©he ©enfre jjßenwctflt. BILLBFONTE, PA. Tks Urgstt,Cheapest and Best Paper PUBLISHED IN CKNTHK COUNTY. From tbs Nsw York OlwrTrr. INTERNATIONAL LESSONS. Fourth Quarter. ST SIT. HSSST M. OSotT, . D. OCTOBER 30. Lesson s.—Nadab and Abihu. Lsrmct-i 1": I—lo. (IOLDra TsiT:—" Yt ilmll ls> liolj: fur lam holy."— LST, 11<. Central Truth i —The path of reverent obedience is the way of safety. The Tabernacle has now been set up, and Aaron and his sons consecrated as priest*. The services of the Tabernacle had also been inaugurated. And, to crown the whole, the glory of Ood ap peared to all the people ; and, tire de scending from heaven, consumed the sacrifices heaped upon the altar. It was at, or soon after, this lime that the painful eventa occurred which are nar rated in our lesson. Nadab and Abihu were the two eldest sons of Aaron. Tnis fact alone would make them men of note and influence in Israel. Rut they had also been spe cially favored of Ood. It had been per nutted to them to accompany Moses and their father into the sacred mount, and there to have a vision of Ood such as had never before been the lot of man. Just now, too, they had been solemnly set apart to the priest's office, and call ed to assist in daily duties about the altar. It was these two highly favored men who now fell into great sin, re minding us that none are exempt from moral peril, that the most highly blest may transgress and perish. Of the nature of their sin it ia simply said: "They offered strange fire be lore the Lord, which he commanded them not." The office may have had many aides. Their act may have beeo an as sumption of duties not belonging to them ; an unwarranted intrusion into the moat holy place ; an offering of in cense at the wrong time, or of other in cense than that appointed. Rut the particular point of the offence must have been the offering of other fire than that which had been divinely kindled on the altar. It had been com manded that that fire should be kept up, and that none other should be used for sacred purposes. The officiating priests were to till their censers from this. Nadab and Abihu dared to dis obey this so recent command. How they come to do it is not told us. Some have supposed that they were intoxi cated at the time ; and there is an inti mation of this in the ninth verse. Or tbey may have desired to demonstrate their independence and importance be fore the people. The one important fact ia that they trifled with God's sa cred ordinances and set their wills above bis command. The punishment of their offence may seem severe. And so it was. It was similar to that which fell upon I'xzah when he put forth his band to steady the Ark of God, and upon Ananias and Stpphira when tbey lied to the Iloiy Ghost. A lightning flash devoured them, and they died before the Lord. The reasons for such severity are in dicated in the narrative. The great and central one was that God "might he sacrificed in them that come nigh him that is, treated as holy and as having a right to command. Ur it was that, if men would not reverence and obey him. he might at least be glorified before the people in the punishment of trnngres aion. No doubt the offence was the greater for the dignity of the offenders, and the distinguished favors they had enjoyed. The more exalted the tinner, the greater the tin. Particularly offen sive is the sin of those who serve i n spiritual things. Then, the offence Was against a solemnly ordained divine ser vice. God is jealous of the manner in which he will be worshipped. He would have men follow hit way, not their own. There is a sacred intent and meaning in bis ordinances. We are not to depise them, or to seek to improve them. There i* pride and rebellion in si tempt* to modify and mend bis command*. God intended that the punishment of Nadab and Abihu should ttea perpetual warning against such pride, and a per. petual proof that be wilt be served with fidelity and reverent fear. The silence of Aaron was a rare ex bibilion of submission under the inighty hand of God. To bim God's lienor was dearer than his own flesh. It is revrr enee for God's law* which makes do mestic peace and comfort possible. At any and all cost the divine authority must be maintained. Therefore "Aaron held his peace." The prohibition of mourning bad re spect to the priests and not to the pie. It would have interfered with their sacred duties; moreover, the priests, being nearer to God, were spe cially set to maintain his honor. It was Incumbent on them to bear testimony that God's ways were good and just. "Aaron and bis sons were in danger of being too much affected with the provi dence, and therefore they are forbidden to mourn; the bouse of Israel were in danger ol being 100 little affected with if, and therefore tbey are commanded to lament." s There must have been some partial Ur reason for the introduction, in this connection, of the prohibition against wine and strong drink. It is not un likely that strong drink was the occa sion of the offence of these two men. And it Is noteworthy that the fact of their intoxication was in God's sight no extenuation of their guilt. It did not lesaen the severity of their punishment —a foot to be especially commended to modern judges and jurors. The reasons attached to the prohibition were that a difference might be put between things sacred and other things, and that God a appointed teachers might always be In a condition to discern and teach tbedi vine statutes; reasons which now apply not to ministers only but to every Christian disciple as a servant and priest unto God. |1 PRACTICAL SVOOUTIONT. 1. The children of good men do not always walk in right paths. Kaj| 2. To be a miniiler in holy thing*, whether i the pulpit or out of it, due* not exempt from temptation or weak new; it rather demands the greater watohfulneM. 3. Sin in high placea ia at onoe more offensive to God and disastrous in ita influence over fellow-men. 4. God iletuanda reverence and obedi ence in our worship ns well aa work. It 19 for him to any when, where and how we shall appeal' before him. To neglect Ilia house or to bo reckleaa in it is an of fense in hit sight. 5. Roth preachers and people may now oiler strange lire on God's altar; he plainly doe* this who substitute* phi losophy for the gospel or seeks by ox travagancies or eccentricities to com mend himself rather than utter God's truth; and so does he who sits in his pew witli wandering thoughts ami an undevout heart or does any duly in the spirit of egotism or self-display. 0. If we will not honor Ood by will ing service he will glorify himself by showing in us the perils of disobedi ence. 7. It i a great sin to bo brought un der the power of wine or strong drink, especially in those who minister at the altar of religion or in other ways appear to the world as teligious leaders or teachers. No man can innocently in dulge in that which so surely tends to destroy both body and soul. It is cer tainly right and safe to abstain. It. It is a privilege and aduty to be at our' best for any kind of Christain work and to shun whatever may make worship otherwise thau intelligent, earnest, fresh and pure. THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE. WAVNE's COMMAND IN TIIK vol* TO UN CAMPAIGN —TIIE MOVEMENT To Till l'E< NINBCLA. I'r m the riilll)phi Tiiuw On the 'th of April, 1781, Mnjor General Arthur St. Clair issued an or der, dated at headquarters in Phila delphia, for a detachment of the Penn sylvania line to hold itself in readi ness to march to and assemble immedi ately at Yorktown, Pennsylvania, as York was then called. The total strength of the detachment was to be 1,139, officers and men. The colonels selected were Walter Stewart, Richard llutler and Richard Humptou; the lieutenant colonels, Thomas Robinson and Josiah llarmur; the majors, .las. Hamilton, William Alexander, Evan Edwards and Thomas L. Moore. The list of the line officers is a long cata logue of noted Pennsylvania names. Wayne's effective command when he left Yoik was 1,175, officers ami men. The Pennsylvania line was to be re duced, January 1, 1781, to six regi meuts of infautry, one of artillery, one of cavalry and one of artificers, by re solution of Congress of October 3, 178U; and it was when this reduction was about taking place, ami mi at tempt was made to hold for the war the soldiers who had enlisted for three years or the war, that the revolt broke out. This was quelled by yielding the legal point and paying up back scores from January 1, 1777, to August 1, 17H0, whereupon tlie most part re-en listed. The Fourth and Seventh regi ments went to Carlisle to he paid off and recruit, the Ninth and Fifth to Reading, the Sixth Lebanon, the Third to Easton Second to Downingtown. AftejpMT detail came Colonel Walter Stewart rode into Philadelphia, with a brilliant troop of his brother officers, and was mar ried to the "amiable daughter of lllair McClenachen," as the newspaper, of that day have it. Ry the middle of May the quotas from the different regiments reached York and were put under strict disci pline and daily drill. Mutiny and dis obedience were summarily quelled by General Wayne. He had twenty-one soldiers brought In-fore a court-mar tial, of whom seven were condemned to death. A captain's platoon was promptly detailed and they were shot on the little rise of ground beyond York, ami the whole detachment wheeled by companies around the place of execution to view the Imm lies as they fell. ox THE M.tnrif. The command left York at 9 A. M , May 2<*>, and Wayne's last despatch before leaving, referring to the execu tion, was: "Harmony and discipline again pervades this line." The second day they reached Littlestown, Adams county, ntid on the 28th they marched through Taneytown, Mil., halting on the hanks of Pipe creek; then byway oi'Middlebury and Woodsborough to the Monoeacy, encamping on the southwest bank to enable the soldiers to obey Wayne's order "not to come to the parade dirty, with a long beard or breeches knees open," for if they did they went huugry the next day. Here General Wayne reviewed his battal ions. On the 31st they marched through Frederick and struck the Po tomac at Xoland's ferry, still a well known point. Here a sergeant and three privates of the First Pennsylva nia were drowned in crossing. June 1 they arrived five miles beyond the river, where the road from Point of Rocks comes into that from Noland's ferry. Names are more enduring south of the Mason and Dixon line, and those connected with the Army of the Potomac can easily follow Wayne's general course, even after he joined Lafayette and commenced to rigsag nbout Orange Court House. June 3 tbey halted at Chapel Spring, and then marched through Leesburg to Goose creek. The next march was along the east side of Bull Run mountains to Red House, or Coxe's Mill, as McCleliau calls It in his di ary; June 6 at Elk Run chapel, Fau auier county. On the Bth tbey crowed te Rappahannock, apparently at Kelly's ford, and on thellth the Rapi dan at Raccoon ford,six miles beyond which, at Orange church, they made the coveted junction with Lufayctte on the 10th. On the 14th they pussed through Isiuisa county —"damn poor county and water scarce," says the emphutic Peltmun; "saw a great many negroes, the greater part being naked." Passing through llauover county they marched through and ten miles beyond Richmond ou llio 22<1. Not insensible to earthly pleasure Captain Davis and Feltman returned to town "to play billiards and drink wine," ENOAIIKMENTH ON THE WAY. On tha 20lh of June Col. Richard Butler, in commund of n small ad vance light corps, came up with Bim eoe, who was covering the rear of Cornwallis' army, marching down the Chickahominy, and, as Butler says, gave him a handsome shake,with little loss to his own force. This is what our soldiers in their pension applications call the fight at ".Spencer's Ordinary," within six miles of Williamsburg. On the bth of July occurred the battle of "Green Spring," so called by our sol diers, but the Green spring was some what iu the rear of the battleground, which was nearer Jamestown. Corn wallis had encani|R'd near James' island preparatory to crossing the James river to Portsmouth, but had only passed over his advance under Simcoc when Lafayette's troops made their appearance. Wayne had the right of our line and with his Pennsyl vania troops was opposed to the Sev enty-sixth, Eightieth, part of the For ty-third, the Legion cavalry and some light companies. Ensign Denny i graphically notes the scene. As they were going into action Captain Samuel Montgomery says to him: "Now, El., for the honor of old Carlisle do not disgrace yourself." Coruwallis,aston ished at Wayne's hardihood, deployed ; the whole army to the right and left, advancing the above-mentioned troojw to meet Wayne. The hero of Stony Point was iu lull uniform, his horse prancing in front of the Pennsylvania infantry, his face glowing with pleas ure. He seemed to Ensign Denny,who j -t<><"l near him, to oe amused with the ' loss of his plume, which was cut oil j with a hall U|miu the first fire. Wayne boldly advanced his infan try under a heavy fire of grajieshot 1 until within sixty paces of the enemy, and, as Tarleton says, gallantly main < tained the action for some time, when, ! observing the main British army fil ing off to the right and left to surround him, he gave the order to retreat. His manieuvre, to use the words of an offi- I eer describing it, "though it may have the ap|iearaiico of temerity to those j unacquainted with the circumManres, < yet was founded on the truest military principles, and was one of those neces sary though dariug measures which j seldom fail of producing the desired effect, that is, iu confusing the enemy and opening the way to retreat in sight iof a superior enemy." His lorn was upward of ouc hundred killed and ! wounded, among the latter twelve offi ; cers. The more seriously wounded, Captain Stake, Lieutenant White and Captain Montgomery, went home. Dr. Ezekiel Downey, of the Sixth, was unfortunately drowned on the Ist of July at York river. ACItOSS THE JAMES. Prior to the action of Jamestown, Wayne was kept oil the left of laifay ette s army. 'I he latter, fearing a