The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-06-06
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
INTERNATIONAL LESSON COM.
MENTs FOR JUNE o, BY THE
REV. 1. w. HENDERSON.

-Goldcn Text: Ex. 12:13---
Memory Verses, 20, 27--Com.
mcntary on the Days lesson.
This is the story of Gods blood
covenant with Israel in Egypt. Gov
enants are feature of the historic
life of the East. A bread covenant
lasts for forty years we are told.
When man breaks bread with an
other he is that mans friend for
four decades. The blood covenant
between men is an everlasting cove
nant. So 1t is here. with the she'd
ding of the blood of the lamb the
covenant of God with Israel reaches
out to eternity.
The lesson is rep1ete with lessons. d.
God gave the Israelites the covenant
because they trusted in Him and
called upon Him in their distress.
Israel put her hope in God and she
made an effort to keep in some meas
ure the commands of God. She was
caught in the whirlpool of a national
and industrial and spiritual iniquity
that seemed overwhelming. The
people were so bowed down with the
sins that were practiced against them
that they were in danger of losing
their courage and hope itself. There
seemed to be no human way of es-
cape. God, however, heard their
cries of suffering. Their sorrow
reached His heart. They looked to
Him for deliverance. And He deliv-
cred them. Their deliverance came
because they came to q realizing
sense of their dependence on God.
And we must become conscious of
our need for God IL we are to enter
into the covenant which God at a
later day made with men in the per-
son of Jesus Christ
1t is remarkable that Egypt reaped
the consequences of her own mis-
doings. God brought no hasty judg-
ment to bear on these evil people.
The king and the nation were warned
nine times before the final and the
awful consequences of their own in
iquity fell upon them. And as Egypt
was warned so we are warned. Sin
has cumulative consequences. We
do not reap the worst at first. The
evil that men do is followed by con-
sequences that are in the nature of
warning. They are not final, in
a sense. The consequences of sin are
like the pains that are incidental to
physical ills. A sick body warns in
the very pain that we undergo that
something Is the matter, that we are
reaping the consequences of physical
misdoing. And so the consequences,
many and varied as they are, that
follow in the wake of sin are warn
ings to us to desist. They are in
a way the voice of God speaking to
us through the immutable laws of
His own world. Pharaoh had due
notice of the consequences of his sin
against Israel. but he would not
heed the warning. Sin became a
habit with him and the consequences
of that sin became increasingly acute
and horrible. So 1t is with our sin. If
we do not heed the early warning we
may be sure that we shall reap a
worse harvest of evi, consequences
in the end.
Another noticeable thing is that
the Israelites had to help themselves
out of their trouble. God made the
promise to them that when the de.
struction fell on the first born of the
land He would pass tl.em by If their
door posts were sprinkled with the
shed blood of the lambs. That made
it necessary that they should be
helpers in the work that God was to
accomplish for them. This is the
divine plan and 1t is the only plan
If God had saved them from the gen.
eral calamity without making them
do something for themselves in or
der to make this salvation effective
they would not have valued 1t so
highly as they did. We must CO.
operate with God. And in the Chris
tian economy no man can be saved
unless he is willing to cooperate
with God. II God~did not demand
that we should conform to His plans
for our redemption in Christ we
should not value that salvation as
highly as wesdo. But because we
are called upon to work out our own
salvation under the guidance and en-
powering of God Himself we prize
salvation in Jesus Christ as the great
est boon that the world holds for hui
manity.
The three words that close the
2Sth verse OF the lesson show why
1t is that Israel escaped, why the
Passover Is commemorated by loyal
Jews everywhere to-day, why 1t Is
that this episode In the life of the
chosen people of God has remained
as a classic witness to the truth that
God shepherds the peoples who love
him. so QlQ tney! Tnat iS 10
say they were obedient. And obedi-
ence always has brought its reward
and 1t always will bring its reward.
We In America to-day are desirous
of being released from the power of
evil men and evil conditions that
have made life hardly worth the liv-
ing for multitudes of our people and
that have made us all hang our faces
in shame. But we shall never enter
into the promised land of the realized
kingdom of God In this country until
we obey God. If the Israelites had
not done precisely as God had COM
manded there would have been no
dellverance for them. And America
lis no more precious to God than Is
rael was. And Americans are living
under no different regulations than
those under which Israel lived. To
be saved we must do as God tells US.
And whenever we hear a clear call
of God for service or for duty Ii is
for us not to deny the duty or the
call, but to give It supremacy in our
lives.
THE ACE OF FISHES