The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-09

Deliver israeli Judges 4:4-16-
Freedom's Fight on Famous Fields.
Guided by an affable young British
officer, / one day climbed the stairs
of the proud tower that the vain and
Wanting kaiser had built above the
palatial German ihospice and chapel
on the crest of the Mount of Olives.
This is the highest point of observa-
| ton in Palestine. There is no other
panorama like it on earth.
At Our feet lay the Holy City. and
the Garden OF Gethsemane. To the
westward, With uneounted strata of
history between, sparkled the Medi-
terranean. South of US snuggled the
little town of Bethlehem, with He
bron. beyond and still further, the
gray haze of the Egyptian desert.
Eastward, with Bethany directly be-
low. we saw the road to Jericho. and
the green ribbon of the Jordan valley,
| the shimmering- Dead Sea at its base
Farther east rose the mountains OF
Moab. and Pisgah's peak, where Moses
tstood. = Northward, In the far, clear
| distance. could be seen all-dominating
and snow-capped Mount Herman, be-
tween which ana the Mount of olives
lies the scene of most of the history
of Israel.
What famous fields of fighting for
/ freedom these are-today they echo
to the shouts of the Syrians. who are
conteRding for independence. 1t was
| but yesterday that Allenby's liberat-
ing armies moved up the coastal
plain, and fought a battle at Megiddo,
on Esdraelons famous plain, where,
as recorded in our Lesson THE stars
| in their courses fought against Sisera."
Beneath the gently rounded crest of
Mount Tabor, on the worlds most ia
nous battlefield, the liperty-loving
Hebrews. led by Deborah and Barak,
| won safety from the oppressor; even
| ag
same old battle on the same old bat
tlefield. What a spiritual continuity
of the struggle for freedom there is in
| the world! Now. as ever, the region
over which I looked from the kaiser's
| square tower is the decisive battle
field of earth. The world war will be
| finally won or lost in Bible Lands.
Who will be Beborahs successor to-
| day in the new contest on the storied
fields of her victory?
A Woman to the Fore.
Like so many of these international
Lessons, chosen years ago by an i'm
transitional committee. this one has
| peculiar timeliness, The study of old
fsraers woman champion and leader
falls into the very midst of the climax
| of the woman suffrage movement in
the United States; and of the woman
movement turnout the world. The
considerations which appear in a con-
I
all pertinent to the present hour.
| At time of general subordination
| of her sex. Deborah arose, by sheer
force of personality. to foremost place
| In Israel. Her home. a short distance
north of Jerusalem, became the judg-
ment seat of her people, where. in the
| primitive fashion, she sat under an oak
| tree and administered justice to all
comefs. Real leadership. is not a mat
ter OF sex or birth or official position;
As it was in Deborah's day, SOFT Is
| now and ever has been: those persons
weigh most with their fellows who are
most in themselves. There are un-
numbered communities in Our own
land where. the real civic and social
ana religious leadership is with the
women. Indeed. the modern woman's
club movement has practically made
over the neighborheod life of many a
town.
Nor is this condition peculiar to the
united States and Canada, or to the
English speaking peoples. In my
months of investigation in Russia,
after the revolution. l met only three
Russians who measured up to our
western standards of patriotism, and
all three were womeni In Constants
nople II was Halide Hannum. the vet
eran authoress, educator and publicist.
who best expressed to me the aspira-
lions of her people. In Egypt, the
women nationalists have been fore
most in contending for their cause.
and in inspiring the men What the
women of the allied nations did dur
ing and for the war is sublime story
which makes 1t needless that we
should recall the Maid OF Orleans and
other women patriots of the past.
Edna Dean Proctor glimpsed the soul
of patriotic wornanhood in her poem,
"A Woman of Paris"
"Retreatlns toward the Marine, his regi-
ment
weuidr pass at morn a neighboring
And thither walked his glad young wife,
To see her soldier, strong and brave
And in her arms, or pattering with light
feet
Beside her steps, she held her baby
oh, the proud moment when his eyes should
Their little Victor trimming DER with
Joy!
Upon the curb she stood as past they
When something barred the way and,
unawares, W
The march a moment stayed; then wife
Saw, in the line, the fathers friend;
Ctistophe. the corporal, who quickly spied
The eager wife he knew as girl and bride, !
And, springing from the ranks, he seized
Courage, courage, Maeame! Your hus-
band fell
YESTERDAY. by my side, at Maux. =
40 "Ah, well ma,
A Heart near stood sftil u' ''Ossu' ns
What joy henceforth can vile, what grief
Then swifs above her head. with death
She raised her boy, presenting him, and
For all her anguish, 'vive la Francer
"A thrill
Ran thru the throng, and with the lines
advance
Cheers filled the morning sky for her ana
FRANCE
As If no soldier in his place had died
For France, secure, inEincible, immortal
While women such as she are at its
portal"'
The Great Passion.