The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1924-01-03

HUMAN RIVERS.
Somewhere in the hills a tiny spring
trickles toward the lowest spot it can
find. Presently it is swollen by an
other trickling rill and doubles its
size and power. Others join it and
the rivulet becomes a brook, then a
creek and finally river. We are all
familiar with this everyday happen
ing upon the surface of the earth, but
are less quick to discern other streams
flowing thru the life of the world.
Pulled by gravitation each tiny drop
moved and here is a social and in
dustrial gravitation that acts upon
the human drops in the same fashion.
Much of the history of the world has
been nothing else than the record of
these rivers of men that have moved
across the plains of world affairs. For
four hundred years it has been flow
ing from Europe and elsewhere into
the American lake. The Chinese river
was damned, the Japanese river di-
verted, the European river given a
gate at which Congress is just now
tinkering under the belief that the
safety level of our life has been
reached But currents like these have
always been setting thru the world,
flowing always toward the levels of
enriched life. So the Angles, the Sax
ons, the Normans, flowed over Eng
land; so the Huns flowed over Rome;
so the Turks flowed over Constantine
pie; so the Russians flowed over ST.
IBERIA and Caucasus and Persia. And
our new lessons are the study of an
other of these human rivers that had
its channel in Western Asia. That
marks it off from the study Of last
year, covering the same ground in
some fashion, for the same persons
appear, but now it is not so much
getting acquainted with the men as it
is the charting of the movement Of
which they were a part. 1t will be
much in the Wells fashion that omits
many a curve and ripple but makes
clear the direction of flow and notes
the cataracts that bring it to another
level.
At the time that our lessons begin,
about as far beyond Christ as we have
travelled since, the Euphrates Valley
was swarming with people who had
probably emigrated there from Ara
bia, drawn by fertile soil and rich
pastures. Possibly members Of the
same race moved westward and be-
came the Canaanites and Phoenecians
Of Palestine. There was Hittite
layer from the north that left men
like Uriah as q part of David's en-
pire. Bloods seemed to have been
mingled as freely as w. know it in
America or our fathers knew it in
England. And Egypt, guarded by sea
and desert, had civilization all her
own.
ABRAHAM THE IMMIGRANT
Into the murk of the worship Of the
Euphrates towns there came the stir
of religious differences and fundamen-
talists and progressives waged wordy
battles about every temple. Terah
and his household were spiritual folk
and the motive of their movement was
similar to the STRINGS of the Pill
grims out of old England. Finding a
convenient stopping place at Haran,
they watched their herds multiply
and their families increase. Present
ly that hardy old forebear of the He
brews was buried and his seyenty-five
year old son felt again the urge that
had never ceased to be tho it had been
submerged under the inaction of the
head of the movement. Fathers will
was the highest law of the home in
that far-away day, and if he said,
"Stay!" even Abraham offered no pro-
test But now he was free to move.
SO he gathered together all his house
llOlNl SJOll anu cill IilC lllNlIlDClo VI ITO
home which not many years later
gave 318 fighting men (14:14) to go
to Lots rescue. And this was after
the division Of their forces. Counting
/ but two non-fghters to each Of these,
which is a low estimate, would give
almost a thousand folk in that early
band ofimmigrants into Canaan. Abra-
ham was anything but solitary soul
on his journey and the lone figure
upon some Palestinian hill is but the
outlook for the group of skin tents
that sprawl about its foot. 1t was a
real migration in search of a new
home upon the part of an entire clan.
That it's moving motive was religious
gives it the distinction we accord the
Mayfower. And it was a similar
search for a home instead of an ad-
venture for knowledge of strange
lands or for gold.
THE MOVEMENT AND THE MAN
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