Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-09-20

Recently / heard a brilliant Scotch
American chaplain in the British
army the Rev. DR.. John Robertson.
deliver sermon on the soldier spirit
in the Shepherd Psalm: and he
stressed this thought of letting the
Lord go first, or as Number One, and
falling into step behind Him, as
Number Two. 1t is when a man wants
to be Number One himself, and tries
to thrust God and Gods laws into
| second place, that things go wrong.
Civilization is out of gear to-day be-
cause the divine order was reversed.
The supremacy of the Eternal and
OF His laws was challenged, and
chaos ensued.
Now the fruits of self will are OBJ
vious-pride. lust, greed. cruelty,
avarice, oppression and irreverence.
Let human. nature go its own way
and twill go to the DEVIL We need
scarcely marvel at German atroci-
ties; there are no limits to unreined
selfishness. II we had the German
viewpoint, and the German state of
mind. We might do the same things.
Recently Mr.. Kipling made an ad-
dress at the opening Of Y. NJ. C. A.
hut in England, in the course of
which he said:
Kipling on the Devil
We have been a long time over
our present job. and we may be a
long time yet. 1t has been a little
bigger than We expected, because this
is the first time since the creation
that all the world has been obliged
to unite, to crush the devik You re-
member that before the war one of
our easy theories was that the devil
was almost extinct, that he was only
the child of misfortune or accident,
and that we should soon abolish him
by passing ringing resolutions
against him. That has proved an
expensive miscalculation. We find
now that the devil is very much
alive, and very much what he al
ways was-immenselyi industrious, a
born organizer, and better at quoting
Scripture for his own ends than most
honest men. His industry and or
! ganization we can all deal with, but
more difficult to handle is his habit
or quoting Scliptur- as soon as he is
in difficulties. When Germany be-
gins to realize that her defeat is GER
tain, we shall be urged, in the name
of mercy, toleration, loving kindness,
! for the sake of the future of man
kind, or by similar appeals to the
ineNtinguishable vanity of man, who
delights in thinking himself holy and
| righteous, when he is really only
lazy and tired-I say we shall be
urged on those high grounds to make
some sort of compromise with, or to
extend some recognition to, the
Power which has for its one object
the destruction of man, body and
soul"
Roots of Fright and Wrong
| Does all this seem a bit removed
| from the present Sunday school les
son? Far from it. That we should
have clear view of the essential
! principle involved in a lesson is far
more important than that we should
have a verse-by-verse exposition of
the text which might miss the theme
in its bigness. And our lesson to-
day, which all the wide world of
Sunday schools is studying, deals
with the fruits of the Christian life I;
the un-Christian life. This latter.
as Mr.. Kipling points out, is born of
the devil, and of the spirit which
puts self in the place of Number One.
| At present, civilization is engaged in
a mighty struggle to get things re-
established in right relationships, SO
that God and His unchanging truth
may have the right of way with
mankind.
righteousness" is big word that
has found new popularity in the vo-
cabulary of the race. We have nail
ed it aloft as a flag for which we
fight. Nations have solemnly COW
enanted with one another to pursue
1t after the enemy of all right has
| been brought to his knees. Confer
ences are being held, and articles and
| books being written about the best
means of securing the reign of right
| eousness. after the war. Most of this
! discussion, though, seems to be miss
a NJ hof ioEf N@
| not a fruit that can be tied on the
tree of human life, as cotton peaches
| are tied on the wire branches of the
! imitation trees in the roof gardens.
In a word, we have thought a great
deal about the fruitage of the world s
new day, but not enough about the
rootage.
Just as surely as given causes
produce given effects, and that seed
bring forth fruit after their kind. so
sure is it that the blessings of peace
cannot be made certain unless the
new spirit of peace and righteous
ness and brotherhood. the Spirit of
! Christ, be the root of the new order.
! There is no hope for a transformed d
world except in transformed hearts.
| Only better nature for individual
men and women can produce a bet
ter life for all men and women.
why Jne reaches taued
When l returned from France this
spring. the. fruit trees in my little
garden were blossoming beautifully;
and nothing that I had seen of all
the wonderful arborculture of France
seemed as beautiful as these few
trees of my own, which had plant
ed. The peach blossoms were para
disal in their pink perfection. Day
by day I watched the flowers give
way to the green pellets of incipient
fruit and these grew until they were
almost of full size. Then, suddenly,
the tree began to languish. and its
leaves to grow yellow. The unripe
peaches began to fall to the ground,
and those that remained took on pre-
maturely the color of ripeness ere
they. too, fell to the ground. 1t was
very distressing to the home-return-
ing householder. One day a neighbor
saw the tree. Man. your peach tree
has borers. Have you looked to the
bark, down at the root?" Too late,
l dug down and found the worms
beneath the soil that had cut into
the bark and ruined my peach tree.
OF course 1 should have known
marring the beauty and fruitfulness
and purpose of our life should know
that 1t is the secret, hidden worm OF
sin that is spelling everything. We
are as foolish as the women who re-
sort to cosmetics instead of to exer-
else and proper food to put color in
to their cheeks. Now that I turn my
eyes daily to the questions of world
reconstruction, / am reminded tc
look well to the roots. Fruitage de-
pends upon rootage. What is in the