A STATESMAN ON HIS KNEES The International Sunday School Lesson For November 11 Is "Nehemiah's Prayer." Neh, Ch. 1 By WILLIAM T. ELLIS These are the times of widened vision, with the whole world com ing dally under review by a.ll of us, and the welfare of far-separated parts cjictrlcably bound up with one another. It is easier now than it was five years ago to understand this patriot Nehemiah. who. In comfort and affluence and honor himself, yet wept soul-tears for his people and for the city of his fathers. Go to any Zionist meeting today—and there are plenty of them—and the Nehemiah spirit will be found still alive and active. With all the woe that it has wrought upon the earth, this war has also brought many boons, not the least of them being a passion for large patriotism. Rich and poor, wise and Illiterate, are vying with each other to do service for the na tion In itsj hour of need. In all time there has never been such a lavish dedication of life to great ends as has been witnessed during the past three years. A few days ago I saw a Russian general, who was travel ing on the same train as myself, and whom I had mentally appraised as a fop and a martinet of the old re gime, go weeping into his compart ment, upon receipt of the news of the retreat of the Russian army. He would not eat or talk; his pa triotism was so real and deep that it mastered all other emotions. Petty purposes perish in a pas sion of patriotism. The Nehemlah spirit is exemplified In every part of the land and of the world. There is something sanctifying about truo pntroitism. It lifts men out of their littleness and selfishness, and makes them rejoice to do any sacrifice or service. Personal ambitions are giv en up, and food and profits and per sonal aggrandizement are forgotten. This in part explains the socializing inlluence of the present war, in Great Britain and elsewhere. Patriotism has lifted life up to a higher plane, even as it made a hero and a states man out of the courtier Nehemiah. It was a God-lighted flame or pa- ||n |"S 1 1 Dandruff and Why Bald _ __ Cases, and SO YOling Cuticur'a Soap 2Sc. Ointment 25 and 50c. ! JEWELRY ! That you are proud to buy and your friends proud to receive CJ Jewelry that we arc proud to sell—that you are (I proud to buy and that your friends are proud to receive is the kind at Clastcr's. €J Let us impress this upon your mind at this par | ticular time—the beginning of the Holiday sea -1 so"- | □ €j| Christmas is only 5 weeks away. 0 4JJ If you are a stranger, don't misjudge us because we have a reputation for low prices. Our pa trons will gladly vouch for the excellence of our merchandise. : CJ Everything at this store MUST be right—the best of the kind and class. | €J For instance —we have watches at $500.00 each, I and they are the lowest in price compared with the same grade elsewhere. Then again we have watches as low as $1 each, and they are the best 1 | of the class that it is possible to sell at that price. <j| The same comparison holds good in the many ex tensive lines that we carry. •| The finest, most elaborate and most exquisite goods to be found anywhere in a jewelry store arc he're—in your class, at the prices you wish to pay. €} Whether your purse is heavy or light, you will r go away with the very best value it is possible to get for your money. g <J You will be pldased and stay pleased. I I <J .Whether your purchase amounts to little or much you will receive -the most courteous at □ tention. <1 We will assist you in making selections—con g scientiously advise you —but never urge you. •J You get just what you want —plus Service of the sincerest and highest type. For the Holidays We arc stocked to overflowing with incomparable new assortments including the ne vest and choicest | selections in Diamonds, Watches, Clocks, Silver ware, Parisian Ivory, Cut Glass, Toilet and Mani cure Goods, Jewelry, Novelties, etc. Como in and see them. Whether you buy or not your interest will be appreciated Liberty Bonds accepted the same as cash in □ payment of purchases. ! H. C. CLASTER Gems—Jewels —Silverware | 302 MARKET ST. IN. THIRD ST. j Carter's Little Liver Pills You Cannot be AA Remedy That Constipated Makes Life and Happy JKEW lj™-| Worth Living Small Pill | oil I < Genuine bear* denature Small Doae - ■Sm.ll Prica V.if-'Li CARTER'S IRON PILI.S i many colorless fsces but will greatly help most pale-faced people FRIDAY EVENING, triotism that burned in Nehemiah's breast. The old Jews, as we see clearly from the Psalms, associated God and country in all their holiest thoughts and noblest aspirations. Nehemiah, like the psalmist, loved Jerusalem above his chief joy. Hearth-llres are altar-fires. It is a mission of religion—and one who Is wandering in far lands wonders how the Church at home is living up to this imperative duty—to keep strong and vital the ties that unite love of county with loyalty to God. Back of all allegiance to land should pulse that living spirit of religion which made Nehemiah a great patriot. The most popular of modern poets has breathed this spirit of place loyalty into his poem about Sussex: "God gives all men all earth to love, But, since our hearts are small. Ordains for each one spot shall prove Beloved over all. Kach to his choice, but I rejoice, The lot has fallen to me In a fair land, a fair land, In Sussex by the sea." No greater peril besets society to day, with its intensified social con science and its passion for humanity, than the so-called "international ism," which professes to have no country save all the world. Un thinking sentimentalistswho have not not discerned .low the particular is always essential to make the general effective, decry patriotism as some- They cannot see that it is necessary to love the whole by means of loy alty to a part. The best thing any the home in general, for example, is to make his own home happy and wholesome. The finest service any woman can render the cause of womanhood elsewhere is by living a sweet and beautiful and noble lire herself. And we do most for the cause of democracy in China and Russia and even iii Germany when we stand steady and strong for the ideals of democracy in our own be ltfved land. There "internationalists, who do not understand what loyalty means, and who wrought such hurt in Rus sia, are usually of the same group example, but in free love; nor in property rights, but in communion, in which everybody will get and no body will 'give or sacrifice. In short, sentiment without sense, like love without loyalty, is capable of more harm than good. No "International ist" was Nehemiah, but'a. passion ate patriot, and God blessed him in Some Things That Have Passed In the background of this roman tic oriental story we see the Persian monarch, a despot. All of Nehe miah's ambition was dependent, hu manly speaking, upon the will of a king. X am writing this Wesson while sailing down the Volgo, whose waters flow to the shores of Nehe miah's Persia, whither I also am bound; and all about me I have been seeing, for weeks past, the tokens of what one man's power could do. It needed the fall of the czar and of the Russian autocracy to make clear what absolute power means. In the church as in the state, one weak man's word was supreme. Out of j this grew the evils that now afflict j Russia; but the present ferment if more to be desired than the appar ent smoothness of the old order. Jerusalem, the city for which Ne hemiah. prayed, stood for the oppo site thing. It was the mother oi Democracies. The first real denioc- j racy was among the Jews. They i will come to power once more in the Land of Promise, if at all, by the principle of democracy; that is, the votes of the people of Palestine, after the Jews have settled in the Holy Land, in sufficient numbers to give them control of the situation. It is unthinkable that the Syrians who have lived on the land for thousands of years, should be dis possessed, against their will, even to make way for Zionism. There is no Artaxerxes on earth today to Accom plish by decree, as of old, the great desire of the Jews, which burns in so many myriad breasts. Soul-Photograplis on Faces Sometimes I have wished to con duct a woman's column in a great newspaper, for the one and singular purpose of saying over and over again to young women, by all the di versity of forms that 1 could com mand, this fundamental truth, that the soul photographs itself upon the lace. There is no cosmetic like beautiful and unselfish thoughts. As a woman thinketh in her herat, so is she on her face. If you are lovely within, God will set His angels to work at painting that loveliness in your eyes and on your lips and cheeks. This is an eternal law. Would that all of us might learn it before it is too late. By that law, Nehemiah's spirit showed itself upon his features. If you pray hard, your face will show it. If you are pretty and selfish and suspicious and mean, that, too, will show upon your face, as plainly as an automobile advertisement in a newspaper. Life's dominant desires cannot be hid. If I had to have the face of many a millionaire along with his money, I would prefer to do without the money. Nehemiah's so licitude for Jerusalem was apparent to the king upon his throne. There by his prayer was answered. Some of us*have never wanted any thing in the world so greatly as Nehemiah wanted the restoration of Jerusalem. Such are to be pitied. They have merely wanted good times, and automobiles and summer trips and the gratification of whims; and so they have never really lived. When we want any great boon ear nestly, then we think of it always in prayer fashion. Millions of mothers are thinking Godward thoughts of their sons today, and sweethearts dream prayers of lovers, because of th% dangers of battle and camp. No great soul can refrain from praying in time of lofty desire. All our best aspirations are inextricably bound up with thoughts of God. As we see sad-faced Nehemiah standing before the Persian monarch, we are admonished to let all our trouble be big ones, at least of Jerusalem ! size. Souls are made great by the size of their concerns. Love of country, solicitude for the welfare of others than self, sorrow and work in behalf of the poor, a burning zeal or justice—these, aijd their like, are the anxieties that exalt while yet they weigh down. Tlie Man Who Prayed In a Hurry Two great passions Mowed to gether to make up the solicitude that wrote itself on the face of Nehe miah. One was filial piety. Jerusa r lcm was the city of his fathers and of their graves. Our western world dc*es not fully apprehend the length to which respect for parents goes in the Kast. Perhaps the interchange of ideals which this fluid time is effecting may help us in this re spect. The other great desire of Xe hemiah was patriotic. His love for his native land, liko< that of our own people at the present time, was an overmastering passion. So possessed was he by these ideals that the king rca<l them on his face, and inquired the reason for the unwonted sadness. That was a critical moment for Nehemiah. It is dangerous to at tract the especial attenion of des pots. Men who serve kings are ex pected to smile. So Nehemiah, we are told, prayed. This was not the long, fine, formal prayer about which we studied last week. It was an ejae ulatory prayer, such as perhaps a teacher of grammar could not parse. It shot straight out of the heart to heaven. As Moody us£d to say, it went to heaven so fast that the devil had no time to interfere'with it. Pe ter prayed the same sort of prayer to Jesus when he was sinking in Galilee: there was no time for orn ate petitions then. Zaecheus prayed the same fashion. As if such peti tions are particularly popular with God, because of their clear sincerity, they are quickly answered. Bless ings continue as they originate, by prayer. Perhaps that is what the apostle meant by the injunction to be instant in prayer. A Chance to Do the Haril Thing There were courtiers not a few about the Persian court who would have saved Nehemiah the opportun ity which came when the king asked him what he desired. They wanted jobs for themselves, and for their wives' relatives. But Nehemiah sought only a hard thing for him self, and a great boon for his people. He reminds us of the college-bred lads who are eager to go into the aviation service. Ho wanted to go to Jerusalem, and investigate the plight of the city, and of the rem nant who remained therein. That was no small journey, as the British prisoners from Kut el Amar ra, which is not far from the ancient Persian palace, can testify; as can I also. It meant giving up comfort, and ease, and the meeting of obstac les and enemies. Old Xenephon led the Ten Thousand over part of the same route. Also it meant a large military escort, and materials for re building. Verily, Nehemiah, you asked largely when you did ask. That is the way to go to a king. "Who ever goes to God for porridge should carry a large bowl," said old John Bunyan. Letters for the juorney were asked. It was on this very route covered by Nehemiah that I arrived one even ing in the town of Severek, to spend the night. I called on the governor with a letter from the Sublime Porte, and straightway they wanted to throw out pf the best room in the inn a guest already established, be cause of the letter I bore. In the East the recipient of such a letter will sometimes touch it to his head, 1 ntoken of loyalty and esteem. In the case of Nehemiah, the letters did the work, as he set out to Jeru salem. He was aided on the way, and succeeded in his mission, llis prayer hjid been answered—by way of his own interest and endeavor. How God delights to answer our prayers on our own feet! MARRISBURG TELEGRAPH Wm. MEN'S AND BOYS'CLOTHING AND HABERDASHERY All the quality, fine tailoring and style put into Wm. Strouse Suits and Overcoats will come back to you in the 831 form of SERVICE. W M - Stro ? e servic , e means Wm. Strouse JSki everything to the man HATS JgggSL and boy. $2.00 to $7.50 We have no "middle ground" '^4lllllln to stand on. Our service is r only one'kind-ONE KIND ' JWflk It is the KIND that means' know the differ- Wm. Strouse ence between laxity SHIRTS fflir and service. 35 year in SI.OO to $7.50 the university of cloth- - • 'KHfflring business taught us JSLJF how to perform SERVICE ; y |jqH v Our all wool policy is adhered . Our reputation for SATIS FACTION has made us ex- HOSIER? 6 tremely zealous. Our organization stands |g c to si.oo firmly entrenched, for it is backed by a house that thinks more of your friendship %'% :fßf than dollars. We are in business to profit, but not at your expense. <^pM The things this store stands for will out live its present owners. The pleasant re- jjr lations between you and this store, the Wm.Strouse good word we want to deserve from you Su i£ r a^°™ t4 will come from Satisfaction through our Service. SATISFACTION Tbe Store of Wm. Strouse, 310 Market St. NOVEMBER 16, 1917. 13
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