The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-12-01

The Way of n Great Leader.
All around the world the cry is for
leaders The great ones of the war
period seem to have left no success
down even into local communities. Tue
thing is scaresome. Something must
be done about it. PoSt-election COM
ment in the United States clamo that
both political parties face preslden-
tial election with no great figure in
sight. The church never suffered
more than today from a dearth of
leadership. In all walks of life the
story seems the same. Overseas the
two outstanding figures in authority
are Lenine and Kemal, both meuacinS
established order.
Turn to the New Testament story,
and what do we see? The Leader OF
the ages training other leaders to
carry on His work. There is a leader
ship of ideas and there is leadership
by organinzatio and Christ was pre-
eminent in both. He has dominated
the centuries by His new philosophy
and life, and He still heads the most
effective and widely diffused of all
organizations, the Christian church.
Despite the muddled-mindedness OF
mankind, despite the new trend to-
lie thinking, there is no denying TO
Jesus His place of leadership in the
world today.
Multiplying to Garry On"
This Leader made leaders. That
is the first fact to reckon with. Jesus
trained disciples to carry on after
Him. He gave most of His time to
whom we call the Twelve. To them
He unfoIded lis message and mission.
Upon them He impressed His person
atty. Into them He breathed His
Spirit There were no lengths to
which He did not so to embody His
will and work in these companions.
With a whole world waiting for His
salvation, Jesus yet gave the bulk of
His time and wers to this unpromis~
ing little group, who were, OIL so
Him. They were SO little and He was
so great
Sun, that was the principle that
the Master adhered to thruout:-
leadership. Every leader is bound
to train other leaders. No great ex-
ecutive is wholly fulfilling his task
unless he is making himself unneces-
sary. one Of the greatest Christian
organizations in North America is in
grave condition today because for
generation past it has been a one-man
movement. With brilliant executive
at it's head, who has had no gift for
associating with himself other strong
men, ii has now come to a point
when the end of this mans leader
ship is in sight, with nobody to take
his place. The Success of the organ
ization has been sacrificed, all I'M
Willingly, to the success of its high
est official.
Everybody knows the story of the
Talmage church in Brooklyn; crowded
while DR.. Talmage preached, collaps- |
ing when he left He, like many an
other minister, had failed to make
disciples. and to build up an organiza-
ton to do greater works than he had
done. Occasionally we see a church,
not otherwise notable, out of which |
many young I eople have gone to coll
lege, and { succession of students into |
the ministry. There We may always
find a pastor who has caught the |
Jesus art of making disciples
What is the highest reward of Sun |
day school teaching? 1t is this. that
a man or woman may make disciples |
who will do a far greater service for |
God and the world than the teacher
himself could do. really great
votes himself to this very object, the
making of disciples. Thereby a |
neighborhood, a community, a church, |
even a generation may be changed. |
There is more of meaning for every |
one of US than we commonly discover
in the wise words Of the greatest
Leader, GO We, and make disciples"
Out of the Common Clay.
Before the war there was a world
wide tradition that aristocracy was
justified because it furnished the only |
adequate leadership for mankind. |
That delusion persisted in France |
While tens of thousands of the sons |
OF blood and privilege died calamity /
at the front-many of them, we now /
see, needlessly sacrificed to Quixotic /
aditions-nevertheles the race
learned that qualities of leadership |
and nobility spring up from the most /
unexpected places. The potentiality /
of the common man was proved by
the war. 1t was a demonstration of
demo cracy- And in the nations where
in the greatest changes have occurred /
since 1914 the effectives have sprung
up from the soil of the common peo-
pie. A few minutes thought right |
here recalls a long roll of the worlds /
new leaders no could have come to
nothing under pre-war cor -itions
This truth is tremendous. 1t I'M
derlies all our hope for the success
Of democracy. And it is a discovery
of Jesus. He it was who staked i'm.
perial projects upon the inherent
worth of the common man. When he
established his church did he call to
his aid the great rabbis of Jewry, the
Imperial princes of Rome and the
famous philosophers of Greece? Or
did he pillar his New Order upon
birth and breeding and education and
wealth? Not a bit of it. Jesus chose
the commonest of common clay for
the fashioning of the foundations of
His kingdom CaIlous-handed fisher
men made up the most of his cabinet.
The best of the lot. from a worldly
was only a tax-collector.
The most ordinary of ordinary men
were the ones picked out by the Mas
ter to carry on his divine mission. We
call them the first missionaries; they
were that, and far more besides.
Anybody who grows discouraged
over democracy need but remember
the material out of which Christ built
His church He had faith in man.
In the least he saw the best. He
knew what was in man: therefore he
trusted people to rise to the height of
heir possibilities. Alongside of the
example of Jesus We put the stupidity
IF some churchmen who obsequiously