The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1922-06-29


found; call We upon I'm while he is
near; let the wicked forsake his
way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts; and let him return unto
: Jehovah, and he will have mercy
upon him; and to our God. for he
will abundantly pardon.-Isaiah 55:
6:7.
WHO is HE?
If you had an invitation to spend
an hour with King Edward. what
would You do with it? Probably
have it framed or hand it on to the
grandchildren as precious memento
OF great event in the family's his
tory. For just one hour in seven
years we are invited to visit with
one of the worlds characters and it is
very small bit of time in which to
get acquainted. The quarter covers
the period of the captivity and the
restoration of the nation in Jerusa-
lem with swift glimpses of the char
acters that move across the stage of
history. The new Judea differed
greatly from the old, for it was
priestly where the other had been
prophetic, rigid where the other had
been flexible, ecclesiastical where
the other had been political, and Eze-
kiel was the father of this new ven
ture upon the national sea. More
than any other it was his thinking
that gave the mould in which the new
life was cast. A priest, the son of a
priest named Buzz, he was familiar
with all the activities which he prob
ably shared of the Temple. Possibly
about the time of the revolution of
ideas caused by the acceptance of
the found Book of the Law under
Josiah or few years earlier, his
boyhood was passed in the ferment
of change and under tutelege of Jer-
emiah and others like him. Being a
priest marks him as a member of
the aristocracy of that period. And
he was among the first to be deport-
ed, which is another evidence of his
station. He had his own home, so that
there was enough money to make
him independent even in exile. He
was married and the exquisite tender
ness of the phrase for his wife, ode
sire of thine eyes," proclaims the love
of that home and the tragedy of her
death. That the elders" came to
his house for consultation shows his
standing in the community of exiled
nobility From 597 until the fall of
the city. jeremiah within its walls
and Ezekiel in Babylon, both pro
claimed its doom. Twenty-four
chapters contains the varying mag
cry carrying the messages of the eX-
lied prophet and this forms the first
division of the book. The other TWEEN
ty-four concern themselves with the
fate of the nations that opposed Is
rael, proclaim the restoration and
give the details of the new temple
that shall replace the old. 1t is the
charter of the new Judaism.
THE CALLED MAN
A sense of mission has possessed
the soul of every great leader. Peter
the Great, Pitt, Washington, Lincoln,
Roosevelt, Luther, Wesley, Livings-
ton, Moses, Isaiah or whoever it be,
of whatever race that really leads,
hugs conviction to his heart. Only
called men call other men. Ezekiel is
no exception. Definitely marking
the date he harks back to that hour
beside the river when God spoke and
permitted him to see the vision of
light that in the darkness of deporta-
ton flashed upon a path unseen in
the shadows. Praying for light, light
came. God can illumine any black ex-
perience of any soul. There was a
throne at the heart of it and yet it
touched the earth upon which it NOV
ed Always for him who would do
Gods work in Gods world must be
the consciousness of the rule of God
in the affairs of earth. No absentee
God will answer No drifting der
elicit of humanity beaten by storms,
washed by waves Of race and class,
and getting nowhere, can ever call
forth the energies of a strong soul.
Storms there are and waves there
are, but there's a Captain on the
bridge, there's chart and compass,
and there's great port toward which
the vessel drives, not drifts. And
whatever the form it took, that was
what lay at the heart of the vision of
Moses, of Isaiah, of jeremiah, of
Ezekiel. And the effect of that Wis
ion is always the same except for in
dividual peculiarities. Reverence,
wonder, awe, the hiding of eyes or
falling upon the face brings in some
form the command that Ezekiel heard
"Stand upon thy feet and l will speak
to thee" No groveling beast of
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