The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-27
Third Quarter; Lesson XIII; Sep
 tember 2S, 1902.
Review of the Third Quarter.

IsCVlCW OL Luc 1h1lu 0ue%A sSA'
 The grandeur of Moses can not be ex- aggerated. He towers sublimely from any angle: physical or mental, ethical or splT- itual. No wonder dreaming of him, An gelo created the most terrific ana nooIe thing ever done with chisel, ana cow ley wrote his greatest poem, ana Loru Macaulay used his consummate art III words.
 A peoples proverbs are often whole biography in epitome. Jewish proverns concerning Moses are: "When the taie
 of the bricks is doubted, then comes Moses" and From Moses to Moses tMai. monides) there is none like Moses. Moses name survives to this day m the wells, mountains and valleys Of the wilo- erness The earliest literature Of his na- tion also bears his name. He is syn onym for the law he gave, thus the com mon phrase is, Moses and the prophets. The nation is said to have been baptized to him in the Red Sea. Very significant
 ly the Mussulman give him the surname, .the spoken to by God.
 It is apt to be forgotten that among
 the number of functions he was not by any means insignificant as military commander. He was Joshua's teacher in
 the art of war and was himself a great,
 coura geous, and skilful soldier, of which
 his campaigns against Sihon, Og and
 Amalek are in evidence.
 Though the meekness of Moses has
 passed into a proverb, it is probably
 not more true that he was pre-eminently
 meek" than that he had horns. Bot l
 ideas probably arise from mis-transla-
 tions. In the Vulgate the word for ray
 stands cornutan, as Is well known. Mi
 chael Angelo has perpetuated this odd
 error in his statue of Moses in St. Peter
 in Chains. On the other hand. This man
 who dashed the Egyptian to death and
 the long tables to fra gments could hard
 ly be called meek. A better translation
 would be "disinterested." Of this noble
 quality there is abundant evidence. It is
 this which makes Moses not only, as mas
 been said, the most complete example or
 Jewish patriotism, but of patriotism uni
 versaIly. If his people can not be for
 given for their sin, he prays that ne
 may himself be plotted out of Jehovah book. More than once he foregoes the opportunity to become the founder of a new empire by the displacement Of his own race. He does not nominate any son of his to be his successor, but in dying prays Jehovah to set the best and wortnl- est man over the congregation.
 ls In that early era when men groped in darkness, Moses stood for two illumnat ing truths. The first concerned the Dl- vine nature. It affirmed the unity, spif- | itua lity, holiness and beneficence of God. | This was an incalculable gain to human | ity and an immeasureable advance upon | the dominant polytheism. It was the knel of the pantheon of cruel and lustful | deities. The second great truth related | to human nature, and affirmed love to be | the essential bases of the social life. It | seems almost incredible that such an | ethical principle could have been first | irradiated in such an age There was | nothing in the natural environment of | Moses to suggest and inculcate it. It Is l easy to believe he had 1t from God. These | are the splendid truths which carry over | from the Old Testament into the New | with their full weight and are the heart and soul of it. The Divine nature, love; | the human duty, love to God and man. | But the Pentateuch is not mere 'Mo- | sald' This towering personality does
 not absorb everything into himself Here | is the evolution of a nation, a law, a
 creed. and worship. As such this lit | erature is worthy of that absorbed and l admiring study which it has never failed | to receive. The astonishing exodus of the | enslaved people, their escape from bond. | fascinates the reader like a romance. Ii
 was as if they received their christening | as nation in the sea which opened fol | their passage. Egypt was the furnace | where, in the fellowship of suffering, they | had been fused into the solidity of ma | tional form. The wilderness was Gods
 schoolhouse, where they were further
 taught and trained. There he Suffered | their manners with infinite patience l their "murmurings" and their shameful l apostaSy in their return to the worship | of the Egyptian Apis. All the instruction | of Egypt and the wilderness is, as | | were, concerted in the Decalogue. These | ten words are the basic principles frotr | which all human codes have since bea- | developed. Like the steel frame whicl | holds a towering structure together, tht | Ten Commandments are the invisible