The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-04-27

For April % is Jesus welcomed as
King."-John 12:12-16.
Jerusalem in the News and in the
Bible.
Perhaps the news dispatches will
have scored a beat on this Sunday
school lesson. for it is written three
weeks ahead of the date of publIca-
ton, and within that time it is alto
gether likely that the British troops
will have captured Jerusalem, and
the most obvious of comments upon
this story of the triumphal entry
will have been rendered unnecessary
At the present moment the British
troops are approaching, apparently IN
two columns, one from GAIA ana one
from Hebron-to mention the two
Bible towns at which they were last
reported-the ancient city of Jerusa-
lem. Until now the Turks have been
in command. as for centuries past. The
holy city is garrison town.
Now we may imagine the panic that
prevails. As always in war, the coun-
try folk have thronged to the city.
Jerusalem almost resembles the old
! Passover throngs. Rumors are rife in
every bazaar and at the sheepmarkets
by the Jaffa and Damascus gates.
| will they Gomez" is the cry on every
lip, as men climb onto the walls and
other high places to look for the ad-
| Vancing Christian army Dead bodleS
rusalem today, but nobody has time to
pay attention to them. The WalllnS
of the mourners is heard from many
homes. The faces of the people are
emaciated with hunger. Furtively they
tell one another tales of the oppression
of the Turkish troops. Most of the
present jewellers in the ancient City
of David long for the arrival of the
British forces. That is the burden of
their prayer, day by day.
Surely the spectacle is one to stir
the magination-the young men of
Canada and Australia and New Zea-
land and South Africa and Great
Britain marching over the stored soil
of the Land OF Promise, to make
triumphal entry into the city of the
great King. Dramatically, the new is
penetrating the old; the west is win
ming the east And beneath the ban
ner of the Cross of st. George (who
himself, it may be recalled, was
Palestinian figure), there is carried
the spirit and Gospel of the Cross of
the Son of Man, whose entry into this
same old city, nineteen centuries ago,
is the theme of study today by mill
lions of Sunday school members. To
consider the present lesson without
regard to the current news would be
inexcusa BILE on the part of any alert
teacher.
Some Other TrIumphal Entries.
Many and great triumphal entries
has this old city seen. 1t was but
few years ago, in 1898, that Emperor
William II of Germany made his
spectacular entrance into the worlds
spiritual capital. For that occasion
new roads were built, and part of the
Tower of David torn down, and other
extraordinary preparations made, so
that it is a common remark in the
Holy Land that the visit of the kaiser
was the most momentous event-in the
history of the Holy Land since the
Crusades. 1t was at this time that the
ambitious young emperor made his
| compact with Turkey. which is now
bearing such frightful fruit as the
death of a million Armenian Chris
tians.
We recall too, the entrance of the
Crusaders, with all that lies behind
that romantic enterprise. Omars
capture of the city is its high date in
the minds of the Moslems. We can
not forget the destruction of Jerusa-
lem by Titus. only forty years after
our Lord trod the city's streets. Pass
ing over the return of the Hebrew
eXiles from captivity to the city they
loved, we have in mind the terrible
tale of it's fall to Babylon. Before
that, and the greatest date of all, next
to the one we are studying today, was
the capture of the city by King David
from the Jebusites-fie having gone
bron. where the British now are.
Authentic non-biblical records of
Jerusalem were unearthed in the Tell
el-Amarna tablets, of the date of 1850
B. c. Always the city has been a high
place of strategy. And turnout its va
rious epochs-Amorite, Jebusite He
brew, Jewish, Roman, Byzantine, Arab,
Moslem. Crusader and Turkish-it has
been first of ALI religious center
When the Golden Gate Is Opened
One of the most interesting of the
superstitions OF the Jerusalem Mos
lens is the belief that when the So
called Golden Gate" of the city,
sealed for centuries, is opened the
Christians will retake Jerusalem. This
is the gate in the center of the east
ern wall, right at the Temple Area
and it corresponds to the gate of the
: triumphal entry of Jesus. 1t looks
3 squarely out on the Mount of Olives
and while the present wall is not the
one that surrounded the city in our
Lords time, this bricked-up portal is
; Still called the gate of the triumphal
| entry We need not be surprised to
, hear that the British, who have a full
sense of the importance of religions
, impressions, have opened the Golden
Gate. in symbol that the long sway of
= the false prophet over the city of our
Lord is ended.
For as surely DIS the Spirit of the
ann SitJ iuleS tile world To-Day, over
l turning the counsels of men to the
= praise of the Lord, the new triumph
q of Jesus is being accomplished He
is entering anew into the minds of
; men and into the affairs of nations
s Whatever else it will have done. this
/ war will have accomplished the rule
, of freedom and justice for oppressed
people; and will have brought to the
4 benighted places light and knowledge
and health. Consider what the new
conquest of Jerusalem means in the
: way of sanitation and law and order
and freedom from petty tyranny and
{ oppression. Safety will come to even
n the poorest and weakest of Jewish
refugees. No more will Jew or Chris
tan have to skulk or hide in the old
n city. Wherever righteousness wins a