The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1894-02-15
TIE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

i
| GOLDEN TBxT-Shall not the Judge of ell the
| earth do rightY-Gen 1928.
THE SECTION OF HISTORY includes chapters
10 and 10
| PLACE Abraham was in Hebron at the oaks
| OF Mamre. Lot vas at Sodom
| TIME-B. c. 1897 not long after the last les
son
ABRAHAM ninety-nine years old rshmsel
| thirteen years old 4t4
LESSON NOTES. l.
The Three Strangers.-Chap IS:
1:19. One day, not long after Gods re-
newal of His covenant with him,
| Abraham (now ninety-nine years old)
was sitting in his tent door in the
heat of the day, when suddenly, look
| ing up, he saw three strangers near
him He Immediately went to them
| and welcomed them in the Oriental
manner. and entertained them with
the utmost hospitality. 1t was not
long before he perceived, by what they
said and did, that they were angels,
| and one of them was no less than
Jehovah Himself, in bodily form, the
God who had in some way appeared to
him five times before. The whole
presents a perfect picture of the man
| ner in which a modern Bedawee
Sheykh receives travellers arriving at
| his encampment. ,r.
These three strangers had two mes
sages to Abraham. One was that soon
would be born to him the expected
! heir of the promises. . The other that
| his nephew Lot was in great danger,
because Sodom, where he lived, must be
! destroyed for it's wickedness.
For Whom He Observation-Disclosures
intercedes first for Lot, the righteous
man in Sodom, and then for
the whole city, that the entire
population may be saved from impend-
ing doom. 1t was for his friend and
relative. who still persisted in living
/ in Sodom. 1t was for the vile men
/ who vexed the righteous soul of Lot,
and whose life and conduct was re-
voting to the moral sense of the
patriarch, for those who hated his re-
ligion and his God.
The Answer. prayer was an
, swered, though not in the way Abraham
expected.
/ () The righteous were delivered
from the city. (2) The prayer was an
swered in the destruction of the city.
, By that destruction righteousness was
promoted. Sin was bringing forth
death. Such vile cities would contain
mate and corrupt the race. The can
Ger must be cut out, lest the whole be-
ing be destroyed. Wild beasts and
serpents must be exterminated in or
der that the children of God may live.
The Escape from Sodom.-St. Peter
tells us that Lot was righteous man.
Let US not slander Lot and make him
out worse than he was because of his
many imperfections. The fact that he
''vexed his righteous soul' concerning
the deeds Of the Sodomites shows that
he was still alive to goodness. Pain is
sign Of life. When any part of the
body cannot feel, then it is dead. But
Lot was very imperfect good man.
No one seems to have been converted
to righteousness by him. He failed in
his power even over his own family.
He had SO lived that when he began to
warn the Sod domites they did not be-
lieve him. Even his prayer (9:19,
20) was vast contrast to Abraham's
prayer.
But he was SO much better than the
others, he had resisted so many evil
influences, that the two angels, from
Abraham at Hebron, came and warned
him of his danger. He fingered, and
they pressed him more urgently. His
wife and two daughters accompanied
him. The angels commanded them
not to stop long enough even to look
back, nor to stay in all the plain, for the
whole region was devoted to ruin.
Lots Escape.-Lot was saved so as
by fire, but he lost everything for the
sake of which he had gone to Sodom.
His wife and some of his children were
destroyed; the others were contain
mated. And yet no doubt it was
largely for their sakes that he pitched
his tent toward the fertile fields of
Sodom. He lost his home, his flock
and herds and all his property. He es-
capped, poor, forlorn, seemingly
broken-down man. The poorest in
vestment he ever made was in proper
ty in Sodom.
The Destruction of Sodom.-The To-
cation of Sodom is still undecided. 1t
was formerly thought to be at the
southern part of the Dead sea. The
main sea is thirteen hundred feet deep,
indicating vast chasm which must
have existed from very early period.
But south of the eastern peninsula,
which projects into the sea, the bot
tom forms a plateau on a very differ
ent level, where the water is but a few
feet deep, and in some places is capable
of being forded. This is, in all proba-
bility, the site of the buried CITY,"
The Physical Cause of Its Destruc-
tion.-The destruction of Sodom was
Gods act, apparently using, as the
means, agencies in the very nature of
Sodom and the plain, which was full
of slime, or bitumen pits (Gen. 14:1O).
The whole region abounds, in a pc
culiar manner, with bitumen, sulphur
and salt. 1t is probable that the walls
Of the city and of the dwellings, were
permeated and cemented together with
bitumen.
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS.
One privilege Of prayer is that thus
we can help those whom we can help
in no other way.