The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1922-08-03
SUNDAY, AUGUST 6.
THE TEMPLE REBUILT AND


SUNDAY, AUGUST 6.
THE TEMPLE REBUILT AND
DEDICATED-Ezra 3:1-6:22.
My soul lOngeth, yea, even fainteth
for the courts of JehOvah.-Psalm
S4:2.
THE REIGN OF FEAR
With high hope that band of re-
turning pilgrims faced the West in
537 The old men who accompanied
them filled every campfire rest with
their tales of the wonders of the old
days, the fertility of the land, the
glory of Jerusalem and the joy of re-
turn. As is always the case the bit
terness fades from memory much
more quickly than the pleasures, and
there was little of the story of the
wreckage of the land. Moreover these
were old men whose images had been
gathered in youth and had never been
corrected by return. As a boy l went
to school in a spacious stone school
house that stood in a grove of great
trees upon the crest of a hill Not so
many years ago | saw it again-a
little box in the midst of some scraw-
ny trunks on an insignificant knoll.
To see once more what had been car
rled in the untouched pocket of
boys mind is a revelation and both
the old men who told the tales and
the men who listened upon this four
months march were in for a sad dis
illusionment. For they found the
whole territory terribly changed I'M
der the inefficient care, coupled with
constant strife, in the midst of de-
bris left by conquerors as ruthless as
the Germans in Belgium and France.
Jerusalem was an uninhabited mass
of ruin whose stones were inter-
spersed with the vegetation of fifty
years. Dropping down in their vari-
Gus ancestral towns, the returners be-
gan to set up housekeeping for them
selves. But they faced the same an
ger that the returning Jew does today
at the hands of those holders who
feared dispOssession by the new com
ers. The feeling of a union man to-
ward a so-called "scab" is about the
same. 1t was under such pressure
of fear that they climbed the unwall
ed, debris covered hill of Jerusalem
and entered the area of the old Tenn
pie. Clearing the dome of the rock.
sacred since the days of Abraham had
linked it with the hottest life of Is
rael, they set up again the altar and
the smoke Of sacrifice foated slowly
upward through the crisp Autumn
air. 1t must have held the comfort
that was in the pillar of cloud in the
days of Moses, for it spoke the same
language to the heart afraid, "Your
God is on guard" 1t was like the
flaming of star in blackened sky.
Through all the days that followed
that same whisp of smoke curling up
ward from the summit of Moriah
lifted the hearts of the pilgrims with
it. Fear might still reign in their
world, but bit of it's clutch was loos-
ened and the purposes of their COM
ing was pursued by ordering timber
from Lebanon. For stones there was
no need of quarry other than that up
on the hill where lay in dire confusion
smoke-grimed pieces from the old
walls. Attacking the ruin order pres
emily began to appear and foundations
were set in place until the time for
the formal laying of the cornerstone
came and joyous ceremonial accom-
panied it. Yet it was not all joy.
Tears and wailing mingled freely with
the songs. For some saw the present
in pitiful contrast with the past.
Young people are not what they
were when was a boy" "The town
isn't what it used to be-" "If we
could only have one of the old-time
REVEALS" For both notes belong to
every age and all worlds except the
heavenly.
THE DEFEAT OF FEAR
Under the urge of something be-
gun came the overture from the Sa-
maritans and the related people set
tied in the land for share in the en-
terprise. They were kinsmen in blood
and in belief and there was need of
help they could bring, but that group
of Puritans were still under the do
minion of fear. They believed them
to be Greeks bearing gifts and refus-