The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1904-11-24
Worlds Temperance Lesson.

i@pllI aim Il leTllie Y.
stretching across the heart of .Pales-
tine from the Mediterranean to the
Jordan. In the midst stood Samaria,
the capital, on a commanding .emin-
ence. The tropical luxuriance of the
valleys hung about it like thebaccha-
nalian garland on the brow of the
banqueter. And its exuberance was
as evanescent for its glorious beauty
was fading flower. Destruction was
at hand.
The capital, court, and people were
enslaved to drink. Under its subtle
delusion they were in perfect ease.
With the prOverbial stupidity of the
drunkard, they felt perfectly safe,
trusting in the mountain fastness OF
Samaria. With sense of justice blunt
ed by the use of intoxicants, and
their basest passions infamed, they
oppressed the poor and crushed the
needy. With the Unsuitable thirst
which the use of alcoholic liquors
always begets, they kept crying,
Bring, and let us drink''-the Sauna
ritan equivalent to our modern bacch-
anal, Here's health to you" Amos
vi, H.
But the judgments of God are
abroad. The irresistible Assyrian,
Shalmaneser, mighty and strong, is
Gods instrument of wrath He looks
upon Samaria like peculiarly tempt
ing morsel;..like a fig ripe in June, so
rare and succulent that one swallows
it as soon as it is in his hand; does
not even think of laying it aside to
preserve it or eat it at his leisure His
coming will be like tempest of hail,
Il destroying storm, "A flood of waters;
figures peculiarly impressive in that
latitude, where in an hour the dryest
water-course becomes an awful tor
rent. This prophecy had its literal
fulfiIlment 721 b. c., in the ninth
year of Hoshea, king of Israel. The
country was rayaged by the Assyri-
ans under Shalmaneser, and Israel
deported into the cities of Assyria
and Media. q Kings xvii, 9-12D
The prophet now turns from Israel
to Judah. He contrasts the imper-
ishable crown and diadem1 glorious
and beautiful, rewards of piety, on
the brow of Judah, the righteous and
faithful residue, with the fading gar
land of voluptuOus pleasure on the
brow of drunken Ephraim. God shall
help Judah sjudges on the bench and
her warriors at the gate. This has
been APPLY called Messianic pendant
to the foregoing picture of Samaria's
fail
But Judah. too is not free from this
degrading sin. Even her priests and
prophets are infected with it. And
the people will not endure the proph-
cts rebukes. Listen to their DIR Inken
scoffing; Does Isaiah presume to
instruct us? Does he take us to be
just weaned, that he adopts such a
childish way? Here and there, with
no set order, and coming his words
oyer, .as if we were still in our pri-
mers,
'Tzav lat-zav, tzav lat-zav,
Quv laquv, quv laquv.''
Ewald says: I'VE must conceive
the abrupt, Intentionally short, reite-
rated, and almost childish words of
verse ten. as spoken in mimicry, with
mocking motion of the head, and in
childish, stammering tone
The prophet rejoins: 'Ah, if you
will not let me teach you, the AS
syrians and Babylonians shall, and
their foreign accent will seem more
like stammering and twaddle than
my instructions" If they had only
hearkened to the prophets voice,
they might have found rest from
warlike preparations, and that more
blessed rest which comes from obedi-
ence to the Divine precepts.
But the Lords word was offensive
to them from its vary simplicity,
They rejected it; SO, like drunken
man, the nation tottered and stumb-
led to its ruin.
The Teachers Lantern.
The Prophet Isaiah appears in a
new role. He is par excellence the
temperance reformer of his age. He
is the model for every age He is not
Incorporate in his attack upon intern
perance. Yet for moral earnestness
he is not surpassed.
Drunkenness is usually insolent. 1t
was ribald and abusive toward the
prophet. But this did not deter him.
He warded off the sheer with a terri
BILE denunciation
Canaan was the bridge between Sy-
ria and Egypt. The world-powers of
that age coveted it. Possession OF it
was strategic necessity. 1t could
be used either as a thoroughfare or a
buffer. But the Israelites might have
held the country against all corners.
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