The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-11-29

international Sunday School Lesson
for Dece mber I, 1901.
BY REV. FRANKLIN B. DWIGHT.
EXODUS III: 1-12.
The Call of Moses.

The Call of Moses.
have passed. Moses, whom we saw
then as an infant, is now an old man.
And yet he is just entering upon his
life work Forty years have been
spent IN Egypt, where as the adopted
son of the Egyptian, princess he rec
ceived full education in all the arts
and sciences then known to the most
advanced civilization. But notwith-
standing the attractions of the court,
he could not forget that he was He
brew and so acting by faith in God
Heb. XII :24) he refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He
cast in his lot with his own people.
He chose to suffer affiiction with
them rather than to enjoy the sinful
pleasures of the heather court. His
first attempt to help the Tsraelites
have had any Divine warrant. He
slew an Egyptian and hid his body in
the sand. Then he strove to settle a
dispute between two of his own peo-
pie, but they did not recognize his
leadership, and fearing detection on
account of his first rash act, Moses
A6u HUI U11Olhn 1uu WAS D1l6E0 1OIbY
years. God prepares men for great
life work partly by study, partly by
contact with other men and partly
by opportunities for quiet communion
with Him. Moses had all these, and
his forty years in the wilderness of
Sinai was not the least important of
the schools through which he passed.
He entered that school rash and head
l4o 1%EA H. -.
this lesson, with spirit of humility
and dependence on God, not trusting
in his own strength, but looking to
the Lord Jehovah who said, "Cer-
tainly / will be with thee.
We are told that "Moses kept the
flock of Jethro," his father in law.
Most commentators agree that we
should understand this to mean his
brotheri law, !" as by the account
in the last chapter Reuel was his
father-in-law, and the word in the
original is often so rendered.
And now we can see the shepherd
leading his kinsman's fiocks through
the desert to the uplands of Horeb,
where it is said by travellers there
was good grazing. Horeb was a name
given to part of the great Sinaitic
range just as Mt Kemble is a
part of what we know in our own
neighborhood as Basking Ridge.
All at once he pauses. Here is a
strange sight. An acacia bush is on
fire, but 10, as he watches, it is not
burned up. The bright flame burns
on, but the bush remains. Here GER
tainly is miracle, the bush is not
consumed. And so Moses draws near
to examine, and then we are told
the Angel of Jehovah spoke to him
from the flame of fire out of the
midst of the bush. - This is very
wonderful. 1t is not quite clear
whether there was an appearance of
an angel in bodily shape, or whether
there was only a voice which spoke in
tones which could be plainly under
stood; Draw not nigh hither; the
place whereon thou standest is holy
ground. = 1t is more probable think
that there was only a voice, but that
voice was the voice of the eternal
Son of God who long before he took
upon Him the form of man and was
born as an infant appeared many
times as the angel or Messenger Of
Jehovah to the people of Israel.
These appearances were probably
sometimes In the form OF a created
angel, as in the appearance to Joshua,
and sometimes in a manner which
we can neither understand nor de-
scribe but which it is plain were rec
ognized by those who beheld them as
manifestations of the Eternal Word,
the unchanging expression of the
Divine Being. the brightness of the
Fathers glory and the express image
of His person. Moses was to put
off his sandals This was an act
which symbolized the putting away
of the defilements of earth on draw
ing near to God. We now uncover
the head as we engage reverently in
Divine worship, but the Eastern GUS
tom was in some ways more sugges-
tive. It was "holy ground where
Moses stood because God, in pecul-
lar sense, was there. The Old Testa-
ment localized the Divine presence
but the New Testament teaches that
wherever two or three are met in the
name of Jesus He is present with
them. Our reverence then should be
continual, and our sense of Gods
presence confined to no special places.
Jesus where'er Thy people meet,
There they behold Thy mercy seat,
Il. 4. Il TYt- nh