The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-09-01
The Sunday School.
Eesson Series tor 1883.
THIRD QUARTER.
STUDIES In THE OLD TESTAMENT.
September o, 1888.
LESSON XXXVI.-THE UNBELIEF OF
THE PEOPLE.
By REV. ROBERT t. POLK.
By REV. ROBERT t. POLK.
UNFATTnFUL PEOPLE.
Numbers xiv. 1-10.l

power dpDdTSubly AdnAtOotOA IL ehCfi OohoAAS
as well as bis promise declared by his servant
to Moses, to guide and protect them as his
chosen people. They appear to have forgot
ten the promise made to Moses, when they
were divinely commanded to go forward and
possess the Promised Land: 81 will send an
angel before thee and will drive out the in
habitants." EXODUS xxxiii. 81 The spies,
it seems, did remember that it was 90 land
flowing with milk and honey" xiii. 27)
but they,-except Joshua and Caleb,-and
the people, alike seem to have been unmind-
full of the promise to ''drive out the inhab-
itants." It would seem that if they had been
mindful of this promise of him who had SO
marvelously delivered them from Egyptian
bondage and destroyed their enemies in the
Red Sea, and had protected them in their
journey through the great and terrible will
derness they would not have been discour-
aged by the report of the spies concerning
the inhabitants of the land to which they
were journeying to possess by the command
of Cop, their King. But forgetfulness of
GoD in the providences of life is common
source of doubt and unbelief, and the occa-
sion of unfaithfulness to high duties and
neglect of grandest opportunities. From the
human, instead of the Godward point of
view, many of the problems of life appear to
be most discouraging. The Israelites appear
to have taken purely human view of the pros
pect of their possessing the Promised Land
and were discouraged. The hardships and
discouragements of life test genuine faith
in COP and reveal an existing state of unbe-
lief. Because of their unbelief that GOD
might not fulfil his promise to drive out the
inhabitants, the Israelites were not prepared
to possess the Promised Land.
DEsPAIR.-The faithless people were
driven to despair by the report of the spies
concerning the warlike character of the in
habitants of the land they had expected to
possess without effort or opposition. They
had come all the long weary way from Egypt
four hundred miles at least, by the route
which they had followed, in the hope of pos
sessing themselves easily of the land prom
ised to them; and now it appeared that the
possession would BIS holly disputed and that
instead of effecting rapid conquest they
would probably "fall by the sword" and their
wives and children be taken captive. The
prospect was indeed saddening. 1t made
their hearts melt (Deut. i. 2S). 1t was de-
cisive moment in their history and they were
not equal to it. Instead of being ready and
encouraged to advance, they were psralyzed
with fear at the s'evil report" The assembly
srsssntatives to whom.the report was
made, cried aloud in angui u the people
wept upon their pillows at hight instead of
slept, so bitter was their distress of mind and
heart. They complained of their leaders,
Moses and Aaron, who had persuaded them
to leave the land of bitter bondage for their
cody inheritance promised to their fathers,
and wished they might have died in Egypt,
or the wilderness, rather than to have been
brought to the wretched experience that ap-
parentIy awaited them. In accents of bitter
complaining and heartless unbelief they in
quired, why will JEHOVAH bring US into this
land to fall by the sword, that our wives and
our children should be made slaves by the
enemy?" and they cowardly resolved to re-
turn to Egypt 1t need not surprise us that
the people gave themselves up to despair,
The mass of them could have but little real
abiding confidence in the presence and pro-
lection of JEHOVAH the COB of Israel. They
ton or transformation of their religious
character. A year and half from genera
tions of slavery is not near long enough a
period to establish whole race in faith and
righteousness. A new danger and untried
hardships would cause them to murmur
against Moses and their COP, whom he rep
resented, almost as soon as when they first
encountered the fatigue and privation of the
wilderness. How far is our faith in advance
of the Israelites concerning the issues of ad-
verse fortune, beyond which we have already
experienced of Providence and life? Chris
tians often despair of undertaking new and
untried enterprises in the line of Christian
conquest, for the accomplishment of which
the promise of Divine aid is as positive and
emphatic as was that for the conquest of
Canaan.
The people had grown but little; they were
still in the school of fear; they were still in
the desert of despair; they we're childish,
spiritless; they had no heart for prayer; they
forgot the only thing worth remembering.
the pledge and covenant of GoD. Let us not
condemn them. 1t is easy to condemn an
cient Israelites and forgotten believers. How
stands the case with us? Precisely as il stood
with the people of whom We are now reading.
We are not an inch ahead OF them. Chris
tians are to-day just as fearful as the chill
dren of Israel were thousands of years ago;
they have only to hear of certain buiks,
forces, numbers, in order to quail as if they
had never heard of the Eternal God.
Men have gone out to search the land aud
they nave brought back this report: That the
land is land of darkness; the land is a land
of shame; there are thousands upon thou
sands of people dying of starvation, perish
ing of lack of knowledge, contemning the
sanctuary, shut up in avenues aud alleys, and
back places into which the daintiest clvlliza-
ton dare not go, young men gwen TO drunk
enness, bestlality and cruelty; women who
are concealing their beauty under distress
aud poverty and manifold shame; children
who have never heard the Divine name or
been invited to the Divine table; Christians
are few IN number; the DEVILS army is an
infinite host, dwelling IN great cities walled
and very strong, and the DEVILS men are OF
heroic proportion; their language is strong
and definite; their habits have il them no
touch of fear; they are valiant in their Mas
ter's cause; they care not whether they swear,
whether they drink, whether they do the
foul aud forbidden deed of unrighteousnesa
and untruthfulness.
Again and again we come upon terms
which might have been written this very year.
we are all men of the same class, with an
exceptional instance here and there; We look
at walls, we receive dispatches about the
stature of the people and the number Of
their fortresses, and draw very frightsomS
and terrible conclusions concerning mate
rial resources, forgetting in our eloquent
dispatches the only thing worth telling
namely, that if We were sent by PrOvldenct
and are inspired by the Living GoD and have
q true cause and are content to fight with
nobler weapons than gun and sword. ths