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