The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1894-05-31
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.


rificed for u.s. II Cor. 5:7
The SECTION OF HISTORY. Chaps. II
and IL
TIME-B c. 1491, as the full moon Of Abb
talso called Nisan), the latter part Of March or
early In April Good Friday and Easter come
at the same time Of the year and are movable
feasts, the exact time Of which is calculated In
the same way as the Passover (Brugsch and
others think the date was about B. G. 13O0)
PLAcE.-The land Of Goshen, in Egypt The
wady Tumilat beginning near Ismailia, on the
Suez canal, and extending westward about
eighty miles. Marrow at the eastern end, 1t
gradually widens toward the west 1t was one
Of the most beautiful districts Of Egypt
PHARAOH was probably Menephtah, son of
Rameses H.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES to say. monu.
ment confirms the fact that Menephtah during
his lifetime lost his eldest son, who bore the
same name as himself. This prince, associated
with him on the throne Compare 11:5) is CON-
memorated on colossal statue of his father
now in the museum at Berlin. He is the son
whom Menephtah loves who draws toward MIN
his fathers neart; the royal SCRIBE the singer,
the chief of the archers, the Prince Menephtah,
the blessed, T. e., the departed
LESSON NOTES.
Pharaoh Hardens His Heart.-For
nine months plague after plague falls
successfully upon the Egyptians with
terrible severity, and yet Pharaohs
heart is hardened. In other places it
is said that God hardened Pharaoh's
heart. In what way? Much light is
thrown upon this question by an at
tentive study of the narrative.
1. Three words are used in the
original, all tran slated harden"
equivalent to make hard" heavy"
firm"
.. Harden is used nineteen times in
this account in which it is said eleven
times that God hardened Pharaoh's
heart, three times that he hardened,it
himself, and five times simply the fact
that it was hardened, and all these
words of the original are used in each
case.
3. In the narrative of what actually
took place, it is not till after the sixth
plague and the seventh use of the
word, that it is said that the Lord
hardened his heart, and only after the
eighth plague is the agency exclusively
ascribed to God.
Submission now would have meant
prudence. not penitence; and it was
against prudence, not penitence, that
he was hardened, because he had re-
sisted evidence, experience, and even
the testimony of his own magicians."
1t only means that for him the last five
plaques We're not disciplinary. but
wholly penal. "Callousness was fol-
lowed by infatuation, as even the pa
gans felt that whom God wills to ruin
He first drives mad. ."-Chadwick
4. God did precisely the same things
that he had been doing all along with
the express design of making Pharaoh
let the people go. The revolving idea
that God sends His Holy Spirit to hearts
with the express design of hardening
them finds no warrant in the Scrip
lures. The office of the Holy Spirit is
to soften and win the soul."-Johnson.
God did to Pharaoh exactly what He
in the beginning did to Moses, and for
the same purpose. se."-Robinson.
5. Everything God did was right and
good, and this good was used as the
occasion for Phar raoh to harden his
heart. 1t is the same to-day.
g. God made the natural laws under
which Pharaoh acted, and by misusing
which his heart was hardened Every
act of resistance and disobedience al |
ways hardens the heart.
z. When Pharaoh had hardened his |
own heart, so that there was no posi-
BILE hope of his yielding obedience,
then God, by His providence, by natural
law, perhaps by the withdrawal of |
special influences, let him go on in his |
high-handed and blind course to his
own destruction. This was the fruit
and punishment of Pharaoh's harden
ing his own heart. God never hardens
a willing and obedient heart.
The Birthday of the Nation.-Verses
1, p Now began new era and epoch
in the history of Israel. 1t was like
the motto on the reverse Of The United
States seal, "a new order of the ages"
1t was the birthday of the nation and
needed special commemoration.
Anniversary days. Q) The change
81 the year marked the great impor-
tance of the events il commemorated
(2) 1t brought to mind every year the
great truths and lessons of the events.
"Through the Constant Observance of
this ordinance, their literature, their
religion, their character as people,
We're largely nodded; and, in an age
when books were almost unknown, the
representation of this first
great scene in their history served all
the purposes which to-day are answered
by our children's histories and our pub
lie schools. Rev. William Taylor.
(3l 1t pointed them to God, as the
source of their national life and hope.
(1 1t ever reminded them of the priv
ilege and duty of beginning anew their
lives, of malSinga a new era, new epoch.
(ei For like reasons it is well for us
to commemorate the great days of our
lives, birthdays, wedding-days, con-
1t is well to commemorate
the great days of the nation and of the
church of Christ.
The Institution of the Passover.-Vs.
Bill. The Hebrew Pesach Greek,
Pascha) and the English Passover have
exactly the same meaning-to "pass
over" or spare-and they are derived
from the fact, mentioned in v. 13, that
the destroying angel would pass over
all houses whereon was the blood of