12
i A Literary Man as Practical Reformer
■
The International Sunday School Lesson For Oc
tober 28 Is "Ezra's Return From Babylon."
Ezra 8:15-36
By WILLIAM T. ELLIS
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS
Now that It has grown so notably
the fashion for literary men to enter
. the sphere of practical politics and
reform, it is especially suggestive to
study the career of a more distin
guished literary man than they all,
who lived half a century before the
beginning of the Christian era. This
famous author bore the name of
Ezra, and he might have lived the
congenial life of a bookish recluse
amid the prosperity of Babylon. In
stead, he chose the distasteful hurly.
burly of administrative work, sacri
ficing himself for what he consid
ered the greatest public cause of his
' time.
Ezra Is one of the giant figures of
I'tfcis romantic period which has bulk
jed so largely In Jewish and Chris
tian history, and which of late years
the spade has been digging up from
beneath the arid soli of Mesopo
tamia. Ezra came to a place of pow.
er by sheer native force. He had a
visionary's dreams, and an execu
tive's practical abilities. His admin
istrative capacity transformed his
dreams into political realities.
A Nation In the Furnace
"All ships look stately except the
one upon which you ride," says the
proverb. It is hard to perceive the
Importance and meaning of one's
own age. Even in the tremendous
days of the present, some persons
are heedless of their Import. So the
Jews who lived through the period
lof the exile into Babylon did not un
derstand the big meaning of it all.
the, purification of the Jews is bet
ter understood now than then. The
individual experiences of misery of
temporal prosperity, and of safety
under the protection of the law of
Labyoma, were all that the average
t ) out , of . the ex " e - There are
< hinese in plenty who are troubled
the unsettled state of their land
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FRIDAY EVENING,
at the present time, but who cannot
at all sec that their nation is pass
ing through its greatest crisis. The
extraordinary unsettling of Ameri
can thought in our day means to
some persons that war is a disturber.
They are blind to the larger Inter
pretation of their times.
This crisis of the Jewish exiles
consisted of the three deportations
to Babylonia, the period of sojourn
there, and the three returns—the
first, already studied, the second un
der Ezra at a period eighty years la
ter, and then the third under Nehe
miah.
By Desert Ways
The thought of travel In the desert
appeals to every lover of the pic
turesque aiid the adventurous. Just
as a caravan of camels on the sky
line Is a thing of rare beauty and
stjiteliness, but common and unpleas
ant when seen close at hand, so these
desert Journeyings are made attrac
tive by distance. The exiles could
tell you that the camels are infested
with vermin, and that there is no
beast of burden which so racks its
rider. These same Jews who had left
comfortable homes in Babylonia,
could tell of the choking misery of
dust and sand storms; of the dirt,
barrenness, and discomfort of cara
van life. They could paint with
many a graphic gesture the torrid
heat of the desert at this time of the
year.
To the spectator they were doubt
less as Interesting as the caravans
which one may see to-day. I have
watched the Persian pilgrims travel
across thisMesopotaiman desert;some
on camel back, some of the children
in panniers swung at each side of the
beasts of burden; some on donkeys,
tlie rich on horses, some on foot. The
speed of the journey is the camel's
pace—about three miles an hour.
Probably then, as now, the camels
were decorated with blue shells and
musical bells. A devout Jew seeing
the cavalcade set out from Babylon,
would watch it from the heights, just
as I watched an expedition set out
across the desert from old Asshur.
Did their Imaginations foretell the
testing times they were to have by
the way, and the regretful thoughts
they would send back to the fat land
of Babylonia?
Literary( But Businesslike
It is the visionary who sways the
minds of kings, and it was Ezra, the
scribe, who secured the favor of Ar
taxerxes for the return for some
seventeen hundred exiles to Jerusa
lem. He won the good will of the
government and secured immunity
from taxation by the way, and the
promise of help from local officials
as well. In gifts the pilgrims bore
with them some aggregating more
than two million dollars in Ameri
can currency.
That best business methods are
thoroughly consistent with high
idealism, was shown by Ezra's con
duct with respect to this treasure.
He had every shekel of it carefully
weighed at the beginning of the
journey, the responsibility accurately
distributed, and then he made an
exact reckoning at the end. That
sort of system should characterize
every religious and philanthropic or
ganization. Every churchman in a
position of trust should demand
regular and general auditing of his
accounts. The model business ad
ministration of every community
might v most properly be that of the
best religious organization.
The other side of Ezra's character
came out when the questions of ask
ing for guard arose. He had repre
sented Jehovah as the ruler of na
tions, able fo lift up and to cast
down. His fine sense of fitness of
things, and his zeal for the honor of
Jehovah, would not permit him to
ask for an escort from the king. He
took all proper precautions, and then
trusted the Lord, which is true cour
age.
A Reform Gone Wrong.
It seems but a little time before
that the main body of exiles had en
tered Jerusalem with mingled grief
and jublliation; the sound of rejoic-j
Ing over the laying of the founda
tions of the temple seemed still to be
lingering in the air. The ecstacy of
that occasion was fairly delirious,
but, lo! Ezra finds little trace of it
all. There has been a huge slump
somewhere. Dreams have given way
to "practical" measures. A tragedy]
has slowly been enacted like untoj
that witnessed in our own times.
HARRJSBURG TELEGRAPH
when a young man who might have
become a great poet, a great preach
er or a great reformer, deteriorates
Into a mere millionaire. Jerusalem
had Insured Its prosperity at the cost
of its message.
Is there any worse calamity in life
than to lose one's "gleam?" Thous
ands of high-souled young men and
women are thus gradually becoming
blind and deaf to the Ideals which
had once been as life and death to
them. They have, perhaps, mastered
fortune, but they have lost their
soul's loftiest possession. Even so
these returned Jews had found it
good business to make alliances with
the heathen. What a descent from
the first sincerity of their purposes,
when they had refused help from
their contaminated brethren in build
ing. As it is so often the case with
the "practical man," his short-sight
edness leads him to steps which
really defeat his purpose. Had.these
Jews scanned a larger horizon, they
would have recalled that they were
voluntarily adopting the method
which an ancient Assyrian conqueror
had used to destroy the national In
tegrity of the Jews. They were tak
ing heathen wives and thus losing
their Identity as a nation.
The tendency to- conform to one's
environment and associates is as
common a temptation as mortal
meets. Ask the old resident in "he
East what he has seen befall new
comers. Worldliness always sits se
ductively at the door of the church,
and usually she Is invited inside.
"Be ye not conformed, but be ye
transformed," is the word for all
chosen people. Some one says that
the church is in the world, which is
her privilege; but when the world
gets into the church, that Is her
peril.
Cleaning Up the Town.
An evangelist has come to town.
Why Is this? Did we not have an
evangelist last yetr? Is another re
vival necessary? Alas, and alas, so
it is. There are few churches or
communities that do not need fre
quent reviving. Jerusalem, which
within the memory of living men
had witnessed a great religious cele
bration, was now sorely in need of
another spiritual experience.
Sjho was in such bad ease that It
took all the courage of this man of
books to meet the emergency. Ezra
had a grip upon the law. That was
his characteristic. He was not the
sort of evangelist whoso stock In
trade Is sentimental stories and shop
worn pious phraseology. Emotional
appeals would not do for Jerusalem,
so Ezra laid down the law, the stern
1 and irrevocable law of Jehovah
which the lapsed city was violating.
Sugar or Salt?
Some folks can't see why piety
does not atone for lawlessness.
Coatesvllle attempted to justify her
self in the eyes of the world by
pointing to her special religiousness.
World said, "prove it by con
victing the criminals in your midst."
Coatesvllle had not religion
enough for that. In this extraordi
nary perverted and dangerous sepa
ration between reUglousness and
loyalty to law lies a deep peril of our
modern times. The Jews observed
their temple ritual, but they kept
heathen wives. Ezra ■ understood
that his mission was not to be sugar,
to make himself agreeable to people,
but to be salt, to purify and preserve
society. So he drove the terrors of
the law into their consciousness un
til something like an epidemic of fear
and remorse seized them. His note
was borrowed by Sam Jones, who
was forever urging people to "quit
your meanness."
The sentimentalist would say that
Ezra's demand that these Jews
should relinquish their wives in
volved a hardship. So it did. Like
wise It is always a hardship when
the thief is deprived of his income.
It Is a worse hardship, however, to
his family when IXe is sent to jail.
Whoever said that the wages of sin
should be anvthine> else than hard?
To break the law always brings
NO HEADACHE OH
NEURALGIA PAIN
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H—
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ache gone—no more neuralgia pain.
—Adv.
trouble; and often trouble to the
Innocent as well as the guilty. The
cleaned up church creates havoc In
some quarters, yet a clean church is
worth all that it costs. Nobody
doubts now that Ezra's stern meas
ures were the means of preserving
the life of the Jews, and in saving
the returned exiles from a moral de
terioration that would perhaps
amount to the extinction of the Jew
ish people.
EMPLOYER'S I/OVE VEERS,
SALESWOMAN SHOOTS
„ Chicago.—A. B. Colllngbourne,
president of the Western Thread
Company, was shot and slightly
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OCTOBER 26, lyi/.
wounded by Mrs. Katherlne Rose,
2 8, a saleswoman In his employ. The
shooting took place in Colllng
bourne's office. Mrs. Rose fired four
shots, only one taking effect.
Mrs. Rose, when Interviewed, said
the millionaire had been attentive to
her. She said she had seen his love
cool and had watched him as he
dined at a restaurant with his
stenographer.
I remonstrated with him about It
and he discharged me," Mrs. Rose
said. "Then I shot him."
The stenographer was in the of
fice at the time of the shooting.
Colllngbourne is married. Mrs
Rose said she lived for a time as a
.boarder at his home. He refused to
prosecute.
HORSK 128 YEARS OLD,
WOMAN SWEARS IX SUIT
-Angora, 111.—Mrs. Margaret Kren
winkle, of Aurora, bought a hors*
from her neighbor, Charles Kirsch
ner. She says she took his word that
the animal was young and sound,
paying down S4O on the purchase
price of S6O.
After she got the horse, she says,
she discovered it was 128>years old.
She sued to recover her money. Jus
tice Cortez Dutton ruled it was an
ordinary horse deal and ordered Mrs.
Krenwinkle to pay the S2O balance.