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CHAPTER I.

The Divine Commission.

THUS saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;

I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will break to pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron;

And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches in secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

For Jacob, my servants sake, and Israel, mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name; I have named thee, though thou hast not known me.

I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me; I girded thee, though thou hast not known me ;

That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else.

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I form the light and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil, (Heb. "ra," translated "sorrow," "wretchedness," "adversity,' "affliction," "calamities,"-never sin.) I, the Lord, do all these things.

Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together, I, the Lord, have created it.

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? * * *

Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his maker. Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.

I have made the earth, and created man upon it; I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

I have raised him up in righteousness, and

I will direct his ways;

He shall build my city, and
He shall let go my captives,

Not for Price nor Reward,

Saith the Lord of Hosts. Isaiah 45:1-13.

The remarkable thing about this prophecy is that it was given nearly 200 years before the thing prophesied happened. Another similar event is recorded in 1 Kings 13.2, "And he (the prophet) cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, Behold, a child shall be born unto the

house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.'

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Now turning to 2 Kings 23: "And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words."

But this fulfillment of the prophecy occurred 300 years after the prophetic proclamation.

The prophecy respecting Cyrus has a peculiar application to our president, now the Ruler of these our United States of America.

God Almighty, Lord of lords, King of kings, the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, is working along lines of carefully thought out plans, leading toward the objects and ends in His wisdom predetermined.

When the children of Israel continued in their evil ways, and would not listen to the warnings by the prophets, God decided to withdraw His protecting hand, and to allow the ambitious King of Babel, Nebuchadnezzar, to subjugate the whole Jewish nation and to bring them captives to Babylon, there to remain in captivity for 70 years. The Caldeans were also allowed to tear down the walls and to destroy the temple of Jerusalem.

But as this destruction was foreseen and inevitable, by reason of the wickedness and iniquities of the inhabitants, the limit was also forestalled, and the means for the rescue and liberation of the captives, and the rehabilitation of Jerusalem and the holy land was determined upon.

The analogy is apparent. As luxury, indolence, covetousness, pride, fashion-craze, pleasure-craze, sabbath-desecration among the people, higher criticism, disregard for the Bible, kultur or the building of character by philosophic theories instead of Gospel by the church, and Prussian militarism, exciting increase in armaments and consequent increase of tax burdens-seeing all this and all it implies, ripening for the harvest of bloodshed, famine and pestilence, this tri-une recompense for such doings, attitudes, conditions; but

God in His great mercy pre-arranged a deliverance and for this purpose a deliverer.

So we hold that the nomination and election of Woodrow Wilson for President of the United States of America, by the electorate, was done according to divine appointment, and foreordination.

Warrior, Lawyer, Teacher.

This is the more evident from the fact that there was a warrior, a lawyer and a teacher in the race, and the divine choice was the teacher. So when Mr. Bryan threw his whole influence and

strength in favor of Woodrow Wilson in the nominating convention, and won for him the nomination, he was moved to do that by the spirit and power of God.

For the warrior's mind is bent on subduing enemies; his ambition is to attain victory, and to divide spoils, while the lawyer's mind is limited to narrow lines; to convict criminals and to prove innocence of the guiltless.

The Teacher Predominates. The training of the teacher, on the other hand, is to educate, to mould, to fashion, to correct, to convince, to discipline with a view to improve, to develop, to elevate, to ennoble, to equip, aiming at efficiency, usefulness, higher standards, nobler ideals and greater attainments.

This peculiar training places the teacher on a higher plane, a more elevated altitude, enabling him to have and to take broader views, to analyze more thoroughly and carefully, to gather in details, to make comparisons, to form opinions and to pass judg

ments.

Not only this, but the teacher has also a greater mastery of the language, being better able to make statements, to demonstrate, to produce and to present convincing facts, thereby winning confidence and respect, and drawing multitudes toward himself as a common center.

Knowledge in History.

"No citizenship can exercise a rightful influence upon its neighbors if it lacks historical conception of itself as a continuing community, and fails to regard its neighbors in a similar light," says the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "The United States will play a large part in determining the fate of Alsace-Lorraine and of the Balkans. It will have a hand in deciding what shall become of Italia Irridenta, of Poland, and of those who groan under the Turkish yoke. It can not render here the service which it owes humanity, if it works in the dark. And in any democracy the judgment of the people, their sense of right and wrong, their knowledge of the facts in the case, must rule the decisions of their accredited representatives.

"Here is the history teacher's notable opportunity, his chance to render his community a service of incomparable worth.

"America has passed the day when an indifferent provincialism is either serviceable or safe. If Americans are to take an intelligent part in the struggle to safeguard the liberty of mankind, they must know something of that struggle in the past, must have an inkling of how and why great Powers have risen and waned, not merely for forty years, but for as many centuries. They must know of past imperialisms and past democracies, of what a fight in Mesopotamia may mean, what that along the Vardar and the Piave, must have some understanding of what men fight for along. the Dvina and the Yser, and along the upper Rhine * * *

"The history teacher

*

must not neglect this unprecedented opportunity to mould, sanely and honestly, the thoughts of those whose votes will soon control the nation.'

President Woodrow Wilson measures up to this standard elegantly, as will be substantiated by the following:

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

"WOODROW WILSON, Ph. D., Ll. D., Litt. D: American educator and historian; born in Staunton, Virginia, December 28, 1856. Graduated from Princeton in 1879; he studied law in the University of Virginia, and practised at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1882 and 1883. After special studies in history and politics at the Johns Hopkins University (1883-1885) he was an associate professor at Bryn Mawr in 1886-1888; in 1888-1890 professor in history and political economy in the Wesleyan University; and in 1890 he was appointed to the chair of jurisprudence and politics at Princeton. After the resignation of President F. L. Patton in 1902, he was elected president of the University, the first layman so chosen."

He contributed largely to periodicals on administrative and political subjects, and took high position as a scholar and author by a series of works, including: "Congressional Government," "A Study in American Politics" (1885), which gained for him recognition on both sides of the Atlantic, and in England was taken as authoritative on American Institutions; "The State Elements of Historical and Practical Politics" (1889), a standard book; "Division and Reunion 1829" 1889 (in 1893); "An Old Master," and other political essays (1893); "Mere Literature" and other essays (1896); “George Washington" (1896)), and a "History of the American People" (1902), a five volume publication in many respects the most satisfactory compendious narrative of the political history of the United States. He was also a contributor to "The National Revenues" (1888), a volume of essays by American economists."

Acquitting himself, in his high position as a University President, as a reformer, a man of the people and for the people, he was elected Governor of New Jersey in 1909, and making good, he was elected President of the United States on the Democratic ticket in 1912 and re-elected in 1916.

If we believe in Providence in the selecting of Joseph to become a savior to his father's house; Moses' rescue and education in the wisdom of Egypt and his training to become the leader from bondage to liberty for a chosen people; Joshua to subdue the Caannanites and divide the Promised Land among the tribes of Israel; David to be King; Solomon to build the Temple; and the Persian king Cyrus to liberate the captive Jews-if we actually believe the Bible, and acknowledge the cited occurrences Providential, then we must admit, yea, verily believe

as

That the SUBTLE, PENETRATING MIND of Woodrow Wilson has been especially and carefully trained providentially for a

special occasion, and that when the occasion came, the God of Heaven, knew where He had His servant.

Notice the way of Providence:

1. A thorough comprehensive education.

2. Engaged as a teacher, thereby reviving and making useful, profitable, his knowledge, at the same time affording opportunities to study human nature, to admonish, correct, discipline. 3. University President, Principal, Governor, Ruler of an institution.

4. Governor of a State; a wider range, new obligations, responsibilities, executive activities in a commonwealth.

5. President under two years of quiet to become acquainted with all the functions of Government and diplomacy, and again two years of observation and the guidance of the destiny of the genuine, the purest, the most ideal democracy of the world, and therefor entrusted with the teaching and the administration of the world.

This being so, what blessed opportunities, what tremendous responsibilities!

When he speaks, the world listens to him, when he moves and acts the world looks at him.

May both precept and example be such that heaven can and will approve of them.

It devolves upon the church of Christ to uphold the hand of the President with fervent prayers and supplication for divine guidance in matters of both saying and doing, in order that developments and final results may be in harmony with New Testament Gospel Standards.

Is the church itself equal to the occasion? Or shall it be necessary for Providence to thunder from heaven with thunderbolts of the sword, famine and pestilence to awaken the church from its slumbers and lethargy?-See God's Assiduity, chapter 36.

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