Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-08-03

The great plains OF western Amer
lea do not typify life. The latter is
not a dead level 1t has its ups ana
downs. History is a succession OF
mountain ranges. valleys ana Snort
stretches of plain. Progress is not
steady rise upward. 1t Is inter-
rppted by many declines and aepres-
sions. Reform is voted in To-Day anu
voted out tomorrow.
fiezekiah reigned righteousH' ana
it seemed as If wickedness was at an
end: but his young son, Manasseh'
succeeded him and all the ola evils
came trooping back into power
again, reinforced, It seemed, at the
moment. tenfold. The lesson OF this
experience of old Judah is one with
the lesson for today; for good people
everywhere need to learn. perhaps
first OF ALL not TO grow discouraged
Most of the triumphs of evil are due
TO the WEAKNESS of the GOOD.
Through the jaundiced eye of the
DISCOURAGED reformer 1t may seem
that Truth is forever on the scaf-
fold, Wrong forever on the throne"
with better vision, however, he would
learn that,
Behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above his own"
A Boy In Peril
Why should strong fathers so Of
ten have weakllng sons? Primarily,
perhaps, because a hot house is poor
place to grow boys. Fathers who have
FNr
their sons. The latter are kept out of
school in which the parents learned
their most important lessons. 1t is the
rare father who fully realizes, 1T is
good for a man to wear the yoke IN
his youth Yet that boy who is not
brought to school to discipline, who
has not learned the significance OF
must" and to whom duty is an un-
known fact, is a boy in serious peril
The worst fact about the good King
Hezekiah was his son Manasseh. For
one thing the lad came to power too
early, though there is a sense in which
children are always on the thrones oi
the world. Every true man Is mere
concerned for the health and happiness
of his child than for the prosperity or
his business, or for any honor that
may come to him personally. rms
headstrong younSster who fell helr 10
1teZEhldn luIOllt NASA NSAAs'N' ~-''-d Y
which is always a bad thing Tor
child. Under evil court influence he be-
came a reactiona ~, and there is no
reactionary like "a young one. Ihe
worst old fogies are the young men
The conservation of the youthful is the
most hindersome TO progress. rms
boys state of mind boded worse for the
kingdom than the wickedness OF hait
a dozen aged Kings.
Cutting Loose From the Past
Many there be, like Abraham. who
set out from Ur of the Chaldees, but
few there be like him, who keep on.
The price of progress and liberty Is
foo high for most to pay. Judah had
set out the right way. 1t would ap-
near as if she had learned her les
son we'll enough to continue therein:
but, alas. most of her virtue seems
to have been in the possession OF the
good king, and now he was in the
sepulcher of his fathers. So at the
touch of a boys hand the wheels Oh
progress were stopped. the nauon,
almost in a day, went back to the ola
forsaken idols. ust as a certain mis-
sionary to Africa has abandoned
Christianity and civilization and be-
come chief of a cannibal tribe 10
this decline of Judah the famous cpl
gram could be applied. IT was
worse than a crime; it was a olun-
der" Even If the nation had not
approved OF Hezekiah's new way II
might at least have gone lorwalu
somehow, in its own paths, without
reverting TO the ways that had been
so manifcstly proved to be evil. Yet
when a nation or an individual gets
TO sliding, there is no telling where
il will stop. Usually it winds up on
the level of the lowest, IS Judah dlu
Mannasseh truckled to the oasest
sense OF his time. He erected aItars
and idols, and created the worship OF
many gods. He went 10 ttie
limit Of heathenism. Perhaps ne
did not Intentionally go there out
he drifted and the drifter Is hkely
TO land eventually at the very end oi
the stream. 1t takes resolution and
moral courage and constant inteIec-
tual activity to maintain spiritual
religion. When many OF people
stop linking, and cease to be act
lively aggressive concerning religious
ideals then the loss OF real religion
Is an almost inevitable consequence.
Bad signs and Good Times
This is an ugly, discouraging story
one calculated to shake mans
faith in humanity. 1t makes one al
most wonder why the Lord does moi
let us go to the dogs. 1t is easy tc
understand the story of the flood
and of Sodom and Gomorrah. after
one has contemplated unreined hu-
manity. Even in this enlightened
year of our Lord, nineteen hundred
and seventeen. it is still an uphill
fight to maintain the lofty standards
of a pure religion. even as it was a
way back in the sixth century, B. c.
One has but to scan the advertise
ments found in many of the reput-
able newspapers, of fortune tellers
and clairvoyants and palm readers
and spiritual mediums and what not
to have the question raised in his
own mind, as to whether there is not
as much superstition and idolatry IL
our own land and time as there was
in old Judah, when Manasseh sat or
Davids throne. Mature, and pre-
sumably intelligent persons are still
looking for their destiny in the stars
-, cir of nId