16 MUSINGS IN OLD JERUSALEM By WILLIAM T. ELLIS rite International Sunday School Ixvsson For August 3 Is "Christian Worship"—John 1:1-31. Wrlttng, as I am, in an upper t room in Jerusalem, this seems pe- 1 culiarly a place lesson, although it j is a seasonable word for all the world. The story of the woman at the well, and her Interview with Jesus, is local on its setting and in • its spirit; for this is the center ofj religious antagonism and bigotry. It | is general, because this is the day 1 wherein the world is glimpsing a : new and larger conception of the' God who is a Spirit, and who must ! be worshipped in spirit and in truth. ' When this befuddled time of ours gets its ideas about God straighten ed out it will find that many other matters have likewise been cleared up. Although they do not realize the fact, many "liberal" persons \ nowadays have conceptions of the 1 supreme Deity that are as narrow' and inadequate as those of the ear-,' liest Hebrews who worshipped their* tribal God on these hills. The modern misconception con-j Fisted in regarding God as a Social Program, or Economic Higher Law or a vague Spiritual Urge, or a! Supreme Necessity for keeping the lower classes in order. It is no ex-! aggeration to declare that mulli- : tudes of educated men and women have no thought of God except as a factor in social reconstruction. He is that, but he is infinitely more. A Highbrow Blunder God is not a Social program. God ; is not a Special Partner with the ' American Eagle, or the British Lion ! any more than with the Prussian • Eagle. He is not a citadel for capitalism nor a banner for Bolshe-1 viem. To regard.him as a mere ad- ! junct of political and social reform I is impiety. There is need for clear thinking' I I *keHome '"jl •-. ■' I .'■•'■ . - IN „ . 7 l One of the Homes We ve Built ||| "■ 'jw SlJßnlvillON || 1 LOCATED BETWEEN 19TH ST., SYCAMORE AND PARK TERRACE, SOUTH OF DERRY STREET S I ONE CAR FARE-WATER-GAS-ELECTRICITY-SEWERAGE-EASY TERMS § You Buy the Lot —We Build the Home Campaign IS Harrisburg Needs Houses Very Badly—Beautiful Homes, Neat Homes. You Know It —So Do We. if Thus Far This Year We Have Erected 50 New Homes—Have Built Them Anywhere and For Everybody, fl We Are Ready For Our SECOND OFFENSIVE— j||| I WE ARE GOING TO CONCENTRATE ON j IFV*W LAFAYETTE r I r "~* ~ Saturday and Afternoons Evenings |j| ill Aside from^ these 50 home* we will erect 12 additional homes ourselves 8 1 • J : ].*'* II Call Bell 626, Dial 6226 For Information " ||| J mes We UfldcT o/ One of the Homes We've Built iji 3rd & Mwkefsts! Sohland-Evans-Kingsbury THE LOT MEN || FRIDAY EVENING, I I here. While God has a relation to ! everything human, he is tirst of all j and above all else, the Eternai Deity, the uncreated Creator, the ' Ruler of the universe, the King of j kings and Lord of lords. He is so j exalted in his character and rights J that he is entitled to worship from all his creatures. Man can have ! no other relationship with Jehovah ! until he hows down before him in ' adoration. I With all its defects. Moham : medanism has done one thing for two hundred million members of the i human race: it has taught them the greatness of God. The Moslem is reverent, whatever else he may not ■ be. The majesty and supremacy of j the one God breathes through all I the thought of Islam. No Moslem | ever cheapens God. He cannot con j ceive of the ineffable. One whose name is holy and reverend, as being ! a mere accessory to any scheme or | plan of mortal. They understand that our God is not a little God. j hut One whose ways, though past ! finding out, are always right. Men's attitude toward the League !of Nations, and upon the Peace j Treaty, matters less, infinitely less, i than their views upon God. Society is shaped by its sense of the Su : preme. Everything we are or do is ■ affected by our ideas of God. When I we lift up the popular attitude to ; ward the exaltedness and holiness and justice of God we are adopting ; the most direct means of serving our time. That is why the Church is a j more important present factor in I our troubled life than any political ! party or organization, or any eco j v.omic movement. "Oh, come; let us i kneel before the Lord our maker." i A few miles from where 1 am !writing, near the well of Jacob about) i which the- lesson centers —a well [ that still supplies water —in the.! ! town of Nablus, there survives, op- j pressed but squabbling a little ■ J group of Samaritans, the descen-1 dants of the people to whom the I woman of our lesson belonged. Still j the Jews will have no dealings with I them, nor will the Moslems. They! {are not counted good Jews, having i •blended with the heathen at the time of the exile. Religious antipathies are strong er in Jerusalem and Palestine than J anywhere else on earth. It is not 1 merely that Moslems and Christians I clash; but both unite to oppose the I 'Jews, because of Zionism, who, in j turn, are split up into irreconcil-1 J able parties; and Greek Christians, or Orthodox, are bitter against the il.atins, or Roman Catholics; and ' both are rivals of the Gregorians, or Armenians, and of the Copts. There tare other sects and sub-sects here, iand they all quarrel one with an j other. A few weeks ago thero was They're Getting the Crowds You Can't Make Them Because they have the right kind of merchandise to sell and at —As good for the price you can buy them at Doutrichs Mark such low prices that anyone would be foolish not to save the r* c 1 i • i i v i (Mnrtnn o. ..... Uown oale. Just go m and see the way women are buying Boys' money. You can buy $lO.OO Boys' Suits at Doutrichs Mark- Down Sale for Wash Suits $7.89, and $15.00 Suits for $10.75 All $2.50 Suits, sl.B9—All $3.50, $2.89 HMURISBTTRG TELEGRXPH j a light, at Easter, between rival | • Christians in the Church of the Holy ! j Sepulcher. I Nevertheless, there are nobler and , ; wider influences at work. There ia ! abroad in Europe and the Near East {just now a commission of American | j churchmen, extending invitations to] I a world conference on Christian j ! unity. They report the rise of a | new spirit of eagerness for oneness j and cessation of strife and for a re-1 turn to the worship of God himself.! There are tokens on the horizon j that churohtanity and sectarianism and narrowness are on the wane, I and that the world will turn in sim-! I pliclty and reverence to the wor- j j ship of God and his Son. who are in I lall churches and beyond alt church-i j es. When we come to the hour forj scrapping our ecclesiastical machin ery it will be to the text, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him | must worship him : n spirit and in I truth " From Sinai to Zion Recently I have been at Mount I j Sinai, where Jehovah the uutversnl i Lawmaker revealed himself; now I jam at Mount Zion, where Jehovah | the Fathc and .he Savior reveal ed himself. Amid these scenes, trod j den by the feet of God's prophets ! of old, and by his beloved Son, 1 | have got a new sense of the great i ness of God himself and of his pro | gram for the world. The vast | ness of the divine design, at which | Jesus could only hint in his talk with the Samaritan woman, is ap | pearing in our time. We behold na tions in a ferment which is priniar j ily spiritual. At bottom, the world's j unrest is a reaching out after a I Satisfaction which Is really of the j soul. Mankind's wants are many; j its need is one—to know God, the living and the true. We shall not | he satisfied until we find him who ia j the soul's eternal quest. The place and the manner of | worship matter little. In the center ! of Sinai's sublime and simple gran- J detir, I found the monks spending I four or five hours a day, amid in nuniberable lamps and icons, in cense and forms, worshipping by uu ancient ritual. It was impressive; but not so much so as the bare and majestic granite mountains wherein God spoke to Moses and Elijah. Likewise, there is something really repellant in the overlay of eoclesl asticisni here in Jerusalem, where the spiritual seems hidden by the formal. An American missionary said to me last evening: "The more I have seen of formalism and ecole siastieism in Jerusalem, with its su perstitions and its sites and its strife, the more t believe in the sim ple, spiritual faith of the Quakers. Every reverent heart has at some time or other longed to visit Jeru salem; yet from Jerusalem I repeat that "God is a spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Not the place, but the purpose; not the form, but | the faith; not the words, but the i will, determine acceptable worship. Where All Ways Arc Met All Americans abroad have a i wistful interest in the homeland. AUGUST 1, 1919. With the meager facts in their pos session they consider and discuss the trend of events back home. A few of us were talking recently about the praiseworthy get-together 'cam paign of the churches, and the con certed movement to raise all their benevolent funds as one national budget. Said one who is wise in the things of the spirit as well as in the ways of the world: "America's real need is not for more money for religion, or for better ways of securing money for religion. In our mission work we understand as per haps the home folks cannot, the need of money. But there is some thing more important. It seems to me that the churches are magnify ing organization and appliances and wealth, whereas, it is a spiritual re plenishing, a spiritual rebirth, a spiritual passion, that this hour re quires above all else. One great voice, calling the people back to a sense of God, would be worth more than any new organization. What was that man's opinion, spoken quietly amid the clamor of on oriental cafe, except a modern version of the words of Jesus con cerning "living water?" Our day's thirst cannot be satisfied at any of our modern wells. "We pant for the living waters of God. All lesser wants are included within our need of God. Not his works will satisfy; hut he himself. Until we find God as a living, bright reality, more per-- sonal to our souls than the dear ones by our side, we shall miss the j spirit of true worship. As said | David—-perhaps when looking out I upon the very hills to which I turn my eyes at the moment. "And now. Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee." M THKIt I.kVUI K MEETING ShlremmiMtowii. Aug 1. —On Wed nesday evening the last meeting of the Luther League of St. John's Lutheran Church was held before the vacation period. Mrs. H. K. Lantz was appointed delegate to the State | Convention at Lehighton.
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