Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1902-09-13
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

THE LESSON TEXT.

for September 14s 19O2-Love
Ing and obeyiag God.
TILE LESSON TEXT
Oeut. 39.u-z1.l
IL For this commandment which com.
mand thee this day. It IS not hidden from
thee, neither Is II fax OF.
u It isnot In Heaven. that thou shouldest
say, Who shall go up for US to Heaven and
bring it unto US. that re may hear IT. ana
DO it2
u Neither is 1t beyond the sea. that thou
shouldest say, Who shah go over the se&
for US. and bring 1t unto us that we may
hear it, and do it7
IA But the WORD is very nigh unto thee
In thy mouth. and IN thy heart. that thou
nayest do It.
3 Is. See. I have set before thee this day
life and good, and death and evil;
Is. In that I command thee this day to
love the Lord thy God, to walk IN his ways
and to keep his commandments and his
statutes and bis judgments, that thou may
est live and multiply: and the Lord thy God
shall bless thee in the land whittier thou
goest to possess it.
II. But if thine heart turn away, so that
thou wtltsnot hear, but shalt be drawn
away, and worship other gods. and serve
them;
Is. denounce unto you this day. that We
shall surely perish, and that We shall not
prolong your days upon the land, whittier
thou paSSeSt over Jordan to go to possess 1t.
-. call Heaven and earth to record this
day against you, that have set before you
Life and DEATH blessing and cursing: there
fore choose life. that both thou and thy
seed may live:
20. That thou mayest love the Lord thy
God, and that thou mayest obey His voice,
ana that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for
that thou mayest dwell in the land which
the Lord sware unto thy fathers. to Abre-
man, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
GOLDEN TEXT.-FOr this is the love
of God, that we keep his commands
ments.-1 John 6:3.
OUTLINE OF SCRIPTURE SECTION.
The blessings and curses.,, Delff xviii
1sraePS obligation to God......Deut., xxx
encouragement to repentance.
God's commandment .Deut.. s0:I1-14.
TTNSE 9utg x liz: sO:l6~o
PLACE.-Land of Moab.
NOTES AND COMMENTS.
Conditions of National Prosperity.
The Book of Deuteronomy is large
~ given to enforcing the truth that
national prosperity is conditioned
upon serving God. Drawing near to
the end of life, Moses was anxious to
impress this truth upon the Israel
ties. Deuteronomy contains three ad-
dresses in which he sought to con-
vince them that their highest we'll
being depended upon their being faith.
full to the God who had brought them
out of Egypt.
The Blessings and Curses.-A most
noteworthy thing about the twenty
eighth chapter of Deuteronomy is
the oriental exuberance of its Ian
guage. Men of our time and race do
not go so much into details in treat
ing of blessing or curse. Success and
failure in all departments of life are
here connected with obedience and
disobedieace. In fact, to the Hebrew
mind all material prosperity was a
sign of Jehovah's favor, and material
reverses, of His displeasure.
Encouragement to Repentance
The two preceding chapters are in
the spirit of the law at it's harshest,
but the thirtieth chapter is full of the
spirit of the Gospel. AS in all Gods
dealings with men, penalty followT
sin without fail, so does pardon fol-
low penitence. Gods blessing once
lost is not necessarily lost forever,
but may be regained by ceasing to sin
and beginning to obey ". p. No con-
dition is too hopeless for such a re.
turn ". ~, and the restoration to ia,
vor will be perfect and complete w.
may be expected by those who desire
it ". g., and full happiness will sure.
ly follow Tvs. 7-1o).
Gods Commandment. = The com.
mandment referred to (see 11:22; 10:
| 81 is devotion to Jehovah. The ''for"
at the beginning is not used to con-
meet this section with what goes just
before, but with the general thought
of the duty of obedience, which is in
vo1ved in everything that has been
said. The word rendered ''hard"
means rather, too difficult (17:S). The
reasonableness and fairness of Gods
will as revealed to US by Christ, and
in the Ten Words of the older ,revela-
ton, cannot help appealing to the
thoughtful man. God does not lay
upon us burdens too heavy to be
borne, and His commands are given
for our good, not for His. All His
great laws He has in some way put
into our very hearts (30:14), so that
we should be conscious OF their right
ness if they had never been written
on the tables of stone.
Mans Duty.-The keynote of this
section is freedom of choice The
choice is presented first in the terms
of its consequences. Life and pros
perity follow the right choice, while
misfortune and death follow the
choice that is wrong. The choice of
good is the choice of obedience to
Jehovah ". 16). It's first step is love
for Jehovah, and that love will lead
to full obedience to Him. This sec
ton impresses again the fact that
whatsoever man soweth, that shall
he also reap.* With verse 10 begins
a final solemn appeal; an appeal as
solemn and as forceful to the present
generation as it was to that. Right
and wrong are before us and we must
choose. The great ST ought rises UP
in every mans soul, a witness that
| God is our life ". 2o) and that good
ness is really natural, not badness;
that the Fathers house and not the
miserable far country is really the
prodigaFs home.
ppTTTCu RpEUTTTES