Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-05-16

30 Iell ancient GfeeCe, peTNeTllHS us
ve of beauty into unbridled lust,
and debasing it's power of noble
thought to lowest levels of casuistry
So fell Rome in the hour of her
greatest wealth and worldwide
possession. SO will fall any nation.
and city, and home, and soul. that
lets sin have free course. The worst
renalty of sin is sin working out its
own nature and producing its in
evitable sequences. Have the fires
of hell cooled because men no longer
believe in a literal and physical
fame of brimstone? Not so. When
q soul going on in the self destruc-
tion courses of sin comes to say
Myself am hellv' he is reaching
the limit of conceivable agony
The Sphere of Moral Surgery
What is Gods way of meeting this
mad rush of humanity on the toboS-
gan slide of ever-deeper sin? Shall
a world of beauty and wondrous pos
SiblitY lie fallow and idle because
man, the glory and crown of crea
ton has blotted himself out of eX-
istence? What is the remedy? One
that in its terribleness shall fit the
awful malady of the patient.
Here is a cancer sufferer The
little spot of diseased tissue, SEEM
ingly so trivial, is spreading. Every
day sees larger ravages of the de-
vouring demon. Skin and nerve
and sinew waste away before it's
merciless approach. Agony, inde-
scribable now, and presaging worse
things in the future, is the victims
lot. What shall be done? A poul-
tice? perfumed lotion to counter
act the offense of the senses? Con-
cealment by bandage and elaborate
screening? No. There is only one
resort. The operating table-the
keen, glittering knife, whose swift
movement shall go faster and fur
ther than the cancers progress.
And so the surgeon stands prepared,
bending above the diseased tissue,
and ready for his work. Is he mer-
ciless as his strokes cut and cut
again? Is it cruelty to thus multi
late? No, it is supreme mercy; it
is greatest kindness.
Even so the story of the deluge
stands out as the earliest and
sublimest representation of a divine
mercy that shrinks not from moral
surgery where nothing else will
avail. To save the good by remov-
ing that which is hopelessly bad; to
replace contagion by isolation; to
look beyond the terrible processes of
the immediate present to the results
that in due season shall appear
that is divine. 1t is Gods way
where no other way will avail. 1t is
divine wisdom where human devices
are avowedly helpless. However
awful the tragedy, however fearful
tho picture of desolated realms and
countless corpses as the waves re-
cede, 1t Is far less appalling than
the thought of humanity's doom if
left TO itself TO continue unchecked
the course of self-destructive mad
ness which was invading all realms
of mans being.
For be IL ever remembered the
story OF the deluge does not end as
the waters reach their utmost
height, and tho inundation of plain
and valley and hillside comes to it's
climax, God has not forgotten what
has been blotted out of sight by the
rising and engulfing pillows. The
end? No. the end Is not yet Some
things are indeed ended but only
that others may begin. What next?
The Stimulus of Fresh Start
VINO does not respond to such an
Incentive whenever and wherever
1t comes? The now year, after the
weeks and months of the old one
and failures and follies; the new
home, where old associations are
gone, with their enticing tempta-
tions; the new task, with better
adaptation to ones powers and ones
llklngs-all these things send a
thrill of new purpose into the soul
that has grown burdened and hope
less under old conditions.
Here was the merciful purpose of
God. revealed clearly in the out
come or this tragic chapter, but to
fftih
ton of 1t. A new start for a world
that had gone wrong! The dove
mat flies forth and comes back with |
the first symbol of cheer goes out
again and return no more. The ark,
It's purpose achieved, is abandoned |
It's one safe voyage a sufficient re-
turn for all the labor spent upon II. |
The preacher of righteousness de-
Iivered, not alone from the perils !
OF the rising waters, as they creep |
higher and higher above hilltop and |
grave perils of the floods of ungod- |
Iiness and depravity which had |
raged around his household in the |
Did days-for him and his a new |
world indeed opens as they go forth |
rom a captivity which had meant |
| deliverance.
So 1t often is, so it might much |
D1tener De, when God sends into in
tividual lives some startling provi-
ience which causes old things to
BASS away and all things to become
lew. Many a deluge of financial dis
lster leaves a man bereft. bewilder-
ID and perhaps tempted to despair:
lut out of the very ruins of an old
ife there may be built fairer and
| better fabric.
The Bow of Promise
1t is ever present, just as. sunlight |
lashing across raindrops has ever
rom the earliest dawn of creation, /
'auses the prismatic colors to ap-
year. But men do not always see |
{: and we will need the clear reve-
alton of the meanings of the AL
mighty to see the tokens of a sure
nd sound hope amid the storms of
ife.
There is a hope which Springs
ternal in the human heart" but
Which Is human instinct rather
han special divine gift. There is
hope which is born only of faith.
confidence which comes "out of
he depths. when we have entered
hem ana emerged. conscious a
iod's presence and guidance at
very point of the journey. For the
CLEVER in Gods goodness in ali
hings. because he is able to look