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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 1922)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, OCTOBER 8, 1923 LAYMEN DECLARED TO HAVE MISSION AS CHRISTIANS Members of Congregations Of ten Able to Reach Those Who Are Skeptical of Pastor's Appeal, Says Rev. Thomas J. Villers, Pastor of First Baptist Church, in Sermon on Evangelism as Jesus Intended It BT THOMAS J. VILLERS, Pastor of First Baptist Church (White Temple.) As thou has sent me into the world, ores, so have I also sent them Into the world. (John xvll:18). WHEN the high priest entered Die holy of holies, the people, , -with every eye strained to ward his -white - robed figure, watched him as he disappeared within the sacred enclosure. As he folded back the curtain of the most holy place, and there In that awful solitude, lighted only by the red aTlow of the coals on his censer. poured out his soul In prayer for the people, they reverently with' drew a few steps from the sanctuary and worshiped In silence. This morning- as we here. In this 17th chapter of John's gospel, be hold our great high priest kneeling In the holiest of all, and listen to his breathings into the ear of God, praying the father to glorify his name, to sanctify his people, and to unify his church, that through such unity the world may believe, we. like ancient Israel, may well feel the B&credness and solemnity of the hour and bow our heads in reverent . and worshipful silence. Getbsemana at Hand. The farewell discourses were ended. Gethsemane with its sorrow, its homesickness, its amazement, its tearful supplication,, its bloody sweat, was but a ste'p in the dis tance. The shadows flung from the cross were deepening and dark ening. Jesus knew that before an other sunset love's redeeming work would be done the one sacrifice for sins would be offered forever. In these last moments he betook himself ito prayer. Dying words are imperishable. We embalm them in fragrant memories. With eyes uplifted toward tha father, the divine suppliant first reviews his own ministry. "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." Then his mind turns toward his disciples; he prays for them, declar ing their mission to be a continua tion of his own. This thought he emphasized before his death on the earthward side of Calvary. "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into j the world." The same thought emerged with him from the tomb and fell from his lipe on the heav enward side of the cross. "Then said Jesus to them again, 'Peace be with you; as my father hath sent me, even so send I you.' " Thus with the emphasis of repeti tion our Lord announces the Chris tian's mission to the world. Jeans Called Apostle. Jesus is called the apostle of our confession. He is God's sent one whom we confess. This fact he repeatedly emphasized, affirming himself to be the one whom the father sanctified and sent into the world. In John's gospel alone he speaks of himself 36 times as being eent of God. He was sent to preach good tidings to the poor, to pro claim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Having now fulfilled Vabbltt, by Sinclair Lewis. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York city. George F. Babbitt, moderately prosperous real estate broker, liv ing in the city of Zenith, which is any live town of about 400,000 popu lation, is a tremendously real and accurately drawn character. He is one of the most natural, most life like fiction characters in recent years, but there is no particular reason why he shouldn't be; to de pict Mr. George F. Babbitt In his very ordinary and platitudinous life, with not enough of the un usual or interest thrown in to pro vide seasoning, it requires some 400 pages. He is Mr. Lewis' idea of the aver age prosperous American citizen; he is not an individual, and Mr. Lewis' book, "Babbitt," is what might be called a jolly good slam on that fine institution known as the aver age American business man. Mr. Average American cannot possibly be as dull and as Incapable of thought or in social relations as Mr. George F. Babbitt is supposed to be. Dull individuals there are and many of them, but the class is not dull nor monotonous in any part of its life. But give credit to Sinclair Lewis for his absolute realism, his ac curate depiction, of a type, if not a class. Babbitt is a real man, alive and living in the pages of the book. All of us know Babbitts and most of us like them in spite of the in sinuation that they are dullards. The only thing against the book is its monotony and its amazing mass of "get nowhere" details. For instance, the book starts when Babbitt crawls out of the bed on the sleeping porch of his well-furnished home, which is Just like every other home in that prosper ous section of the city. Every part or an ordinary day In Babbitt's life is gone into, from the color of his pajamas and the condition of his razor blade, to his thoughts as he drives his good car through down town traffic; and to put this day into print Is requires 135 pages. Babbitt is faithfully led through all the phases which men of his class are subject to; club life, fra ternal organizations, church, home with a very drab, fat, uninspir ing wife rebellion at the supposed platitude of It all. and hi second crop of wild oats, providing he had sown his first crop. The results of very phase are catalogued care fully. It i a rood bock to read, because no one who has read It will want to be a Babbitt, and everyone will try not to be. There would seem to be a fallacy in the sermon, how ever, because if the class Is so dull, it win not understand Mr. Lewis' book, and those who can compre hend it will not need it in its full ness. Nevertheless, and regardless of Its 1sngth, "Babbitt" bears a valu able message to the people; it is Main Street on a larger scale, Main Street paved and with painted houses and ultra-modern buildings. The Lsst Harvest, by John Burrong-ha Tbe Houghton-Mifflin company, Bos ton, Mass. The ripe reflections of an old man whoso mind and work have served to make the world a better place to live in are always worth read ing and pleasant to read. There is a mellowness and purity that is enticing and contagious; an inspira tion to the same kind of thought; a wholesome .kind of thought pro duced rather by leisure than eager ness. It would seem that age alone can sift out the grain of wisdom and then present it wisely. Most of this collection of papers new Notice the prayer, "thou" and "me" linked by "sent"; -I" and "them" coupled by the same link, the word translated "sent" implying a commission for a definite purpose. When behind those shut doors that first Easter he said "even so send I you," he used a different word, accentuating not so much the work of the apostolate as the authority of the sender. Thomas was not present that night, and Luke tells us that others than the ten were there. So that the commission was not limited to Peter and his fellow-apostles, but is rather the charter of the who! church. And it was so understood in those primitive days. Every disciple counted himself a discipler, every Christian an evangelist, every believer a missionary. No one ever dreamed, so far as we know, that responsibility was lifted from the individual and laid upon the church as a corporate agency. The convic tion was clear that the church could get into saving contact with men only as the individual memDer came into personal touch with them. Jesus went after Nicodemus, Andrew after Simon. Philip after Nathanael. A man's conversion was accounted a sufficient "call" to tell the good news. And so we learn that when persecution scattered the church at Jerusalem, the. rank and file of the membership went every where, preaching the word. And up yonder at Antioch, where the first Gentile church was gathered, and the first foreign mission society was organized, the work was begun by humble men upon whom ordain- ine hands had never Been laid- men whose only authority to preach was a consuming passion to make their Lord known. Laymen Get Task. When, in the name of the great commission, did God relegate to clergymen the total output of saved souls? The founder or the cnurcn was a layman. Its first apostles were laymen. The ages of the martyrs, when the gospel ran abroad with winged feet, were the ages when laymen were specially active. This grand-and awful time in which we dwell is the laymen's era and opportunity. Let business thorough ness be baptized in religious convic tion. Let the democracy get into action, as indeed it is beginning to do. There are few more hopeful signs in our day than the increasing in terest and activity of Christian men. With the conviction that the re demption of humanity is a task so difficult and colossal as to demand the biggest brain and the most courageous -heart, men with ca pacity to originate and manage vast enterprises are becoming promoters of the kingdom, and are coming to see that the establishment of God's reign here and now is the chief business of life. Pastor Is Hampered. Tou laymen can reaoh fellow men with whom we pastors can find no point of contact. Unacquainted with the church, they cannot, dissociate us from our calling. Many of them, down deep in their hearts, have a feeling that we should not talk re ligion so fluently if we had to share their toil and front their temptation. r 4 Sinclair Lewis, who ham paved "Main Just published by Harconrt, Brace fc Co. . bv the poet-naturalist was written after four-score years had been lived, at a stage of life, says the collector, when the energy to write was not adequate for the desire, of expression. Sonn of it is admit tedly below Burroughs' character istic quality, and some of it is even better, but the real significance lies in the fact that these are the last thoughts he gives the world. It is not- a large book and -half of it concerns Emerson; some about Thoreau and the remainder is com posed of personal reflection. It is thoroughly and purely philosophi cal, and those who wish to know better pholosophy, Emerson, Thor eau and Burroughs, will profit by the reading. Also it might be -called a firm stand for better and older standards and a slight lament for the passing of a literary era. Perhaps the last paper in the col lection, and the last of the "Sun down Papers," Burroughs' essay on death, is the most significant and Interesting. In It he confesses a lack of comprehension and a de sire for greater faith. These "Sun down Papers" are one of two collec tions. The other is "Short Studies in Contrasts." Both will live long, perhaps as long as the essays of Emerson, who would seem to have filled a large part of Burroughs' life, larger at least than is com monly indicated. The House of Adventure, by -Warwick Deeping. The MacMillan company. New York city. Those who have seen the bat tered and broken French villages in that belt of varying width along one side of France, and considered the appalling task of reconstruction, may -perhaps remember how their fingers itched to tidy up the dishev eled rooms and help make whole the shattered walls that they gazed upon. Humanity is in some strange way blessed with a desire for re construction, a part of the love of cleanliness' and order. Imagine how the fingers of the dwellers in these villages tingled; imagine their joy at the resurrec tion of their homes, and you have a feeling that Warwick Deeping has caught and interpreted into a story of perfect charm and great avmoathv. "The House of Adven ture" is the romance of rebuilding that mission, he formed apostolate. If ak v,-- 4 &04l Ft Whereas if you tell them that you have found Christianity a. good thing for this life; if you Invite them to your pews with such warmth and earnestness as give as surance that you do not want their money but themselves; they cannot shunt you off so easily. Upon you, in this renaissance- of tne masculine emphasis. Is largely laid the responsibility of removing the reproach so frequently flung at the church, namely, that it is a wo man's organization like that church of which I heard its aged pastor say, that the constituent members consisted of four sisters and a few other brethren. Love Explains Ministry. Jesus was the eon of God's love. He was the representative and de pository of that love. Ha was God's love made manifest. Love led to his incarnation. Only love -will ex plain his ministry. 'Did he feed the hungry? Did he hear the speech less pleadiing of the widow's tears? Did he bear our sins in his own body on the tree? It was love that hallowed the whole of his life from his unhonored birthplace to his bor rowed grave; from the night when angels at B&thle-he-m sang his cra dle hymn to that darksome hour when the multitude heard the wail of Calvary's broken heart. He loved me." Paul exclaimed, and gave himself for me." A commercial - traveler stood in my study and gave me a chapter of his history. -. Ten years before he had fallen so low through sin that he was utterly forsaken, cast off even by his own wife. One night he wandered into the Pacific Garden mission in Chicago, where he heard something about a savior. Chords that were broken began to vibrate once more. After the service that seventh night he groped his way through the darkness to an old board fence near the house where his wife lived, and there behind that fence threw him self down, hoping that when morn ing dawned he might peep through the cracks and see at the window yonder, his little girl whom he was no longer permitted to visit. As the eastern sky began to flush with promise of the dawn, weary and hungry and lonely and heartsick, he crept up to the feet of Jesus. Reception Is Loving. And greatly to my surprise," he said, "Christ- didn't scold me. He knew I'd been scolded enough already. And he didn't give me any advice either. I'd long ago had plenty, of that. No," he added with a trembling voice, "Jesus just loved me." And when the sun got above the horizon that morning, a brighter light was filling all the chambers of his heart. He cot back a good busi ness position and with it a beautiful home; and everywhere he went, he kept telling what a dear savior he had found. Are some of you away from God this morning, your souls in the darkness, homesick and sin-sick? Creep up to the pierced feet. He will not scold you. He will not ad vise you. He will just love you love you "out of your shameful fail ure and loss, into the glorious gain of his cross; out of earth's sorrows into his balm; out of life's storms and into his calm; out of distress to jubilant psalm." Children of God, apostles of Jesus, a French village, more particularly a certain home. Paul Brent, an English soldier, is sleeping in an orchard near Beau court beside his comrade. A shell explodes and the comrade is' killed. Brent has had an unsatisfactory life before the war. and to get rid of it he changes identification tags and the body is buried as his own. In Beaucourt he meets Manon La tour just as she leaves her home before the German advance. After the armistice is signed he returns and she comes back the 'next day. They rebuild the house, but it 1 is not easy work, and Monsieur Bibi, a beast of man, would frustrate them because they interfere with his plans to make profit of tourists. So there is considerable back water to fight, and the battle is part of the book, pitted against the natural joy and the later love of the man and woman who set the exam-pie of reconstruction for the rest of the villagers. Deeping has caught the whole spirit, not only of such a scene, but of the war stricken France as well. His book is a splendid combination of beauty ana strength. Spinster of This Parish, by ,W. B. Max well. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York city. The power of love to rectify wrong and the theme that love is always right regardless are subjects which novelists have sat themselves down to write about. Some are successful and some are so lamentably unsuccessful that their books are often plain cases of "love's labor lost" with a double meaning. The absolute beauty of love, per haps the only perfect abstract beau ty, can, by the right writer, be turned into a novel of strong appeal and "Spinster of This Parish" is one of these. Perhaps W. B. Maxwell can be accused of getting nowhere, but he certainly pulls Miss Verinder out with colors flying. His charac terizations of Miss Verinder and An thony Dyke, the famous explorer with the huge frame and the wav ing hair, are superb. They are not concrete, they are not vivid, but they are impressive and striking. They are the kind of people who can do the things they did. They meet and fall in love and parental objection forces the total and explicit love of Emmellne Verin der into culmination as a lover in stead of as a wife. When the ex plorer leaves her to Bail on another trip he returns to his boat to find her back in his stateroom, too late to send her ashore. Consequently her blind love carries her with him through experiences that are not the lot of many spinsters; and when she has to leave him her own love not only goes on, but holds his as well. Besides this one main issue, there is another couple, a younger pair who contemplate the same adventure and the girl comes to Miss Verinder for advice; an ingenious trick on the part of the author. Then there is a double wedding. One of Onrs, by Will Catber. Alfred A Knopf, New York city, Reading of Willa Cather"s new book is very much like riding be side a highly competent chauffeur who drives not at high speed but consistently at a mileieating pace which gets you somewhere; who negotiates traffic with the utmost finesse and drives over difficult spots in a way to inspire the utmost confidence. Tou sit beside such a driver and admire his steady con trol as he points out the places of interest along the way. Always he picks the best if not the most beau tiful roads and if he makes a de tour for some reason not quite evi dent, you can rest assured that you will see something quite worth while before he gets you back to the main road again. How many men were there who found the war a decided relief; an escape from environment, conditions and circumstances that would have as love was the master passion of him whom the father sent, so must love be the constraining motive of us whom the son sends. Humanity is always responsive to the touch of love. Around on the sunny side of the most frigid man there is a door that opens to the pressure of a lov ing heart. "Thou hast loved my soul from the pit!" exclaimed Hezekiah. as he looked back at his alarming illness; as if God, bending over, had used his hear( as a magnet to lift his prostrate servant ironi me sr& Love magnetized Hezekiah from death. Be ye, therefore, imitators of God and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you. As his sent ones we are to go about loving people out of sin into holiness., out of un rest into peace. Constrained by love, impelled by love, by love urged on, by love held irresistibly to one aim, we are sent to those yet in enmity against God, to love them into fel lowship with him. So much for the new- apostolate, with its membership and motive Now see a divine ministry continued. Christ Interprets Mission. It is profitable to note Christ's interpretation of his own mission, and to read our mission in the light of that interpretation. Hear his words; "I came down from heaven. not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. -I came not to call the righteous, but sinners .to re pentance. The son of man came to seek and to-save that which was lost. The son of man came not .to be ministered unto, but to minister. and to give his life a ransom for many. As my father hath sent me, even so send I you." He came to minister; and he min istered to all classes. He welcomed influential Nicodemus and explained to him the new birth. He took equal pains with the despised woman of Samaria and drew for her the liv ing water. The two accounts are placed side by side. During his life he mingled with the poor; in his death he made his grave with the rich in order that he might save both. . Service Chief Need. This is an age when men are call ing for "a God whose face is human ized to the lineaments of love." They want to see Christ in us. He fed the crowd, then talked to them about the bread of life. A Chris tian's tongue ought never to be any larger than his hand. It is unnat ural. Profession without practice i3 as dead as faith without works. The Christian is not a saint pre served for future happiness, but a sinner redeemed for present service. Thu story of God's life in Christ and in his people that is the his tory of Christianity. Its distinguish ing grace is not "other-worldliness," I ut that anointing which sends us about doing good. Christianity is not primarily a thing of the stars, but of the streets. No longer can we content ourselves with singing about our title clear to mansions in the skies and neglect the vitiated tenement that is breeding a lawless and criminal citizenry. There is less 'religion in working ourselves .'nto a rapt and shining mood about the rest that, remains for the peo ple of God, than in laboring to im prove every industrial condition which throws men and women on the scrap-heap and slag-dump. Jesus brought himself into con bound them helpless all their lives, had war not called them away? There were many and Miss Cather has made Claude Wheeler one of tl?ese. She has made him something more, a boy full of baffled energy, anxious to make something of his life; rebellious toward his father, his school, his home and his work on that big Nebraska farm; a soul that would be torn always by discontent. . Claude would have preferred the state university to the narrow the ological school, but his pious mother, for whom he bore a dumb, un analyzed affection, begged him to stay where he was, and he agreed rather than argue with her. When school seemed better, his father sud denly decree that Claude should re main at home and manage the farm, so that once more the light ahead was shut off. An unwise marriage follows, with a cold, narrow-soulad wife and life stretches out before Claude Wheeler bleak and tasteless. Then the war, which -was an escape. Claude Wheel er is not the sort to regard it as an adventure. The end is a tragic death, beautiful and sad, but the confi dence in the chauffeur is such that the, accident seems better than the natural end of a purely utilitarian journey. Miss Cather writes with a careful and deliberate precision. She does net gather her points, but rather serves them out from the facts of life. Every sentence is illuminating; its period a mile post in Claude Wheeler's life. Each character is carefully reckoned; the mother who sensed his need and discontent, but could answer only by look and dumb sympathy. There is a marvelous love between these two. The father is a crude, matter-of-fact Tankee, whose jests are cruel and stabbing, and the two brothers, one weak and the other wayward and thoughtless,- are exact counter parts to Claude, the one member of the family the father cannot under stand or sympathize with. It is astonishing that a woman can comprehend so fully the life on a large Nebraska farm. A traveler could sense something of it from a train window but the analysis would be beyond him, and it is this difference that makes the book so thoroughly understood. It took Willa Cather three years in the writing, and to her former works It is ripened fruit. "One of Ours" will probably not prove Immortal but it is a masterpiece. ' Cappy Ricks Retires, by Peter B. Kyne. The Cosmopolitan Book Corporation. New. York City. There can be no doubt but that Cappy Ricks greatly deserves the name his enthusiastic publishers give him, "the grand old man of American fiction," for few charac ters stand out in the minds of the light-fiction-reading public as he does, and few have' so thoroughly caught the vein of American humor and sympathy. And in this case these American attributes are . spoken of in their largest sense, as institutions of American life. Cappy Ricks, from the super-able - pen or Peter B. Kyne, is one of the most lovable men that ever marked a page of fiction. He is lrrascible, deep. canny and full of a keen sort of un derstanding that works to both his and others' profit. Ths book contains nothing new in ths strictly creative sense; there are several new characters but they' only serve as targets and mirrors from ths dominating Cappy. ' The big idea of the whole thing is that Cappy tries the impossible, retire ment, and proves to himself and his host of admirers that he will never be able to retire absolutely until they nail down the lid and fill up the grave. Most of the characters of, Peter B. Kyne's magazine series are woven into the book and play the tact with humanity fit the point of need. With hands full of helpful charity, with a word in season to them that are weary, with a heart at leisure from itself to soothe and sympathize, we are sent to con tinue his work. We ought to com pel the gratitude of men by put ting ourselves under their burden. We ought to speak so as to be heard in matters of publio policy and re formatory legislation. This is our province as apostles of the man of Galilee. For at bottom, social and industrial problems - are moral and religious questions. The sores- of so ciety can , be healed only by the touch of the pierced hand. The hand the church holds. With the purpose of our mission clearly defined, Jesus declares that our parish is the world. His com mand to make disciples of all the nations has never been repealed. In the Inferno, Dante tells us, some of the shades he saw were so lean and unsubstantial that they could not so much as cast a shadow. He need not have gone to hades to find them. Many of them are still walk ing around on the earth's crust. A few of-them still hold membership in our churches. They are cabined, cribbed, con fined in local interests. They feel no obligation to the man whose color or facial angle is different from their own. They have never breasted the sea and looked toward heathendom, where restless millions wait "the light .whose dawnine mattes tnings new. They have never Been rired with a passion to en throne Christ in the hearts of all men. In every church I wish there hung a chart constructed on the oasis or Acts r:s "Ye shall be wit nesses unto me both In Jerusalem and in all Judea, and. in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Four concentric circles. A picture of the local church at the center. The inner circle labeled at the top "In Jerusalem"; at the bot tom, -uty or Missions." The sec ond circle, at the toD. "Tn All .Tn. dea"; at the bottom, "State Mis sions. -j.ne tnird circle, at the top. "In Samaria"; at the bottom. "Hnm Missions." The outer circle at the top, "Unto the Uttermost Part of the Earth"; at the bottom, "Foreign Missions." Across them all In the shape of a cross, "Preach the gospel to every creature": "The field I th. world." Broader Horlson TJrared. " Ours is the world-vision. We must cultivate a race-consciousness. , We ought to push our horizon out to the farthest man. To Christ's eye the need of ths world was visible. To his ear the cry of the world wai audible. Against his heart pressei tne Duraen or the worlds guilt. His love overleaped all -bounuarif s. His mind was not measured by parallels of latitude, or his sym pathy by degrees of longitude. With him "there was neither east nor west, border, nor breed, nor birth." Our island possessions and inter national relationships are not mili tary accidents. God has flung our geography out into the seas, that he may compel 119 to take our place In the family of nations. Broken in health. Cecil Rhodes set sail for southern NataL With the clear vision of an empire builder, he soon saw that the scattered same snappy parts. The incidents and the adventures, commercial and romantic, of Cappy are new. The time is mostly during the war, and the Blue Star Navigation company, Cappie's best plaything, does some great work. Those who have fol lowed Cappy through his career, and there are many, are sure to like the series in book form. . A Journey In Ireland, by Wilfrid Bwart. D. Appleton & Co., New York City. First of all Mr. Ewart writes with an unprejudiced pen, and second, his journey is a complete one, marked with energetic Interviews and ob servation. In this sense he is more of a reporter than he is an author, for he scrupulously avoids voicing any opinions. As he traveled through Ireland, covering all parts of the country, he set down carefully everything he saw in the. way of conditions and everything he heard tn the way of politics and declara tions. He met and talked with persons of all shades of opinion and of all classes, he visited the Important localities of both the south and Ulster. Almost simultaneously with the conclusion of the book a trues was proclaimed in Ireland, which might have made null any other kind of story. Consequently, it forms more of an historical essay than a com mentary review of a nation under stress. Flowing Gold, by Rex Beach. Harper & Brothers, JNew iorK cur. "Get - Rich - Quick" Wallingf ord seems to have changed masters and names; also to have grown a trifle thinner, for Calvin Gray has every thlnir that Wallingford had and one or two things more. He is one of the slickest customers that ever cams down the line, and Rex Beach deserves credit for creating so good a character so entirely dlirerent from anv of his nroduots of the past. Otherwise the book is Rex Beach, at his best but no better, from cover to cover. Flowing gold Is Texas oil and the story Is of the heotie me r.Qai ioi inwaA the finding, the rush to the scene, the frenzy, the despairs and the triumphs. The characters are the lucky, the unfortunate, the poor made suddenly rich, the rich broken, and Calvin Gray. Into the best hotel In Dallas Cal vin Gray walks and takes ths best suite of rooms. He is a man of charming personality, captivating address and unlimited energy. Also he Is stony broke and he Is endowed with a peculiar code of morals. His admirable resourcefulness soon puts him in funds, and then it developes that whlls a colonel In the army he was dishonorable discharged through the scheming of Colonel Henry Nel son. Henry Nelson is a banker and a lease speculator of Dallas. For re venge Gray ruins him and runs him out of his bank. Gray is assisted by the family of Gus Bristow, poor as a church mouse and suddenly smothered in millions, needing the helping hand which Gray lends them. Also there is "Bob" Parker, one of the wonderful and capable girls who are often found in this sort of fiction. Her own ac tivities in oil dovetail into Gray's but the romance does not dovetail quite so well, which is as it should be. - . Rex Beach has in a way deserted his usual line and has shown him self a thorough master of plot. "Flowing Gold" is interesting from start to finish, and the picture of the Texas oil rush is as real as la necessary in ths telling of the story. Tbe Sky Line of Sprnee, by Edison Mar shall. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Mass. That the west and the northwest as it exists today, or did exist not very long ago, still holds sufficient romance and adventure for honestly realistic stories is proved explicitly states of South Africa might he federated under ons government, and the influence of that govern ment pushed northward through the heart of ths dark continent. He began to covet that vast territory for England. One day, drawing his hand across the map of Africa, he said: "That la my dream; that all red." At 6nce he set himself to the colossal task. For 30 years be dreamed of presenting an empire to his queen; for SO years he tolled to bring a new dominion under her sway. With a holier ambition than that which moved and mastered him. we ought to draw our hand across the map of the world our corfgested, conglomerate cities, big with weal or woe: the wonder lanci of our great west, where the plastic elements of another vast empire are rounding into form: the Christies nations beyond, sodden in immor ality ' and practicing abominations under the very shadow of mosque and temple: and we ought to say, "All that for Christ." and then set ourselves' unitedly and worthily to the stupendous conquest. In view of our mighty world mission, are we in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling? There is comfort in our Lord's In tercessory prayer. We have ehere not only a new apostolate formed, and a divine ministry continued, but also a complete equipment guar anteed. ' Commission Is Official. When Jesus speaks of sending ns into the world, hts word means more than a mere sending. It implies an official, authoritative commission together with the necessary equip ment. As the father equipped him for his ministry, so he thoroughly furnishes us unto every good work. He was anointed with the holy ghost and with power. Te shall receive power, said he, when the holy ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be my witnesses. For witness-bearing the gift of the spirit is essential. We must tarry until we are endued. We may be richly endowed with out being endued at all. Endow ment is a natural gift, enduement Is a spiritual grace. When the obedient soul, through prayer, reaches up hands of faith, those hands do in some way touch cur rents of mysterious power. The man who thus prays and believes and obeys is invincibly empowered. He experiences some such blessing as Principal Moule of Cambridge university describes, when- through a more intelligent and conscious hold on the personality of the "spirit he obtained a decisive and appro priating view of the crucified Lord. "It was," he tells us, "a new development ft Insight Into the love of God. It was a new contact with the Inner and eternal movements of redeeming goodness and power, a new discovery in divine resources." New Messase. Obtained. Equipped with power, we are given a message. Jesus said "As my father hath taught me, I speak. The words that I speak, I speak not of myself. I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. The father who sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say." As the father sent him, even so has he sent us. As he has taught us we speak. The words by Edison Marshall In this book of his, just published. There Is a goad bit of criticism prevalent against the melodramatic kind of western stories, and i is good to open a book occasionally that speaks plain ly of the real west. This story starts at Walla Walla. In ths prison to be exact, with Ben Darby as a convict, but also a vic tim of amnesia. When he Is proved Innocent on this account. Darby goes north to the Caribou moun tains as a mining prospector and in that rugged country he playi out the excellent and exciting story that Marshall has written. It has to do with crooked miners, a girl as ths lead In the romance part and not a little of the action, including the turning point, devolves upon a wolf tamed by Darby. There are sufficient thrills in "The Sky Line of Spruce" to satisfy the most avid lover of outdoor stories, and the story Is tremen dously real. NEW BOOKS RECEIVED. New Fiction. Mtord of th Whit Road, by Ce-lrlo Fraser. TX Anoleton a- Co.. New York city. Of the days when men used swords instead of words and a lady's honor was a sacred thing. The Man te th Twilight, by Ridgwell Cullum. O. P. Putnam's Bona New York city. A corking good story of the north woods with rival Industries mixing In tha romance. The Breath of Scandal, by Edwin Balmer. Little. Brown Co.. Boston, Mi What th nam Implies taking place In middle-class English country lire. At Sight of Gold, by Cynthia Lombard!. . Appleton ac Co.. New York city. An adventuress makes the plot. Both It and the story are weak. The Fighting Kdga. by William MacLeod Rain. Th Houghton-Mlfflln com pany, Boston, Mas A western atory concerning th remaking of a coward Into a man. An Instrument of the Ooda and ether stories of th aea, by Lincoln Concord. Ths M&cMlllan company. New York city. Nine thoroughly good stories of the sea and of sailors. Nlcolette. a Tale of Old Provence, by Baroness Orczy. The Oeorge H. Doran company. New York city. A thorough ly fascinating piece of light fiction. In superb setting and with splendid char acters Kastle Krags. by Absalom Martin. Tuf. field Co.. New York city. A mystery etory on the shores ox a Florida la goon; crime, passion and mystery In equal parte tne formula. When the "West was Tonne, hr Frert-rlr-k Jhs-. Jo oh s I procured Zs GILVS 1 - ssi t.iwti,n that we speak, we speak not of ourselves. We speak to ths world those things which we have beard of him. Ths son who sent lis, he gave us a commandment what we should say. Our theme thereby Is defined and limited. It is primarily the things concerning ths kingdom. When Pa ton was printing hts first book in the Anlwaa language, a book composed mostly of scripture passages. Chief NamakeU an old man, eagerly watched him and rame morning after morning. Inquiring. "Is it done? Can It speak?" Told at last that It was finished and could talk, Namakel said. "Make It speak to me. teacher. Let me hear it speak." The missionary read a few lines and tae old man ecstatically shouted: "It does speak! It speaks my own language, too! Ch. glvs it to me!" Graaplng the book, he turned It round and round, pressed It to his bosom, then handed it back, pleading: "O teacher, make ths book, speak to me." Daty la Oatltnea. As Christ's sent ones, this, I take It. Is our duty to make this Bonk speak to the business and,, bosom of men: this book which Is "not an evolution of man. but a revelation to man"; this book which Is more than a system of doctrine, a code of ethics, or a philosophy of life this book which Is the story of grace exceeding abundant the good news that Jesus died to save men. and lives to bless and help them. "He that sent me." Jesus said. "Is with me; the Father hath not left me alone." Mark again the paral lel: these words, "even so have I also sent them." were followed bjr "I am with you alway." The source of our commission, ths sstent of our field, the content of our message, and the esesncs of our comfort are concentrated In those four alls all authority, all the nations, all the commandments, and all ths davs; the field and the workers being bracketed between "all authority l given unto me" and "Lo, X am with you all the days." Christ's Aataarttr Heaven. The Christ who sends us and ao. companies us is the Christ with all authority In heaven as priest with God, to Intercede on our behalf: as lord over angels, whom he sends forth to do service for ths sake of salvation's heirs; all authority on earth every form of power to change hearts and control events. All things were created by him and for him. He is creation's origin and goal. In him all things hold together. Ths unifying bond of the universe, he Is the head of the body, the church. and therefore can make all things work together for the triumph of the chunh. It Is this Christ pre eminent n creation and redemption. this Chrst. the scar In whose hand Is now covered with ths scepter which he holds, and whose garments are already purple with the empire of the world It Is this Christ who. in sending us, promises his pres ence to the end of the are. .Thus we are commissioned by the son of God himself, given an evan gel adapted to ths world, and en couraged by conquests among all classes tn. every land; In our own country, where watchers In the valley of the death-shade, bending over John Albert Broadus. hear him whispering. "Sing My Oreat Re R. Bechdolt Tn C-tnturr fympr, Nw York cltr. A food, tlrrln mfry Of th Old WMt. Dnt of th TTt by Robert W!l. KJtcbl. Dodd. Mead Co.. f-w Tom city. An Ariiont dtwr( otory tliln how th dautrMer of an old rn-vdw raised tho euros and oponod too door . to th family kitotu A Flh of Gold, by Pranet It BIImr. DoublMay, Fa Co., 0rda City. New York. A (rlrt who tnakoo mn fall In lo with hr a paotlmo. fall in !ot horoelf aod fin da It qntta a different story. WMvporlriff Bag, by Harry Sinclair Draco and Joseph Noel. Th Ontury com pany. Now York elty. Vorbatisln fight for water right In Nvad d-M country amonf Bjqu ohoophnrdcra. Rather plcturuqu and with aafflclent xcUoment, Mlitsrl tmaevaa. Spiritual lffvolatton and th BtbU. by Edna. P. L. Th Chrlatophr Publish tne houM, Bo-ton. Mop. A theaia on tho Influence of spiritual volutlon. Afterword Effects, a p-yehlc manu script, by Karl M. Lut and Cirri A Ricker. Th Christopher Pub.l-hing house. Boston. Mas. An Informative paper on psych lo communication an It meanings. 1 Folklore a. Village, by Franc k U Shoe 11. Q. P. Putnam' Bona, Now York city. An elementary Frenrh reader: old folk tale of French vil lage life. Thoroughly charming and excellent for their purpose. Out for Character. Th Vlr Publishing! rvmp-ir. Phlrl'ph'a. Pa Tw'fiv- Would You Like to Meet Jesus? Would you care to walk down Broadway with Hint in the year 1922? What would He order for dinner in a lobster palace? What would He do in a beauty parlor? What would He make of a permanent wave? What would He say to Mary Magda, million-dollar queen of the movies? And how would He greet the pillars of St. Barthole mew's Church? How would He behave at strike headquarters? What would He say at a mass meeting: of the "reds?" These questions and many others you may find answered in the new novel Center lUPTOMSlNOAIRl Jfw In Its ftn arrtatlasj. r BON I VitU VE deemer's praise"; and In Porto Kloo, where lielflno Wuler. ansa policeman, then an evangelist, testi fies to the people. "Tou all " me, know what I was. and yon ran see what Christ has done for m"t and In UrtiKli An-erlra, whers lien., iamln Cameron, the Indian, whs In hla aavag days had shot and eaten his own wife, creels every stranger with the question. "Are you a Christian? Io you love my "unrlort If so, give me ynur hand "; Ws ales are commissioned In r!ns1and. whers Tennyson, carreaslng s flower, sa n, "What the son Is to this ma, that Jesus Christ la to my S"ul": and tn New Guinea, whers Ruatnaa, him. self born a heathen, writes to ihej lionrton Missionary arwtety regard ing the cannibals who had murdered Chalmers. 'I ask of ymi a rat privilege. Will you permit m to 10 to the place where be was killed. ! and tell hie murderers about tha love of God In Christ T" Again ws are commissioned In the rhlllpplnes. whers HI lr. etir first ltaptist deacon. rrtl,he4 and beaten, cries, "I rannot strike ha-k; for there Is a great !ov In my heart": and In Itus.la. where v 11 liam Fetter, speaking for himself and his brethren y ho are acquainted with arrest, fine. elle, the knmit. the loss of property, and the damp prison's dayless gloom, dviers. "The blood of Christ we are trying; tn prent-h as ful'hfullr as men ran. for our people the tshola Knssisn nation are hungry for the gn.pel-j and in Jnpan. whers Noeelma. Im portuned to enter the education oe. partment of the Imperial govern, ment. replies. "I have only ons answer my life Is not my own. It belongs to Jesus Christ. "Many years sgo 1 sntemnl v wor to devote my entire time and effort to his cruse, and I rannot tax b a. my word and mv heart"; ard in China, whers Chang, ths bM4 gambler, saved by grsVa. says. "My people are all heathen: I must tell them how Jesus has flffoned theeys of my heart with light"; and In Africa, where Lutate. urname4 linrnabaas, son of consolation, witn shining far and melodious heart, tells Itlcharda, "I do bell Jesus has taken away my sins, .and 1 n feel so happy"; and In rtiam. whsra Thang-Kan, tha ;aro. d-rllnea a lucrative government pejsltlon, say. Ing. "The official might bid m gej north, when lb Lord Jesus was Ml-, ding m go south"; and In India., where Krishna I a I, blai-k-sklnned. whlte-souled, sings: O. thou my soul, f"i-et ee The frl.no Who all tay anrrsr fcoye 4 thus commissioned, and equipped and encouraged. Is this the time. O, Chore h f One), tn sound Retreat? Te ami wnh wsapeas nt blunt Th rten and wamea wh bee ssraa the erunl Of truth s fiere srtf, sad ) their ground T la this the time I sett wsea e't wrfi llorlsons lift, new d..tlm.s eefret. Htern our', wsit r estion. n.v.r w.rtg To play the iacgarU. wba Om4 a will was found T ?, rather strengthen stake and tatgti rorni Knlarge thy plana and gifts, O. tbosi leet. Asd In thy slnggma earn far sorb time, Th earth, with all Its rslneas I 1 KS IxiM'e: Or I thtna ttmpt for htm. greas tfc.nss cspeot. Whs love Imperial la. whe - euh'lrtis. mm paper by d : rf ereo t p b ytris moralUf, caemborw ei tbe ctergy mi pdgogua sa s County and Township 0T-timiit tn ih t nlted ataioe, bv Kirk If prr T.) M-Miltan rompenr. Nw Torti .. The writer Is the a-1)ent pf-of -f political sciMAr-e st the rn.vr!tv " Iowa, fie baa fomlehod a reltsb. at4 thorough teat-book Its-- few eWl. Phante'm OoM. by ICit-b Pa Kerrpton Th Century iomjeHif, N-w Tirk rlty. About a b-y wh 4 1 --. that a I pirate did not end with Cap tain Ktdd. Th Fortune of tbe fn!, be- ftMl'V Balllngxr Prl. Th Cmntury rot pear. New Yirk city. An i-Hing sirr .ff an old Nw .tn gland r-rt tawt s4 dark. ld China la the dar f clippw h tpa. Th WoAfti Rid?, br Frank I rm rVU lork. The Century ceirpsny. Nw Tfgf city. Th dventuree nl" a bhfHHP from tbe Oulf '. MBl?e I th en adlaa wood; for .dr brs and r-. The Mill of Advntere, br Adair AM Th Cntury em p fy. Nw Yk riiv. Two gtrle eRpler the Mnnten fterk') and profit by their adventeresv T-ld rnder a Whit Oak T, bv llart'e pint posy. Houmi-fctiffia company. Itneton. A ao..at p; C publicity work. Man In th M-mmi HH. Teil tHsj Radio-Phon. by Jo-pbin Ufwff. Th Cupple ! emperty. ! York etiy. fhartrtg torte t be r- db THEY CALL ME CARPENTER A Tale of the Second Cominff by Upton Sinclair n.r at w keskseflera RIGHT MT 1ieh 104.0I