Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-09-28
LESSONS REVIEWED.
THIRD QUARTER OF THE INTER-
NATIONAL SERIES CLOSED.

Lessor XIV, for Sept. so, 1sss-Topic,
the Forty Years Wandering In the
Wilderness Of Stakeholder Text, John
4, 10.
The Second Quarter closed the mission of
Christ with an exposition Of His great COM
mission to His disciples, to "Go and teach all
nations" an injunction which passed to their
successors and rests upon the Christian world
today. The Third Quarters lessC.Is relat to
Gods dealings with Israel and the settlement
OF the chosen people In the Holy Land-the
action which prepared the scene md laid the
foundation for the establishment OF Christ's
earthly kingdom.
The lesson for July 1 turns upon the
awfully sublime promise, as quoted in Heb.
viii, 10; II will be to them a God and they
shall be to me a people" This Is, indeed, a
Golden Text" Then follows from Elk.
xiv, LIZ the announcement and formal
ratification of Gods covenant with the chill
dren of Israel, at the foot Of Mount Sinai.
From Egypt to Sinai the people had been
taught Gods power; In the giving of the law
they were shown His majesty as law giver;
they now received q glimpse of His character
in the dispensaton of grace 1t was but q
glimpse. 1t was the first covenant The
last was to be manifest in Jesus Christ The
people accepted the first MI there was
a universal confession Of faith, and in the
erection of the twelve pillars and the sacrifice
offerings the covenant WIS ratified. Most
appropriately the ratification closed with an
awfully sublime visitation. Moses and Aaron,
Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders
Of Israel went UP into the mountain and
there had a Vision Of the "God of Israeli
certain by O symbolic vision, a show of kind
ness, unlike hat of terror at Sinai. This
done, their long probation begun, the train
Of events to terminate In the incarnation of
Christ
The second Sunday Of the quarter brings
US to the first great apostasy, only forty days
after the covenant And In that apostasy
Aaron was a participant; he took their
golden and fashioned the golden
calf, and they danced around it with the
foolish notion that they were w~orshiping
their God 1t was a result Of the force of
habit For 400 years they had been slaves to
an idolatrous people, a people who worshiped
the Sacred Bull, Apis" and when Moses
was long absent b old idolatrous feeling re-
turned Many generations passed before the
hebrews were entirely purged of this idola-
trous faint Again and again were they
scourged, again and again did God bring
them into bondage to their enemies; yet their
rulers again led them into idolatry, and
Jeroboam finally completed the division of
their nation by setting up a golden calf.
But the cure was thorough at the last Idol
airy was 30 thoroughly driven from the
Jewish mind that all the power OF Rome
could not compel them to admit the images
of heathen gods into heir public places.
Moses, at Gods command, no doubt, inflicted
on them a terrible punishment
In the third lesson Moses receives q re-
markable assurance Of the renewal Of Gods
favor n a promise Of His continued pres
enca The next lesson gives a pleasing Illus
tratton OF the peoples willingness to serve
God. They give their choicest possessions as
free gifts for the tabernacle. Of this giving
the text of Elk xxxv 1923, informs us that
1t was prompt, willing, even enthusiastic;
thai it was abundant and according 10 each
ones ability. The last lesson for July QIx.
Il, LILO gives the final arrangement Of the
tabernacle and directions to the priests Just
a year bad elapsed since tho Israelites left
Egypt, and their first anniversary was cele-
brated by the setting up of the tabernacle.
1t was their national day, their day of de
liverance, their religious festival and their
day of prayer and reconsecration. 1t was
not only all to them that the Fourth of July
is to Us, but all that Thanksgiving, Christ
MAJ and New Years are and all that the
memorial days OF various orders and dem
onStratiOns are to their melnbe 1t was all
this, because in Israel government and re-
ugion were In one patriotism and piety
flowed in the same channel, and God
was their King. Hence idolatry was not
merely "a sin as with us-it was the deadliest
treason, and like other forms of treason was
most justly punished with death. In the
Holy OF HOLES was placed the Ark Of the
Testimony" al oblong chest which held the
two tables Of stone, a pot Of manna and
AarouS rod that budded The cover was
OVERHEAD with pure gold, and in the ends were
the two wonderful cherubim with wings out
spread towards each other over the Mercy
Seat the top OF b ark. The symbolic force
and beauty OF all this Is subtme. Over this
ark, over the Mercy Seat, resued the glory of
the Lord; here wns Ills visible presence, as
far as He dagned to manifest Himself, and
here no communicated with the High Priest
who entered the holy Of Holes once a year
with the blood Of atonement and the golden
censer. The Lord had before spoken out Of
the mount; henceforth He ''called unto
Moses and spake INTO him out OF the Taber-
~ "a OO SOL6tebdt<Oi l1txktlOIt 1lS
was to speak oftener as the God Of grace call
ing to the Mercy Seat
In the next lesson Qev. 1, 10 we find the
directions for burnt offerings, and in the
next IN exposition of the symbo-he great
lesson that without the shedding OF blood
is no remission" A sinful priest cannot
make a~toneunent for a sinful people; so the
first atonement was for the high priest
himself. After the atonemant, the insti-
tuition of the priesthood and the removal
Of mora and ceremonial u-ncleanness, natur-
ally comes the Feast of Tabernacles, which
was studied in the lesson for August 10 LEV.
xiii, $40 and having completed the eccle-
s~tastical organization, the narrative at
this point suddenly changes, and through
the book of Numbers is historical and
statistical Pour lessons are occupied
with accounts Of the cowardly unbe-
lief OF the people IN the matter of the
spies, their awful sentence 70 death In the
wilderness, and the forty years wandering
that was to make a truly brave and faithful
people, and finally the disappointment Of
Moses In being deprived Of the privilege of