DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON,
The Eventful Epoch,
“1 will show wonders in the heavensand in
the earth.”—Joel 8: 30.
OUR eyes dilate and our heart quick-
«ns its pulsation as we read of events
in the third century, the sixth century,
the eighth century, the fourteenth cen-
gary; but there are more far-reaching
events crowded into the nineteenth
century than into any other, and the
last quarter bids fair to eclipse the pre-
ceding three quarters. We read in the
daily newspapers of events announced
in one paragraph aad without any es-
pecial emphasis—of events which a
Herodotus, a Josephus, a Xenophon, a
4;ibbon would have taken whole chap-
ters or whole volumes to elaborate.
Looking out upon our time, we must
cry out inthe words of the text: “Won-
ders in the heaven and in the earth.”
A PERIOD OF DISASTER.
1 propose to show you that the time
in which we live is wonderful for disas-
tor and wonderful for blessing, for there
must be lights and shades in this pic-
ture as in all others. Need I argue
this day that our time is wonderful for
disaster? Our world has had a rough
time since by the hands of God it was
bowled out into space, It is an eprlep-
tic «arth. Convulsion after convulsion.
¥Frosts pounding it with sledge ham-
mer of iceberg, and fires melting it with
furnaces seven hundred times heated.
It is a wonder to me it has lasted so
lonz. Meteors shooting by on this side
and grazing it, and meteors shooting
by ou the other side and grazing it,
none of them slowing up for safety.
Whole fleets and navies and argosies
and flotillas of worlds sweeping all
about us. Our earth like a fishing
smack off the banks of . Newfoundland,
while the Gallia and the BotAnia and
the Arizona and the Great Eastern
rush by. Beside that our world has by
sin been damaged in its eternal ma-
¢hinery, and ever and anon the furnaces
have burst, and the walking-beams of
the mountains have broken, and the is-
lands have shipped a sea, and the great
hulk of the world has been jarred with
accidents that ever and anon threaten-
ed immediate demolition. But it seems
to me as if our century were specially
characterized by
DISASTERS VOLCANIC,
cyclonic, oceanic, epidemic. I say vol-
canic. because an earthquake is only a
volcano ushed up. When Stromboli
and Cotopaxi and Vesuvius stop-breath-
ing, let the foundations of the earth be.
ware, revea thousand earthquakes in
two centuries recorded in the catalogue
of the British Association! Trajan,
the emperor, goes to ancient Antioch,
and amid the splendors of his reception
is met by an earthquake that nearly de-
stroys the emperor's life. Lisbon, fair
and beautiful, at 1 o'clook on the first
of November, 1755, in six minutes 60,-
000 have perished, and Voltaire writes
of them: *‘For that region it was the
last julgment, nothing wanting but a
trumpet!’ Europe and America feel
ing the throb; fifteen hundred chimneys
in Boston partly or fully destroyed.
But the disasters of other centuries
have had their counterpart in our own.
In 1812, Caraccas was caught in the
grip of the earthquake; in 1832. in
Chili, 100,000 square miles of land by
volcanic force upheaved to four and
seven feet of permanent elevation; in
1854. Japan felt the geological agony;
Naples shaken in 1857; Mexico in 1555;
Medosa, the capital of the Argentine
Republic, 1861; Manilla terrorized in
1863. the Hawaiian Islands by such
force uplifted and let down in 1871;
Nevada shaken In 1871; Antioch in
1872: California in 1872; San Saivador
in 1873: Ischia in 1883; Charleston In
1888,
But look at the cyclonic, the disas-
ters cyclonic. At the mouth of the
Ganges are three islands—the Hattiab,
the Sundeep and the Dakin Shabazpore,
In the midnight of October, 1877, on
all those three islands the cry was:
“The waters, the waters!” A cyclone
arose and rolled the sea over those three
islands, and of a population of 340,000,
215,000 were drowned, Only those
saved who had climbed fo the top of
the higliest trees. hd you ever sce a
cyclen? No. Then 1 pray God you
may never see one, 1 saw one on the
ocean, and 1% swept us eight hundred
miles back from our course, and for
thirty-six hours during the cyclone and
after it we expected every moment to
.go to the bottom. They told us before
we retired at nine o'clock that the
barometer had fallen, but at eleven
o'clock at night we were awakened with
the shock of the waves. All the lights
out. Crash! went all the lifeboats,
Waters rushing through the skylights
down into the cabin and down on the
furnaces until they hissed and smoked
in the deluge. *
SEVEN HUKDRED PEOPLE PRAYING,
Llaspleming, shrieking. Our great
ship poised a moment on the top of a
mountain of phosphorescent fire, and
then plunged down, down, down, until
it seerned as if she never would again
‘be righted. Ah! you never want to see
a cyclone at sea. But a few weeks ago,
I was in Minnesota, where there was
one of those cyclones on land that swept
the city of Rochester from its founda.
tions, and took dwelling-houses, barns,
men, women, children, horses, cattle,
and tossed them into indiscriminate
ruin, and lifted a rail-train and dashed
1t down, a mightier hand than that of
the engineer on the air-brake. Cyclone
within a few months; cy-
clone in Wiscon-
what a mess.ge of pathos and tragedy
for both beaches! In one week eighty
fishermen perished off the coast of New-
foundland, and whole fleets of them off
the coast of England, God help the
poor fellows at sea, and give Jiigh seats
in heaven to the Grace Darlings and
the Ida Lewises and the life-boatmen
around Goodwin's Sands and the Sker-
ries!
The sea, now owning three-fourths
of the earth, proposes to capture the
other fourth, and is bombarding the
land all around the earth, The moving
of our hotels at Brighton Beach back-
ward from where they once stood, a
type of what is going on all around the
world and on every coast. The Dead
Sea rolls to-day where ancient cities
stood. Pillars of temples that stood on
hills, geologists find now three-quarters
under the water, or altogether sub-
merged, The sea having wrecked so
many merchantmen and flotillas, wants
to wreck the continents, and hence dis-
asters oceanie,
DISASTERS EPIDEMIC,
Look at the disasters epidemic. I
speak not of the plague in the fourth
century that ravaged Europe, and in
Moscow and the Neapolitan dominions
and Marseilles wrought such terror in
the eighteenth century; but 1 look at
the yellow fevers, aud the choleras, and
the diphtherias, and the scarlet fevers,
and the typhoids of our own time,
Hear the wailing of Memphsis and
Shreveport, and New Orleans, and
Savannah, of the last two decades,
From Hurdwar, India, where every
twelfth year three million devotees con-
gregate, the caravans brought the
cholera, and that one disease slew 18,-
000 in eighteen days in Bossorah.
Twelve thousand in one summer slain
by it in India, and twenty-five thous-
sand in Egypt. Disasters epidemic.
Some of the finest monuments in Green-
wood, and Laurel Hill, and Mount Au-
burn are to doctors who died battling
with Southern epidemic,
AN ERA OF BLESSING.
But now I turn the leaf in my sub-
ject, and I plant the white lilies and
the palm-tree amid the nightshade and
the myrtle. This age no more charac-
terized by wonders of disaster than by
won lersaf blessing, Blessing of longe-
vity. ‘i... average of human life rapid-
ly increasing. Forty years now worth
four hundred years once. A short time
ago I came from Manitoba to New
York in three days and three nights
In other times it would have taken
three months, In other words, three
days and three nights now worth three
months of other days, The average of
human life 1s practically greater now
than when Noah lived his 950 years,
and Methnsaleh lived his 900 vears,
essing of intelligence. The Salmon
and the Henry Wilsons of the coming
time will not be required to learn to
read by pine-knot lights, or seated on
shoemaker’s bench, nor the Fergusons
ing the cattle, Knowledge rolls its
tides along every poor man’s door, and
bis children may go down and bathe in
them. If the philosophers of the last
century were called up to recite in a
class with our boys st the Polytechnic,
or our girls at the Packer, those old
philosophers would be sent down to the
foot of the class because they failed to
answer the questions! Free libraries
in all the important towns and aities of
the land. Historical alcoves, and po-
etic shelves, and magazine tables for all
that desire to walk through them or
sit down at them.
QUICK INFORMATION.
Blessings of quick information; news-
papers falling all around us thick as
leaves in a September equinoctial,
We see the whole world twice a day—
through the newspaper at the breakfast-
table, and through the newspaper at
the tea-table, with an “extra here and
there between. .
Blessing of Gospel proclamation. Do
you not know that nearly all the mis-
sionary societies have been born in this
century? and nearly all the Bible so-
cieties, and nearly all the great philan.
thropic movements? A secretary of
one of the denominations said to me
one day in Dakota: “You are wrong
when you said our denomination aver
aged a vew church every day of the
year; they established nine in one
week, 80 you are far within the truth.”
A clergyman ¢f our own denomination
said: *I have just been out establish.
ing five mission stations.” I tell you
Christianity is on the march, while
INFIDELITY 13 DWINDLING
into the imbecility that was demon.
strated not long ago at Rochester, N.
Y.. where after the blowing of the
trumpets and the gathering of all ihe
clans there assembled a small group of
semi-idiots to denounce the Christian
religion and eulogize one of their dead
patrons, a libertine, arrested in New
York and Boston again and again for
scattering obscene literature ~- that
dead man the patron saint of the whole
movement. While Infidelity is thus
dwindling and dropping down into im-
becility and indecency, the wheel of
Christianity is making about a thou.
sand revolutions in a minute, All the
copies of Shakespeare and Tennyson
and Disraeli and of any ten of the most
popular writers of the day, less in num-
ber than the copies of the Bible going
out from our printing-presses, Two
years ago, in six wi more than two
million copies of the New Testament
purchased—not given away, but pur-
chased, because the world will have it.
More Christian men in high official
position to-day in Great Britain and in
the United States than ever before.
Stop that falsehood golug through the
I have Son it In twenty
udges of upreme Court
of the United States are all infidels ex-
rived my existence and in whom I have
always trusted, take my spirit to Thy-
self and let Thy richest blessing come
down upon my Maryl’' The most pop-
ular book to-day is the Bible, and the
mightiest institution is the Church, and
the greatest name among the nations,
and most honored, is the name of Jesus,
WONDERS OF BELFV-SACRIFICE,
A clergyman told me in the northwest
on one of my visits, that for six years
he was a missionary at the extreme
north, living 400 miles from a post-of-
fice, and sometimes he slept out of
doors in winter, the thermometer sixty
and sixty-five degrees below zero, wrap-
ed in rabbit skins woven together, I
said: “‘Is it possible? you do not mean
sixty and sixty-five degrees below zero?’’
He said: “1 do, and I was happy.”’
All for Christ. Where is there any
other being that will rally such enthu-
giasm? Mothers sewing their [fingers
off to educate their boys for the Gospel
ministry, For nine years no luxury on
the table until the course through gram-
mar school and college and theological
seminary be completed. Poor widow
putting her mite into the Lord's treas-
ury, the face of emperor or president
impressed upon the coin not so conspi-
cuous as the blood with which she
earned it. Millions of good men and
women, but more women than mes, to
whom Christ is everything. Christ
first and Christ last, and Christ fore-
ever,
Why, this age is not so characterized
by invention and scientific exploration
as it is by gospel proclamation. You
can get no idea of it unless you can ring
all the church bells in one chime, and
sound all the organs in one diapason,
and gather all the congregations of
Christendom in one Gloria in Ercelsis,
Mighty camp meetings, mighty Ocean
Groves, Mighty Chautanquas, Mighty
conventions of Christian workers,
Mighty General Assemblies of the Pres-
byterian Church, Mighty Conferences
of the Methodist Church, Mighty As-
sociations of the Baptist Church,
Mighty conventions of the Episcopal
Church. 1 think before long the best
investments will not be in railroad stock
or Western Union, but in trumpets and
cymbals and festal decorations, for we
are
ON THE EYE OF VICTORIES
wide and world-uplifting. There may
be mapy years of hard work yet before
me 80 encouraging that I would not be
unbelieving if I saw the wing of the
apocalyptic angel spread for its
trinmphal flight in this day’s sunset; or
if to-morrow morning the ocean cables
should thrill us with the news that
Christ the Lord had alighted on Mount
Oh. you dead churches, wake up!
’ »
come in. Morning for the
Morning for the sea,
of emancipation,
love and peace, Morning of aday in
which there shall be no chains to
break, no sorrows to assuage, no des-
potism to shatter, no woes to compas-
sionate, Oh, Christ, descend! Scarred
take the sceptre!l Wounded fool, siep
the throne! *“Thine is the kingdom!”
you to be alert. I want you to be
watching all these wonders unrolling
from the heavens and the earth, God
bas classified them, whether calamitous
or blessing. The divine purp ses are
harnessed in traces that cannot Lreak,
and in girths that canuot slip, and in
buckles that cannot loosen, and are
preach no fatalism.
sald: “When will you get
ON THE LOCOMOTIVE
and take a ride with us?” “Well,” 1
said, ‘now, if it suits you.” So I got
on one side the locomotive and a Meth-
odist minister, who was also invited,
got on the other side, and between us
started, The engineer had his band an
the agitated pulse of the great engine,
The stoker shoveled in the coal and shut
the door with a loud clang. A vast
plain swept under us and the hills swept
by, and the great monster on which we
rode trembled and bounded and snorted
and raged as it hurled us on. I said to
the Methodist minister on the other
side the locomotive: **My brother, why
should Presbyterians and Methodists
quarrel about the decrees and free
agency? You see that track, that firm
track, that iron track; that is the decree.
You see this engineer's arm; that is
free agency. How beautifully they
work together! They are going to take
us through, We could not do without
the track, and we could not do without
the engineer.”
80 1 rejoice day by day. Work for
us all to do, and we may turn the crank
of the Christian machinery this way or
that, for we are free agents: but there is
THE TRACK LAID
so long ago no one remembers it; laid
by the hand of Almighty God in sockets
that no terrestrial or Satanic pressure
can ever affect. And along that track
the car of the world's redemption will
roll and roll to the Grand Central Depot
of the Millennium. I have no anxiety
about the track. I am only afraid that
tor our indolence God will discharge us
and get some other stoker and some
other engineer, The train Is going
through, with us or without us, So,
my brethren, watch all the events that
are by. If things seem to turn
out right, give wings to Jour Joy. a
ngs seem to go , throw out
por ok of faith Aud hold fast,
There is a house in London where
PETER THE GREAT,
Czar of Russia, lived a while when he
the land incognilo,
that he m
-
%
£3
Czar of Russia for fifty thousand dollars,
In it, the lathing-machine of Peter the
Great, his private letters and documents
of value beyond all monetary consider.
ation, And here are events that seein
very insignificant and unimportant,
but they encase treasures of divine
providence and eternities of meaning
which after a while God will demon-
strate before the ages as being of stu-
pendous value, As near as I can tell,
from what I see, there must be a God
somewhere about.
GOD AT THE HELM,
When Titans play quoits they pitch
mountains; bup who owns these gigan-
tic forces you have been reading about
the last few years? Whose hand is on
the throttle-valve of the volcanoes?
Whose foot suddenly planted on the
footstool makes the coutinents quiver?
God! God! He looketh upon the moun-
tains and they tremble. He toucheth
the hills and they smoke. God! God!
I must be at peace with Him. Through
the Lord Jesus Christ this God is mine
and He is yours. 1 put the earthquake
that shook Palestine at the crucifixion
against all the down.rockings of the
centuries, This God on our side, we
may challenge all the centuries of time
and all the cycles of eternity,
THE INCOMING FLEET,
A short time ago I was at Fire Island,
Long Island, and I went up in the
cupola from which they telegraph to
New York theapproach of vessels hours
befor they coms into port. There is an
opening in the wall, and the operator
puts his telescope through that opening,
and looks out and sees vessels far out at
sea, While I was talking with him, he
went up and looked out. He said: “We
are expecting the Arizona to night,” 1
sald: *‘Is it possible you know all those
vessels? do you know them as you know
a man’s face?” “He sald: “Yes, 1
the hulks, I know them
them so long,” Oh, what a grand thing
it is to have ships telegraphed and
i the wharf and welcome their long-absent
loved ones, So to-day, we
stapd in the watch-tower, and we look
off through the glass of
i fleet of ships coming in.
ship of peace, flag with one star of
lants,
mark of salt wave high up on the smoke-
stack, showing she has bad rough
THE SHIP OF HEAVEN,
of passengers, waiting for millions
more, prophets and aposties and martyrs
in the cabin, conquerors at the foot of
while from the rigg
waving this wav as tu
id we wave back
| tho mast,
are
{ knew us,
ough they
again, for
own households, Ours! Hall,
| Put off the black and put on t
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON.
BUNDAY, BxrrEMnER 18, 1588,
The Smitten Rock.
LESSON TEXT.
Mum, 21 : 1-13. Memory verses, 7-8)
Ss.
LESSON PLAN,
Toric or THE QUARTER:
Covenant Relations with lsrael.
God's
GoLpex TEXT FOR THE QUARTER:
Only be strong and very courageous, to
observe to do according to all the law,
which Moses my servant commanded thee:
turn not from to the right hand or
the left, that thou mayest have good suc-
cess whithersoever thou goest—Josh. 1:7.
Lessox Toric: Supplied in need.
Desperate Need, va, 1.85,
{ Answered Prayer, vs. 68,
\ Abandant Buppiy, va. 8-13,
GoLDpEX TEXT: They drank of that
spiritual Rock that followed them: and
that Rock was Christ.—1 Cor. 10: 4.
Lesson |
Outline:
Dairy HoxMe READINGS:
Num, 20 ; 1-13. Supplied in
need,
T.—Exod. 17 :1-7. Water supplied
at Rephidim,
W.—Exod, 16 : 1-15.
quails granted.
T.—Psa. 84 : 1-12,
withheld,
F.—Psa, 105
mercies,
S,-John 6
bread.
S.~Jolin 4
life.
Manna and
No good thing
: 20-45, Unnumbered
Jesus the true
« 30) Or
* a,
: 1-15. The water of
LESSON ANALYSIS,
I. DESPERATE NEED.
IL Desert Places:
The whole congregation,
comes into
i
i
He found him in a desert land
the waste howling wilderness (Deut.
32 : 16).
He...
(Jer. 17 : 6).
...a wilderness a dry land,
and a desert (Jer, 50 : 12).
Wandering in deserts and mountains
and caves (Heb, 11 : 38).
wilderness, and
They went. ...in the
found no water (Exod, 15 :
There was no
ir Exod. : 1).
Gringk
{ Deut,
3 i
Ay
where was no waler
a dry and weary
water is (Psa. 63: 1)
Yo rye
pahid
In
{the wedding anthem, Shut
| hearse and take the chariot.
up
Now,
#
is
{ aboard her, Tears for ships going out,
| Laughter for ships coming in. Now
{she touches the warf, Throw on the
i planks, Block not up that gangway
with embracing long-lost friends, for
you will have eternity of reunion. Stand
back and give way until other millions
{ come on. Farewell to sin, Farewell
{to struggle. Farewell to sickness,
Farewell to death, All aboard for
| heaven!
i
cl e————
Reason Why Men Whistle.
Whisthing was invented to give a
| man a chance to add a noise to the
| other nolses in creation. The other
| noises in nature are all attuned to the
| characier of the article that produces
| them, The breeze makes its gentle
! sigh, the brook has its peculiar sound,
| the storm has its crash and ils roar.
Everything made a noise in the world
except man when he was alone, A
man can’t talk to himself; it is idiotic,
although it is astonishing how many
people do it. A cough is not a very en-
joyable sound, and it irritates the lungs
to produce it. A sneeze always goes
with a cold in the head. True, a wan
can sing; thatis, he can .y Ww sing,
but if it 1s at all agreeable it seems
somehow to be wasted if somebody has
not paid an admission fee to hear it.
That's why women have such a terrible
reputation for talking. They can’t
whistle, and they have nothing to re-
lieve the restraint when they are alone;
so when they get hold of anybody they
make up for it,
But whistling was invented to con-
ceal music. You don’t need to have
music mn your soul to whistle, It is
simply the noise of a vacant mind,
The loud laugh of Oliver Goldsmith
that bespeaks the vacant mind applies
to a crowd, The whistle shows the
vacant mind in its solitary state. When
you hear a man whistle who palpably
does not know a tune, he is either a
i good fellow or a very bad fellow,
Did you ever notice that Jews don’t
whistle much? They haven't got much
vacant mind. When it isn’t needed in
their own business they rent it to other
businesses. But of all whistlers the
young gentleman going home about 1
o'clock in the morning, who whistles
“11 Trovatore” with all the band parts,
takes the bakery.
A Monster Trout.
A monster trout was captured re-
cently in the river Itchen, at Winchest-
er, weighing sixteen pounds two ounces,
and measuring thirty-two inches in
length and twenty one inches in circum-
ference. The bait was a live minnow,
and he was not landed till two hours
after he was hooked. Ie had haunted
That we 8!
cattle (4).
$41 34 3 ; w% 1 _—
mild die there, weand our
death {1 : 3).
death compassed me (2
Nam. 22:5
(Psa. 50 : 4).
My little daughter
is at the point of
death (Mark 5:2
onde
there.” {1} Mi:
fam’s death; (0
The righteous woman {1
in death.
2. “Would God that we had died.”
(1) Evils magnified; (2) Good mini-
fled; (3) Life spurned; (4) Death
desired ; (5) Faith extinguished; (6)
Sense triumpbant,
% “Wherefore have ye made us to
come up out of Egypt?’ (1) By
whose orders? (2) By what means?
{3} For what purpose?
il. ANSWERED PRAYER.
jam’'s life; (2) Mir-
Miriam's burial, —
in life; (2)
Moses and Aaron went. .
door of the tent (6).
Come before the Lord unto the door of
the tent (Lev. 15: 14).
Bring his guilt offering unto the Lord,
unto the door (Lev. 19 : 21).
The Lord came down....and stood at
the door (Num. 12 : 5).
Draw near with boldness unto the
throne of grace (Heb, 4 : 16),
IL. The Posture:
Moses and Aaron....fell upon their
faces (6).
They fell on their faces, and said, O
God (Nam. 16 : 22).
They fell on their faces, and were sore
afraid (Matt. 17 : 6).
He went forward a little,
his face (Matt, 20 : 39),
.. unto the
and fell on
fell upon
their faces (Rev, 11 : 16).
IL The Answer:
The glory of the Lord appeared....
And the Lord spake (8, 7).
As Aaron spake,....the glory of the
Lord appeared (Exod. 16 : 10),
Moses and Aaron went into the tent:
....and the glory... .appeared (Lev.
9:23)
He shall call upon me, and 1 will
answer him (Psa, 91 : 15).
Before they call, I will answer (Isa,
65 : 34).
1. “From the presence of the ussem-
bly unto the door of the tent.” (1)
Departing from men; (2) Going to
God.
2. “The glory of the Lord appeared
a Glory
Vell. —
. «+ « And the Lord spake.’
displayed; (2) Instruction
(1) Lowly suppliants; (2) Lordly
replies,
3, “speak ye unto the rock.” (1) In.
sensate rock; (2) Resistless com
mand; (3) Responsive streams,
Hi. ABUNDANT SUPPLY.
kL The Roda:
And Moses took the rod,....as he
commanded (9).
What is that in thine hand? And be
mid, A rod (Exod. 4 : 2)
And took the rod of God in his
{IL The Rivers:
a water came forth abundantly
Smite the rock, and there shall come
water out of it (Exod. 17 : 6),
Waters gushed out, and streams over-
flowed (Psa. 78 : 20).
Which turned... .the flint into a foun-
tain of waters (Psa. 114 : 8),
And did all drink the same spiritual drink
(1 Cor. 10 : 4),
1. “And Moses took the rod from be-
fore the Lord, as he commanded
him.” The rod of Moses: (1) The
wonders wrought by its use; (2)
The power acknowledged by its
use; (3) The faith shown in its use,
, “Water came forth abundantly,”
(1) A strange souree; (2) An abun-
dant supply.—{1) To supply need;
(2) To illustrate power; (3) To
typify salvation,
3. **The children of Israel strove with
the Lord.” (1) The parties at vari-
ance; (2) The points at issue; (3)
The results which followed.
LESSON BIBLE READING,
WATER FROM THE BOCKS,
At Rephidim (Exod. 17 : 1).
At Kadesh (Num, 20 : 1).
Early in the journey (Exod. 17 : 8).
Le in the journey (Num. 20:1, L
e., 22). hg
To meet necessities (Exod, 17
3 ; Num, 20 : 2-5},
To answer to appeal { Exod,
Num, 20 : 6}.
Smiting ordered (Exod. 17 : 6).
Speaking only ordered (Num. 20 : 8B).
Smitten in both cases {Exod. 17 : 6, 1,
e.; Nuns 20: 11).
Supply abundant (Exod.
20:11; Deut. 8:15; Psa,
16 ; 107 : 35 ; 114 : B),
Typical of salvation by Christ (1 Cor.
? 10:4).
’ 1
tL Le,
17:2. 4;
17 : 6 ;: Num,
8: 15,
LESSON SURROUNDINGS,
The unbelief of the people of Israel,
narrated in the last lesson, is severely
punished, At first the Lord threatens
to reject the people, offering agsin to
make of Moses a great nation {Nuom,
14 : 11, 12), but Moses pleads with God
in their behalf for the sake of the di-
{vine honor (Num. 14 13-19). The
Lord hears the plea, but announces that
the entire generation of adults which
| came out of Egypt, save the two faith-
| ful spies, Joshua and Caleb, shall per-
{ ish in the wilderness (Num. 14 : 20-39).
| Immediate death seerns to have been
{the punishment of the ten unfaithful
| spies (Num, 14 : 37). Despite this an-
| pouncement, and against the remon-
| strance of Moses, the people make an
{ attempt to proceed directly northward
{ mto Canaan, 1! are driven back
| (Num, 14 : 4045 In chapter 15 we
find directions for certain ollerings (vs.
| 1-31), an account of the stoning of a
Sabbath. (va, 32-96), and the
g s fringe of the gar-
ment by w Israelites were so
| long distinguished (vs, 37-41).
Another revolt is recorded in Num-
| bers 16. Korah, a Levite, and Dathan
land Abiram, two Reubeniles, gather
two hundred and fifty leading wen, and
complain of the assumption of author-
| ity by Moses and Aaron. Jealousy of
| the priestly dignity was probably the
| motive in the case of Korah, while the
leubenites may have fancied that the
{ leadership held by Moses belonged of
{ right to the tribe of the first-born son.
i The punishment of this rebellion was
speedy and awful: the earth opened and
| swallowed up the three leaders and
| their possessions, while fire afterwards
| consumed the two hundred and fifty.
| The censegg they had used in putting
their claim] to a test were used as a
| memorial of their sin and its punish.
| ment,
| Again the people rebelled against this
| judgment, and agamn rejection was
| threatened, but the intercession of
i Moses and Aaron proved availing.
Over fourteen thousand persons, how-
ever, died from the plague that came
in consequence of this revolt,
Chapter 17 tells of the miraculous
| budding of Aaron’s rod, the divinely
| appointed attestation of the validity of
his claim te the priesthood, In chap-
ter 18, tithes and perquisites of the
priests and Levites are again prescrib-
ed, while chapter 19 presents a new rite
of purification: the ashes of a red heifer
burnt by the priest, were to be used,
mixed with water, for sprinkling those
defiled from contact with a dead body.
It is probable that tie exigencies of
this time of mortality called for this
regulation; hence its place in the rec-
rd. Tre incidents of the present les-
" n follow.
soKadesh-barnea was the borderline
place where the children of Israel re-
belled against she Lord, and were sen-
tenced to a wilderness life for a genera-
tion. From a comparison of the differ-
ent accounts of the movements of the
Israelites, it would seem that this place
originally bore the name *‘Rithmah,
or “Place of Retem,’’—or Broom Brush
(comp, Num. 11:35; 12:16:13: 26;
33 : 16-18). And there 1s a trace of
this name in Wady Retem, near "Ayn
Qadees, at the present time, When di-
vine judgment was passed upon the
Israelites at this place (Num. 13:26;
14 : 20-30), it mught naturally bave
taken the name *“En-Mishpat,” or
“Spring of Judgment,” by which it
was known when Genesis was written
(see Gen. 14 : 7). After their sentence
to a nomadic lite, the Israelites seem to
have remained for a Jong time at
Kadesh, As the record stands: *‘So
ye abode In Kadesh many days, accord -
ing unto the days that ye abode there’
Deut, 1:40). This statement, indeed,
understood by some 10 mean that
yd
Mis
voornlatinn abo
regulalion avo