Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-13
.JEROBOA|M LEADS .
ISRAEL INTO SIN
Sunday School Lesson About Poll.
tieian Who Should Have Been
Statesman
The International Sunday School Les
son For August is Is "Jeroboam
Leads Israel Into Sin."-
1 Kings. IL: 25-33.
(By William T. ElIis.)

type, fro mthe earliest days of or
ganized society Our Sunday school
lesson is about a king who was a
a statesman. The difference between
the tMo- has been defined as, "A states
man thinks of my country whereas
a politician thinks of my district
A politician is bent first on pleasing
people; a statesman, on serving them.
A land may be cursed with. politi~
cians but 1t can be only blessed with
statesmen. The former busies himself
while in Office with his own reelection
and self-interest, appropriating gov
ernment funds in ways that will serve
himself, even though vast national in
terests are imperilled. A statesman
will sacrifice his future for a principle.
Jeroboam was a shrewd politician,
who purchased popularity at a price
which has sent his name ringing down
the ages with a phrase of. opprobrium
attached to 1t. He is the king who
made Israel to sim"
Suppose we first of all fix the place
of the lesson story. We all know
Jerusalem, Rehoboam's capital, which
at the time of the lesson was the
capital only of Judah and Benjamin.
When the ten northern tribes revolted
from Solomon's son they elected Jero-
boam. a commoner, but a man of
force who had been obliged to fee
from Solomon's suspicious eye to
Egypt, where he had a fine training
in public affairs. One of the north
ern prophets had predicted that he
would be king of Israel.
The seceders chose Shechem as their
capital, at the foot of Mt. Gerizzim and
Mt. Ebal. where the law had been
read. Near Shechem was Sychar
l. N,Il rYytN l. Il, ~. ~
at the well. A touch of current inter-
est is given to the locality by the fact
that here dwell all who remain of the
ancient Samaritans-about three hun
dred persons. During the present
stress and suffering in Palestine these
Samaritans are being maintained by
an American, e. K. Warren, of Michi-
gan, president of the international
Sunday School Association. These Sa-
maritans are. a mixed people; 1t will
be recalled; wherefore the Jews have
no dealings with the Samaritans"
Shechem we'll represents the north
ern kingdom, in that 1t was subject
to the tides of trade and travel and
war which swept over this part of Is
rael. Our Lord was reared in this
liberal, cosmopolitan part of the land, t.,
in touch with many peoples The sit
uation of the secedng ten tribes made
for prosperity, as well as for liberal
mindedness Their territory was
about nine thousand square miles
twice as large as Judah, and it was
richer land than that to the south
Also 1t was in a more advantageous
position for trade, as well as for cul-
ture. Jeroboam had a rare oppor-
tunity to build up strong kingdom.
The Ties That Bind Nation
Fear and akarice are the twin de-
mons that lfk behind every office
holders chair, be he king or consta-
BILE From the first, Jeroboam was
afraid that he might lose his job and
his kingdom. He saw ghosts in every
patch of moonlight. His first great
fear was that the religious impulse,
which is strongest of all mankind's
sentiments, might send his people
back to Jerusalem He knew the
power of habit and devotion.
So he and the other politicians put
their heads together and decided that
It would be fine thing to have a mod
national shrines, and an easier form
of worship than rigid monotheism.
He knew that people are susceptible
to the worship of god made in their
own image: Our own time sees plenty
such: and the recent return of DR.. b.
Fay Mills from the fields of New
Thought" to evangelical Christianity is
d
Substitute religions do not continue to
satisfy; even as Israel never was happy
with her modified faith.
Two extremes of the pendulum are
represented by the two rival kings of
Judah and Israel. Rehoboam had not
yielded enough to popular demands;
Jeroboam yielded too much. He made
the politicians mistake of cultivating
the meaner, baser side of human ma
ture, and of failing to appeal to its
nobler sentiments. Jeroboam thought
that an easy debased form of religion
would be popular, and so he made
provision for it, thus tempting the
people away from their allegiance to
Jehovah.
Satan's Nearest Kin
The best friend Of evil this side of
perdition, the man who is nearest kin
to Satan himself, is the man who de-
liberately tempts people to do wrong.
Even the imagination of q Milton or a
Dante has not devised a torment ade-
quate for those dlabolical creatures
who Intentionally lead stheir fellows
astray. Yet the line OF tempters did
not end with Jeroboam. The pitiless
publicity of our day has revealed
whole classes of men and women who
seduce the unwary into sin. The en-
tire hideous white-slave traffic is made
up of such. So is the drug business.
So in considerable degree is the liquor
business. Publishers and purveyors
of vile literature and pictures fall into
the same black classification. The
bad big boys who teach evil to young
er boys are apprentices to this trade of
Satan. One shudders as he contem-
plates the variety and number and
might of the forces who, like old King
Jeroboam, are leading people into sin.
Society cannot deal too strongly with
them now; and they Will have to
reckon with just Judge hereafter.
Muddled minds may think that his
tory have been too hard on Jero-
boam, who was a practical man,
facing a novel and difficult situation.
All that he did. say they, was to divert
the, stream of religious devotion from
the old national shrine at Jerusalem,
and to make worship easier by setting
UP two symbols of jehovah, in the fa-
miliar form of the bull. Other ma
tions worshiped the bull, even as do
the Hindus to-day. Why not adapt
the tsern monotheism of Moses to the
popular fashions of the day? ~.
Very plausible, indeed. But aside
from the fact, happily Incompetence
ed by present-day western civilization,
that along with this worship of the
bull went idolatrous rites of vile liz
centiousness, there remains the tre-
mendous truth that religious ideals