The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-20
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
For July % Is "sennacharib.s Inva-
sion of Judah.''-II Kings, 1913

For July % Is "sennacharib.s Inva-
sion of Judah."-II Kings, 1913
20 1887.
The Downfall of the Mighty.
The crash of the topping citadels
of corruption, commercial and politi-
cal, fills the land. Everybody is stand
ing amazed. The most sanguine re-
formers scarcely expected such a swift
and mighty overthrow of the strong
holds of graft; and the corruptionists
themselves had thought their power
invincibly intrenched and fortified
). If we may reverently speak of the
humor of the Almighty, it does ap-
pear as if He delights in letting the
arrogant powers that exalt themselves
insolently against Him and His laws,
go to the very limit of boaStful self
confidence and self-assertion, before
He lets loose walls of His Overwhelm-
ing justice upon them. Lovers of
thence of God, cry out, How long, o
Lord, how longi" But Gods day is
marching on. 1t is as inevitable as
the sunrise. In the meantime, the,
the prideful wicked, reeking in op-
preston. injustice and crime, vaunt
themselves to the very heavens, so
that their might dazzles even those
who should know the certainty of
Gods reckoning. This but makes
more impressive and effectual the
overthrow when 1t does come.
AS 1t Was of Old.
This lesson of the defeat of the
hitherto victorious ASSyrian hosts by
the God of the little Judah-tremen-
dous, significant and spectacular as it
was-parallels the victories which
righteousness is winning in this year
of our Lord 1917 over the long DOM
inent powers of selfishness and evil.
That teacher is blind to the march of
events and to the eternal timeliness
of truth who treats this lesson solely
as a historical event in the seventh
century B. c. and attempts to lead the
ordinary Sunday School class thru the
jungle of ancient dates and dynasties
and geographical data
The situation may be simply stated
Hezekiah, the good son of a bad IA
Their. but of a noble mother, was king
of Judah. Israel, to the north had
that Jehovah had wiped it out as a
nation, and sent it's people into cap
tivity from which they never returned
The dominant world power of the day
was Assyria, whose king was Sem
Hacharib. On tour of conquest the
latter had laid waste the surrounding
countries and even the outlying por-
tons of Judah. We have Sennachar-
lbs own version of the story, so, after
many centuries does the earth give up
of its buried treasures to confirm the
word of Colon clay cylinders that
who ever will may see in the British
museum; and on the sides of the Koo-
yunjik bulls. He automatically evades
after the manner of boosters, those
phases of occurrence which do not
reflect credit upon himself; but the
substantial unity of his record with
that of the old Testament is convfnc-
ing.
s Only Jerusalem, newly fortified and
prepared for siege, withstood the
victorious king. The story has been
popularized by Byron in his familiar
poem beginning:
THE Assyrian came down like wolf on
the fold:
And his cohorts were cleaning in purple
and gold"
Caught in Corner.
The situation was tense and dra-
matte. Diplomacy was tried and il
failed. Tribute was offered, but il
did not appease. Political alliances
proved broken reed to lean upon