The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-26
+ IElNZz|zIiE(a43MReHEss

I his own home. in a factory. in politics
/ or anywhere else, reads these lines, lei
! him beware of the Pharaoh fate.
! Perhaps as GamaIiel later suggested
! he is fighting against the eternal Goo
who has had the habit, throughout
history, of Identifying himself with the
despised and the weak of earth Lost
causes have shown curious way OF
winning in the long run Temporal
power, which at the moment seems IN
vincible. has times beyond counting
written its esse initial weakness lum1n-
ousIy on history's page
Careless seems the great Avenger'
history's pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness
'twixt old systems and the Word;
Truth forever on the scanold,
Wrong forever on the throne
Yet that scafold sways the future
and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow
keeping watch above his own"
Bricks Without Straw.
No downtown ward politician in
an American city ever showed more
insoIent and cunning power in deal
ing with a reformer than Pharaoh
displayed in answering the plea OF
these Hebrews. and in revealing his
might Young Solomon's similar re-
joinder when he took the throne of
Israel seems Grass beside it. Pharaoh
simply commanded the taskmasters
TO give the people no more straw Tor
their brick making. and yet to com
pei them 10 gather their own straw,
all without any decrease in the daily
tale of bricks Let heavier work be
laid upon the men, that they may la
Dor therein; and let them not re
gard lying words" The slaves would
have no time to listen to the REFORM
ers now.
Heavier was the blow, and keener
was the hurt of this decree, than one
swift stroke of brutality Had Phar-
aoh ordered a hundred lashes for
every Hebrew slave. that suffering
would have been over in q rev days
with but a few deaths
The present punishment continued
hourly 1t meant repeated beatings
day by day. II would make the
heart of the laborers sick and cause
them to turn against their emanci-
thought he had found sure and ter
rible way to end any danger of re-
form or a strike among his laborers-
Making bricks without straw
has passed into proverb, yet few of
US understand il, for we think of
bricks in the terms of the little OBJ
long, kiln-dried bricks which our |
knows. If we go to Egypt |
today, and especially up into Asia |
Minor. we will find that the great |
square flat bricks, eight to twelve |
inches wide. and about two inches
thick, are still made with straw and |
dried in the sun. The clay is kept /
together by the straw. The fashion /
mas not changed in five thousand /
-ears. Not until I saw those bricks /
made with straw still being used in /
he. mud buildings of the Near East
hese words from the Exodus story
archaeology has brought TO light
most illuminating fact concerning this /
scriptural incident A
uins of Pithom, the city which the
sraeIites built in Goshen. Speci- i
mems of the brick are now in the |
British and Metropolitan museums.
he discoverer. NJ. Edouard Naville,
eports that the lower courses of
With chopped straw in them; but
higher up the courses of brick are
lot so good and straw is long and
canty. and the last courses have no .
traw at all, but have sedges, rushes
nd water plants in the mud
The word "stubb1e'' in this lesson
means just such miscellaneous refuse
5 NJ. NaviIle describes.
The Day of Reckoning.
Things have to get worse before
hey get better The lot of the long
offering and wailing Jews, reviling
heir delIVererS Tor interfering Win
onditions that they seemed but to
make more tolerable, must grow
teadily worse for a time. The dark
st hour is before the dawn" Power
most arrogant when it is nearest
0 overthrow. One could cite modern
instances of this The deaf
ess of despotism to the cries of the
verb 1rdened common people in
reases as it draws nearer to the end
I its sway. The history of Europe
nd Asia is in the present day full of
Illustrations of the truth which
'haraoh incarnates in our lesson
tory.
When the cup of iniquity is full it
alls crashing to the ground The
God day is coming, even when it
GEMS farthest away. There is en-
engagement for all the hard pressed
nd the beaten down in life in this
tory of Gods dealing with Egypt, a
tory which has been the comfort of
he ensIaved for centuries. God has
OF forgotten. He is patient some
ines beyond mans understanding.
lis purposes never fail The old and
nipple lesson OF the sure providence
I God is bound up with this story
f the obstacles which confronted the
eliverers OF the oppressed children
f Israel
\ Modern Education.
'erse Comments for July y, Mis-