The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-26

FROM BABYLON. Ezra o.10-oo-
A Literary Man as Practical RefOrmer
Now that it has grown so notably
the fashion for literary men to enter
the sphere of practical politics and
reform, it is especially suggestive TO
study the career of a more distin-
guished literary man than them all.
who lived half century before the
beginning of the Christian era. This
famous author bore the name of Ezra,
| and he might have lived the congenial
life of bookish recluse amid the
prosperity of Babylon Instead, he
chose the distasteful hurly-burly of
administrative work. sacrificing him
self for what he considc ed the great
est public cause of his time
Ezra is one of the giant figures of
this romantic period which has bulk
ed largely in Jewish and Christian
history, and which of late years the
spade has been digging up from be-
meath the arid soil of Mesopotamia-
Ezra came to a place of power by
sheer native faorce. He had a vision
ary's dreams, and an executives prac-
teal abilities. His administrative ca
pacity transformed his dreams into
political realities.
A Nation in the Furnace.
''All ships look stately except the
one upon which you ride" says the
proverb. 1t is hard to perceive the
Importance and meaning of ones own
age. Even in the tremendous days
( of the present, some persons are heed
| less of import. So the Jews
who lived thru the period of the exile
| into Babylon did not understand the
/ big meaning of it all. That it was a
! national furnace for the publication
of the Jews is better understood now
than then. The individual expert
! ences of misery. of temporal prosper
! ity, and of safety under the protection
of the law of Babylonia. were all that
the average Jews got out Of the exile.
| There are Chinese in plenty who are
troubled by the unsettled state of
| their land at the present time, but
who cannot at all see that their ma
/ ton is passing thru its greatest crisis
! The extra ordinary unsettling of Amer
/ lean thought in our day means to
some persons that war is a diSturber.
/ They are blind to the larger interpre-
| tation of their times
This crisis of the Jewish exiles con-
| sisted of the three deportations to
Babylonia, the period of sojourn there,
ready studied. the second under Ezra
| at period eighty years later and
1 then the third under Nehemiah.
BY Desert Ways
| The thought of travel in the desert
appeals to every lover of the pic
tuEesque and the adventurous. Just
as a caravan of came1s on the sky
( stateliness, but common and unpleas-
| ant when seen close at hand, so these
desert journeyings are made attrac-
tive by distance. The exiles could
tell you that the camels are infested
with Vermin, and that there is no
! beast of burden which so racks its
rider. These same Jews who had left
comfortable homes in Babylonia. could
| tell of the choking misery of dust and
! sand storms; of the dirt barrenness
dis 1ffN4-N
+ could paint with many a graphic ges-
ture the torrid heat of the desert at
this time of the year.
| To the spectator they were doubt
less as interesting as the caravans
| which one may see today. 1 have
| watched the Persian pilgrims travel
across this mesopotamian desert; some
on camel back, some of the children
in panniers swung at each side of the
beasts of burden; some on dOnkeys
the rich on horses, some on foot. Tie
| speed of the journey is the camel'S
! pace-about three miles an hour
Probably then, now, the camels
were decorated with blue shells and
| musical bells A devout Jew seeing
the cavalcade set out from Babylon
would watch it from the heights, just
as 1 watched an expedition set oll1
across the desert from old Asshur
Did their imaginations foretell the
testing times they were to. have BY
they would send back to the fat land
of Babylonia?
Literary. But Busincss-Like.
It is the visionary who sways tht
minds of kings, and it was Ezra, the
scribe. who secured the favor of Ar
taxerxeS for the return for some sew
enteen hundred exiles to Jerusalem
He won the good will of the govern
ment and secured immunity from
taxation by the way, and the promise
of help from local officials as well
| In gifts the pilgrims bore with then
some aggregating more than two mil
lion dollars in American currency
That best business methods are
thoroly consistent with high ideahsm
was shown by Ezra's conduct with re
| spect to this treasure. He had every
: shekel of it carefully weighed at th'
} beginning of the journey, the respon
sibility accurately distributed, ant
: then he made an exact reckoning a
, the end. That sort of system should
characterize every religious and phil
Z anthropic organization Every church
: man in a position of trust should de
/ mand regular and general auditing o
administration of every communit!
might most properly be that of th'
! best religious organization.
The other side of Ezra's charactel
, came out when the questions of ask
ing for guard arose. He had repre-
scented Jehovah as the ruler of ma
. tions. able to lift up and to cast down
, His fine sense of fitness of things, and
+ his zeal for the honor of Jehovah
! would not permit him to ask for al
: escort from the king. He took al
. proper precautions, and then trustee
! the Lord, which is true courage.
Reform Gone Wrong.
: 1t seems but a little time befor.
that the main body of exiles had en-
= tered Jerusalem with mingled grie
D., + i1h iIot ho of
: ing over the laying of the foundation
: OF the temple seemed still to be lin
gering in the air. The ecstacy of tina
: occasion was fairly delicious, but, 10
: Ezra finds little trace of il all. There
/ has been a huge slump somewhere
Dreams have given way to practical
: measures. A tragedy has slowly beef
/ enacted. like unto that witnessed il