The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-10-21
CBY WILLIAM T. ELLIsD

the Second Temple Lalo- -
3:14:5.
(BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS)
- HAD been watching the Jews
at the Wailing Place in Je-
rusalem one Friday altei-
noon Some of the deVo,Ior
81 seemed mechanical as WheH
some old Spanish Jews ~
paberdines went up TO the wall anu
read for space, then, after per ~
torilv touching the stones Win -
Inns. stepped off to one side am anu 20 80
tea and giggled. was loIli - al
these men are hired to say prayers -
The Wailing Place for Jews IN distant
Tben. as I was about to leave, saw
a woman of perhaps thirty oIa ~ - I'D
q Sne had been praying at the otii ~,
ceived that she bore such Asa 49,, O.
might have been Rachel s4sei 0 sstsa
melancholy. spiritual, queeny. 2lo
was manifestly oblivious to the nlotiey
companv about her OF jews from l e
nations. her soul was in her rapt ldcS
tIrnad toward the great blocks OF yer
Iovish stone. still standing from Lne
foundation SolomOns Temple. n NJ
hands were clasped to her BOSOM anu
her lips moved in prayer. one w. 3
seeing with great lustrous eyes, not
those 1nonoliths covered Win dep e ~
names and nravers, but the glory OF the
bo,,so of Jehovah and of the kingdom
Of her fathers. All that had peSn any
now is not and that deNoul cAlIu u
AbraI ham hopes may yet again De, was
,ba1ized for this worshipper by
+hese stones. She kissed them again !
and again as woman kisses the rove love-
size fears she may nevermore see az az !
as she moved away, she Iookeu 49, I
over her shoulder, with hu'ee1 e'O0
longing in her eyes
That incident gave me new con
cantior Of the ardor and intensity with /
which a Jew may love even the NeIS
e+ones If the temple There 1 saw en-
bodied the passion of the returning *
lies for the house of Jehovah me
shirt of her people, at their hiSnesl
and deepest moods, was PERSONNEL py
that one devOtee- 1t was q new iIsllt
upon this entire story of the repulldins
of the temple which the 9uiiuaS
schools today study.
\ ..The East Is the East"
Nobody will ever understand the Jew
until it is remembered that ne IS an
oriental The deep-fiOwing religious
sniri+ of this people who We're chosen
to he custodians of humanity's loftest
religions truth is partially explained by
the orientals supreme interest IN re
Ngion. The occidental is not so TO
this day the people of all the East, put
especially of the region called the Near
East. whence sprang the Jews, put re-
lieion first u sorts of religions thrive
there: an religious man IS unthlnk-
abe The villagers on the hills OF Le-
banOn the shepherds in the fields OF
Palestine. the Bedouins of the desert in
their tents the diverse peoples in the
Tigris- Euphrates Valley, talk over his
toric and ,-octrinal religious questions
just as q group of Americans discuss
politics or baseball d
At the present time, the region
where the Bible story was enacted is
afre with religious agitation, due to
the war declared against Turkey by +
ITALY. The Moslem world feels any :
tack upon the Sultan. whom it re- +
Eards as Caliph, and commander of
the faithful as an act Of hostility to !
its faith. So, from India to Europe, !
the followers of Mohammed have been !
drawn together into new and defensive I
solidarity. They see, first and chiefly, +
the religious aspect of the war. The
handspring of politics in these realms
is usually religious
The Chief Fact About Man {
The Jewish exiles who centred their +
first thought upon the spiritual side of {
the return from captivity We're true to s
the fundamental aspiration of human s
ity- As Carlyle says. I'm every sense, {
Il mans religion is the chief fact with 7
regard to him. A mans, or a nation !
of mems. If you tell me what that is, '
you tell me, to very great extent, {
what the man is, what kind of things $
he viii 90" t
The fiipp INT youth. or the immature !
man, who has no time for religion" i
and who is not interested in the church 2
and feels too big for a Bible class, has
the testimony of all the great thinkers, .
arrayed squarely against him. One
hours honest research upon the sub 7
ject will start any man toward a real
ization of the truth that religion is the
theme that has most deeply engrossed
the best thought of mankind from the f
dawn of history to the present hour. l
The shallow materialism of the West a
is no Improvement upon the inbred re- \
ligiousness of the East :
The Altar at the Centre. g
The huge task of the returned exiles y
was to rebuild nation. Their exist S
ence as country had been practically
ended: they We're only a scattered host e
of captives. and their land was laid q
waste at its capital and elsewhere .oc-
cupied by hybrid aliens The work t
sahead of them as they traversed the i
es-eary road from Babylon back home I
was even harder than the first organi- c