The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-10-04
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON
BY WILLIAM 7. ELLIS.


For October 6 IL tAbram Leaving |
Home.:'-Genesis 1915.
Allied Troops ON Sacred Soil.
British chaplains is Mesopotamia !
, say that the soldiers are continually
coming to them with their Bibles. 70 |
ask questions about the region IN
which they are encamped. so great
| is the army's interest in the bible
places amid which they find them-
selves that the chaplains and 7. IA,
C. A. men give frequent lectures, OF
place talks, on Old Testament geogra-
ply. These British Tommies are Alb
sorbed by the almost incredible fact
! that they are really living and fighting
in and about the oldest places mem
F., toned in the Bible. the land OF the
i Garden of Eden. the birthplace OF
Abraham. the scene OF the exile. the
| home of Daniel and Queen Esther
More light is shed upon the back
ground Of present British operations
| within the Turkish empire by the
Bible than By the newspaper reports.
1t is a special privilege for the SuR-
day schools OF North America that for
| the last three months of this year they
are to study stories of the Patriarchs.
from Abraham to Joseph; for the set
ting of all these tales is now the scene
of allied military operations and sue
| cesses. The daily news will vitalize
the lessons and the lessons will illum-
| mate the cabfegrams. Bible and news
paper will be in a peculiar partnership
for this period.
So the lessons will be war stories.
meanings of present history. Vast
designs were unfolding in the expe-
rience of the patriarcias. as they are
also unfolding in the affairs of the
allies. Both reveal mighty provi-
dences. And it is of the essence of our
4 foi ha cd rUh evIrfd
people then is guidingsus today Four
thousand years of history are hridged
by the lessons of this quarter. wherein
a far yesterday sheds it's light upon an
epocha1 today.
Soldering in Abraham's Home.
Families of British and Colonial SOL
diers in the Mesopotamian campaign
are receiving strange mementoes of
the battlefield. Instead of German
helmets or buttons or belt-buckles.
they are sent signet seals, or cunei-
form tablets, written with triangular
stylus On soft clay. of the days of
Abraham and Nebuchadnezzar and
Sennacharib. I, myself, have a tablet
from Abraham's old home. ur of the
Chaldees, written three centuries be-
fore the time of the father Of the
faithful.
These soldiers are learning the
down-to-earth reality of the Bible
story. This place names in the Bible
|
themselves have gone. Imagine what
1t means in the way of historical Wis
ualization that the British flag now
. flies over the birthplace OF Abra ham,
'.the friend of God"
This present Sunday school lesson
would be easier to teach to a class Of
British soldiers, camped along the til
girls river, than to group OF average
! Americans. Amid the ruins daily be-
fore their eyes. these Tommies can
III n apG q nd hof f6a
the scene of the worlds central civil
ization At the time of Abraham life
was highly organized. Great cities
abounded. Law ruled. Arts and sci
! gion of idolatry was eIaborafely for
mulated. Civilization had reached a
high plane No ignorant and untutored
herdsman from the desert was this
founder of a nation.
Terah. his father. was a. man OF
standing. We have the record of his
family. When they moved up to
Haran, from the city of Ur, which is
down below Bagdad and Babylon,
they were. a considerable expedition.
| plains Of lower Mesopotamia for the
healthier, reck-girt and fertile up
lands of the region between the IT,
girls and Euphrates rivers. In the
party were Terah, his son, Abraham,
his grandson Lot. whose father was
dead, and Abraham's wife, Sarah.
, BY Bagdad Railway.
Kaiser william dreamed that his
! destiny took him clear to the land of
Abraham's beginning. His Bagdad
, railway project, about which all the
!. world has heard, ran over the route Of
Abraham's journey out of Ur. If the
, patriarch had been living four mil
: lenfums later he could have made the
: trip from ur to Haran by rail! Both
places are alcng the line of the great
:. railway enterprise which was SO po-
. tent q factor in bringing about this
: war. Some day readers Of these
: lines may travel in comfort from mid
: visit Rebecca's well-and beyond to
Bagdad and the Persian gulf; but II
= win not be on a German railway.
When I went over the route OF
r Abraham, few years ago, I found
!. many native legends clustering around
+ / his name; for Abraham is accepted
: by the Moslems, as well as by the Jews
: and the Christians. The city of Urfa
above Haran, is the scene of a notable
tradition concerning Abrahams re,
3 he had heard the divine cali to go te
= Canaan. Aleppo, where the railway.
i from Palestine meet the lin, to Con.
I stantineple and Bagdad, gets its nasns
: from the legend that Abraham used
9 t9 drive his white COW e the gate q
a shown-for the feeding of the poor
Aleppo, or "Halep," as the native,
have it, means White Cow
t 1t was a formidable caravan with
e which the great shefkh. Abraham
: moved from Ur to Haran, and from
r Haran to Canaan. He travelled slowly
carrying his flocks and herds witt
= him, in the patriarcha1 state of ar
= Arab chieftan today. One should
a know the desert and the Arabs to gair
a clean picture of the nature O.
Abrahams slow pilgrimage to the lane
= of his vision.
When q Man Hears Voices.
Il Abraham heard a voice. Joan o.
I Arc and her voices have anew go
II the attention of the world. We ar,
III more interested in Voices, inner CALI