Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-17
By WILLIAM T. ELLIS

d. Even II a@sUperficial consideration
H6f the history of our own times re-
veals strange world tides. which
find their explanation in-God.
There are manifest movings of hu-
man life in contemporary. events
which betoken to the discerning OBJ
server the presence of that Spirit
Whose, hand first shaped the spheres
and has ever since guided the cur
rents of history. This is the deeper
meaning OF the days news. it is con-
sciousness' sof this, tremendous fact
which sobers and makes reverent
many men who have been called
upon to play an important part in
the worlds work. Every man from
the trenches brings back a new con-
viction that God is doing things in
the earth to-day.
That is. the present-day applica-
tion of the great Od Testament
'story of the Passover: Jehovah is in
the event. The awesome wonders
of that still-celebrated night which
witnessed the birth of Il new nation,
were merely evidences that then, as
ever,
''Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above His own"
AS Bunsen says, 1T is admitted that
Is
but the true beginning of history
for niankind"s The nation which
then so, dramatically emerged from
slavery has had the longest distinct
existence of all the peoples that have
ever lived upon earth: and even to
this hour their persistence in uh-
diminished identity and reiuvenated
national consciousness is Il witness
to the. providence of the God of
Abraham and Moses. Remove Je-
hovah as a factor, and who can eX-
plain the Jew?
y Hard Apprenticeship
More than four hundred years
had elapsed between the day when
Jacob and his train left the famine
scourged fields of Canaan for, the
granaries of Egypt. and the day
when God spoke to Pharaoh through
Moses, saying, Let my people CO.
In those years the shepherd clan of
Joseph had become a great host.
Their strength had come to be re-
garded as menace by the Egyp-
tians, who had subjected them to
onerous slavery and cruel oppres--
sion. In the furnace of aiiliction
they were welded into oneness,
awaiting Gods hour of deliverance.
There are no meaningless blank
spaces in life or history. The proVi-
dence in all these years of bitter
desolation is now plain; even as we
already see great blessings being
wrought by the war;. When He had
prepared Israel, and had prepared
am an for the hour. God moved for
His peoples deliverance. The divine
clock may seem long in striking, but
it always strikes. Like many NOR
tails, groaning beneath a fortune
which hardy can be borne, Israel
erred in travail and discouragement.
How long? . Lord, How long?'
but the dawn was surely drawing
nigh, even though the night was at
its Blacklist. We who are at the day
break of the world, and able to
glimpse the high ProVidences in the
war, should be reverent before the
faith that held out throughout the
midnight experience.
4 stubborn Kings Hard Lesson
Kings do not learn easily; that is.
why their ranks have recently been
so dramatically thinned. Paraoh
would not listen to the plea OF
Moses, the divine ambassador, that
tho overworked Hebrews should be
permitted to go off for a period to
Worship their Deity: he who will not
heed Gods pleadings and warnings
must be made to feel His judgments.
L
car1ate and inevitable justice.
Great aggregations of material
wealth have thought themselves
above the law, and immune from
those obligations which society lays
upon individuals; but they have
been brought to book. in a manner
not dissimilar from the experience
of }Pharaoh. The inevitableness of
God should be accepted as basal
principle by whoever seeks a life OF
peace. No one can evade Him or
defy Him or ignore Him. The
plaeaues of Egypt are but incidents
in "a long train of historical events,
chief among them the war, which
signify that God is bound to have
HiS way in the world.
The ten plaques which God sent
upon Egypt were natural events
supernaturally administered. Each
of them had at some time or other,
in a lesser measure, been felt by the
Egyptians: so they were fully aware
of fthe dreadfulness of these vista
tidns which came and went at the
bidding of Jehovah's messenger.
Moses, by the way, was the first man
in the Scriptural history to bear a
commission to others, and the first
to work miracles: for miracles the
plagues undoubtedly We're, although
each had it's natural analogy.
Then followed the crushing blow
WHICH broke Pharaoh's proud spirit
ard accomplished the deiverance of
the Hebrews. This time there was
no. display of the rod, no tragic in
location of high heavens aid, no
hnstrumentality to impress the peo-
pie, mo awesoms warnings Silently
and. unseen by any mortal. the final
blow was delivered in this auda-
cioUs duel between a proud earthly
monarch and the almight King of
kings. In all the mystery of uneX-
pectedness and midnight darkness,
by no visible sword, the first-born
of all Egypt perished!
Pharaoh had doomed all the male
infants of Israel to die: now his own
son (the Pharaoh of the oppression
was succeeded on the throne by his
widow, according to some authori-
ties). and the first-born of every
family, down to that of the slave