Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-12-24
LESSON LOOKS
BACK ON YEARS
Keynote Is Sounded in First
and Last Titles; Study
of Israel
The International Sunday School Les
son For December 26 Is Review
The Lords Gracious Promises to
Isracl."-Read Hos. Oh. II.
(By William r. Ellis)

(By William r. Ellis)
With the Christmas music still in
our ears, we are called upon to enter
the New Years mood of retrospection;
for the present Sunday School lesson
looks backward upon a years studies
in the history of Israel, and brings
to a close this Old Testament cycle.
with next week we enter upon
course of New Testament studies.
The Keynote of the years lessons
is sounded by the first and last titles.
We began the series with a study in
the time of the Judges, Gods Pa
uence With Israel; we ended ii, at
the time of the collapse of the North
ern Kingdom and its captivity, with
the lesson, !'God yearns over Israel"
Between these two studies we have
had nearly fifty lessons dealing with
variations of the same theme-a wan
dering people and a wooing Lord;
strayinG sheep and a seeking shepherd.
Now the years review Is entitled "Je-
hoVah's Gracious Promises to Israel"
Holding Nations to Account
Bulking big on the horizon, as we
look backward, is the truth that Je-
hovah is the God of nations. From
the vantage point of the close of the
year 1915 we have at least FIVE thou
sand years of history to study. So
our body of facts is large enough to
enable us TO draw, some general les
sons. We are warranted to-day in
saying that history teaches us"
thus and so. And of all the deduc-
tions we may safely make from the
long course of human history, none
is clearer than that there has been
SnnraI1a Nul1n had ad
the affairs of nations for certain moral
ends. In other words, God deals with
nations as units, as we'll as with men.
We as country must render our ac-
counting to Him, even as did Israel
of old.
No other people since the days of
the Jewish nation have been in such
a unique place of stewardship as we
of this new western world Certain
great ideals have been given to us
in custody, and over every gateway
has been written Opportunity"
Now we have come to the time of
testing and proof. Have we been
good stewards of this grace of God?
In supreme moral crisis for the
world are we standing fast by the
divine standards? Is our loyalty to
God, and to the ideals which He
taught our fathers. greater than our
loyalty to self-interest and sordid
gain? Amid the tumult of a world
war we seem to hear anew the poets
call:
Fair is our lot-o goodly is our
heritage!
Humble ye, my people, and be fear
full in your mirthD
For the Lord our God Most High
He hath made the deep as dry,
lie nath smote for us a pathway to
the ends of all the Earth!
Hold ye the Faith-the Faith our
fathers sealed us;
Whorlng not with VisionS-oVerwise
and overstale.
Except ye pay the Lord
Single heart and single sword.
or your children in their bondage
He shall ask them trebletale!"
Keeping Close to Earth
There is no workable national IDEAL
ism that is distinct from individual
morality. There cannot be a noble
nation whose people live ignobly. Ma
uonal character is only the sum Of in
diVidual characters. Nebulous piosity
Is no asset. Mere pratings about un-
practiced virtues are worse than
worthless. Only as the people work
out into the warp and woof of their
the nation itself be strong.
So 1t was with Israel. We find tbe
years lessons crowded with stories of
personal nobility and righteousness.
The cornerstones of all Gods buildings
are men and women of integrity. So
most of our studies have been bio
graphical; and there have passed be-
fore us such personalities as Deborah
and Barak. Gideon, Samson, Ruth,
Hannah, Samuel, Eli, Saul, David,
jonathan. Solomon, Asa, JOSIAH,
Uzziah. Elijah, Elisha, Daniel. Jonah
Amos, Hosea and Isaiah.
All OF Gods business on earth ia
done through men and women.
Biography. Is history The lives Of
OF Gods triumphs. They were tho
one great asset he Rad on earth. As
1t was. so it Is. No truth emerges
more clearly in this lesson review than
that the only real strength of right
eousness and religion to-day is tbe
lives OF true men and women.
Big Buildings or Great Lives?
Apparently the present tendency
is the other way, by the exaltation
of institutionalisnl. We are in a brick
and-m ortar. @tce l-and-stonc era. There
is a passion FOR palatial buildings as
headquarters and as
institutional cen .ers. Our Y. NJ. C. A. s
and Y. w. G. AS have had a mar
velous record OF new buildings in the
past decade. We gloat over our con-
structions even as did Solomon. We
want to dazzle the eyes OF the world
by our majesty and might.
The pathetic side of all this is that
so many of our big buildings house
only little men. 1t is an open secret
in Y. M. c. a. circles, for instance,
that the average secretary is in dire
danger of becoming a mere hotel
clerk and bookkeeper and financial
agent. instead OF real spiritual
leader. And in our great ecclesiastical
centers we house well-groomed. thor
oughly modern and conventionalized
men of affairs, while the cry of the
heart hungry people goes up for lead
ers, real leaders, men of God, men of
passion, men of force, who dare defy
the world and its usages and lead
men and women back to God and the
great simplicities. From legislative
hall from church from cha nm herS of