The Topeka state journal., 1922-06-30

If it did not sound a Dit 1rreFerenL
we might call this Lesson Gods Com
mencement Address to a Prophet" In
the person of theis man Ezekiel we
see summoned to stand, like gradu-
ating class receiving the direct address
of the speaker, all the preachers and
teachers and editors and statesmen OF
our time. Everybody who speaks to
his world and to his day herein learns
the qualifications for the office. High
and low veteran and amateur, con-
scientious and careless, all whose
work is instruction, are called, in the
words of Jehovah to Ezekiel-"Son OF
man, stand upon thy feet, and 1 VIII
speak unto thee
most cynical and routine-ridden up
standing. With the word itself sweeps
in the consciousness that If the Lord
Almighty ever speaks to anybody on
this earth it must be. first, TO moth-
ers and then to the men and women
who teach their times-the preachers,
the writer's, the statesmen and the in
structors of youth. By the nature or
their office, these are Gods first as
sistants, the relayers of His word to
the world.
And the highest recognition and re-
ward of such work, its crown of fade
less laurel. is that 1t is direct service
of the will of the living God. To be
speaks is great enough honor for both
earth and heaven.
"SIacker' Prophets
Every worker with words, by voice
or pen, should have a solemn session
with himself in the light of this Di-
vine appeal and of humanity's unique
needs. Ezekiel's call fits us. every one
like a cIstom-made cloak. We have
pretty much the same refractory sort
of folk to deal with as he; and far
49,
tional situation. We do not need to
go to the cuneiform or hieroglyphic
inscriptions of 500 B. c. to learn the
striking paralIelism between EzekieFs
day and our own. This Lesson fits
a national anniversary as If designed
for it alone.
Just as there are nowadays rene
gade newspapers, Stacker" preachers,
unillumined teachers and perfidious
statesmen, so when Judah fell there
were false prophets who saw their
position, only as a means to popularity
and personal comfort. As ever, the
unworthy watchmen on the walls were
largely responsible for the downfall OF
the nation II the prophets fail the
people. the resultant calamity is worse
than famine, pestilence or locusts.
Dire is the day for religions profess
sional ministers when the command of
the Lord comes, as it came to Ezekiel.
"Prophesy against the prophets of
Israel
When he was summoned to his life
work, this aristocratic Jew, of priestly
lineage, who was in exile in colony
Of his countrymen along one of the
canals near Babylon q have seen the
courses of those ancient canals stin
criss- lower Mesopotamia), ,
was told plainly that he was being
called to no easy mission. He was
promised briers and thorns, instead of
luxury, "and thou dost dwell among
scorpions" A present-day prophet
could name some of the scorpions, and
describe their sting!
Relentlessly and vividly, all the DIFF
ficulties of his task were laid before
peals to the heroic in us, rather than
to the love of ease and safety. 1t is
a poor fashion to recruit candidates for
the Gospel ministry by promising them
good salaries. assured positions and a
comfortable pension at the end. Eze-
kiers calf portrayed the difficulties
and the dangers of his work; but God
said, significantly, And then, whether
they hear. or whether they will for
bear (fOr they are a rebellious house),
yet shall they know that there hath
been a prophet among them"
Trained in n Troubled Time.
As yet, no new world leader has
emerged from the war or from the
graver international crisis that has
followed it. This is one of the dis
appointments of our day. We ex-
pected a finer breed of captains for
all walks of life to come out of that
fiery furnace. There is still time, of
course; but scanners of the horizon
are frankly disappointed because from
the severest ordeal of history have
come men and women who mostly
seem bent upon triviality, sensuality,
materialism and small selfishness.
and holy men who were to give us
our new world?
Probably our wailing is premature;
it was not until the very worst pos
sible seemed 10 Rave come to pass that
Ezekiel in the land of exile, heard his
call and began his work. Our imme-
diate concern is to thrust the urgency
Of our own day, as a summons to
noblest service, into the consciousness
of youth First, let them know how
grave and apparently insoluble, from
the standpoint of statecraft. are the
present perpleXities of the world.
Then help them to hear the clear
voice of the Lord calling for prophets,
who by lip and life shall speak the
adequate word for our troubled time.
There are hundred possible wrong
ways of considering this great Lesson
of Ezekiel. Gods watchman on the
walls OF judah: but the worst way
of all is to deal with 1t merely as
historical incident dated in the sixth
century before Christ, and located in
the neighborhood of old Babylon, in
Mesopota mia, down near the pres
ent city of Bagdad. If the story does
not mean something. and mean it
tremendously. TO this year of our
Lord. 1922. it does not mean any
thing worth bothering about. The
Divine call to Ezekiel is a divine call
to ardent young manhood and won-
anhood in the here and now to serve
God and our own nation and genera
ton. It is a ringing summons to in
terpret the everyday life of which we
are a part in terms of its spiritual
significance. This clear-eyed Hebrew
prophet of long ago saw thru the de-
lusions of heredity and jingoism and
fatalism that obsessed his day as well
as ours; and he came clear with the
tremendous word of individual moral
responsibility, The soul that sinneth,