The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-05-22

The International Sunday School les
son for May % is David King Over
Judah and Israel."-II Sam, 2:1-7;
Sis
(BY WILLIAM r. ELLIS.)
A great name energies in the pres
ent study. 1t is not the name of
David the outlaw, whom we now find
coming to the throne for which his
many vicissitudes had prepared him,
but the name OF that ancient city
which is in our own day figuring In
creasingly in the news dispatches.
Perhaps it has never occurred to
the reader that there ever was a time
when Jerusalem definitely assembled
to it's primacy- among historic cities.
We vaguely think of it as being like
it's earlier king, the mysterious Mel
chizedek, a timeless name Certainly,
Jerusalem, which is our SpelIlnS OF
the old name borne by the city pe1ore
ever the ISraellteS entered Caanan,
was a mighty fortress centuries before
written history bsgan to deal with it.
With the possible exception of Con-
stantinople, is there any other city on
earth which has anything like the ro-
mantle and historic and religious as
Sociations of the city of David, winch
is still a sacred shrine for the three
great monotheistic faiths
Christianity and Northumberland?
Joshua and his hosts had been unable
to wrest the city from the Jebusltes.
The Judges had never conquered II,
en- a great rock, surrounded on three
sides by ravines, the city was SO i'm
pregnable that the Jebusites boosted
that the blind and lame could DEFEND
Amalekites and the Israelites had all
dashed against it in vain.
Invaded Through the Water courses.
One day, a few years ago, when Wis
iting Jerusalem I was walking through
the ravines that still surround 1t, and
hot
whose carefully guarded diggtngs were
the talk of the countryside, had ex-
cayated clear down, through the over
lay of the crowded centuries, to deep
n1ueduct cut in the solid rock. This,
my archaeological friends told me,
was O. Jebusite creation, and It prob
ably was visible in the time of David.
We only know that when David at
length came to his kingship over the
united nation, and had to choose
neutral capital which could not pc
credited either to Judah or Israel he
conquered Jerusalem, making en-
trance through the subterranean
water courses. No man knows fully
the number and nature OF these nys-
FERROUS conduits and caverns Whlch,
in q perfect network, underlie the sa-
cred rock, When once they are ex-
plored there will probably be revela-
lions to astound the world.
All the boasts of the Jebusites were
set at naught when David and his host
conquered the city, which to TINS DAY
is associated with his name. AT the
present time the possession OF Jerusa-
lem is a factor in international a.
plomacy. More persons are interested
in this world capital than are inter-
ested in Washington or London, or
Berlin, or Paris, or Petrograd or
Picking. It is capital n,,,o OF human ~ nan
to the awful fact that it was in Jeru-
salem that David's Greater Son erect
ed His universal throne, which was
cross.
The Ways and Wiles of an Outlaw.
Before ever he won to Jerusalem,
however David had undergone a dark
and discouraged period in his l1fe.
Driven out from the Israelites by the
Unsuitable jealousy. of Saul, he had at
last taken refuge in the city of Gath,
where he became a vassal of King
Achish. The driving out of David
from the nation that needed him SO
sorely recalls an equal blunder in our |
own time on the part of the Christian |
Church. There Is no denying that
tens of thousands of strong men, |
crowded out of the Church by a di- |
yersity of causes. There is no value |
in laying the fault at the door of any
man OF men, or any particular eccIesi-
is that the Church ought to move to |
secure the return to her membership |
and to her service, for their own
sakes, and for hers, of these strong
world; but who no longer turn to the |
Church for fellowship, Inspiration and
comfort. The movement in Ireland
for the return of her emigrants is
wise and timely, but it is neither so
opportune nor so necessary as a kim
bred Back to the Church" move
ment.
Like David, many who have been
did not give them a. field for the ex-
ercise of the abilities which they
knew to be theirs from God, have
slumped in their morals. even as did
He deceived Achish by pretending to
war against the Israelites, when all
the time he was making forays only
against the Amalekites. He lived in a
tissue of fa1sehood and misrepresenta-
ton, and these days must have been
unhappier for David even than those
when he was a hunted wanderer like
the wild goats upon the mountains.
The Suicide of q King.
In the great battle of Gilboa be-
tween the Israelites and the Philis-
tines, Saul and his army were routed.
God be merciful to the man who so
eousness that they are defeated. Saul
had been so engrossed in his personal
ambitions and tealousies that the
cause. which was the one warrant for
worse than David's. We find him at
this period consulting the witch of
Endor. Whichever way he turned he
heard only words of doom.
Jonathan, royal in soul and in rank.
fell with two of his brothers in this
battle. Driven to an extremity, Saul
thought of suicide. He entreated his
armor-bearer to slay him; but this
man would not touch the Lords
anointed. Saul sought the refuge of
the cowardly man who is without
God and without hope in the world
Suicide is always indefensible.
The imperial statistical bureau of