given to the reading and study of
Ood's word at homo and in connec
tion with other members of the fam
ily. We should also give duo time
to prayer and meditation upou God's
truths and His dealings with us.
Some time may well be spent in
rendering service to those who need
our help, especially in spiritual mat
ters. We should keep in mind at
all times that the Sabbath belongs
to God, and we have no right to use
it for ourselves except in accordance
with His commandments.
One of the remarkable things
about the history of Israel is that
their troubles as a nation almost
always began with their failure to
observe the Sabbath. When they gave
up the proper observance of the Sab
bath they fell into indifference in re
gard to the worship of the true God,
and this was naturally followed by
their establishing heathen worship,
and then God sent punishment upon
them in some form or other.
The Christian nations of the world
may well ask themselves whether the
troubles through which they are now
passing may not be due in a large
measure to their neglect of the Chris
tian Sabbath.
The Sabbath is essential to the ex
istence of true religion. If it should
be given up, the regular worship of
God would soon be abandoned; and,
when this takes place, there will be
nothing left to secure to the world
the knowledge and influence of re
ligion. So let us be careful that we
observe God'B holy day.
A CHINA C. K. SOCIETY SUP
PORTS WORK IN AFRICA.
It. will be a matter of interest to
all societies to know that there has
just been received in Nashville a let
ter from the Yang Yah Hong Society
In Soochow, China, enclosing $5.00
for one share in the support of Dr.
and Mrs. Stlxrud, the Christian En
deavor missionaries. The letter was
written by Mrs. Palmer C. DuBose, of
our China mission, and Mr. Wong
Dzu Pao. They state that they want
their society to take part in this work
In order that their interest may be
broadened and that they may get the
idea of the evangelization of the
world. The letter states alBo that
this Is an annual pledge.
Jno. I. Armstrong,
Educational Secretary.
AN EASTER MESSAGE.
"What is to become of the War Re
lief movement?" Many letters make
this inquiry. The answer is that
prayer, sympathy and sacrifice are the
duties of every hour. In the midst of
the world'B confusion our nation has
been and undoubtedly will be spared
the suffering that has been the lot of
other nations. Our own distress, if
it comes, will be speedily relieved.
Meanwhile our duty to minister to the
measureless hunger, destitution and
wounds of Europe and Western Asia
will not diminish.
Herbert C. Hoover, now in this coun
try, of whose work in behalf of Bel
glum every American is proud, has
said that "America is only beginning
to allow the awful burden of suffering
and destitution to rest upon her con
science."
We have not yet risen to the height
of sacrifice reached by the people of
the warring countries. They have def
initely adopted the principle of sacri
ficial giving to those who are in still
greater distress.
"We, then, that are strong, ought
to bear the Infirmities of the weak and
not to please ourselves."
The people of Canada have given
vastly more than we In proportion to
their numbers, in addition to raising
an army of nearly a half million men
and boys and ministering to their
families at home.
While our country has given nine
cents only per capita for relief In
Belgium in response to incessant ap
peals and prodigious effort, New Zea
land bas given $1.25 and Tasmania
$6.50 in addition to carrying the di
rect burdens of war themselves.
America has given two and three
quarter million dollars to the Armen
ian and Syrians. Canada bas given
proportionately more.
Many of the rich and those In mod
erate circumstances in Poland have
given their all In an almost vain ef
fort to stay tbe hand of famine and
death.
Sball we wait until we ourselves are
called upon to suffer before we rise
to the spirit of sacrifice?
The needs are all the time grow
ing. We are dealing with the needs
of tens of millions of people, chiefly
women, little children and the aged.
The suffering In Poland is declared
by those who have been there to be
the greatest in the world. The little
children are gone. Many cities have
lived through the winter utterly with
out fuel. When there was food there
was no ability to buy. Ten million
people utterly destitute. That is the
story of Poland.
Belgium's need Is greater to-day
than it was when America, for a short
time, responded with something like
fair generosity in the late autumn of
1914.
In Serbia and in all the Balkan
countries are hundreds of thousands
of children who never know what It
Is to have the pangs of hunger en
tirely appeased.
The people in the Bible lands, Chris
tians and innocent Moslems, Armen
ians, Syrians, Persians, are in the
grip of suffering greater in extent than
was ever known in the age of martyrs.
Over two millions of these poor peo
ple are in a state of starvation and
are utterly dependent upon the char
ity of America.
The noblest Protestant churches of
France and Belgium, after three cen
turies of struggle and sacrifice, ur
gently need help In order to maintain
their very existence.
While most of us have been living
at ease, thousands of our fellow
countrymen, brave young men and
valiant young women, following con
science, on the battlefield, in ambu
lance service, in field hospitals and in
hospitals at the base, physicians and
nurses, Red Cross workers volun
teer helpers in lowly service, repre
sentatives of our American Y. M. G.
A., are doing patiently their danger
ous and Incessant work, regardless of
international complications, and are
going bravely forward with it though
it increases every day and often con
sumes their strength and resources.
These are really our field mission
aries representing American Chris
tianity.
And at the same time, here at home,
the thoughtful and consecrated men
and women of the War Relief organi
zations are night and day laboring to
secure funds and clothing and food
and hospital supplies to send across
the sea. Nothing is allowed to di
minish their efforts.
These are missionary workers at
the home base, to use the terms of our
Foreign Boards.
Meanwhile the appalling need in
creases, while the response of Ameri
ca, out of its wealth of nearly two
hundred billion dollars, is sadly in
commensurate.
What will your church do? What
it will do, what it "ought to do, we can
not know. An Influential dally said
recently that the churches evidently
have not been greatly moved! It this
were true it would be a calamity more
terrible than war. The Church of
Christ unmoved while the world is al
most overwhelmed by a flood of suf
fering and woe? Of some churches,
this is, perhaps, true. But we are
constrained to believe that the Church
is awakening to the awful need and to
her duty definitely to accept the prin
ciple of sacrificial love and compassion
during the continuance of the war.
Some churches, perhaps yours, have
made noble records.
This is our peace message to the
churches voicing this appeal. ? Why
may we not make this the subject of
our thought for Easter Sunday and
Easter Week? What gift to the cru
cified and risen Christ could be more
appropriate?
Send contributions to the Federal
Council of the Churches of Christ in
America, 105 East Twenty-sncond
Street, New York City.
PATHS OF MOSES AND TERAH
THOI) BY BRITISH.
For every student of history and of
Biblical narrative an attraction deep
and strong lies in two military enter
prises now apparently nearing success
in the middle east. In the hill coun
try of Southern Palestine the British
army is approaching the walls of Je
rusalem, after a march from Egypt
that forms a striking reminder of a
similar expedition made 3,500 years
ago under the generalship of the fos
ter prince Moses. Far to the east
of Jerusalem and a little to the north
other British troops, pursuing an army
of fleeing Turks, are almost parallel
ing the route taken by the patriarch
Terali and his son Abram that ended
at Bethel, scarcely a dozen mile3 from
the same city of Jerusalem. The old
caravan routes that used to mean so
much to the people of Palestine ? the
one northeast, from Egypt; the other
'northwest, from the Euphrates valley
? once more are alive with deter
mined soldiery.
More than one similarity to the ex
odus of the Israelites is seen in the
march of the British soldiers from
Egypt to Jerusalem. Long Ifeld at
bay near the Suez canal by Turkish
troops, the Europeans finally won the
upper hand, with a free opportunity
to embark on their expedition to the
east and north ? much as the Israel
ites, by the hand of Qod in plagues
and in the astounding crossing of the
Red sea, freed themselves from their
foes. Everywhere along the road to
Palestine the Britons have been com
pelled to guard against hostile tribes,
but like Moses' company they seem to
be winning through.
Not the route of the exodus, circuit
ous and southerly, has been the path
of the conquering British. The mod
ern army has marched In almost a di
rect line, east and then northeast,
skirting the Mediterranean; whereas
the ancient army avoided much of the
desert by bending to the south, march
ing along the gulf of Suez to Mount
Sinai, then turning northeast to Ka
desh Barnea. The Britons also have
been bolder than the Israelites. When
almost at the promised land, Moses'
army was turned back because it was
afraid to go on. But at Beersheba
? not very far northwest of Kadesh
? the British are giving eager battle,
while the Turks are reported fleeing
to Jerusalem. It took the children
of Israel thirty-eight years more to
get back to Palestine and triumph, but
the day of victory for the modern ex
pedition seems to be at hand.
Stirring events have been happen
ing also in the land at times woefully
feared by Palestine. In the territory
once held by Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon and subjugator of Israel; of
Belshazzar, the king on whose palace
walls wrote the linger of God; of Cy
rus, the Persian conqueror of Baby
lon, and, with Darius and Artazerzea,
restorer of the Israelites to their de
spoiled Palestine; there the British
troops are pressing victoriosuly north
ward. Once in the valley of the Eu
phrates and Tigris the dwellers in the
land were refused some songs they de
manded; the Israelite captives sat
down by the rivers of Babylon and
wept, for how should they "sing the
song of of the Lord in a foreign land?"
Now songs are heard in that foreign
land, however, full throated songs
from lusty Briton warriors, with an
accompaniment of weird refrains in a
minor key from their desert allies.
There is no dashing onslaught now
adays of Persian cavalry or Baby
lonish hosts, but the steady, persist
ent, resistless, day-by-day march of
soldiers of the far north. Left behind
is Kuet-el-Amara, scene of General
Townshend's surrender of a year ago
and of the recent compensating defeat
of the Turks by General Maude. Ctesl
phon, where Townshend began his re
treat, has been passed, and now the
immediate goal of the expedition has
been reached, for Bagdad has fallen
to the invaders ? Bagdad of Harun-al
Rashid, long the capital of Moham
medanism and since 1638 a Turkish
stronghold.
But Bagdad is not the final goal.
Already the victors have advanced
through its storied streets and today
are pressing hard on the heels of Tur
key's fleeing troops. Far to the north,
250 miles away, is the objective of
both Turks and Britcns, and beyond
lie Asia Minor, the Bosphorus and
Constantinople. That distant object
ive is Mosul, a city approximately on
the site of ancient Ninevah, capital of
Assyria, which was the predecessor of
Babylon as Israel's foe. Thence, 2rp00
years ago, its king Shalmaneser, sent
against Israel's king Hosea, the armies
that vanquished Hosea and carried his
people captive to Assyria and Media.
In Nineveh, "that great city," once
was heard the voice of Jonah, the for
eign missionary, preaching the gospel
of repentance and of "a second
chance," the triumphant gospel that
Judaism was not able to keep to itself,
that now has girdled the globe.
Multitudes of people throughout the
gospel-girdled globe ? Jews, still loyal
to their faith, and Christians, won by
the gospel that sprang from Judaism
? are watching intently for the results
of that double drive of British prow
ess. Whether with or without the de
cisive aid of Russia's army now march
ing triumphantly through Persia to
ward Nineveh-Mosul, it seems likely
the British armies will progress in
triumph through Palestine and north
ern Mesopotamia, make Jerusalem for
a time at least a Christian city and
threaten the life of Turkey as a self
governing nation.
Zionist sons of Israel, longing to
return to their ancestral Palestine,
and Christians still imbued with the
thousand year old spirit of the unsuc
cessful crusaders, in all parts of the
world, are eager for the issue. Will
Palestine become free again from the
defiling touch of the "infidel?" And
Christians everywhere are wondering
whether the last days of Europe's and
Asia's national sick man are drawing
to a disreputable close. Still animated
by the impulse of the crusades and by
a Christian love for their fellow man,
they questioned whether Turkey after
these weary years is about to pay th<>
penalty for its Incredible massacres
of Christians in Armenia ? Christians
who are descendants of those follow
ers of Christ won by Paul and James
and John and their faithful co-work
ers and successors.
Whatever may be the outcome of
the present campaign in the mlddH
orient, there-4s no escaping one patent