Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-07-02
OM|NOUS WORDS To
DAVID FULFILLED
King Who Had Sown the Wind of
Sin, Reaps the Whirlwind
of Sorrow
SUFFERED DOUBLE BITTERNESS
The international Sunday School
Lesson For July 4 Is
Absalom's Failure
(By William T. Ellis.)

A curious notion prevails that
summer literature should be light
and exciting. The latter condition
is certainly fulfilled by the great
story that is crowded into the nine
chapters of the Second Book of Sam
uel, which tell of the experiences of
David after the Prophet Nathan had
accusingly cried, Thou art the
mani" All the elements of great
romance are here, even to the erotic
aspects of the modern novel. The
tale is one of adventure and intrigue
crowded with plots and conspiracies,
with Williams and with heroes. 1t is
narrative as unlike usual dry his
tory as novel is unlike a problem in
geometry. Every line is crowded
with human interest.
The study is one in royal retribu-
ton. We find the king who had
sown the wind of sin, reaping the
whirlwind of sorrow. The ominous
words of the man of God to David
were terribly fulfilled:
| Wherefore hast thou de-
spised the word of Jehovah, to
do that which is evil in His
sight? Thou hast smitten Uriah
the Hittite with the sword, and
hast taken his wife to be thy
wife, and hast slain him with
the sword of the children of Am
mon. Now therefore the sword
shall never depart from thy
house, because thou hast de-
spised me, and hast taken the
wife of Uriah the Hittitite to be
thy wife. Thus saith Jehovah,
Behold, I will raise up evil
against thee out of thine own
house,
The double distilled bitterness of
seeing his own sons share his traits
had to be drunk to the dregs by
heart-broken David. The sword re-
manned in his house until he ended
his career in sorrow. Verify There
is a way that seemeth right unto a
man, but the end thereof are the
ways of DEATH"
Our Days Crop of Absaloms
The classmate of certain motor
ious murderer, whose wealth has en-
abled him to make the process of
justice a travesty and an information
al scandal, once said in my hearing,
He was simply selfish and spoiled
boy. He had his own way in all
things. Anybody who is allowed to
do as he pleases throughout youth, is
bound to become a menace to soci-
ety." That modern instance paral-
lels the case of Absalom, King Davids
son, who was spoiled boy. His
youth of self-indulgence bore it's ma
tural fruit of rebellion and anarchy.
study. We have his prototypes with
us in abundance. Disdaining disci-
pline, f1outing filial fidelity and
spurning self-control. class of PAM
pered young men are growing up as
a menace to the social order.
Some of us who are not old fogies
yet view in real alarm these products
of the manicure tables, the barber
J shops and the tailors. Like Absalom,
they are giving more thought to
their hair than to their heads. Their
personal appearance plays an over
their expenditures. Now in all Is
rael there was none to be so much
praised as Absalom for his beauty;
from the sole of his foot even to the
crown of his head there was no blem-
ish in him; all his blemishes were
within, and they were abundant.
So simple as scarcely to need say
ing, runs the profound truth that as
the youth is trained or unframed,
the man will behave. Our land has
no greater problem than that of dis
ciplining its boys and young men
into noble manhood. This is one of
the chief merits of modern athletics;
they discipline the mind as we'll as
the body.
A Fop Without Principles
There seem to have been none of
the candid and simple virtues of the
out-of-doors man in Absalom. He
was an over-sophisticated city chap.
He was too gifted in guile. Secre-
I tive, scheming, subtle, he lacked all
the large loyalties and principles
that make for real manhood. When
forgiven by his father for the cow
ardly assassination of his brother,
and restored to Jerusalem, he spent
four years in stealing the hearts of
the men of Israel. If one wants
picture of the wiles of the modern
politician, he has but to read the
story Of how Absalom undermined
his fathers influence, and prepared
| the way for his own rebellion.