Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-06
KING SERVED SELF
RATHER THAN PEOPLE
As . Result Thousands of Years Of
Misery Have Been ShOuldered
o. on the Race
THE WORLD AT A CROSSROADS
The International Sunday Sschool
Lesson For August 8 Is The
Kingdom Torn Asunder
THE WORLD AT A CROSSROADS
(By William T. Ellis)

This is a day for looking backward,
In order to be able to look forward in
te1ligently. Wise folk are studying
history, and especially the history of
great crises, Even the man with half
a brain knows that to-day the world
is at a crossroads, confronting the
most momentous choice of all time.
Therefore the light of the past is
needed upon the present. What men
have done in times gone may help
us in the time now here. This is hu-
manity's decision day.
In lesser degree, the Jews of old
had come to the same sort of crisis. |
Though they knew it not their ma
tional destiny hung in the balance. |
Either they could go forward as
united people, growing in power and
prosperity, and rivaling Assyria and
Babylonia and Egypt, thus profoundly
shaping the future course of man
kind, and perhaps dominating the
world by their peculiar religious
teaching of the One True God; or
else they might give way to jealousies
and pride and local ambition and split
up as a nation. and finally be wiped
out of national existence by their !
more powerful neighbors.
Alas, they chose the way that has
spelled thousands of years of misery
for their descendants. Solomon's
son had not Solomon's sense; and
fore they were patriots. So Reho- |
boam Is known only as the foolish |
young king who tried to sweep back |
the tides of democracy, and who
went down under the flag of absolute |
autocracy. Given a choice between
serving the people and seeking his
own selfish course, he chose the lat /.
ter.
The World-issuc Today
Boiled down to elementals, that is
identically the issue which the great |
war has put up to our country; and
to every other. Shall this country
accept a world mission of service and
of human welfare: or shall it seek
elf-aggrandizement? On the choice
now made hangs our future fate.
Unless noble vision of world minis !
try be given unto our leaders at this (
editors and public speakers and
teachers and preachers, as we'll as
officeholders-We may fall into the /
terrible mistake of utilizing the con-
dition of world chaos and worldfluX |
for our own selfish enrichment, to our
eternal disaster as a nation. Only a
noble purpose to be a ministering ma
ton, at all costs, can save us now. |
Lacking this, we too shall go, along |
with Israel, into the great scrapheap |
of tragic national might have beens"
No Sunday School class is too young
or too obscure to have driven into it's
consciousness the parallel between the
present times and those of Rehoboam. !
New forces of democracy and mass |
elf-consciousness have been released |
among the people Old ideas and in |
stitutions which most men thought to |
be permanent are in the melting pot. |
Whatever and whenever the end of |
the present war, human rights are !
going to emerge more claimant than |
ever. Vast social changes are newt |
able. Ancient isolations have been
engulfed. Challenging questions far |
greater than those which confronted |
Rehoboam, will be put to every nation |
and ruler and system.
What shall the answer be? Short
sighted and selfish, like Rehoboam's |
or far-visioned and fraternal? That
day marked the apex of Israel's his |
tory; by an unwise choice she made
1t so, and entered upon a decline, |
when she might have gone on from
strength to strength
The Fathers Fault
Although he was the wisest of men.
Solomon was not altogether wise. No
body is wholly perfect so we may not
expect too much, even Of Solomon.
Still, knowing as much as he did, he
should have known too much to do
many of the things that marred his
reign There were the seven hun
dred wives and three hundred concu-
bines, for instance. Even worse were
those idolatrous affairs set up to please
his heather wives: for even King Solo
mon could be swayed by his wife.
There was the extravaganza in per-
sonal expenditure; and the royal mag
nificence which was not matched by
the improvement in the condition of
the people. This idleness and luxury
of the court begot a pampered sell
fshness in the princes. Forced labor,
an evil of which we know nothing,
drove the iron of bitterness and re-
sentiment into the souls of the masses
of toilers.
In word, instead of having led
the kingdom forward into greater
popular strength and democracy,
Solomon's reign really weighed on
the side of reaction and absolutlsm.
The national treasury was enriched,