The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-07-28
International
SundaySchoolLesson
By WILLIAM II. ELLIS.

For July so is 1.-THE First Return
From Exile"-Jeremiah '2s:10-14;
Ezra 1:1-11.
After the Dark Days.
/ At present, the world is in the
| doldrums. Things look bad in every
direction-except upward and for
ward. The present state Of civiliza-
Ition, specifically regarded, is dis
couraging beyond words. If this were
the end of things, a permanent con-
dition, all thinkers would have to turn
pessimists. But it isn't. Today is
present valley is merely the approach
| to the uplands of the future. So it is
fortunate that so many millions are
Ito study this lesson concerning the
Jewish nation of old: for it is the
highest use of history to enable US to
live wisely in the present.
Two needs are apparent in our
common life. One is ITO understand
our own times-to have a general
working knowledge of the large facts
of today-and the other is to under
stand our times in relation to what
has been and is yet to be. Thus shall
we be lifted out of pettiness and
provincialism and small views Much
has been written, and truly, in criti-
cism of the postwar tendency to pre-
sent history in very general and pic
torial terms, after the fashion of
WelPs Outside of History Never
Il
tionzing the worlds attitude toward
the study of the past; and is making
the progress of nations and of human
ity real and living thing, with
meaning for everybody everywhere.
Sounder social and political thinking
will follow the popularized reading of
history; just as faith and devotion will
be quickened by this long look by the
sunday schools back upon the dark
days of Judah.
Tho Man Who Knew.
The rotten fruit had dropped from
the tree. As a nation, the Jews had
| collapsed, and fallen into captivity in
Babylon They had disobeyed; re-
pented; disobeyed again; until, incor-
rigible, just Jehovah delivered them
into the hands of the heather for pun
ishment. The cardinal sin of the Jews
was contempt for Gods clear law and
a turning to the practices of paganism.
At last they were sent away amid the
heather to be cured. After the exile,
the Jews never again worshipped idols
In all their varied racial experiences.
\ from Babylon to New York, the Jews
have remained monotheists. They at
least learned the supreme lesson that
| to turn away from Jehovah is to in
vite bitterness and punishment The
exile was a hard school, but it grad
uated its pupils.
| Then were vindicated the Hebrew
prophets; and especially Jeremiah,
one of the greatest. In vain jeremiah
had called upon his people to repent,
foretelling the fate that awaited them
| If they continued to disobey God. But
the nation only fiouted him, and threw
him into prison. He was only AN old
fogy" and behind the times; they
were cup to date in all the evils of
| the heather; and progressive with
| irresponsible who follow fashion
| whithersoever it leads Now our Les
lson shows these liberal leaders
either dead or in exile: and Jeremiah
writing words of spiritual comfort to
them. Once more, God had cleared
the name of His faithful servant.
| Old-fashioned Christian parents and
teachers and preachers are rather out
OF favor today in a jazzed-up world.
The moral integrities and the divine
ever before on this western continent.
| The business world and society, and
| especially the young in both, seem to
have cut loose from the ancient sane
| titles and restraints. The idle-minded,
who always are blown about by the
prevailing winds, follow the vogue as
| if it were q higher law. ..
| But they are Enthusiastically
wrong; and the men and women who
| hold fast to the clear teachings of re-
| ligion and morality, as attested by the
experience of the centuries, are right,
| tremendously right and sure to be vim
Dictated by events This is a day to
stand fast by that which is proved,
and so on the side of living God
who is as surely dealing with peoples
sixth century before Christ.
'There's a Good Time Coming"
Croakers and pessinists are conf
dent that today civilization is col
| lapsing. They see the grand smashup
in the near future. Not SO jeremiah.
He held firmly the faith-which is
| a primary characteristic of the He
brew and Christian religions-that
there is "a good time coming; and
that the best is yet to be-. The
mark that differentiates it from all
other sacred books. When the Jews
were in exile, their king dead, their
capital, in ruins, their temple wiped
out and their land in possession of
strangers. jeremiah wrote them
words of counsel and comfort and re.
assurance. Their exile was only tenn
porary, and they should make the
best of it. After they had returned to
Jehovah they should return to Jeru-
Right here we strike the missing
note in the modern Zionist movement,
which has evoked the enthusiasm of
an active minority of Jews and of
many Christians. 1t seeks a return
to Jerusalem rather than a return to
Jehovah. Its enthusiasm is for the
land rather than for the Lord. In
stead of a religious revival, 1t is a
political propaganda. All friends OF
liberty, and all who care for Gods
Cho3en People, should be brave
enough to say that conditions do not
change men, but that men change con-
ditions; and that improvement in po-
liticaI and material privilege is not go
ing to alter the character of any race.
The acute problem of present-day
Jewry is not racial homelessness, but
racial irreligion; to a large extent,
Jews in the western world neither be-
lieve nor obey their own Scriptures.
This mistaken notion is not con-