Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-12-22
NEW DELIVERER
FROM OLD ILLS
unto Us Son Is Given" Text
of Sunday School
Lesson
The International Sunday School
Lesson for December "A is "Unto
Us II Son Is Given."-Isa. 9:2-7.
(By William T. Ellis)


1t was in late January when my
blizzard belated kelek, or goat-slkin
raft, reached ancient Asshur, on the
Tigris River, the one-time capitol of
Assyria. Still the dining table Of the
genial German archaeologists was
adorned with a Christmas tree, in
land where no Christmas greens grow.
There was something pathetic as well
as beautiful about that touch of home
and childhood memories, the little
tree that was as a bridge stretching
between the Tigris and the Rhine.
During that visit 1 saw the steles and
other monuments of the oldest AS
syrian monarchies, and heard read
the boastful inscriptions of the kings
who reigned thousands of years ago.
Nevertheless, the wee, dried Christ
mas tree represented n greater and
more significant sovereignty.
Two rulers and deliverers that are
as one are symbolized by all the far
flung preparations that are being made
for the keeping of Christmas at this
present moment - the child and the
Christ who was Himself a child. Be
cause of the peculiar conditions of the
nations to-day, the study of this an
cient fragment of Hebrew literature
takes on new pertinency. Now, as
during the dark days of which Isaiah
picture of a child. Seven centuries
before the birth of the Bethlehem
Babe these words were written:
For unto us child is born, unto
us a son is given; and the govern
ment shall be upon his shoulder: and
his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Father, Prince of Peace. OF the in
crease of his government and of
peace there shall be no end, upon the
throne of David. and upon his king
dom, to establish it, and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from henceforth even for ever"
Fresh Water For Stale
One fthe sad sights of a great
city is the group of jaded elderly men
to be seen loafing inside the plate
glass windows of fashionable clubs.
They are more to be pitied than the
ragged children playing in the streets,
or the grimy toilers Fastening to
humble homes and the welcoming
voices of their families. For these
poor clubmen are there because they
have nowhere else to go, and moth
ing to do. Most of them have money.
but little else. Simple home joys, and
the touch of baby hands, is not for
them. They represent the world
grown weary of itself. Not with them
is the hope of the coming day.
Chlldren are the real deliverers
They are the fresh springs that
cleanse life's old pools. Existence
would grow stale and intolerable with
out the bubbling newness and vitality
OF childhood. Fresh from God, and
free, the little ones come to do the
great tasks of restoration
we have to look to the young for
our deliverances, for the old are not
Tree. The Silllen cords of convention
and relationship and association have
bound US as by steel cables That
is why the world has known so few
elderly reformers. Tradition and use
and personal ties palsy the hand that
would mold the sword of new service.
Every person interested in social pro
sress understands this full well.
society" has slain more crusaders
than the Saracens. A man cannot
be in society and at the same time
Tree to smite its sins. So the unfet-
tered. untrammeled, unconventional
lzed youth must go forth to slav the
dragons. When God planned a maxi
ing over of the world, He sent a Babe
to be its Redeemer. A mvriad of
poets have struck their Tyres to the
music or Unto Us n Child Is Born"
Harriet Prescott Spofford wrote thus
a Few years ago, in the Christian Fn.
deavor World:
"All over this wild earth TODAY
Ihe little Christ-Child leads the vvav
with tender feet that leave their nrint
ON crusted snow and shard and flint: