Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-07-06
BY WILLIAM Il. ELLIS

" nll6 oNCl lAilo iCooOt
met in a dining car yesterday
young man, who, somehow, fixed
himself in my mind as an up-to-
data King Ahaz. Perhaps the COM
parison is unfair to my pleasant
spoken acquaintance. He was tall,
handsome, red-headed young Amer
ican, who had been a football player
at one of the great eastern colleages
doubtless at least two women con-
= slider him a model young man.
Nevertheless as he talked enter
tainingly about things in general, I
perceived that here was young
man, of royal equipment and oppor-
tunity who had never got a firm grip
on essential values. 1 do not ques>
ton his personal morality. but on
moral and ethical issues he was as
wobbly as King Ahaz. This war, for
instance, frankly bored him. He
could not see why the nations
should not call it all off at once. 1t
Is killing a lot of fine young men,
and it should be stopped right away.
There is really nothing at stake
worth fighting for. l made some ef-
fort, but I fear in vain, to help this
handsome young athlete to perceive
that there are now in contest GER
tain great moral and ethical and
spiritual issues that are more i'm
portant than even his comfort and
convenience, and that it is better far
for a man to die nobly than to live
in ignoble indifference to the SUI
preme values. The least of all the
wounded Canadian soldiers. return
ing from France, who passed us
some miles east is a greater man by
eternal standards, than this favored
son of opportunity, who apparently
has no standards concerning which
he is not willing to negotiate.
Mr.. Headed Athlete is one OF
the men-they are few. thank God!
- of whom Ahaz was an ancient
type. They are crowned, but hing
their crowns into the mire. IheE
are selfish, craven, truckless. What
Is easy makes more appeal TO them
than what is right. They would ra-
ther be popular and successful than
true. Their birthright is openly IN
the market place. To get along"
means more to them than to stand
stcadfast. They are the conformers;
who are ever the heaviest burden
that Progress carries upon its shoul-
ders.
A Man on the Monuments
This King Ahaz, who reigned
more than twenty-five hundred years
ago, in the little kingdom of Judah
has the interesting distinction of be-
ing known to history not only for
the records of the Old Testament,
hut also from the Assyrian monu-
ments. The archaeologists spade has
dug up the cuneiform record cut IN
stone, of the triumphs OF Tlglath-
pilneser, king of Assyria who once
brought Ahaz to heel. Thus the m
spired story of the decadent kings
defeat is confirmed by evidence from
tho sands of Mesopotamia; which is
the sort of evidence, strangely
enough. that a sceptical world is
more ready to accept than it is that
of the clear pages of Holy Writ.
So Ahaz got n reputation but it
was a bad one. Ambitious for dis
tinction, and with a vanity that
would sacrifice all things in order TO
stand we'll in the world, Ahaz really
succeeded only in winning infamy.
He has left an imperishable name,
but il is an odious one. History uses
him as a red light, to hang on the
pathway of time as danger signal.
What a horrible fate it is to have
missed noble success and to win an
immortality of shame.
Historically, Ahaz and his king
dom are less important than homi-
lctically. They serve their chief end
in showing the ways of God with
men AS a king AhaZ was only one
of a long line, who, apart from their
mission of being bearers of Gods
Promise to the race, were no more
important than ten thousand other
monarchs who have lived and died
and been forgotten. But as type,
Ahaz has his present use. He stands
forth vividly as one who did not
play the king-game in king-fashion.
He lost his crown and his soul.
Fathers and Sons
Now that the war is consuming
the flower of many. lands, we are
facing certain great biological facts
about fathers and sons. Ahaz repre-
sents a real problem in this He was
the bad son of a good father, and
the bad father of a good son. 1t
looks rather as if, in things of char
acter, every life stands on its own
feet In his meaty little book, The
Many-sided David" Philip f. How
ard deals with this question, and he
quotes the conclusion reached by
quaint old Thomas Fuller upon the
subject. 'I see Lord, from hence,
Fathers piety cannot be entailed;
that is bad news for me. But I see.
also, that actual impiety is not al
ways hereditary. That is good news
for my son."
Tor every father who is grieving
tonight for son dead in France, q
still feel the pressure of the hand
who are mourning that their sons
have played the fool. and gone, like
Ahaz, into the great conformity of
sin 1t should be an influence with
every noble boy that he has his
fathers happiness in his keeping. A
reasonable incentive to clean living
is the JOY that will be brought to
fathers heart. No rake ruins him.
self alone; he brings hurt and shame
upon the one whom it is his first
duty to honor. OF the other delicate
and allied question, the disgrace
which fathers sometimes bring upon
sons, l do not here write.
AhaZ and Broadway
One thing essentially was wrong
with Ahaz: his mind was muddled,
his thinking was foggy and he had
no clear vision of the absolute pre-
eminence of right Instead of hav-
ing clear convictions. to which he
would hold in spite of life and death
A