The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-09-12
In The
Religious World
MEN WHO CANNOT BE BURNT.
The International Sunday Schooi Les
son for September II is
Companions in the Fiery
Daniel ,.
(By William 7. Ellis.)

oHt II Al IN S
this year 1 stood upon the highest
point in the ruins of the palace of
observation-disclosures in old Babylon. ana
looked out oye- the desoiate Mesopo-
tamian desert that once was the
proud capital of the whole world.
The soil is red within the city ana
gray without and tina is almost the
only sign by which an observer can
tell where the city began or ended.
The b~arenness of this waste is so
complete that only the inspired I'M
agination of the Hebrew seers could
picture it. For when the prophecies
were penned, these dead fields were
teeming With life. p
Somewhere out on this plain there
once stood a golden image Of a god,
probably Marduke, whose ruined
temple is FOUNDER hillock. 1t rose
ninety feet high; shimmering beneath
the rainless sky. l tried to imagine
this now. dreary desert as the seems
Of an imperial function like unto tne
Coronation which Great Britain was
preparing for King George. We fail
to get the setting Of this story unless
We conceive of it III some such terms.
1t involved the apex OF the career Oh
a world-conqueror. All the
Of the empire were drawn upon to
enhance its maSnificence. Oriental
tOSc vi f1o11t olo
it. The sycophancy of an autocrats
court quickened hands and brains to
do honor to the king. All the varied
officials of a far-flung dominion. each
with his own full paraphernalia and
attendants Of state, adorned the oc-
casiOn.
Men Who stood Alone.
So Unsuitable is the vanity of the
oriental monarch, hat Nebuchad
nezzar decreed a universal, simultane-
| Gus prostration in honor OF the i'm
age which he had set up, at a given
signal. The stopping Of all the wheels
of industry and traffic at a set hour
in m of President Mckinley
was a memorable feat, but it did not
approach RabylOnian proportions
That was a free-will expression c1
q sorrowing people,; this was a com
pulsory action, at the behest of ar
absolute autccrat. who wanted to looE
upon a vast sea Of humanity billoWins
in obesiance to him and his image. A
nation on its knees-the thought was
one to stir the pulse Of Nebuchad'
nezzar.
AS a stab to This pride, spiteful ru'
NOR quickly brought to his ears thu
sinister news that three Jews, favor
ties, who stood high before him. had
failed to make the required obesiance
When others bent low they stood up
right. The varying creeds Of tn
capital had subsequently ben the
knee to the kings favorite god. Blu
tn csc stiff-necked Jews had endanger
ed their jobs and their lives by stand
ing rigid amid the multitude Of prom
worshippers.
Keeping Flags Flying.
An rncouth saying declares a Scrip
A.-~g A--<1 s OJ
gutter" Stronger language than tina
is used by the Old Testament to char
acteriZe disloyal and ungrateful per
sons, who go directly back upon thei
allegiance. When a person deliber
ateiy flies a flag. he should stand b.
it. That is the great thing in life
Dying is a small matter as compares
with deserving ones post or principles
The three young Hebrews, Shadrach
Mashach and Abednego. may no
have done the polite" thing tina
day, but they did the princely thing
The mob that bowed to the image i
forgotten: it is as lost as the image it
self. But the three young men gre
heritage Of heroism for the world.
That spirit of fearless independents
is rarer han we like to think. A fe,
weeks ago the mad mob spirit burs
from it's home in the lawleas pit, an
seized upon the quiet. church-goin
town of Gainesville, Penn. In a
hour the bulk of the American popu
lation a reverted to a condition O
end the foul and inexcus
able murder they committed remain
+. as a hideous blot upon the name @
l Pennsylvania and America. 1t wa
! only one more instance Of the whites.
1 will-less crowd weakly worshiping be
fore the hours idol. Amid the fou
: thousand who participated in. or as
Sentingfy witnessed the fiendish tor
l ture OF "a wounded murderer, Their
was not a single person with manhoo
enough to say L serve law and Oh
? der and justice; / will not bend tn
! knee to mob rule and the violation {
+ all that civilization esteems sacred.
If there had been only one such maj
COatesville's nobier citizenship migf
have rallied around him and declared
This man represents us and NJ
fboSn -olflou r. 49,