The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-08-17
Crossing the Jordan.
INTRODUCTION.

enter the land of which he had been
dreaming for century, and to see the
completion of his life work, though it
was on the very eve Of contamination. 1t
was bitter disappointment. And yet it
is easy to see that there was mercy in it.
Even Gods punishments of his people
are mercies. Moses had done the work
for which he was fitted. The task of
fighting and conquering and settling
new country required different talent
from his. And, besides this, our dreams
are never realized. Canaan was not
what Moses had dreamed of, or even
what it seemed to him from the top OF
Nebo; nor were the Israelites going to
be what he hoped and prayed. Had he
lived to cross the Jordan, to undergo the
perils and tolls of war, to find that he
could not control the fierce young people
who belonged to different generation
and different age from his. to see them
sparing the foes whom he had taught
them to exterminate, to see them led
away into the idolatries which he had
charged them to abolish, in short, had he
lived to lose his hold upon the people. to
find himself thrown aside as relic of a
former age, and to find the difference be-
tween the Canaan of his dreams and the
Canaan of reality, the old mans heart
would have broken. Better that he
should pass away now, with the powers
of life undated, the visions of his life
long dream undissipated. and nation
weeping at his departure. 1t was not
wrath, but mercy. which arrested the
feet of the great leader on the brink of
the Jordan, and gently closed his eyes as
they looked wistfully forth from the
heights OF Moab toward the setting sun
and bore him across another river into
"better country" beyond the sunset
DIR. J. E. ToDD.
LESSON STORY.
The crossing of the Jordan by the
host of Israel is one of the central points
Of history. Then the Hebrew nation
first passed beyond retreat. Its life de-
pended upon its achievement Of victory
over the possessors of its Promised Land.
The question may rise whether the his
torical conquest of Canaan is officially
Unsuitable. Had not the Philistines the
possession of their own Palestine? What
right had the Israelites to dispossess them
of their government and their homes?
The problem from the Christian view
point and in the realm of the ideal, is
confessedly hard of solution. But its
sufficient solution is in historical analo-
gy. Since men began the human strug
gle on the earth the weaker races have
made way for the stronger. And in the
scope of ages the stern law is for the
good of man. Those will live who de-
serve to have an earthly future. Those
who become negligent of the true sourc-
es of strength are mercifully consigned
to oblivion. Unqualified ethical con-
domination of the Israelites for making a
claim on Palestine when in the possess
ion of the Philistines, will scarcely, at
least, come with grace from the Ameri-
can who remembers what his own race
has done toward the American Indians
The crossing of the Jordan must have
been, as we readily perceive. an impos
ing spectacle. But it was. as we con-
ceive, an entirely natural event.
1t has become scholarly fashion to
say that the crossing of the Red Sea was
by the receding of the tide under com
pulsion of powerful east ind,-such
quent in the same Gulf of Suez. 1t is
no less scholarly fashion to find that
the mama was vegetable product of
the Sinaitic peninsula, such as the des-
ert has continued to yield to this day.
The mystical pillar and cloud have been
discerned by scholars to be the custom
airy aerial mass of smoke and mist how
ering over every great army, and which
from natural causes is dark by day and
luminous by night. In these matters
the magical miracle disappears in per-
ception of Divine providence in nature.
In like manner the crossing of the
Jordan is natural occurrence.
We have an impression which our
study Of this story has deepened, that
the original narrative of the crossing
treated it simply as natural event.
Some subsequent writer, whose narrative
is in our text combined with the original,
according to Hebrew fashion. tried to
give the religious significance of the
story. But so far as this caused the
story to be accepted as implying the
Divine disregard of the integrity of nat
ure, and represents Deity as magician
who does needless things for mere dis.
play, the real narrative has been marred
and perverted.
We rule out the magical element of
the story. In its natural explanation
we find its truest and grandest purport
Preparation for Crossing,-vs.
So.
The bringing Of the host of Israel to
the eastern bank of the Jordan at the
time of the harvest freshet, was mani.
testify good military strategy. The river
then from its height being impossible.
there was no danger of attack by the
Warlilxa frihac IF Gapaan Tbara moe