Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1873-03-03
Prepared fer the Monitor. ,,
SABBATH SCHOOL LESSON FOR
MARCH I'd. 1873
eEs.gl9: l5-26. -Rscapr From soDo


This lessonIdescribcs one Of those great
and terrible events which teach us Gods
sovereignty and adherence Of sin. An
occasional lesson of this kind is profitable
though hard to study.
God had told Abraham what He in
tended to do to Sodom; that patriarch
had pleaded for the city, and his plead
ing is the most beautiful and thrilling
instance of microscopy prayer on record,
excepting the 9TH chapter of ST., John.
The angels had warned Lot, and Lot had
warned his friends. /
i Y. 3 The angels fastened Lot
Faith and piety were mingled with hu-
man infrmity he needed to be urged.
Perhaps We are too ready to apologize
for him but it was hard to take such a
hasty flight, and leave friends and pos
sessions behind. Even Christian faith
needs to be held up and urged forward
by a divine hand.
v. 16. Lot fingered. How much dis
appointment and misery are bound up
s in that word And how it magnifes
Gods mercy in the midst of wrath to
read that He took Lot and his family By
the hand and led them out of the city
Just SO the warnings of the Gospel do
not avail to move the sinners heart with
out a special work of divine mercy in the
still small voice of the Spirit
; V. II. The third angel, who had re-
manned to talk with Abraham, seems to
have Joined the group, and to give them
, another warning, speaking with author
a ity the startling words Escape for thy
life look not behind thee And it
I adds much to the force and significance
= of the narrative if we suppose this divine
person to have been the Angel Jehovah
4 Christ. ''Look not behind thee" This
} was the test of obedience ; and it was al
n so to express their adherence of the
q wretchedness of the city and their will
ingness to forsake all they had in order
: to save their lives. Here we are remind
# ed of Him who says to each of us, as
e cape for thy life" and who maketh it a
t. condition of discipleship, HE that low
eth father or mother more than me is
n
II II not worthy of me-"
- V. 1870. Lots faith was weak
h and wavering still. Filled with alarm
n because the mountains were so distant,
8 he asked for permission to flee into the
neighboring city of Zoar, pleading that
{ the city was little one ; his thoughts
" being that. as the city was small its sins
ne were comparatively small, and hence it
Id might possibly be exempted from the
III coming destruction. -ef
Y. 81. God pitied his infrmity, and
T. instead of Gliding him, as we might ex.
~ pect Him to do, granted his request. He
ks thought it not fit time for administer.
ut ing rebuke. The main thought fol
Ut Lot was '.Flee-escape = and with his
~ mind so full of that, there was not any
re. ruum for anything else. So the minol
ID point was conceded that the great lessor
ey might be we'll learned. Let us see wheI
OF we reprove others that we always do i
81 i'll good time.
~ Y %. God urged Lot again, and CAV,
DR. as reason the fact that it was for hi
ne sake that there was any delay in tn,
m coming calamity. Il cannot do any
s" thing till thou be come thither." Th,
III. word can is used in the moral sense
be He could not because He acoud nos
Oh just as Jesus could not do mighty work
he in a certain place. And what com
SIX ment is this upon the favor in which
IS God holds righteous man The mos
nd High condescends to represent His owl
7as hands as bound by His regard for tn
ct. welfare of such man, and He canno
loh punish the wicked till he is safe Blu
!, it would be impious presumption for u
at to use such language or advance such a
he idea, save as we find it in the Bible.
nd V %. Sodom's last day had come
18th and yet the light of the rising sun fore
US US BODIED no evil. Night is called the tim
nm of peril; day the time of safety; "
ca know not where danger turks, and whe
i'm our dream of happiness will end.
zee. V 24-25. We think it would be il
~ terestlng for us to know scientifcall
how the overthrow of these wicked eli
!, les was effected whether it was purel
nth miraculous, brought about by a liter;
the storm of fire and birthstone from heave
raj or whether the natural agencies of cart
an quake and VOLCANOES were enlisted to
lyei the work But in either case we mu
, &c admit miracle, and it matters not mo
the ally which view Is taken. Perhaps tt
it much time is spent in trying to sett
ufe such questions, too little in searchir
' ~ for real instruction. The great fact he
is that those cities and their inbabitan
:, were destroyed the whole region MAJ
oh desolate and as in the case of the dc
t is uge, we are expressly told that it W
'av the way God took to punish men for 81
ear ming against Him. It is therefore
low = type of the final punishment of the u
ome godly.