The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-09-07
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

Serpent Mum. 21:1-s.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
Recent weeks have witnessed 1
widespread controversy concerning thu
causes of the August panic in the stool
market The subject has been dis
cussed with much heat. The genera
inability to diagnose business politi
cal and social conditions is really quite
remarkable in this age of efficiency
and exact science. Not SO with the
calamity which overlook an ancient
people in the wilderness round about
the Red Sea. Their panic and suffer-
ing was increased by the fact that they
clearly perceived the reason therefor
They. in their simplicity, knew tnai
there is a direct relation between evll
conditions and offenses against Coo
Herein modern civilization may learn
q valuable lesson from them
The UnIearned Lesson
The man who stumbles twice, or
twenty times, over the same obstruc-
ton, can scarcely expect to ma
niche among the wise men. Just SO
foolish had been the Children OF IS
been in the wilderness, ever SHINING
the same sin and being heavily pun
ished for it. Their principal failing
was lack Of faith IN God With every
reason to trust him, they yet per-
versely persisted in unbelief- The
forms OF offense varied, but their ma
ture was ever the same. lack Of faith
an God. From the first whimper on
the Egyptian side of the Red sea TO
the murmuring at Meribah. it was ever
the same distrust Of the divine Leader
who had given them every reason to
repose implicit confidence in him.
Etill they remained a rebellious ana
unsrateful people. We are not sur
prised that Moses got mad at them.
Il Is no wonder that Jehovah was re-
peatedly ready to give them up as
bad lob. Even the long waiting at ka-
desh-barnea, when every man ABOVE
twenty perished because OF the un Pc
iief which refused to go up into the
promised land, had not wrought
cure of complaining. OF course there
were seasons of repenting. and 1sraeI
seems to have see-sawed up and down
between contrition and misconduct
through all the forty years in the will
derness. Broadly speaking, thougn'
faith was lacking. For that matter,
IS not the sin of all sins today unoe-
lfef7 What was the query OF Jesus;
when the Son of man returns VIII ne
find faith in the earth?" we Try TO
substitute the machinery of civilization
for faith; but the Son of man will not
look for civilization. and the cunning
works OF mems brains. when ne re-
turns. but for faith-the very sort of
faith which was missing from among
the Israelites.
The Visitation OF Serpents.
The pilgrims were on the march.
had left KadeSh-barnea, the place OF
penance, and were jOurney1ng by a cir
cuftous route to the land of their de-
sire But they were discouraged 1t
is only the rare spirit which is not af-
fected by environment; spiritual con-
dition Is often, although not necessar-
ily q thing of circumstances. The not
sands of the desert, the binding glare
of the sun, the heavy-fo otedness OF
such travel, the burdens to be borne,
the heas, the enemies, and all the in
Vulnerable annoyanceS and prlVatlons,
small and great, had worn the peoples
nerves. So because Of the way" they
were discouraged, and everything
looked blue to them, as it always does
to a discouraged person.
Then they began to lay 1t on the
Lord" as we still have a fashion OF
blaming all our troubles upon q bene-
hcent Providence. OF course they
found fault with Moses, but that was
only an indirect way OF shifting the re-
sponsibility upon Him whose repre-
sentative Moses was They complained.
in the old way, that they were likely
TO die in the wilderness. that there
was no bread and no water, and that
the mamma was not desirable, and that,
altogether, they would better have
been left in Egypt.
Everything must have a limit, ex-
cept the love of God. His patience has
limits. Some eminent law-breakers
are today poutnE and whining like
spoiled babes because the public at
length reached an end of its forbear-
.ance and demanded a reckoning of
them. Why, the very patience of Je-
hovah himself has an end-as the
complaining Israelites found when the
visitation of serpents came down upon
them. The same God who had
plagued Egypt with frogs and locusts
and fies could chastise his own with
serpents.
The Dawn of Terror.
or all the creatures that inhabit this
earth the serpent is everywhere re-
Karded as the most loathsome. He Is
the dread of all simple peoples, and
revelation makes him the incarnation
of the temDter. What a terror must
have smitten the camp when this
plague first fell upon 1t. The sudden
increase of the bitten ones, the SINH
1arity of the affiction and the ubiquity
of the snakes all argued against acci-
dent. Conscience instantly told the
been sent. Orientals will sit down IN
calmness. as have seen them, in the
presence of the black plague. But
this sudden alarm of serpents spring
ing with deadly fang from wayside
footprints, from the shadow of rock or
shrub, and infssting the very house
hold eQuipments-this was nerve
racking terror. The scream of the
newiy-bitten, the groans of the thirsty
dying, the shrill wailing of the be-
reayed, were not more awful than the