The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1900-01-26


order that he may get his courage up
and he may rally his troops and get
them drilled for greater conflicts; hut
this first undertaking of Joshua was
greater than the leveling of Fort Pull
ask, or the laundering down of Glib
raltar, or the overthrow of the Bastille.
1t was the crossing of the Jordan at
the time of the spring freshet. The
SHOWS of Mount Lebanon had just
been melting and they poured down
into the valley, and the whole valley
was q raging torrent. So the Canaan
| ties stand on one bank and they look
across and see Joshua and the Israel
| ties, and they laugh and say: Aha!
aha. they cannot disturb us until the
freshets fall; it is impossible for them
to reach u.s." But after awhile they
| look across the water and they see 4
movement in the army of Joshua. They
say, whats the matter now? Why,
there must be panic among these
troops, and they are going to fly, or
perhaps they are going to try to march
across the river Jordan. Joshua is a
| lunatic." But Joshua, the chieftain or
the text, looks at his army and cries:
Forward, march," and they start for
the bank of the Jordan.
One mile ahead go two priests car
rying a glittering box four feet long
and two feet wide. 1t is the Ark of the
Covenant. And they come down, and
no sooner do they just touch the rim Of
the water with their feet, than by an
Almighty fiat, Jordan parts. The army
of Joshua marches right on without
| getting their feet wet, over the bottom
of the river, a path Of chalk and brok-
en- shells and pebbles, until they can
get to the other bank. Then they lay
hold of the oleanders and tamarisks
and no sooner have they reached the
bank thirty or forty feet high, and
having gained the other bank, they
clap their shields and their cymbals.
and sing the praises of the God OF
Joshua. But no sooner have they
reached the bank than the waters be-
gin to dash and roar, and with a ter
rife rush they break loose from their
strange anchorage. Out yonder they
have stopped, thirty miles up yonder
they halted. On this side the waters
roll off toward the salt sea. But as
the hand of the Lord God is taken
away from the thus uplifted waters
waters perhaps uplifted half a mile
as the Almighty hand is taken away,
those waters rush down, and some OF
the unbelieving Israelites say: Alas,
alas, what a misfortune! Why could
not those waters have stayed parted?
! back. Oh, Lord, we are engaged in Il
risky business. Those Canaanites may
eat us up. How if we want to 60
back? Would it not have been a more
complete miracle if the Lord had part
cd the waters to let us come through
and kept them parted to let US so
back if we are defeated?" My frienrc,
God makes no provision for Christ
ian's retreat. He clears the path all
the way to Canaan. To go back is 20
die. The same gatekeeper that swings
back the amethystine and crystalline
through, now swing shut the amethyst
inc and crystalline gate Of the Jor-
dan to keep the lsraelites from going
back. | declare it in your hearing to-
day, victory ahead, water forty feet
deep in the rear. Triumph ahead,
Canaan ahead; behind you death and
darkness and woe and hell. But you
say, why didn't those Canaanites,
when they had such splendid chance
standing en- top of the bank thirty
But this is no place for the host to
stop Joshua gives the command,
Forward, march," In the distance
there is a long grove of trees, and at
the end of the grove is a city. 1t is a
city of arbors, a city with walls SEEM
ing to reach the heavens, to buttress
the very sky. 1t is the great metropo-
| lis that commands the mountain pass.
1t is Jericho. That city was after
ward captured by Pompey, and it was
afterward captured by Herod the Great,
and it was afterward captured by the
Mohammedans; but this campaign the
Lord plans. There shall be no swords,
no shields, no battering ram. There
shall only be one weapon of war; and
| that a rams horn. The horn of the
slain ram was sometimes taken and
holes were punctured in it, and then
the musician would put the instrument
to his lips, and he would run his fin
| gers over this rude musical instrument,
and make a great deal of sweet har-
mony for the people. This was the
only kind of weapon. Seven priests
were to take these rude rustical must
cal instruments, and they were to go
around the city every day for six days
once a day for six days, and then on
the seventh day they were to go around
blowing these rude musical instru-
ments seven times, and then at the
close of the seventh blowing of the
rams horns on the seventh day the
peroration of the whole scene was to
be shout at which those great walls
should tumble from capstone to base.
Joshuas troops may not halt here.
| The commands Is: Forward, march,"
t.. - 4 4.