The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-09-21
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Sunday Study
VIEWING THE PROMISED LAND.l

The International Sunday school
lesson for Sept. q is found in Deuter-
onomy xxxiv, lip. This is the story
of Moses seeing the promised land and
his death. Various passages tell Of
this great desire of Moses to go over
into the land, his prayer to God that he
might be permitted to do so, Gods re-
fusal to allow him, Moses meek sub
mission and his request that some one
be appointed in his stead, so that Is
rael might not be as sheep which have
no shepherd. Observe that it was
Moses sin when he disobeyed God at
Kadesh in striking the rock instead
of speaking to it and thus failed to
sanctify God in the eyes of Israel that
kept him from entering the promised
land at that time. The Lord said unto
Moses: Il have caused thee to see it
with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go
over th1ther." When Moses pleaded to
be permitted to go over the word from
the Lord was, Let it suffice thee,
speak no more unto Me of this mat
ter" and that was enough. 1t was
lsraefS sin In murmuring and rebeAing
that led Moses to sin, but that did not
excuse Moses. Failure is seen in
Adam, in Noah, in Abraham, Isaac and
IL
and Elijah, in the apostles and every
where. The fifth, sixth and seventh
verses tell of the death Of Moses. When
Aaron died, Moses and Eleazar We're
with him, but not one was with Moses
when he died. He had often been
alone with God, on two different oc-s
;caslons for days and nights at a time,
but previous to this occasion he had
always come back to continue with the
people. Now in health and vigor of
body and in the use of all his faculties
ne went up into the mountain alone
and returned to Israel no more. Out
from the earthly tabernacle in which
ne had sojourned for 120 years Moses,
the servant of the Lord, went to live
+ with God forever. No sickness, no suf-
fer1ng, as far as we know, but he Just
closed his eyes to earth and entered
into the presence of God. He is still
there alive and well, and after more
than 1,400 years from the time of his
departure Peter and the others saw
him on the Mount of TRANSPORTATION
with Jesus.
The children of Israel spent may
days in mourning for Moses, and then
they listened to Joshua, who had been.
appointed to take his place. Moses.
however, stands alone among all other
for the last serves of the lesson say
that there arose not a prophet since
in Israel like unto Moses, whom the
Lord knew face to face.
A REMARKABLE PRAYER. a
The Christian Endeavor topic for
Sept. Fl is found in Ephesians, ill.,,
14-21. st. Paul was a man of prayer.
He not only prayed for himself, but
his prayers were constantly offered for
Christian people everywhere, and es-
pecially in behalf of the churches in
Which he was interested. He wrote
to the Romans that without ceasing
he made mention of them in his pray
ers, and in this letter to the Ephesians
is an illustration of one Of his best
prayers offered in the behalf of a
Christian church. This prayer con-
s1sts of preface of four petitions and
the following doxology: ''Now unto
Him that is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that
Worketh in US, unto Jesus throughout
all ages, world without end Amen"
AS a consummation Of all the petit
tons of this prayer Paul prays that
the Ephesians may be filled with all
the fullness of God" This is a peculiar
expression. 1t does not mean that 1t
is possible for the Ephesians to con-
tain the fullness Of God. They are
finite; God is infinite. It would be
absolutely impossible to confine in
f1nity in the limits of finiteness. What
Paul asks is that the Ephesians may
be filled with the same sort Of graces
and projections that are characteristic
of God. They could not contain in
themselves the perfect love that is
contained in God. and yet to the meas
ure of their fullness they could con-
tain the same kind Of love as char
acteriZeS God. The difference would
be in the degree and not in the quail
ity. The smaller vessel could be filled
from the larger one and possess the
same material contained in it, al
though it could not contain the same
amount In this sense Paul prays that
the Ephesians may be filed with the
fullness of God. He asks that they
may have the graces of character and
the qualities of disposition that char
acterize God. He possessing in per-
lection what they would possess in
imperfection.
The question asked in the topic is,
How is this fullness of God to be re-
ceived? In the topical reference it is
suggested by Paul that it is to be the
result of the possession Of the quail
ties which he has prayed for before.
There are four of these petitions. 1.
Paul prays that they may be strength
ened with might in the inner man by
the Holy Ghost. 2. He prays that
Christ may dwell in their hearts by
faith. 8. He prays that they may be
able to comprehend what are the
breadth and length and depth and
height of the love of God. A. He
prays that they may be able to know
the love Of Christ which passeth
knowledge.