The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-24

work. In the same manner. l pity
the herds of male "flappers' and
'Iounge-lizards," with never a thought
above their hair. or deeper than their
dancing toes; for they are entirely is-
norant of that great world of noble
young women, beautiful in character
and mind as well as in outward app
pearance, who are to be the help
meets and inspirers of the worth
While youth of the country.
PITY the blindi'' cries the Oriental
beggar, as he tap-taps his way thru
the bazars, with outstretched hand.
The same cry echoes in our owa
hearts as we behold the multitudes
of men and women who have no VT
sion Of. the spiritual forces of the
time; who are literally ignorant of all.
the movements within the sphere Of
religion;' to whom the Sunday school,
for instance. is only a name and a
jest; who never see beyond the near
and the material.
The Vision at Washington.
At the Washington conference the
world had a repetition of the incident
of Elisha and his unseeing servant,
AS the delegations and the sophisticat-
ed correspondents gathered from the
ends of the world there were some
who could see nothing but battleships
and guns. Material force was their
only standard of value. The confer
ence was a chimera, because human
nature" requires wars and the prepa-
rationS therefor. France and Japan
took their stand on this platform.
France almost wrecked the confer-
ence by her refusal to consider land
disarmament, and by her attitude to-
ward submarines. Imponderable con-
siderations weighed nothing with herr
guns and gold marks were her stan
dard. Japan, until literally forced to
a better way, held out against the
aV, r.h,1 fAfe saf y fx,1,
the people of Vision saw in the heav
ems.
OF course the victory went to the
spiritually Illuminated: the outcome
of the conference may be written
down as a victory for the hosts who
coopexated with Elisha. The oeca-
sion was a spectacular demonstration
of the might of spiritual influences:
and its achievement would have been
vaster had it not been for the unseeing
minority around the table. More than
thirteen million persons communicated
their wishes to the Washington con-
ference, and an official digest of the
letters and resolutions revealed that
more than ten millions of this number
expressed religious sentiment or mo-
tive for their desire for a better way
than the old war-way of running the
world. There are spiritual forces STIR
ring amid men at the present time
that may be called the most important
phenomena of our day: but only the
Elishas see them.
Europe is up against a stone wall.
The best minds of diplomacy and bust
ness cannot agree upon any way out
that will surely save civilization. With
all carefulneSs and Difference to dire
possibilities, it is nevertheless to be
recorded that there are some signs in
the heavens that rescue is to come by
spiritual agencies; and that a new
en- Of F-oliprinTa hn h. &c
of over mastering the heather hate
and fear and selfishness that now
threaten the upbuilding of the CEN
turtles in Europe. There is the sound
of a marching in the tops of the null
berry trees in Scotland and in CEN
trail Europe. 1 can testify that in Tur-
Wey and the Balkans and Egypt and
the Holy Land I found a real and
widespread concern for an outcome
that would be spiritual.
'sThey That Be with U.s." s
There is a distressing conflict gQing
on in the Protestant churches inEthH
United States at the present time over
orthodoxy; or, really, over premillen-
ialism. 1t is needless and hurtful. The
real hereticS in the Christian church
are the successors of Elisha's servant,
who think that the enemies of Gods
people are victorious. They are the
defeatists, who have no hope save for
a little remnant. Discouraged because
short-sighted, they cannot envisage
the conquering hosts of God. 1t
means nothing to them that church.
membership is just now undergoing a
marked increase, and that the Sun
day school slump of a few years ago
has been arrested, and that the net
gains are great.
1t never occurs to such faithless
folk to include among them that be
n oh fnrpac nc a
to cleanup baseball and other pro-
fessionat and amateur sports; the en-
ployment at a large salary of a Pres
byterian elder. now the American
postmaster general, to improve the
standards of motion pictures; the new
wave of law enforcement in the most
lowless communities; the quickened
sense Of social and civil justice in all
the world
The latest fiction work of greatest
popularity, a book destined to outsell
such an erotic bit of wearisomeness as
Main Street" is eff Winter Comes"
whose hero is a strong man, with a
valor for decency, and who perceives
in our present times the supreme
reality of a living God. The eager
ness with which thoughtful persons
are reading and discussing this book
is a wholesome sign of our times.
Mark Sabre is to be counted on the
side of them that be with us"
His burning of Effie's letter ranks
with the loftiest act of self-renuncia-
ton of Jean Vatican in Les Mis-
CRADLES"
Two Bible words come to mind as
we leave this old story, which has
been a comfort to millions of Gods
children thruout the ages. One is,
''The stars in their courses fought
against Sisera." The other reads,
Thou shalt be in league with the
stones of the field" There is a divine
unity of all the forces that serve the
living God. Every process of nature,
every impalpable influence of the un-
seen world. every noble servant of
truth who has ever lived or is yet to
liVe-in short, every agency of Je-
hovah, is enlisted on the side of Je-
hovah's man. To the eye of faith the
heavens are full of the chariots and
horsemen of God whenever the battle
seems hardest.
tn.~nn9so~eA ~o,no~o