Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 268, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1914 — Back to the Bible [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Back to the Bible

Application of the Script area to the WerU Today as Seen by End* neat Nan in Various Walks ot Lite

fCopjrnght, 1314. by Joseph B. Bowlool

A NEW GOLDEN AGE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD. I <Bjr MKLVTN a ROVE KYLE, D. D„ LL. D., Egyptologist; Lecturer on Biblical Archaeology In Xenia Theological Seminary; author of “The Deciding Voice of the Monument* In Biblical Critlel >K i 00 vsm. It was not amid the sands of Egypt, the swamps of Babylonia nor the moon-

tain gorges of Asia Minor, but In the quiet of the museum study at the University of Pennsylvania that the new Golden Age was found. The distinguished Oxford professor sat wearily back in his arm-chair and closed his eyes and said: “I am very weary; I will talk while you write." Dr. Gordon, the ■ curator, had Introduced me to Professor Langdon with the

Print that he had great things to give oui to the world. Thitf is what he told me: Boosing himself for a moment, he ■wept his hand around the ranges of •helves that lined the walls of the •tody, saying: "All these shelves are filled with tablets of the profound metaphysical, theological and liturgical developments represented in this collection from the Nippur library, the work of the greatest school of the scholars of that period, the last temple school, which represents the very best scholarship of old Babylonia, 3500*SOO B. C.”

Here was a Golden Age more than two millenniums before the Golden Age of Greece and Rome. Here metaphysical thought had mounted to the highest point reached by Plato in his doctrine of ‘ldeas, ’’ which constituted the reality of things. Moreover, with theee old Babylonians, or Sumerians, as the scholars call them, the reality of things was not In the “Idea” In the mind of man, but in the mind of God, God with a capital letter, though they were not, In all things, wholly monotheists.

Then these little clay tablets give us the liturgy of the worship of the world 6,000 years ago. And the startling thing about liturgy among them Is, that they had all of It. “The liturgies of the Sumerians are the source of the liturgies of the Babylonian and Assyrian temple service.” All the world of worshipers has added nothing to it since. All the other liturgies, except, perhaps, the Egyptian, ,show the influence of this. Also, a Sabbath is here, though apparently not the Sabbath. There was a seventh day service in the temple, though no evidence of a general day of rest for the people. * i The wonder increases as we draw nearer the central teaching of their theology. “One thing particularly marked these liturgies—human consciousness of sin with a search to be better, to right one’s self.” .Then there is recognition of failure to “right one’s self,” with recourse to another, “one of the gods bearing the sins of the nation, one of the deities taking upon himself the sorrows of. the world and the troubles of mankind. It is still far from the Christian notion, but It is inherent, in the embryo. More often it is the mother goddess, sometimes her son, who suffers.”

Is this the hint of a Bible before the Bible? No, but the constant representation of the Bible is that the hope of a mediator, “the seed of the woman,” was in the %?orld from the beginning, and the revelation of hope was first to all the world, and after that to a chosen people. That first message would go along all lineß of world migration and we may expect to find faint echoes of it everywhere, mingled. Indeed, with the weird teachings of myths and idolatrous worship, yet still echoes. And the farther back we get, the clearer should be the echo. This is. as yet, the farthest back, a new Golden Age. Who shall say it was the first?”

AHIJAH AND THE DIVIDED KINGDOM. * • (By HERBERT L. WILLETT. LL. D.. Dean DUclple*’ Divinity House, University of Chicago.) There are times when patriotism is shown by a quick sensitiveness to national honor and the sacrifice of' all Interests to the politicalj prosperity of a country. There are other times in which patriotism can best be proved l by devotion to the moral and religious life of a people, even at the sacrl floe of Its material prosperity. One of ttye best historic Illustrations of this principle, is to be seen In the story of Ahljah of Shiloh and his prophetlo friends. The reign of Solomon, King of Israel, came to its dose in M 7 B. C. with the halo of soecesa. A great nation bad been built up in a brief period. The of the older

Ufa of Israel had been abandoned for a centralised, autocratic, despotic power. Yet the nation was proud of its king and did not greatly resent the price It was oompelled to pay for political success. But the prophets were of another mind. They had seen the older sanotitles of Samuel's age gradually obscured by Solomon's secular splendor. Even the building of the temple was of questionable value to religion. Another period of similar military, commercial and political success might place the religion of Jehovah at so serious a disadvantage as to threaten Its complete overthrow. To meet ( this , emergency, Ahljah and his colleagues determined to intercede with the new king, Rehoboam, the son of . Solomon, In behalf of a return to this simpler and more normal life of the past. At a national convocation held In the old sanctuary city of Shechem, away from the distractions of Jerusalem, they presented their petition to him, only to meet his refusal. He would become even more autocratic than his father. In the emergency they sacrificed their political hopes, and those of the nation, by deliberately rending the kingdom asunder. But In that act, which forever doomed Israel to a divided and weakened political life, they saved the religion of Jehovah. From the standpoint of political expediency and superficial patriotism it is difficult to forgive -these men the deadly Injury they brought the growing state. But their interests were deeper. They were prepared to sacrifice a national glory that was perhapß as dear to them as to their fellow citizens, In order to preserve a more precious possession.