The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1894-05-11


There is one people amongst us who
are especially fitted by rcasC of hard
experience, to understand and appre-
ciate the lesson Of Israel's bondage.
They are men and women who thirty
and forty years ago, in their child
hood, used TO join with personal in
terest and real forelooking zest in
the plaintiff lay:
When Israel Was in Egypt land
Let my people go,
Oppressed so hard they could not stand.
Let my pc pie 90
Go down, Moses.
Way down 10 Egypt land,
Tell old Pharaoh
To let my people go
But there is not one OF us in this
body of flesh that does not know
enough CT the bondage of sin and Sa-
tan to enter with an ardent apprehen-
sion into the moral and spiritual IL
timations of Isl AL and Egypt.
POINTS IN THE LESSON.
Every man and his household" or
each man with his household. The
phrase refers forward to the catalogue
of the sons, which follows, and explains
how eleven or twelve men coul count
up seventy souls" also how in les.
tudu iNc HulOECu StIo lllc CulluTOH
of Israel grew to the number of 100000
souls. The seventy ment oned here in
clude only the men Gen. 16l: the
women and the attendants were doubt
10 extra.
"For Joseph was in Egypt already"
Therefore he and his two sons are in
cluded in the company who are said to
have come down with Jacob int Egypt.
These We, e, as Gen. 46: rs informs us,
sixty six. Adding Jacob and Joseph
and his two son', four in al, we have
the full number seventy, a kind of sa-
&C and ausp. cious numerIl.
The land was filled with them," i.
C., in the land of Goshen, TO which
they had been assigned. They were
people who kept Gods laws, and in the
hall millennium OF their bondage they
afforded the world spectacle of what
God will do, in the mere physical
plan, for those who serve him. Israel
was little world in Itself, separate
micrOc csm, whose legend read, IN the
words of the first Psa m: He shall b
like a tree, planted by the rivers OF
waters, tina. bringeth forth his fruit in
his season, his leaf a so shall not with
CT, and whatSCe .er lie doeth shall
prosp r.
"Now, these are the names" a kind
of original dramatis personae. In the
Hebrew copy of the Scriptures these
first words two words in the text give
the name and title to the whole book.
Come, let us deal wisely with Them"
| ]. o., discree.ly, or shrewdly. 1t was
| worldly prudence, sagacious so far as
earthly foresight goes. But God de-
strCys the wi dom of the wise" and
| brings the understanding of the pru
dent" 10 naught. So also God hath
chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise, an | God hath
chosen the weak things of the world
to Mound the things which are
| mighty, and base things Ct the world
| and things which @ despiSed hath
God chosen, yea, and things which are
| not, to bring TO naught things that are.
Hence, the more wisely the more un-
wi ely, the more weights the more
wings, aad even mans cruel wrath was
male to praise God. Blessed is the
of the ungodly, l. O., world ly wisdom
HINTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
"All things work together for good
to them that love God" Adversely as
we'll as prosperity, adversely often
more than prosperity. There must be
repulsiOn as we'll as attraction, some
thing to drive men az well as some
thing to draw men. In this lesson we
have shown to us the forces that pushed
the people out toward the land that
God had in keeping for them. 1t cuts
down deep into veins of Christian ex-
rcrience. How often God has led us
by this way, enlargement out of dis
tress. The Lo. d reigneth. Trust his
grace.
Israel was stronger peOp'e than
they of Egypt not simply in point of
numbers. They were strong in the
Lord and in the power of his might.
That IS strength that never fails.
you can take it with you, "a Israel did,
even out into wilderness country.
The sailors out on the sea liz thoir oren
beat would gladly have exchanged
with their more fortunate comrades in
the companion vess | Il twenty-,hou-
sand pound cask of gold for small
cask of bacon, but they woe MT abe.
Isra at the Eo1 sea proved her
trength and power over Egypt's boa t.
cd prowess and ability. 1t is better to
put trust in the Lord than in horses or
prices.
This new king knew not Joseph. 1t
was rather Joseph's Gcd that he did
not know. He was dealing with peo-
PIE who keep in their midst their
Heavenly Father We see now, looking
back, what Pharaoh, fire. IN his stand
point, could not or at least, did not see,
God in their midst. Some traveller has
beautifully described how, as you de-
part FRI IN the little cities across the
water, you can see from far distance,
still, the cathedral standing forth; and
the farther you go away, up to q GER
tain limit, the more distinct the out
lines of the house of Gcd. Other
smaller objects all receding from view,
there, at last, stands cut naught but
the spire pointing, like finger, toward
| heaven.
A.. L ----. arI-n- 20 LII "A