The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-03-25
International
SunddySchooLLesson
q WILLIAM q. ELLIa.

For March &c is Quarterly Review
Psalm $50.
Gods Way With a Nation.
All history. it has been said. is but
the prolonged shadow of a man. For
three months the Sunday school mill
lions have been studying the rise and
fall OF the northern kingdom OF Israel,
and mostly in terms of individual men
and women What a vivid portrait
gallery they make.-Jeroboam. the
to wear a crown really: Ahab, the
strong man. who was ruled by his wife,
the wicked Jezebel; Elijah, the hairy
prophet of the wilderness, who de-
fled the king and queen and van
quished the priests of Baal; his sue
cessor. Elisha, the townsnaan. who was
ever a. helper OF people and a worker
of miracles; General Naaman, the
Syrian, and his Hebrew slave girl;
and GeEazi, the CRATER servant of
Elisha; and Jonah. the narrow minded
prophet; and Amos, the working man.
who held up the loftiest conception of
Jehovah to his nation; and a miscel-
laneous assortment of kings and other
human background.
At the end. and at the beginning of
the entire life of this nation, which
existed for more than two hundred
years, we find the personality of the
man who was able to lead the op-
pressed workingmen in revolt. but not
adequate to the greater task of being
the sort of king the hour needed. If
Jeroboam made Israel a nation, he
also unmade it
When the Leader Fails.
A deal of ancient history is wrap
ped up in this lesson; and some of it
is TO be found in the translations from
the cuneiform records of Assyria. Our
first interest, tho, is in the one man,
Jeroboam, who. two hundred years be-
1ore the overthrow of Israel by As
syria, had succumbed to ambition.
and to the desire for popularity and
power. and so had led his countrymen
to follow the fashions of the heather
All thru the ages since, on the pages
OF history, Jeroboam has worn the
brand "whG made Israel to sim"
what fate and what a failurei
Horrible indeed is the offense of the
man or the woman who is a corruptori
of the public In the Jeroboam class
we must put the present-day purvey-
canoes, music, literature and other
amusements
Dead in the flesh, deathIess in in
fanny, King Jeroboam still cries aloud
the warning that every person must
be helper or a hinderer of his fellow
There are but two kinds of persons
in the world, ween.
The persons who lift, and the persons
No nation can survive too heavy a
percentage of Jeroboams=and in
modern politics their name is legion.
1t takes many prophets and true, and
uncounted loyal and godly citizens, TO
Jeroboams who misIead the public.
By the character of its officials. and
the trend of it's life. the fate of a ma
ton may be surely determined. Do
you remember the prophecy of the
ancient British Queen Boadicia:-
Rome shall perish Write that word
In the blood that she hath split
Perish; hopeless and abhorred!
Deep in ruin as in guilt"
Perhaps 1 am obsessed with this
major theme of the rise and fall of |
the lesson is one learned by |
travel over the ruins of all |
the great empires of antiquity. Moth !
ing is clearer to even the most super /
ficial observer of history than that |
no nation can permanently survive the |
deterioration of the morals of its rul
ars and it's people. The Sunday school |
lessons of the past quarter have the
ages in declaring that Israel could
not continue to live if she repudiated
The righteousness which is a conse-
4uence of loyalty to Jehovah.
Deaf to, Prophet Voices.
Russia collapsed because the autoc-
-acy was deaf to all the prophet
warnings of the nation. The prfvi-
eyed classes had their ears filled with
he varied music of pleasure. They
thought that what had been would
continue to be. Germany had clear
warnings from within and without be-
'ore she embarked upon her imperial
adventure of ACKNOWLEDGMENT. Aus
ria also heard, but needed not, con-
inuous cry from oppressed people. If I
press the analogy further. 1 shall ;
,e accused of writing politics.
The point is clear; and it is the ]
Message of this lesson Listen to
he best voices of the time. Had
srael needed her prophets she would /
lot have been crushed into oblivion.
ndivid ually, We may ask ourselves
whether we are open-eared to the :
azzed clamor of a pleasure-pursuing !