousness, as d1d
jeremiah finds himself in a goodly
fellowship. He is a spiritual compan-
ion of Paul and Peter and John and
James, and most of the other apos-
ties; and of Bunyan of Bedford and
of Rutherford of Aberdeen, and of
long, long line that stretches down
thru the centuries. Nobody is really |
fit to speak truth or espouse cause |
who is not ready to go to prison for
it Out of the darkness Of dungeons
have lowered some of the fairest and |
most fragrant flowers of saintship and |
of Christian leadership.
Freedoms letters may bind the
limbs. but they set the spirit at lib |
erty.
'Stone walls do not a prison make.
Non iron bars a cage"
1t is only important that the soul
be free and at peace. When the i'm |
prisoned can sing at midnight, nike |
Paul and Silas. then they are enviable1