Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-12-27

The constant Friend who thinks
! and talks
With those who seek Him with
: the heart.
His Gospel calls for living men.
With singing blood and minds
alert:
Strong men, who fall 20 rise again,
Who strive and bleed with cour-
| age girt.
I'VE serve no God whose work is
done,
Who rests within His armament:
our God. His labors but begun,
Tolls evermore, with power I'm
spent.
God was. and is and eer shall be;
Christ lived and loved-and loves
us still:
And man goes forward, proud and
free,
Gods present purpose to fulfill"
Getting the Big Idea.
One who keeps watch upon the
mood of men in his own day is i'm
pressed with the fact that the war
| has awakened dormant spiritual
sensibilities in the masses of the
people. Minds are more alert and
fearless than ever. This war has
brought an intellectual emancipa-
ton. Men and women are freer to
think and act than ever before And,
each for himself, there is an amaz-
ing amount of Independent looking
at things. With facts supplied by
the press, and other imprinted facts
spoken from person to person, the
public has formed sober judgments.
1t is reassuring to our belief in
democracy that on every hand the
wise and the unlettered seem to
have reached the same general con-
clusiOn concerning the outcome of
the war. They see it is a victory by
the will of God. General Foch, and
all lesser participants in the war.
acknowledge that there has been
clearly divine Providence in the
progress of the fight. Napoleon's
cynical observation that God is on
the side of the heaviest artillery has
been fatty disproved for in the
earlier stages of the war all the ma
terial and tactical advantages were
with the Germans. Humanity speak
ing, there was no sufficient reason
why the enemy should not have won
by Christmas, 1914. The only eX-
PLANTATION that satisfies the rever-
ent soldier is that the unseen legions
of God were fighting on the side
of the forces of righteousness.
This is the faith of the cradle;
and the profoundest conviction of
the West philosopher. there is
benign Power who rules over all !
and brings His will TO pass. God !
is taking care of His world. Our |
times are in His hand" |
There is Divinity that shapes our /
ends,
Rough-hew them how we will"
To recognize the hand of the AL |
mighty in our own day, as millions |
now are doing afresh, is to fall into !
line with the patriarchs who knew |
themselves TO be His chosen instru- |
ments in the long ago. The greatest |
message of these lessons-God is !
over all, blessed forever.
Long, Long Thoughts.
Not many years ago it was the |
fashion in certain liberal circles to |
dismiss airily the history of the |
Jews, and the Old Testament narra-
tive, as a trivial matter,ta curious |
literary fragment of interest only
because ii happened to have sur
Nived the mutations of time. To !
these folks Abraham was less i'm
portant than Hammurabai, and Jo- |
sepn than Rameses. That cynical !
vogue has largely passed. Anybody |
who knows the difference between a
hawk and a hand-saw can see that |
there is what may be called a place |
providence in Palestine; and a peo-
pie providence in. the Jews. The
idea of God which was revealed to
hT-a tna i 1t 4
transmitted throughout the pre-
Christian centuries, when their mis-
sion was in the larger degree fulfill |
ed by the Christian church. is the
idea that operates throughout the
civilized world today. The old no
ton of a conflict of racial dieties has
passed away The Lord Jehovah is
King of Kings. That is as sure as
the sun.
Palestine, today, with it's present
providential deliverances, and Pal
estine in the time OF the patriarchs,
may be read as one long, long
thought of God. 1t represents the
vastness of His purposes. One of
the clearest of the messages from
this course of lessons has had to do
with the persistence of the will of
God, who works and waits. using all
kinds of instruments for the fulfill
ment of His designs, and accomp-
fishing His erls through willing
servants and despite unwilling enc
mics. Joseph was used by Him; so
also were his wicked brothers. The
Christian statesmen of the world
have of late been given a part to
play in Gods plan; but he kaiser
also has been tool of God, for "He
maketh the wrath of man to praise
Him This is a day for faith, sim
pie, strong, child-like faith. God is
abroad in HIS world, and He is
manifestly ruling events.
When u Joseph Appears.
Every so often a line of provi-
dence eventuates in a Joseph. Af-
ter Abraham, the mighty come-out-
er, the hero who dared all and sur
rendered all for the sake of spirit
ual vision, one of history's few
founders, there came Isaac and ia
cob, who. seen in the large, were
merely links in the chain; and not
golden links at that. They produced
joseph. who saved his people and
served his world. We forget for the
moment the other members of
family and their faults. as we con-
template this princely scion of Alb
raham's line, Gods handy man.
Our series of lessons eliminated
in Joseph, ruler and deliverer. He
is the Old Testament's prefiguration
of. Abraham's greatest son, Jesus,
who also was misunderstood, mis-
represented, abused, condemned.
Yet, Jesus patiently bore his own
and others sorrows. and never for
an instant lost the divine art Of for