Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-10-09

edge of this once populous sheet OF
water. Capernaum is a ruin; Beth
saida and Chorazin and Magdala and
Gardara have disappeared. Tiberias
Is q Jewish town, where rival sects
| of old-world Jews maintain their
theological and ecclesiastical ortho-
doxy to the mint and cummin de-
gree in a town of indescribable
stencil and unsanitary condition.
Fellow passengers on the motor
boat are Jewish colonists. British
soldiers, Turkish prisoners, and ma
tive Arabs and Galileans. While we
wait for our journey across the lake
to begin, olive-skinned small boys
sport in the water, diving for coins,
and show shining, smiling, winsome
faces, with lustrous black eyes and
beautiful teeth; reminding one of
that Other Boy who used to trudSe
across the hills from Nazareth in
order to go in swimming here; and
who later made His home and did
His work and spoke His words by
this very lake.
OF course 1 went swimming in
Galilee, overheard from native
boat in the middle of the lake; and
of course 1 went fishing there;
thinking all the while of the other
fishermen, brawny, dusky fellows.
just like my boatmen, who quit their
nets in order to become fishers of
men and moulders of the new world
order which Is still to-day the high
est hope of mankind.
One Prophet Dead, A Greater Comes
Back of the short story which is
the basis of to-day's lesson lies a
great principle. John the Baptist,
the rising star of his time. the most
promising portent upon his days
horizon, was dead. That news sound
ed like the knell of hope to many
who had been fired by his assurance
erance for all burdened hearts was
near at hand. 1t seemed as IL the
very existence OF this better day
which he heralded was dependent
upon the continuance of the message
and ministry of John himself. If
ever a man seemed indispensable to
critical time, that man was John
the Baptist.
And he was dead. What now of
his good news and his promised
kingdom? God removes the work
! er, but He carries on the work" 4"
Sometimes He has to remove the
worker in order to carry on the
work. John had gone his limit; had
spoken MS worn. Hdu uIISEeu His
call. He could do no more. His
place was only that of a herald and
fingerboard. His success depended
upon Somebody's coming after him,
with a larger vision and a greater
word. Nobody knew this so we'll as
John. He joyfully laid down his
tools. and gave up his life. for he
saw that another could fulfil his be-
ginning. In Whittier's words:
What matter, I or they?
Mine or another's day.
So the right word be said
And life the sweeter made?
Hail to the coming singers!
Hail to the brave light-bringers!
Forward I reach and share
All that they sing and dare.
Ring bells in unreared steeples,
! The joy of unborn peoples!
Sound. trumpets far off blown,
Your triumph Is my own!
The Key OF Iife's Puzzles
Back to work went the men who
had followed John the Baptist. Did
It seem a slump from the exciting
times of the revival by the Jordan
. with the crowds. the comm otion and
the everchanging scenes of interest +?
AS those fishermen turned back to
the heavy, monotonous. arduous task
of fishing in Galilee. their first in
stinctive feeling, doubtless, was akin
to that of the soldiers return from
/ the great war to humdrum tasks of
peace. They were wise enough.
! though. to know that work is the
sovereign remedy: to have work TO
! do, and a will to do It, is to be in
possession of the panacea. for most
! of life's ills. The wise men of our
own time are crying aloud this truth
as n remedy for present social. eco
nomic and political troubles. Work
has slackened; production is below
normal; labor Is coming to be look
ed upon as an evil. and not as a
boon. Now Is the time for all of us
to follow the example of the ,apos-
ties of old. and in a period of uncer-
tainty and of waiting, betake our
selves to labor, hard. engrossing
ungrudging labor. Much of what is
wrong with ourselves and our era
will be righted by sheer industry of
q productive character.
/ While we wait and work, the way
out will appear. God seems not to
| like to do business with idlers:
whereas the devil traffics chiefly
with persons who are not busy. The
four fishermen were toiling at the
drudgery of their heavy CALLING
am thinking of the huge oars and
cumbersome boats of Galilee-when
Jesus appeared to them. Nets were
I weighty. and the me nworked. often,
these Galileans were doing, but the
up to the middle in water. 1t was
/ no fly-casting sort of fishing that
ers, when they heard the Voice that
called them to their careers.
''Ncws Sense" I'm a Leader
Some men have that pictorial and
pertinent quality called news
sense" Their conception of tiineli-
ness and opportunity is highly de-
veloped. The living present is their
meter. They speak and write to
the occasion and to the hour. Such
an one was Jesus, the most vivid OF
teachers. On this tour of Galilee
wherein he. called the four first dis
ciples. he was preaching the present
fkood news of a kingdom near al
hand-"the time Is fuifilled"- and
echoing Johns great call to repent
ance.
This fact is often forgotten. Je.