The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-08-03
The Crash
Lesson for August 5, 1862

icy I'll WllCA 0uCCh ASS
hushta left town. For the queen
mother did not leave of her own
accord, she was captive. And
as we know, the only people
left behind to weep were the
poorest of the Land" No one
capable of dreaming-up a revo-
luton was left behind, Nebuchad-
nezZar thought. For along with
the queen mother went her pup
pet son Jehoiachin COR Jeconiah
as he was sometimes called.) It
would really have been a service
to the country if Nebuchadnez-
Ear had stopped right there; for
neither she a local girl Of no
brains, apparently nor her son
a mere boy whose father had
set him a poor example of how
to be a king was any credit to
the country. But with all the
young men Of the army gone in
to exile too. and all governing
class and all the people with any
property, - there was enough
to cry about.
Worse to Come
It was hard to see how things
could be worse. But there was
worse to come. King Jehoia-
chins successor was appointed
by the King of Babylon, and in
cidentally his name was changed
too perhaps to demonstrate
that he was the last. weakest.
and most stupid of Josiah's
sons. He did not know on which
side, so to speak, his bread was
buttered. He paid too little at
tention to Jeremiah's warnings.
He somehow persuaded himself
that with the help Of Egypt?)
he could break away from Baby
lon. This time Northumberland
made a complete shambles of
the city. All previous invaders
had spared the temple. though
they had robbed its treasures.
Zedekiah may have thought
that since the temple of God
was still in the city, God would
not let it be destroyed. If he
thought so, he was terribly mis-
taken; for the temple was burn
ed to the ground, the great and
beautiful temple which had
stood there for about 300 years.
With it were burned not only
the royal palaces but all the
great houses of the city.
Could it Happen Here?
When a nation goes to war it
usually thinks of itself as win
ming. Spain thought of course she
could crush England with the
famous Armada; instead, the
loss of the Armada marked the
long doWn-hill road Of once
proud Spain. England fully ex-
pected to win the war of the
American rebellion. The Con-
federate States of America were
confident that they could force
the United States to recognize
their independence. The Kaiser,
and after that Hitler. thought
Deutschland uber AEes' Ger
many Above All-could be ar
ranged by a snappy Bitzkrieg.
It is a sad experience to stand in
a modern city that once was as
busting and proud as our New
York. and see the war shattered
wrecks of the tall beautiful build
mgs laid brutally open to the
sky. 1t a bit of a shock to hear
in great Japanese city that
fires started by American bomb
ings laid waste more than 80
percent of the city that used to
be. Now we live in a time when
the two most powerful nations
on earth possess weapons beside
which the bomb that fell on Hir
oshima was hardly more than a
large firecracker. We live in a
time when all it takes to de-
molish one city is one shot. Our
cities, and Russian cities, are
not even as hard to destroy as
Zedekiah's Jerusalem was. 1t
took the best army in the world
two years to smash Jerusalem:
but the next war" can be over
in two hours. There are no Wet
ors in an atomic war. only vic
tins.
What Israel Learned
There was one precious thing
not destroyed or deported in the
crash Of Jerusalem: it was
lesson. They learned, the hard
way, that God plays no favor
ties. He is merciful and long
suffering and very patient; but
if people do not really love the
ways of peace, eventually they
pay, in bloody death, for their
folly. This is just as true for
great nations as for little ones.
1t is just as true for church-go-
ing nations as for nations with
out churches. It the great ma
tons of the world would put as