The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-06-13

lc0in the marvellous historical con-
iirmatlons of the Old Testament mar
IatlVe. would better read Prof. Albert
L. Gays Light on The Old Tesla
ment From Babel" published by the
Sunday School Times I
read 1t while floating down the IT.
girls River, ana found it Illuminating.
TO remove the haze and obscurity
that envelopes Assyria for the aver
are person. it would be well to take
a map and trace the probable route
OF the captiVeS, acquiring on the way
some knowledge of geography that
will be useful in the Interpretation of
the days news. Probably the Jordan
was crossed somewhere near the
Lake of Galilee-and how different
this crossing from the one which their
fathers mad made, under Joshua, as
the captives' consciences doubtless
reminded them-and then. the noun
tain passes, they slowly ~journeyed
up the valley through which now runs
the Demonstrations railway. Through
these smiling valleys, once their own
inheritance, but now ravaged by in
vaders, they toiled afoot until they
reached the ancient City of Aleppo,
even then, as now, associated with
the name of Abraham.
Indeed these exiles were practical
ly traversing, in an opposite direc-
ten, the journey which their great
ancestors had made, to secure the in
heritance which they had flung away.
The way had many goads for their
cOnsciences. At Aleppo (now be-
coming. a of railway construc-
ton, the Chicago of Asia Minor), the
Israelites and their captors turned due
East, across the stony uplands of
M~eSopotamia. That is a rough road
to travel to this day, on horseback or
in stout-springed arabas; to these
foot pilgrims. with their aged and
i'll and little children, it must have
been torturing. But they were only
prisoners. and entitled to scant con-
sheraton, getting such emnan of
poor food as the cruel soldiers chose
to give them. SOOn they came in
sight Of the mountains of kurdistan,
where the soldiers redoubled their
watchfulness, lest there be an attack
from these fearless m~ountaineers. the
Carduchi. as they We're then called.
Wells We're in~freouent ard deep, and
the company suffered from lack of
water. All the LAND was sc different
from the ancient Hittite capital of
Carchemish. still a ruin for the pres
ent-day travellers observation. At the
crossing, a slow, noisy process, as 1t
is today, they were in fear of attack
from the predatory Redouin. then. as
How. lie u Oil - oo
ciety. In another week. if the roads
were not too muddy, or the snow on
the ground, they were well past Har-
ran. where Abraham had dwelt and
where Isaac a got his wife-the
very we'll Of Rebecca being pointed
out by the fathers-and in sight of the
Tigris River. Perhaps here the host
made a halt beneath the big cliffs of
the fortified city that is today called
n;orhoLir + NAV he that the inN9-
lided and wounded soldiers, and the
infirm among the Israeiites, were here
put aboard the goatskin RATS which
were then. as they are now, the com
mon means of conveyance down the
Asshur or Ninevah. while the stronger
ones marched down the river bank.
over country that impressed them
more by it's difficulties than by its
beauties. So at last they came to
their undesired haven. and the miser-
able and heartsick Jews were scat
tered in slavery throughout Assyria.
some being sent as far East as Media.
the present Persia. And there they
have remained since, a monument to
the folly Of a people that forsake the
long-suffering
A Nation That Followed the Fashion.
Why this awful calamity? this Wip-
ing out of a nations existence? The
answer is more clearly written for US
in the case Of Israel of old than 1t
is in the modern instances Of Korea,
Poland and Finland, blotted out be-
fore the eyes of the present genera
ton. h Northern Kingdom Of Is
rael had sinned away its day OF grace.
The patient and forbearing Jehovah,
after warnings and entreatles, had
heen flouted too far. If the universe
is not to be a realm of anarchy. the
Lord must be just as we'll as mercl-
full. There will always be a place
for the policeman in society. La"
must have means of v~indlcatlng It
self. A God who was only merc1iul.
and not just would be only the play
thing of morals. God is always love
but the rod is sometimes a better eH-
nression of love than is a SWeetmeat.
The Braelites had passed the stage
| OF reform; therefore their national ex-
istence was e~xtinguished as a andle IS