The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-26
INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL LESSON
Copyright, Davis w. Clark

be ar aegis under which they might shell
ter themselves from the wrath of their
former taskmasters.
While the carnival of idolatry. lust and
drunkenness, was at its height, the tow
ering form of Moses appeared upon the
clin like Nemesis. Well might they
fear the wrath of that meek man. All
unconscious. perhaps. of the symboIical
character of his action, he held the tab
let's of the law aloft, then dashed them
on the rocks below; thus giving for all
Tune the strongest possible emphasis to
the phrase the broken law" He broke
broken-one against image-making, the
other against adultery. Even IL this had
not been the case, the breaking of one
precept is the breaking of the whole law,
Next he attacked the image so costly
and venerated. Not one of that Jdola-
trous. lecherous, drunken mob dared ut
zen word of remonstrance. much less
lift hand In opposition. Moses may
have taken the granite fragments of the
broken tables to pulverize the idol.
Tine next step is one of retribution.
Defamation is the universal penalty of
muuny. Acting on that common law
Moses sends the Levites with drawn
swords, like an avenging cyclone, through
the hordes of naked idolaters. Enough
pay the capital penalty to open the eyes
| Of their sin.
Having done what mortal hands could
| do to reform the great evil. the media
| tor OF the old covenant hastens up the
| granite staircase of Sinai, into Jehovah's
| presence, and there with a patriotic emo
| ton that struggles to express itself in
| broken and elliptical sentence, inter-
cedes in Israers behalf with an abandon
and self-obltvion only equaled by Paul
when he wished himself accursed for his
brethren's sake.
The Teachers Lantern.
Hegel affirms that the circumstances
under which the law was given on Mount
Sinai amounted to an absolute enslave-
ment Of the human individuality by the
| majesty of the divine personality" The
| circumstances were confessedly dread and
| solemn, and appropriately so, but not to
| the extent of enslavement That event
| was OF the nature of covenant-which
| implies the free consent of both parties.
| The people of their own accord said. "Ail
that the Lord hath spoken, we will do"
That the people were not metamor-
phosed into religious automatons is evil
dent from their shameful lapse They
were perfectly free to recede from the
covenant which had been ratified in the
thunders of the mount. They actually
did so. o, the fateful element of self
hood which inheres in nations and indi-
viduals, and determines their destiny 1t
is dread gift, exalting the recipient to
highest Heaven, but making his fall to
lowest hell possible.
The gTfevous consequences of sin, Its
persistent and almost ineradicable nature,
have a startling illustration in this cir
cumstance 1t turned into a Hebrew pro-
verb, mo affliction happens to Israel in
which there is not some particle of the
dust of the golden calf"
The gold cure, after all is not so mod
ern as We supposed. Moses used it 5000
years ago when he made Israel swallow
his own god. AS Kie says, he poured
it into their bowels"
The utter futility as well as shameful
sinfulness of adopting measures of expe-
diency when moral principles are at stake,
is here exemplif1ed. The result should be
the strongest possible deterrent The des-
perately poor out" Aaron made at it,
Is a fair sample Of what comes of using
finesse in matters of morals. Right is
right. Wrong is wrong. There is no
shading off, no neutral tint between the
two. The cry is still, "Who is on the
Lords side?'