Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-07-12
TRUTH THAT TESTS The TIMES
The International Sunday School Lesson For July IA Is
Reading Gods Word" Acts 826-3e; Ps 1911.
By WILLIAM t. ELLIS

| mercy and brotherhood and good
will supremely worth fighting for.
This growing book has a grow
ing power in our time. The explo-
sion in Europe has blown up or
shaken down many conventional
standards. But it has left the Bible
in u new place of influence. Not
merely is it true that the publication
and circulation of Bibles has been
vastly increased; some of this due to
the zeal of home churches which
have not yet felt the real impact of
the war, and some of it is owing to
a genuinely heightened desire to
read the Book. In a more general
sense, the Bible has come to its own.
The standards now accepted are
those most clearly taught in the
Scriptures.
Before the war, certain material
philosophers claimed the right to su-
persede the old volume. Where are
they now? The Christening expert
ence of these four years is driving
human hearts away from fads and
innovations and self-indulging theo-
rie3 20 the simpHcities of the Book
which has given us what is best in
our civilization. Self-sacrifice, serv-
ice of others, high conceptions of
conduct for men and for nations, the
sanctity of truth, mercy to the weak,
a lavish offering up of life itself up
on the cross of holy cause-whence
come such ideals as those except
from the Book of books?
Our tumultous times are learning
the truth that Whittier sang:
I'VE search the world for truth; we
The good, the pure, the beautiful
From craven stone and written
scroll,
From all old f1ower-fields of the
soul;
And, weary seekers of the best,
We come back laden from the
quest,
To find that all the sages said
Is in the Book our mothers read
Back to Old Fashions
1t took the lightning flashes of the
world storm to reveal to men and
nations whittier they were drifting.
One province in Canada had, all un-
known to it's British-born citizens,
come within one per cent of being
controlled by an unsympathetic for
eign immigration. The story of how
ildAl hOloSAA hh
the worlds strategic centers is now
general knowledge. Ideals and STAN
dards that can be called nothing less
than pagan had likewise insinuated
themselves into our common life.
Few Christians suspected how far
our day had gone toward the en-
thronement of un-Christian ideas
and usages. Free love, infidelity, an
tipatriotism, industrial and social
anarchy, we now perceive, were real
perils of civilization. The brutaliZed
German theory that strength has no
obligations to weakness, and that the
superman or egotist is above all
moral restraints, had found its way
into much of our literature upon
success Likewise, madein-Ger-
many theology, which we now see
to be increditably arrogant, un-
truthworthy and unfruitful. was
steadily undermining the faith of
Christendom.
|. Now, humbled and contrite. we
perceive that the old, old paths of
honor and sincerity and brotherli-
ness and reverence. which the Bible
proclaimed as the way of life, are
the only safe roads for the feet of
the race. The simplicity of good
ness; the integrity of our homes; the
chastity of our characters; the
worth of country and flag; the child
like faith in God; the fellowship
with His Saviour Son;-these have
emerged anew as the desirable
goals of life.
Myriads of minds are giving
thought to the reconstruction of the
world after the war. All aim,
whether consciously or not, at con-
forming it to the high and altruis-
tic standards of the New Testament.
And a first factor in decentralization
of society is the careful training of
the young in the study of the Bible.
Despite its hundred years of useful
ness, the Sunday school never has
had such work as lies before 1t
to-day. National and international
conferences on a new world order
NAV sound more important: but the
Sunday school teachers have the real
work to do. A plain, practicable
plan for meeting all the fresh prob
lens that the war has thrust into
our thinking is to teach boys and