On Saturday evening, December 8, at an open meeting of the Alpha Society, Mr. Robert Bridges gave an interesting lecture on "The Man and the Book." On Wednesday afternoon, Decemder 12, the Glee, Mandolin, and Banjo Clubs gave a very successful concert in Assembly Hall. Jan. Feb. CALENDAR 14, Lecture. "Recent Excavations in the Roman Fo 15, rum," by Mr. Samuel B. Platner. Greek Club. Open Meeting. 17, Biological Society. 18, Société Française. 19, Alpha Society. 21, Philosophical Society. 22, Colloquium. 24, Examination Week begins. 1, Second Semester begins. 1, Société Française. 2, Phi Kappa Psi Society. 2, Green Street and Belmont Avenue House Dance. 4, Philosophical Society. Open Meeting. 7, Biological Society. 9, Alpha Society. 10, Day of Prayer for Colleges. 11, Physics Club. 12, Colloquium. 13, Washburn, Tenney, and Wesley House Dance. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION NOV 7 1923- CONTENTS THE SMITH COLLEGE MONTHLY is published at Northampton, Massachu- setts, on the 15th of each month, during the year from October to June, inclu- sive. Terms, $1.50 a year, in advance. Single numbers, 20 cents. Contri- butions may be left at 3 Gymnasium Hall. Subscriptions may be sent to E. M. deLong, 58 High Street, Northampton. Entered at the Post Office at Northampton, Massachusetts, as second class matter. Rightly to understand the social condition of the kingdom of Judah in the time when Micah the Morashtite stood forth on its hillsides and proclaimed his message, we must go back at least a generation to the energetic reign of Uzziah, whence, brilliant though it was in itself, sprang all the distress and turmoil that fired this prophetic soul. Uzziah's reign is the one bright spot in Judah's history from the splendid days of Solomon to the emancipation under the Maccabees from Syrian rule, a period of more than eight hundred years. Freed from the paralyzing dread of Assyrian interference by the civil wars then raging in that country, Uzziah had been able to set out for himself on a career of conquest. State after state of the surrounding country surrendered to his arms, and Judah from the lofty summit of Mount Zion could once more dictate terms to a prostrate enemy. One of the first uses Uzziah made of this new power was to turn the commerce, which usually passed outside the hill-girt fastnesses of his kingdom, through the gates of the mountains near to Jerusalem itself. The Jew is a proverbially successful trader, and even in that far-off day he wasted no time in mak ing the best of his advantages. Wealth increased surprisingly. The more able of this simple peasant people became enterprising merchants and landed aristocrats. The arts and the luxuries of foreign nations were introduced. Life was magnificent. Jerusalem was resplendent. The kingdom of Judah had reached the high-water mark of its prosperity. Yet the darkness which followed was the outgrowth of all this splendor. Wealth had brought luxury and power, -to the few, that is, who could obtain it,—but luxury brought vice and corruption, and power brought greed and oppression. Upon this basis of wealth had grown up an aristocracy permeated with the commercial spirit, the spirit that tramples down the rights of others and seizes for itself all that comes within its reach. And this commercial spirit taught its own cunning. The price was great and the measure small. By skilful manipulation the rich man forced the peasant to become his debtor, and when his victim could not pay, turned him out of house and home. If the poor man cried for justice, the judge, blinded by the glint of gold, could not see the truth, and the rich was upheld. Tricked out of his civil rights, if the wretched fled to religion to beg for help and to implore the destruction of the wicked by a just God, it was only to be baffled once more by the gold of his oppressor. The priest told him his distress was punishment for sin, and the prophet predicted a glorious future for the princes, powerful and magnificent, the salvation and hope of Judah. Religion itself was defamed. With the silks and the pearls of surrounding nations had come in their gods, demanding altars in the local shrines and setting up their worship in the Temple itself. Rites and orgies, obscene and degrading, defiled the hallowed courts; while a lower plane of conduct, a more corrupted idea of justice, a baser standard of morality, took possession of the land. Not only was the poor man driven from his home and left to die of hunger and disease, but Jehovah was dethroned from the shrines and hearts of His people, and without that light that had lifted them above their neighbors through those dark beginning times, God's chosen sank to the level of the foulest heathen,-with this difference, that the heathen knew no better and the prince of Judah did. Such was the problem that Micah chose to face. For him, however, it was deeply personal. He too was a poor man. He |