The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-09-08

! All the long line OF european inter-
national conferences have failed to
| find a way out for bewildered and
imperiled world. Statecraft is as
| bankrupt as the central European
treasures. All sorts of social and pe-
| litical quacks are having their day;
and, in the circumstances, one remedy
| appears as reasonable as another,
from black reaction to red radicalism.
About all the highest officials of the
| OLD World seem capable of doing is
to throw up their hands helplessly and
call across the Atlantic for some kind
OF magic and mighty succor that will
4 transcend all laws Of economies and
| statecraft. Not for centuries has the
loutlook for organized humanity been
darker.
! All the while the remedy lies ready
| to hand, too near and familiar an.
simple to be recognized as the only
cure. 1t has been applied time and
again thruout the centuries, even as
in the long ago of which the present
| Sunday School Lesson tells; and it has
never failed. 1t was really the force
| that ended the war, and its abandon
rnent disrupted the peace. For when
| the allied nations agreed upon set
| of fundamental principles that were
! a mirroring of the principles of right
| eousness taught in the Scriptures,
they won such a moral reinforcement
from the whole world as made them
| irresistible. A plain, old-fashioned de-
| ings of the Law of God leagued the
| allies for the time with the hosts of
| heaven that rule the earth.
one Statesman's Method
| Over and over again. in tireless re-
iteration, this plain truth needs to be
hurled at the heads of the worlds
bungling politicians, who have almost
rI-s,
never get right until nations and men
do right. New international laws for
the selfish advantage of certain ma
lions and groups of nations can breed
only further woe for the world SO long
as they run counter to the explicit
law of the living God. The sooner we
waken up to a realization that only
| righteousness exalteth nation" the
earlier will be humanity's emergence
from its present wilderness of suffer-
ing and fear and hatred. Upon Lon
don, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Moscow,
Washington and Ottawa should be di-
| rected a ceaseless stream of pressure
from concerned and clear-seeing per-
sons, to the end that the only goal of
national and international policy may
be sheer and fearless doing of what is
right.
Of course, some of the modern
diplomats would be rather affronted
to be told that they are not SO wise
as a certain high official of the an
cient Persian court, Nehemiah the
Jew, who did a big bit of reconstruc
ton, from motives of the highest
Iidealism, and then made it sure and
successful by drilling into the people
the words of the Divine Law. He CO.
operated with the leaders of religion
to set the people right in their per-
sonal and social relationships and in
their attitude toward Jehovah.
Altar the reQiOO Of .IarIl-
salem had been rebuilt, and before
ever the economic and political and
civic machinery were functioning prop
lerly Nehemiah and Ezra-two truly
great tatesmen-gathered the people
together to learn the Law that they
had forgotten. Then. as now and
ever. neglect of the revealed word of
God results in spiritual deafness, per-
sonal moral decline and social injus-
tice. The revival that would do most
for this sinful old world would be a
revival of Bible-study among the peo-
pie. That is why many sane men of
affairs are eagerly supporting the
propositions to increase the member
ship and efficiency of the Sunday
Schools; for they build the Bible into
the structure of character.
Christians for the Crisis.
All over the world may now be
found Christians of various names
Protestants, Roman Catholics. Greek
Orthodox, Gregorian, Coptic, Nestor-
ian, etc. They number more than
half billion persons, or a third of
the globes population. All have in
common the same Scriptures. All
) profess allegiance to the same Law
that Ezra read to the Jews of Jerusa-
lem thru one long morning. All stress
; the same moral and social obligations.
All are trying to guide men into loyal,
loving relations with the Heavenly
| Ga
the nations which possess the worlds
leadership in all branches of life. They
can determine the course of history
if they will but stress that which Is
their one sacred trust, the inspired
word that makes life over.
Translating Nehemiah's situation
into our own day, is it not clear, even
to the most casual and unspiritual
reader, that Christians are called to
meet the crisis by the undoubted
christian measures? Some good per-
sons think we must create new or
foundations to deal with present con-
ditions. They are wrong, and merely
taking temporary refuge in futile ex
pedients. The way out is the old, old
way, clearly marked thruout the
ages, of simple obedience to those
laws of God which are unbeatable.
Clever and naneuvering statecraft is
Iinpotent; only the bedrock of the
unquestioned simplicities of the Chris
tan religion will suffice Once let the
world listen to the 'Thus saith the
Lord" and the path to peace and
prosperity will plainly appear.
Christians for this crisis must be
men and women who believe in God
and in the word of God. That por-
ltion of the world which prides itself
upon being intellectual is going mad
! over mfnd-worship. Clever theories
! follow one another in quick succession
as the vogue of the day; rationalisrn
lis regnant. Rut it was German ''kuI-
Itur," with its exaltation of the
, super BRAIN" that precipitated the
world cataclysm. Now we need. as a
lceunteracting and remedial force, a
return to the Law of the Lord; and
we need it just as truly as the Jews of
Jerusalem did in Nehemiah's day. The
portals of the gates of deliveranec are
1.-THE pages of the Book.
Only the wilfully blind fail to see
that there is a unique power in the