Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-03
FINISHING The PHARAOH FASHION
The International Sunday School Lesson For Janu-
ary S Is Pharaoh Oppresses Israel"
EXODUS :1-14; 2:1-25
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS

This is more than a new year; it
is a new era! Our grandchildren
will understand more clearly than
we the vast meanings of the present
months. To us it has been given to
see the passing of an old order of
life. We have lived through the
Great Emancipation. Some things as
old as history have come to an end
before our eyes. AS twenty million
members of the Sunday school. and
other millions of newspaper readers
besides, begin another year of Les
sons they find themselves called upon
to con the profound significance of a
time that is only partially paralleled
in the past.
Nowadays we have to read the
newspapers in the light of the Bible,
if we would catch the meaning of
both. No alert person, for instance,
would think of studying the present
lesson upon the oppression of Jews
in Egypt without interpreting 1t from
the standpoint of the latest tidings
from the Near East and the world.
Pharaohism, in fact and in symbol,
is as deadas the mummies that adorn
the Cairo Museum.
There is the tug of Turkey upon
our interest as we'll as the pull of
pharaoh. Events are moving apace in
the lands where the Bible stories
were enacted. A new epoch has
dawned for these old regions of ro-
nance. There are living questions
clamoring for the worlds attention in
Egypt and Palestine and all about
the Mediterranean; yet most of the
popular knowledge of these lands re-
fleets the Bible. No figure exists
within the confines of what was un-
til lately the Ottoman Empire who
fills the eye like Joseph and Moses.
AS a matter of spiritual reality, they
are still playing a part in present
events.
Farewell Pharaoh!
The pharaoh fashion is finished.
That is lesson number one of the
war. Whatever form the conclusion
of the peace conference, take this
decision is sure; for it was the ami
mating purpose of the men who
fought and of the nations which sus-
tanned them. For long and bitter CEN
turies and milleniumS, humanity en-
dured the evils of absolutism and
autocracy. When we try to visual
ize the ages of the irresponsible rule
of the king we behold countless null
titudes of men,, women and children
writhing under the lash or strug-
Cling with the load, screaming and
groaning or submitting in dumb
agony. What millions have cursed
God and died, all over the world,
under the blight of tyranny!
Old beyond reckoning is the
monotonous tale. Atrocities in Bel
gium and Armenia are no new fash
ion. In the latest issue of The
Journal of Ne Americal Oriental
Society" l find n long article by Pro-
fessor OlmsteaS upon THE Calcu-
lated Frightfulness Of Ahur Nasir
Apal," king of Assyria and a proto-
type of the Kaiser of Germany. His
"kultur" included systematic footing
and burning; and the enemies he did
not capture he eXtermi0ate One of
his favoriate devices was to f1ay
leading men alive, and spread their
skins on the walls of their towns.
Or he would build memorial pillars,
with enemies entombed alive inside,
and the skins of other covering the
outside. He also liked to impalc his
foe on stakes, outside of the city
gates.
That is but one of the vagaries of
the old king fashion. The autocrat
could do as he pleased. The COM
mon people had no rights but those
which he saw fit to bestow. But hat
fashion has passed away with the
kaiser, and his company of scurry-
ing kings. The first great division
of this present lesson upon Pharaoh's s
oppression of the Israelites should be
n Thanksgiving that this sort of thing
is now in the past tense. The world
is through with Pharaohs and Phar-
aohism, political, commercial, indus
trial and social. Some do not know
this; but the law of Moses and the
Spirit of Christ have doomed them.
A new, high and resolute purpose in
the heart of humanity has toppled
over the old thrones that represented
injustice.
Forgctters of the Past
Short memories are saidto he char
acteristic of rulers. Pharaoh was a
good forgotten. He took no thought
of the men of former days, the deliv-
erers of his people, the friends of
his fathers. He was of that large
class which the New Testament de-
scribes as blind, seeing only that
which is near" Children and unedu-
Gated perons take into account only
what they can see and hear, ths pres
ent thing and the present moment
dominate them. Only the wise have
a historical sense, seeking ever 10
hold all of life in proportion and in
relationship.
Not always, though, is the cynical
apothegam concerning the short
memories of the people warranted
by the facts. Because America has
not forgotten France and Lafayette
ap boY hrl -
forty years ago the German hordes
have been beaten back from the land
of the lily and their power broken
and their plans utterly confounded.
Whatever men do, God remem-
bers. His cycles swing sure, though
slowly. Consider what indications
of the past there have been within
a twelve month-Bohemia freed and
honored of all men; Finland given
her opportunity. Armenia emanci-
pated, the Jews afforded al open
RI IT, H. Il