Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-02-28

Shall we follow the forward look
ing few. or shall we try to crowd
back into old conditions? That in
| 'sentence, is the big social and
| economic and political question of
the hour. Our heroes of the high
heart and audacious hardihood are
returning from France. Their vote
is go Forward" The timid are
those who shrink from n new ad-
venture. There is an interesting
analogy between the worlds present
crisis and that of old Israel on the
edge of the Promised Land.
A critical point in the new ma
tion's history had been attained
After bewildering variety of will
derness experiences it had at last
reached a place called Kadesh-
barnea, at the edge of the Land of
Promise. The goal was in sight.
The Canaan long before promised to
the patriarchs, and the dream and
desire of their Egypt -burdened de-
scendants, was before their feet.
Now was their hour of opportunity
to go In and possess the land.
The Preacher and the Facts
Like a cautious leader, however.
Moses wanted first to be in posses
sion of all possible information con-
corning what lay ahead of him. He
was good soldier in that he valued
his intelligence department. This
was modern enough procedure to
satisfy all those modern scholars
who think they have outgrown
Moses. This is the day of investiga-
ton: heaven and earth, the waters
under the earth. the innermost
workings of the lowest creatures
that crawl upon the earth, and even
the corporations which rule above
the earth, are being probed in the
interest of modern science. The
fact is king to-day-which is we'll.
Accurate data should be the basis
of every advance, q lesson which re-
ligion should learn from Moses, from
the scientists. and from the Teacher
who said "Ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free"
But the facts should be facts
once heard a pulpit demagogue
move ten thousand persons to tears
and laughter and hand-clapping,
with what he called a presentation
of the progress of the Kingdom of
heaven. Afterward the people
hAoh6 GU iiIii' COHBTdIuldIlnR MIN
on his wonderful sermon, and his
phenomenal array of facts, Con-
corning the latter one hearer had
been quoting to himself, TT is bet
ter not to know so many things that
are not So" The mans missionary
facts had been, to my personal
knowledge, mostly gross and ludicrous
misstatements. He had, Willingly of
unwittingly, misrepresented conditions
abroad and at home so seriously as to
mislead utterly any person who had not
other and more trustworthy sources OF
information.
That sort of thing has been entirely
too common in the pulpit and in the
religious press. All sorts of pleasant
fiction has been passed around as facts,
for the sake of the cause" Illustra-
tions that illustrate nothing but re-
ligious gullibility are common, as every
reader knows. Isolated instances of
missionary success are magnified until
they convey a meaning that is equivalent
to falsehood. A veteran Peaking mis-
sionary wrote to the missionary maga-
zine of his own denomination protesting
against the misstatement in its columns
that China had ordered the observance
of Sunday. So Ioath was the editor to
surrender so palatable a morsel of news
that he suggested that perhaps the mis-
sionary at Peking did not konw as much
about conditions there as did the man
in Boston! In the same class in the
famous temperance anecdote which
lakes ex-President Harrison say that