The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1905-12-29
New YORK Press.

When God. creating out of nought.
This world into existence brought
This universe by wisdom planned,
And framed by His Almighty hand
Whose order. beauty, harmony,
We everywhere can plainly see:
Whose every part, below. above.
The impress bears OF gracious love.
The shophar's voice does first record
The coronation Of the Lord.
Thus, from it's first mention up to
the present period. has the shophaI
been given the most profound and
grave consideration.
Besides the sounding Of the horn in
the hour of religious and joyous festi
val it was brought into use in time OF
war to summon and assemble the
army, and in this respect it is first
mentioned in Judges, iii:27:
And II came to pass, when he was come,
that he blew trumpet IN the mountain
OF EphraiUl, and the children Of Israel
went down with him from the mount,
and he before them.
Subsequent verses relate the defeat
Of 10000 lusty men and the downfall
of Moab, much resembling the bloody
conflicts Of later centuries, sans ma.
! chinery Of modern warfare.
And here we find the horn brought
into military use, which is long step
from its initial requirements, when 1t
served to bring the people together to
hear the law read amid the laundering
and lightning and darkness which
after prevailed and filed the assem-
bled multitude with awe and fear.
After all. in comparing the past
with the present there seems but the
difference in the manufacture, design
and manipulation Of material and the
advantages In these times of having
more powerful and more scientific i'm
plements with which to annihilate a
foe Indeed, It Is doubtful whether
anything could be more effective on a
modern battlefield than the Staying Of
| 10000 valiant men, as was done by the
Israelites who answered the shophar's
call to arms.
The shophar has been utilized in
other than times Of law-giving and
war, for 1t is told in Isaiah xxvii:13
And it shall come to pass in that day.
| that the great trumpet shall be blown
| and they shall come which were ready
to perish in the land Of Assyria. and the e
| outcasts in the land OF Egypt and shall
| worship the Lord in the holy mount at
Jerusalem.
The prophet foretold that the sho-
phar should announce the recall Of the
| people from exile. Therefore 1t Is
seen how, stride by stride, the sho-
phar, the horn or trumpet grew in use
and favor and need In the world's
earliest period.
Its sounds were welcomed by those
to whom the law was handed down,
it's notes were and are maintained by
one denomination to voice the ami
versary of Gods coronation.
BY that same people its sound Is re-
sorted to as an alarm or warning OF
the approach Of the day of atonement
and that they should review the &C
lions of the past year and prepare to
become reconciled to God by means OF
confession to him of their sins and
promise of amendment.
One other reason for the blowing
of the shophar, even at this period
is to emphasize to the Jewish com
munity the conviction that the time
will come when the shophar will an
nounce, according to the word of the
prophet, universal freedom when all
oppression and tyranny shall vanish
and the reign Of absolute liberty will
| be manifested throughout the world.