Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-03-05
WHEN 4 BIG NATION
CHOSE SECOND BEST
Hebrews Preferred to Be Imitators
When They Might Have Been
OriginatOrs
MISSED MANY GREAT CHANCES
International S. S. Lesson For Sum-
day Is saul Amounted King"
| Sam, 9: IL to 1911
MISSED MANY GREAT CHANCES
(By William II. Ellis. }


do you think the Chinese will ever
give up their beautiful and comfort
able garments for western dress" in
CURED a missionary of a mandarin,
less than ten years ago.
mo, I'm sure they will not" was
the positive reply. Nevertheless. to-
day that mandarin, like most other
progressive city Chinese, is wearing
European clothes. The craze to be
In fashion has seized China, even as
it earlier seized Japan. Half the eco
nomic and social difficulties of the
Japanese nation are due to this un-
reasoning desire to be like other peo-
| pie.
There is nothing new about that,
however. Old Israel was in the same
case. at the time of our present lesson.
| Under Samuels leadership something
like national solidarity had been at
| tanned. Far reaching social and edu-
cational institutions had been estab-
lished. Song had been introduced into
public worship. Religious schools had
been founded A simple and effective
democracy, which was also a theocra-
cy. was in operation.
Every sheep thinks the grass in the
next pasture greener, and these Israel
ties. quite in the spirit of our own
young people who want above all
things else to be in fashion and to do
what Everybody does" had become
infected with the microbe of emula-
tion. They were tired of being pecu-
liar. All the other nations had kings,
so they wanted king also. With the
same shallow reasoning that has mis-
led men and women in all ages, they
decided that to be in fashion was the
ultimate goal. If we were not so
guilty ourselves we should scorn these
FOOLISH, foolish old Hebrews, who
chose to be miserable imitators, when
they might have been originators
The Chance That Was Missed
Imagination reels as we contem-
plate what might have been the
course of history had Israel under
Samuel lived up to its possibilities.
This was one of the most tragic of
the might have beens" with which |
the narrative of human progress is
crowded.
Instead of the worlds having to |
wait all these centuries for democracy |
to come to flower, in a continent then |
undiscovered, Israel would have held |
aloft this beacon to tighten all nations, |
Under Samuel the nation was real
democracy. The people ruled. Life |
was simple. The kingship of the indi-
Vidual, and his responsibility to God |
alone, was expressed as perhaps never !,
before or since. Chosen men of God |
sought to administer justice, and to |
keep operative the beneficient laws
of Moses, which are still in advance of |
the statutes which govern the most |
civilized communities.
This was mankind's great oppor- |
tunity. Israel might have led all |
the world, ages ago, into the Just |
and brotherly life of true democ- |
racy, lifting off the necks of human
is drenching the world with blood. |
What chance to have missed! Even |
the shameful failure of the Crusades
seems small alongside of this.
The Right to Do Wrong
Since man is not manikin or an
automaton, he enjoys the terrible
privilege of making fool of him
self. Destined for divine ends, he may
yet go to the devil. The right to do
wrong, and to fiout and defy God is
the price mortal pays for his godlike
possibilities. A free moral agent man
must be, IL he is ever to conform to
the image of his Maker. He can re-
pudiate all the most beneflcient plans
of God for his welfare. The sons are
not slaves.
In the exercise of this awesome
right, Israel decided that it would |
rather follow the multitude to do evil |
than to follow God to do right. 1t re- |
jected the divine program of a theo- |
to bk in style. So deputation of lead |
ers waited on faithful old Samuel Gone |
of the few characters in the Old Tes- |
lament concerning whom the record |
has no criticism) and told him bluntly |
that he was old and out-of-date, and !
that they wanted an eye-flling king, |
like the nations around them. We |
think of African natives trading dia-
mondS for glass beads; of American |
Indians selling empires for n few yards |
of calico; of farmers bargaining oil |
lands for paltry city houses. as we
contemplate the exchange that Israel |
asked.
Let us make no mistake about it, |
The present meaning of the lesson
which is of greatest significance to |
us--is that the mad desire to follow |
fashions and to be like our neighbors |
is responsible for many of the grav-
est ills of our time. National rivalry |
cause of the present world war. The |
effort TO outvie one another in lux |
ury-automobiles, clothes of the latest |
mode, ostentatious homes and lavish |
pleasure -seeking--is the real reason |
for our hard times. Why do boys
learn to smoke and men to drink? |
To be like others. of course. Most
SHINING is mere imitation.
The men who are clamoring that
America shall join the worlds mad
race after military and naval SUI
premacy, and after diplomatic pres
tige, are as grievously mistaken as
those old Jews who surrendered Is
raers right to be a distinctive nation, |
and a leader of the world. The anal |
ogy between conditions in Israel at |
this time of change and our own |
time, when all things seem to be in |
the melting pot, is suggestive and sig |
nificant.
Hunting Asses, Finds Throne
Ability to give up ones own plans
sweetly, and to be willing to work
well in a secondary place, are signs |
of size and. saintship. Most men,
repudiated as Samuel was, would |
have left the people to stew in their
own juice. Achillcs-like, they would |
say, as they sulked apart, the people |