The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-27
Unconditional SundaySchool
 Lesson

FUMDMWnonuui uiuO OR0 0Nu uIhO OiHu uMO OiEu w Third Quarter. ..Lesson iv. .ExeA1s
 xxxii, Is. 30-95. July 2s, 1907.
 THE GOLDEN CALF.
 The position of the emigrant nation at Sinai was without rarallel in his- tory. and trying in the last degree The region was utterly unequal by any means to the sustenance of the vast population so suddenly planted upon It. There were warlike tribes, the shock of whose impetuous. valor Israel had already felt at Rephidim, and whose scouts were doubtless still alevtly watching their movements from many an inaccessible aerie. It was not i'm possible that the empire whose invin- cible might they had elud@ might yet equip an expedition for their recapture or extermination; flor a scantn hundred and eighty miles intervened between them and Rameses. their starting point.
 To be sure. God had undertaken to be their commissariat, and send them rations from the skie1 He had Moses go in advance to strike the rock in Horeb. and supply them water in abun- dance. He had brought them out of Egypt with ,n nigh hand han oana ans s's sn Eu, 1sn tern in the sky to guide their steps; had sweetened waters, given them dainty food to eat, and defeated their enemies And at this very moment the mountain-top burned and blazed with his ineffable presence.
 But the peoples heart was still gross. Their religious perceptions were in distinct. As mass they mad vague notions of the power that had brought them out of Egypt They had not at tained to the idea of the omnipresence of God. They probably looked upon him as tutelary deity. beyond whose jurisdiction itSwas possible for them to stray. They were very far short of the idea of the spirituality of God They coveted a visible palladium They were jealous also of Moses. ana showed their spleen in the contemptu- ous language they used concerning him.
 It was a curcical nour in Israels his tory. God was proving His people The test was severe, but not out of proportion to their ability to endure 1t. The days of Moses's absence con tinued, and of the intermisison of divine communications. Would faith prevail? Would they be true to the pledge which they had voluntarily taken when they said; An that the Lord hath spoken we will do"
 Alas! there was a sudden epidemic of fear and unbelief and there was no towering personality to withstand It. The black idolatry of Egypt ec1ipsed for them the heavenly light of Sinai and great was their darkness! This was 1srael's great lapse, which made others possible ana easy.
 ing in his ears-'Thou shalt not make
  still required Aaron to make one. if the high priest could show such pusillanimity as he did. ought We to wonder at the imm aturity and per versity spf the rank and file?
 Charity seems to have suggested that Aaron's compliance was in reality only feigued to gain time in hopes of Moses return. or that he was deftly playing one sinful propensity against another in hopes of checkmating idolatry with cupidity At best Aaron cuts poor figure. He might do for an easy-go- ing benefice, but had not no hero or martyr stuff in him.
 This was the occasion on which the Israel in their hearts turned back to Egypt, as stephen affirmed. That glittering image caBried in the van would be a. substitute for the fire-cloud pillar; and the image of Egypt's famed Apis would be an aegis under which they might shelter themselves from the wrath of their former taskmas- ters.
 While the carnival of idolatry, lust. and drunkenness, was at its height, the towering form of Moses appeared upon the cliff like a Nemesis. We'll might they fear the wrath of that meek man. All unconscious, perhaps, of the symbolical character of his action, he held the tablets of the law aloft then dashed them on the rocks below; thus giving for all time the strongest pos soble emphasis to the phrase "the broken law" He broke both tables. for a law on each was broken one against image making. the other against adultery Even If this had not been the case, the breaking of ono precept is the breaking or the whoie law. for it Is one law. Next he attacked the image so cost ly and venerated. Not one of that idolatrous, lecherous, drunken mob dared utter word of remonstrance, much less lift hand In opposition. Moses may have taken the granite fragments of the broken tables to pull verize the idol.
 The next step Is one of retribution. Destination Is the universal penalty of mutiny. Acting on that common law Moses sends the Levites with drawn swords like an averaging cyclone, through the hordes of naked idolaters Enough pay the capital penalty to open the eyes of the rest O. the exceeding turpitude of their sin.
 Having done what mortal hands could do to reform the great evil, the meditator of the old covenant hastens up the granite staircase of Sinai, into Jehovahs presence. and there with patriotic emotion that struggles to ex- press itself in a broken and elliptical sentence, mercedes in Israefs behalf with an abandon and self oblivion only eoualed by Paul when he wished him self accursed for his breatheren's sake.
 ANALYSIS AND KEY.
 l. Trying position or Israel.
 Region unequal to sustenanca
 Warlike enemies near.
 Pursuit of Pharaoh apprehended
 a. Heart of nation still gross.
 Religious perceptions indistinct.
 God still a tutelary Deity to their presence not attain ed to.
 g. Hour of national test
 Failure Epidemic of year.
 Visible Palladium coveted.
 Egypt's Apis adopted
 5. Futile efforts to condone.
 Aaron's compliance.
 6. Moses, the Nemesis returns.
 Broken tables. Symbolic act.
 Retribution. Defamation
 '. Moses return to Sinai.
 His patriotic intercession.
 THE TEACHER's LANTERN.
 Hegel affirms that the circumstances
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