Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-07-20

did not appease. Political alliances
proved a broken reed to lean upon
Vain was the help of man. Judah
was caught in a corner.
The hungry, weary, suffering but
dauntless patriots within Jerusa-
lems walls were put in a plight to
break the nerve of the bravest.
Forty-six of the fortified cities of
Judah were fallen beneath the As
syri1n's steady on-narch. George
Adams Smith thus wildly pictures
Signs of the Assyrians' advance
were given in the sky and night after
night the watchers on Mt. Zion see
ing the glare in the west, must
have speculated which of the cities
of judah were being burned. Clouds
OF smoke across the heavens, from
prairie and forest fire. told how war,
even II, 1t passed would leave n trall
OF famine; and men thought with
breaking hearts of the villages and
heds, heritage of the tribes of old,
that were now bare to the food and
the fire of the foreigner. Then came
the touch OF the enemy, the appear
ance OF armed bands, Vistas down
Jerusalem's favorite valleys. of char
lots, squadrons of horsemen emerg-
ing from the plateaus north and west
"a ShSS SilSi nedNy siege towers anu
swarms and men innumerable."
Terrified but tenacious, the Jews
still held out. They had been driven
TO mans last ditch-God. They re-
lied upon the Help of the helpless.
over against the imposing display
OF the Assyrian military pomp they
could place only the invisible God.
They were in the plight of Abraham
Lincoln during the Civil War. who
confessed: Il have often been driven
to my knees by the overwhelming
conviction that I had no where else
to CO." And truly blessed is the
man or the nation that has reached
such a condition.
The Taunt of the Successful
The representatives of Sem
nacharib came up to the walls of the
besieged city with a request for sur
render. Failing in this they began
to taunt the defenders with their
weakness, to intimidate them by q
boastful display of the Assyrian
power, and to sow seeds of disloyalty
to Hezekiah among the listening
Jews, for that purpose conducting
the negotiations in the Hebrew
tongue. 1t was a powerful argument
reinforced, as it was, by the vision
of the conquered country and by the
gnawing needs of the people shut up
within the walls of Jerusalem. 1t
was pointed out how kings and cities
had been unable TO Withstand the
Assyrian onslaught. 1t held up to
view the idols and altars that had
been overthrown and the helpless.
ness of the gods of the nations in
the face of Sennacharib's might In
substance the pleas was this: Quit
this impractical folly. Be sensible.
This God of yours cannot help you
What is God against my victorious
record and my invincible forces?
How will your God deliver you out
of my hand? ?"
Sennacharib represented the prac-
tical man of the world, to whom abb
stractions. do NOT appeal. The
plutocratic financier looks with a
sneer upon the poor poet, professor,
preacher and other idealists. Their
dreams and their reliance upon abb
stract things are utterly incompre-
hensible to him. He patronizingly
commends religion as good thing
for the poor, weak, common people,
the kind on whose ,necks he walks
and he will build them a church;
but for himself his trust is in the
riches. To his vision the dollar is
almighty. If he possessed a portion
of the learning or the insight of the
idealist he would know that his con-
fidence is built upon frail founda-
ton. The teaching of history as to
the instability of riches is clear.
call to mind now an ex-millionaire
who is glad to borrow S5, or to get a
SIS a week job. Every big city has
it's quota of such. The lesson is one
with the lesson of Sennacharib, who
is now but hard name for school
children to con.
An Ancient Case of BIuffing
There is a strangly familiar sound
about the narrative here: They
cried with a loud voice unto
the people of Jerusalem to
alright them and to trouble them"
So big-talk is not a recent discovery.
These Assyrians in the speech of to-
day were ''bluffing." They even tried
to bluff the God of Judah with their
high sounding boastfulness. By pre-
senting a formidable front, they
thought to overawe their adversar-
les. But in Win: while Assyria had
appearances, Judah had real power.
Hezekiah's power is made plain by
this glimpse behind the scenes, Il
view which Sennacharib could not
get. Newspaper men know that
there is an inside" to every story.
And 1t is usually the most interest
ing part. Back of events and appear
ances lie motives and principles: the
latter are the texture of literature