Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-05-30

I
sometimes escapes detection and pun
ishment in the end it incurs the right
eous Judgment of God.
The Lust of the Eye.
The first stage in Achan's fatal course
was what the apostle describes as 1.-The
lust of the eye" Achan's curiosity was
! excited. He wanted to see the wonder
I'll treasures which were to be conse-
Grated to the Lord. His first step in
! the downward path which ended in his
destruction was taken when he rose
from among his sleeping comrades. and
slipping past the guards. he wendell his
way among the shattered walls of the
| captured city. 1t was one act for
Achan with sword and spear and shield
TO fight his way into that doomed cap
ital. swarming with enemies, but ii
was another act. after the battle was
won, for this brave soldier to arise at
night and crawl past the sentinels and
begin TO examine the spoils which were
not his and by right never could be
his. 1t is one act, and a commendable
act, for a young physician at the call
of duty TO go down to the place of evil
resort in a large city to help some suf-
ferer Frustrated by physical infirmity
1t is another act and a very danger
Gus act, for q young man or q young
woman, actuated merely by an idle GU
riOsity, to join a Summing party to
look upon vice and gloat over it as
spectacle. Sometimes temptations come
to man in the ordinary walks of life,
but in nearly every case, as with
Achan, temptations to sin most sue
cesSfully aSsail a man when that man
is idling in place where he has no
business to be.
Let me illustrate my thought from
an old scene in the Bible. How often
has the downfall of David been the
subject of the pessimist's diatribe!
How he eXults over the spectacle of
the shepherd boy who conquered Co
Hath and climbed to the throne of
Israel, yielding to his infatuation for
a woman! Yes. yes" he says, men
are all alike: the best of men are vile
at heart. Here is the sweet psalmist
of Israel, the perfect specimen of noble
manhood, the man after Gods own
heart, so enslaved by his guilty pas
sion for another mans wife that he
Stays the husband to get possession of
her. No man is to be trusted
Why David Sinned.
Is that your idea of men? Then, my
brother and sister, you have not read
human nature Alright. All men are not
bad. But all men will be bad if they
do not stick scrupulously to the work
God has given them to do. The reason
David sinned was not because he look
ed upon "Bathsheba. the wife of Uriah,
the Hittite.' The reason David sinned
was because, like Achan among the
Jericho spOils. he was idling at home
instead of being with his army. In
the first verse of the eleventh chapter
of II Samuel we read the secret of
the whole sinful story: And it came
to pass after the year was expired, at
the time when kings go forth to battle,
that David sent Joab." That sentence
means simply this: When the time of
military campaign came-the time
when David ought to have taken the
field and led on his own troops to bat
tle-he sent substitute and stayed at
home. The beginning of his danger
was not in looking at Bathsheba, who
was the wife of Uriah, the Hittite but
in being, like Achan. among the Jericho
spoils in a place where he had no
right to be.
My brother, when God calls you to do
a work, he will always give you
strength to resist the sinful tempta-
tons incident to that work. But when
you go to place where you have no
right to go. you are liable to expert
ence that lust of the eye which may be
the beginning of a long succession of
other sins.
Young man, beware of the tempta-
ton to absent yourself from the post
of duty. Beware, when Sabbath day
comes around. if your minister does not
see you in the house of God. You may
say you are tired. You may say you
VIII stay at home and read the Bible
and have your devotions in your room
but beware. In coming to a large CITY.
do not let your new made friends en-
lISe NOu IHlO q SdlOOl, just W lOOh DIT
the beautiful pictures upon the walls,
and the expensive mosaics on the
floors, and the gorgeous rugs and the
fine set oanquets in the gambling halls.
1t is doubtful whether the step some
cities have taken of ordering the re-
moval of screens from the doors and
the lifting of curtains from the win
dOws of saloons on Sundays has not
its disadvantages. 1t enables the po-
liceman TO see whether business is be-
ing done in the prohibited hours. and
is so far an advantage, but it makes
conspicuous the decorations and at
fractions OF those places. and so tends
to allure passersby to visit them when
they are open. SIN so often begins in |
the looking on temptation that the
safest course for every one is to avoid |
the spectacle of it as far as possible
Achan's First Step.
Achan'S ''eye STEP" in the next place |