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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1922)
'MQWiWtrn r Xh e C o an jtn oju e c JTJIf. I??2 : i Mr. Bryan . - - ...... i s Bible Talks A NATION THAT IfORGOT GOD- . - Uy WILLI AMj JENNINGS 'BRTfAW-" ' '" r - ii.-. VRr r , . . , f ' l ; ', '' ' ' 'i' i' .; i ; BIBLE TEXlT LESSON JFQ'R jWEli8'-h ni -' ''til Kings 25:1-12) V' ' f .' 'And it came. Ho pass in, the ninth Steak , of hfs .Sir. in iikUehiTi month.' in the tehtli-daV' th.l moiitli that "Nebuchadnezzar king: of Babylonc came, ip and all liis Jiost, against Jerusalem, anmilchcd 'iCt-j n ourl vtliov linlft fnrta n sriHnst ' 11- rnmwl against it. .. .-., ; ar. ,. .y a And the city was besieged unto the eleventh vear of King Zedekiah. And on the ninth day of tho fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate.. between two walls, whlclisis by the king's garden. '(now the Chaldees were against'the city round rf-bout:) and the-klng went the way toward the plain.,, "Ahd the army of the Chaldees pursued, jiftjdr tho king: and all his army were scattered Irom him: 4 So they took the king,. -and brought' him up to the kljig of Babylon to Kiblah; and they gave judg ment upon him. And they slew the sons of Zedekiall before 'his eyes, and put oUt the eyes of Zedekiah; ahd bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Baby lon, i And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the- roontlu which Is the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king o Babylon, came Nebuzar adan, captain of the guard,' a servant of the king of Babylon', unto Jerusalem: And he burnt tho house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with' fir.e. And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. ,, Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzar-adan the capta,ln of the guard carry away. But the captain of tli,e guard left ot the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen. for also "Be not deceived; God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap." How graphically the closing days ot the king dom of Judah, to which we now come, makes plain the inexorable working of this great moral law. Again and again, as kings came and went, the people of Jerusalem had scorned the prophets, turned to idolatrous practices, steeped them selves in the vices and sins of the heathen na tions round about them, forgotten and mocked God. And now the harvest. But even as the people of Jerusalem looked out over the city's walls upon the besieging host brought against them by the mighty king, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, God gave them their last chance to avert the terrible harvest of their own sowing. Through Jeremiah the Prophet He had counseled: "Desist in your re bellion against your overlord, surrender to the Chaldeans, repent of your sins, and Jerusalem will not be destroyed and you shall live." But the stiffnecked rulers of Judah preferred their own judgment to the guidance of the Almighty, and, hence national disaster complete and full. PROOF OF PROGRESS From the ninth unto the ' eleventh year of King Zedekiah's reign Nebuchadnezzar be sieged Jerusalem round about. Then the city's woa supply gave out, famine fell upon, the peo ple, a breach was made in the walls, and all euokiah's men. of war and the king himself fled Z uht rm the might and wrath, of the Chal S T? J081, But the enemy pursued and over rnn? ?e HeblW king in the plains of Jerioho, jnaae him prisoner, scattered his army from Jm, and took him up to Nebuchadnezzar to the town of Riblah for judgment. - What followed when the two kings came face J iace is proof that the world has made some Progress even in war. .. tth"!? the purpose of war has not changed; aim takinB of human life is still the first tWd i war' and wbil outrages are still prac dS h i 0ldier8 ln tne heat o Passion and iin tnLl imDulse of revenge, no civilized govern otS.1 ould be Guilty of the cruelties that were bW ?iractlcea ia olden times. - The Chaldeans eve, I,?8 ' of the captive king before his himl'M?d then tUey P114 out the eyes of the king tort,,! Any Government that would now thus lure a Prisoner, helpless in that government's SX2S oTti!" w!own ttDon itself thc "- But in the time of which we write the slaugh- mon "thine0011?!10!'611 1,eC,ple WM not oi 5 d IH ill ?ln VUU w?s !l Pttrt of Wttr whenever it did its bloody work, and the torture of Zcde- practiced Ut f harmony with cruelties then Nor was it an uncommon thing to destroy a conquered city. And so Nebuzar-adan, a captain of the guard m the Chaldean army, was sent to Jerusalem to destroy it. Ho did his work effectively. He burned the house of the Lord, and the King's house, and every great man's house in the city. The walks were broken down, and the inhabitants who were left, except the poorest, were carried away captive to Babylon. But tho poor of the land were left to care for the vineyards and the farms. Thus Jerusalem was left desolate, its fate being just what Jeremiah, speakim; by divine inspira tion, had foretold God made him his messenger to the people, but they would not believe, and their punishment followed. Th most striking part of the Biblical descrip tion of Nebuzar-adan's desolating work relates to the destruction of Solomon's temple. In beauty it was one of the wonders of thc world. Its cost has been estimated at from two and a half to four billion dollars an appalling sum even now aud relatively much greater then. Thirty thousand men were employed in cut ting the cedar that was brought from Lebanon for the temple. The masons and others who aided in its construction were numbered at 150, 000. When it is remembered that the building was not remarkable for its size (ninety feet long, thirty feet wide and forty-five feet high), tho outlay upon ornamentation must have been vast. LOOTING OF THE TEMPLE "And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brasen sea that were in the house of the Lord, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon." And the pots and shovels and the snuffers and spoons and other vessels of brass, and the firepan, the bowls and such things as were "of gold, in gold, and of silver, in silver," were likewise carried away. The loot ing of the temple left no treasure overlooked. While the historical facts are of very great interest, the lessons that the facts teach are of still greater value to us. We are prone to ex aggerate the visible and to underestimate the invisible prone also to be more shocked at the destruction of valuable property than at the dis obedience that imperils everything. What a place Jerusalem would be for tourists if Solomon's temple were still there! When I visited the Holy City I was surprised to learn that but a small fraction of the tourists who go to Egypt are interested"- in the Holy Land. Not many thousands turn aside to visit the soil made sacred by the tread of the prophets and by the blood of the Saviour. It is a land of relics and of ruins. A few Jews wail by the walls of the temple and a few pilgrims wander from place to place in search of the hallowed spots described in the Bible. There is controversy about nearly every point of interest, so that one is seldom sure that he is seeing the places that he came to see. If the temple of Solomon were only there in all its beauty and magnificence, the lovers of art would wend their way to it from every land. . THE ONLY STABLE FOUNDATION Christ made impressive use of the difference between the house built upon the rock and the i,niP built upon the sand. Solomon's temple was a Sious structure; it rested on belief in God It was built upon faith and obedience When faith and obedience were gone, the temple Wn" its treasures were stripped from it and the work of it artists became a shapeless mass a wthMi nation became the avenger of an A hS administered punishment through angry God. He i w h t th r carod noth. the hands 6f n Reverent ing for. the sent ments Of tne J God,s silver and the gold. t0 learn fitable unless it is built upon a moral foundation.. The priceless treasures that arc nlorMAn io civilized states ar6 unable to flr'oU&tltbdra&lvofJ; art may please and music may charm; literature may delight and learning may onrlbli; wealth may he piled up in fabulous sums aW oratory may weavo a spell arOund ill:gotten gains, but the value of all Js jiioas.ured by tho valuo of tho foundation upon which thoy may rost. Judah fell because it forgot God. The fcfhgq relied upon tho military strength of which Ihey,' boasted and which tholr allies coulil supply. They folt themisolves secure and obc-IIcnoo to God wan spurned. When tho tost came they were helpless, und all tho glories that had' crowned their days whon they foutia favor in' tho sight of tho Lord and walked In His path' vanished when they forsook God. GOD'S LAWS UNCHANGED "' God is not changed; Ilia laws havo not boon' repealed. Disobedience carries thc same penal-' ties now that it did when Hebrew kings wore un faithful to Him. None of the refinements that have come with civilization can protect a na tion from tho wrath of God if tho rulers and tho people disregard tho only sure foundation of en during prosperity, viz., obedienco to God. Evon' a temple, built for worship becomes a mockery' when worship ceases. The schoolroom may bo a mighty auxiliary to' the church because the brain can bo made into a great machine tremendously valuable when' undor proper control aiid rightly directed. But the mind is no more fitted than the purse to oc-" cupy the throne . Brain and monoy are "both good servants, but they havo not tho qualities that are needed in a master. A consecrated' heart can make" a Bplendld use of monoy hon estly acquired, but monoy, oven when legitimate ly secured can .wreck any life or any nation of which it takes command. A trained mind can add largoly to the useful ness of life when it is undor thc control of the spiritual in man, but it can wreck any human be ing, even civilization itself, if it is allowed to exercise authority. "For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth of tho Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Every nation of the present day -must stand, if it stands at all, upon the same foundation that Judah stood. It will fall as Judah fell if the foundation gives way. "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a' reproach to any people." . THE OLD TESTAMENT'S VALUE TO US OF TODAY By WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN REVIEW LESSON FOR JUNE 25 Since the first of the year our weekly Bible talks have been based an passages from tho Old Testament. The cast of characters has Included towering giants in faith and service, vacillating characters, and kings who sold themselves to evil. At this point Is it not worth while to pause a moment and consider,, in a general way, the value of the Old Testament Scriptures to us of today? While Christianity is built upon Christ, the New Testament rests upon the Old. Christ was a Jew; he came in fulfillment of prophecy and He gave emphatic endorsement to the Book of the Law, not one jot or tittle of which was to ' fail until all was fulfilled. Without the Old Testament, we would have an incomplete view of the plan of salvation ; those who speak in the New Testament assume in their hearers ' a knowledge of tho Old. Without Moses and the prophets toi furnish a foundation for the super structure, Christianity would seem suspended in the air. THE ROCK OF THE NEW TESTAMENT . ' But the Old Testament does more than supply the rock upon which the New Testament stands;' it has in it certain elements that contribute nla,- . terial strength t6 Christianity. Revelation did not begin with the birth of Christ; it cujmi- ' nated In His coming. The way was paved by the men of God who ennobled life with ncs- ' sages which they .received airect from Jehovah,. Among the patriarchs who deserve a high plaoe in Bible history we find Abraham, who gives us one of the earliest and most' splendid . illustrations of the power of faith and of its -fundamental place in the history of individuals and nations. "" At; the call of God, he left his home and traveled into a distant land, there to become the father of a race, than which there has never r 1 fit ;a .St si H 4 w ' Uvnbteb&riArV -