The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1895-08-23
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
LESSON VII, THIRD QUARTER, INTER
NATIONAL SERIES, AUG. rs.
Text of the Lesson, Joshua III, 6-I7-Mem-
ory Verse. IL Golden Text, Isa. xliii,
q Commentary by the Rev. ID. M.
Stearns.

3. And Joshua said unto the people,
Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord
will do wonders among you" Moses died
and his body was buried. Joshua snc-
ceeded him. and having led the people TO
the river Jordan they are now about TO
pass over into the heart Of the land of
promise but how? for IL was harvest time,
and Jordan overfiowed his banks (verse
l5). When the Lord leads His people into
difficulty, il is that He may show His
power and be- glorifled in them. The one
thing for the people is To sanctify them
selves, or put away every semblance Of
evil, as on the night when they came out
Of Egypt they put away all leaven out of
their houses.
q. Take up the ark Of the covenant and
pass over before the people" The ark is
mentioned ten times in this chapter. 1t
was the symbol of His presence, and His
presence was everything. Instead of jour
neyinR in the midst Of them, as ordinarily,
IL now went ahead of them, and there was
to be about half "a mile between IL and
them, that they might know the way to
go, for they had not passed this way
heretofore Verse a.. We must take care
10 follow Jesus closely and fully for it
may truly be said Of each day, "Ye have
not passed this way heretofore
z. THAT all Israel may know that as l
was with Moses so / will be with thee"
Therefore He would magnify Joshua and
He did (chapter iv 14), and Joshua, was
honored because Of God with him. 1t was
God that was magnified, but Joshua was
the chosen earthen vessel The same thing
was seen in Gal. i, Is, PA, when in Paul
Christ was revealed, and God was glori-
fed. Paul's ambition was that Christ
should he magnihed in His body whether
by life or by death phil /, 2O).
s. stand sill in Jordan" The priests
bearing the ark were TO step into the water
ere il would divide oversees IL, 49,, not
as at the Red sea when the waters divided
ere the people came close TO them. He
guides us often one step at "a time and we
must take one step ere we see the next
one, and sometimes we must step right
into the waters. "when thou passest
through the waters, will be with thee"
y. Come hither and hear the words of
the Lord your God" This is the great
and fundamental thing-to hear what God
has spoken. Whatever mouth or hand the
Lord may USE, il is God Himself who
speaks and works. 1t was so in Christ
John xiv, l0); it was SO in the prophets
CHeb. i, /, 9; III Pet. i, 2D; it will be 80
still in every vessel that is wholly His
(Math. X, 90; Phil. ii, 13).
10. 1.-The living God is among you, and
He will without fail drive out from before
you the Canaanites," etc. All other ma
tions worshiped idols the works of mems
hands, but the peculiarity\ef Israel was
that their Lord was the tue God, the liv-
ing God, the King of eternity (.Ier. X, lO).
The dividing Of Jordan and every other
mighty work of God i'm Israel was that
Israel first and then all the people Of the
earth might know the hand of the Lord,
that il j. mighty and fear the Lord God
forever (chapter iv, pa.
IL. "Behcld the ark Of the covenant Of
the Lord of all the earth passeth over be-
fore you into Jordan" l think this is the
first time that in connection with the ark
the Lord il called the Lord of all the
earth. But lie is frequently called by
/ this Eanle a. we 20 on in the book Cps.
Xvii, 3; Iss.. liv, 3; Mic. iv, 10; Zech
iv, IA; vi, -. In Gen. xiv, 10, %, He is
the Most High God, possessor Of heaven
and earth" His purposes of grace are
worldwide, and they are worldwide in
connection with Israel, for see Is;,. xvii,
&; Mum. xiv, 20, p.
l.. Now, therefore, take you IL men
]
tribe man. The story Of these ~ men
is found in the first nine verses Of the
next chapter. Their commission was 10
take each man IA stone out of the midst of
Jordan and set them up in the first resting
place in the land. This they did az Gil
gal, and Joshua also set up ~ stones in
the midst of Jordan, where the feet Of the
priests stood (chapter iv, y, 20). The IL
under the waters of Jordan and the ~ al
Gilgal are very suggestive of our union
with Christ in death and resurrection. Old
things passed away all things become
new Gil Cor. V, 10.
ID. 1T shall come 10 pass" This verse
gives the promise and assurance The next
three give the fulfllment. To make the
promise as real as possible we must imag-
inc ourselves ON the margin of rushing
river i'm the time of u freshet, and as we
gaze upon the mighty waters one among
us says that us soon rs the feet of certain
men, duly appointed, shall touch the wa
tiers the river will divide the upper waters
piling up in heap and the rest flowing
away, leaving the bed of the river dry
Could you believe IA word like thatp
14l6 And il came 10 pass" What
God says Is Us good as done, for 1.-THE Lord
of Hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as l
nave tnOught, 80 snail III come To pass ana
Rs l have purposed, SO shall il stand lisa.
xiv, 24). And see .Jer. xxi, IL, in refer
ence To nothing being too hard or wonder
full for the Lord. Ii came TO pass exactly
as the Lord said IL would, and the people
passed over right against Jericho. The
people of Jericho had heard how the Lord
had divided the Red sea for Israel (chapter
ii, 1C), but now they saw for themselves
the mighty power of the God of Jacob.
Yet Rahab and her house were the only
ones who profited by the lesson. Some peo-
pie talk about the laws Of nature as il God
bound Himself always to he subject to and
work only under control of these laws
But by what law will river cease To flow
and pile its waters up i'm n heap and stay
SO for time? Instead of laws let us con-
slider Him who controls and is superior TO
all laws; who docs rs He pleases I'm heav-
en, earth and SEA (Ps cxxxv q, and has
perfect control of fire, air, earth and sea.
Say Lord cont ol me, too, for Thy glory.
II. The priests that bear the ark of
the covenant of the Lord stood firm ON
dry ground i'm the midst of Jordan. - They
did this until all were clean passed over
and everything was finished that the Lord