The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-06-16

Why Nations Go to Smash.
There is nothing out of date in the
idea that nations may go to smash.
Everybody old enough to read these
words has seen the collapse of empires
and kingdoms Others are trembling
in the balance today. What adds
lpiquancy and pertfnency to this pres
ent lesson upon the downfall OF the
Kingdom of Judah is the manner in
which it's history parallels some of the
international news that we are reading
every day in the cablegrams. 1t is
no safer today for a nation to flout
God and the moraI integritieS than 1t
was twenty-five hundred years ago.
| One big idea stands out in these
months of Old Testament studies. just
as it stands out in any review of the
history of Europe since the armistice:
namely, the Lord God of Hosts is sure
to- deal with the enlightened nation
that fails to keep faith with Him. No
| body can be even slightly familiar
/ with the course of human history
without Perceiving that there is some
overruling Moral Agency at work
No nation is exempt. America,
Great Britain, France, Italy. Germany.
Russia-there is no Icountry in the
world today that is above the law of
/ God. Only a short-sighted lingo can say,
My country is safe from disintegra-
ton and collapse" If the Chosen Peo-
pie, whom Jehovah had, with infinite
patience and tenderness, set up as the
nation of His peculiar care, were not
spared from the Divine judgment
when they forsook the Law, neither
may we hope to be made an exception
to the steady on-going of the sovereign
will of the Almighty.
In recently formal lecture in Eng
land. Dean Inge, a profound if rather
pessimistic thinker, declared that
Great Britain has already had the
apex of her glory and power. France
seems on the down grade. Whether
the ferment in certain other European
nations Presages life or death. only
time can tell. The younger nations
OF the west stand at the gat IS of de-
cision. The point to be stressed here.
in connection with the downfall of
Judah. is that we should be thinking
in large units. if we are to understand
our own changing times.
Newspapers and Books.
Both the daily newspapers and the
school books are crowded with ma
terial pertinent to this lesson. With
the fires of revolution burning ever
more brightly in the Holy Land, so
that the continuance there as over
lords of France and Great Britain Is
far from a certainty. we can parallel
the restless land of Jeremiah's day
with the equally disturbed condition
of today. Now, as then, influences
from the East and from the South,
Egypt, are pouring into Palestine, to
complicate or determine local ques-
tions. Then, as now. a vast movement
of the inhabitants of what is today
known as Russia-the Scythians and
Cimmerians, for example--fnfluenc
the entire International situation.
Anybody who thinks Sunday School
Lessons are dry" and 'out of date"
may be fairly startled out of indiffer-
ence by the simple fact that, while
these stories of the fall of Jerusalem
and the nation whose capital it was
are being studied by a score of mill
lion of Sunday school members, the
daily papers abound in reports of how
the Jews have again become an acute
political issue in Palestine. This is an
occasion for a square look at Zionism
If a square look is possible, amid so
much propaganda and politics. What
is the significance of the fact that the
native population of Palestine, Mos
lens, Christians and orthodox Jews,
are united IN opposition to Zionism =?
The Vatican is out with a recent pro-
nouncement against Zionism. What
should be the Christian attitude to-
ward the natives of the Holy Land,
who outnumber all resident Jews
seven to one. as they plead for the
preservation of their country from err
ploitation by Zionism? And what are
the reasonable possibilities for a full
fiIlment of the dream of devout Jews
in accordance with Biblical prophe-
cies, that some day the Chosen People
shall dwell in the Land of Promise?
All this is not mere religious spec
ulation; it is present world political
news. 1t is directly and vitality link
ed UP with the current Syrian strife
for liberty; with the Egyptian inde-
pendence movement; with the self
government and Arab leadership of
the Hejaz; with the present revolt by
King Feisal and his people in Meso-
potamia against a British mandate;
Turkey; and with the ominous Franco
British schism. Any study of these
questions of our own day leads
straight back to the experience of
Judah for a solution.
Hats Off to the News.
Sensible persons treat facts re-
specially. To history they easily
pay Difference. 1t is harder to remove
our hats in respect to present events;
since we can seldom understand them
until they are past How many COM
mentators upon contemporary life, for
instance, see in the dangerous failure
OF the Genoa conference possible
divine retribution for allied recreancy
to clear moral duty at Constantinople,
after the armistice? Can God let go
Judah in 600 B. c.. the perfidy of ma
tons whom he has made trustees of
his will2
Events are the instruments of God.
Nothing happens in a world over
which Jehovah is king. The chas-
tisement of Judah by the Chaldeans
is only one ancient illustration of a
truth which still holds good, that the
Omnipotent uses nations as fails for
the threshing out of the good grain
of his purposes. If we were more SEN
sitive to the spiritual significance OF
our cwn generation we should see
the footprints of God in much that
we carelessly dismiss as News"
% deals
with them as he does with men and
women: the Bible makes that truth
clear Judah was punished and wip-
ed out because she was disobedient
L..