The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-07-13
The International
Sunday-School Lesson

After the dead level Of Egypt. the tower
ing. thundersmtten cliffs, OF Sinai would be
all tho more Impressive, The place seems
isolated by nature-the Almightys secret
audience chamber, The most nonchalant
traveller feels perforce the spell OF awtui
grandeur. He recognizes at once the APP
propriateness of natures setting Tor that
scene of superlative majesty.
A hundred days had passed since Moses
and Miriam had sung their peans on the
shore--days in which bitter waters mad oeen
sweetened, qualls and mamma had been
gathered, and tho hordes of Amale!S over
come AT Rephidim. And now three million
people stand upon the four hundred acres
of bowing floor. and gaze at the so sr rant,
and feet above them
| Nature was agitated as II on the point of
dissolution. That pyramidal altar snook
| flames of fire his ministers that day. There
| were angel attendants also, as stephen ana
the author OF Hebrews affirm There was
/ a sound of n trumpet executing a crcs-
cendo. But speech of man breaks down IN
effort to describe the Theophany. this mos,
august sight of earth" aud greatest event
1 by far of the old covenant.
| The unapproachablc holiness of COD WAS
significantly Indicated by the barrier set UT
! between the multitude and tho mountain,
ana the extreme penalty upon man or beast
4 for so much MS touching Jehorahs tenn
porary and material throne, a day. TOO,
/ had been spent In additions before the peo-
pie could SO much as stand In the divine
1nefrably glorious as this scene was. il
did not amount to, as Hegel atfirms; ar
absolute enslavement OF human individ-
uality by the majesty of the divine person
atty" Here was the ratification OF ;
covenant. and that, always implies the free
dom of both parties. It was the establish
ment OF conjuga relation. IN that secre
shrine Of nature God married His people
having first won their consent, which the!
expressed in the Words "4Nll that the Lore
hath spoken we Will do" This was tn
coronation OF Jehovah, the establishment
latheocracy, but the setting of 1t up With tn
full consent of the governed.
The Ten Words formed In the air by IN
power of God. and distinctly heard under
stood, and agreed to by the whole nation
are the basis principles from which all hu
the steel fame which holds a towerin;
modern structure together, the Ten Com
mandments are the invisible framework Q
rabbis which affirms that God spoke in
: tongue that divided itself into the seVent'
languages then extant, and eNtended thu
e course. Is fiction. But that the Decalosu
is the cradle of all codes Is fact
:, 1t is of comparatively small moment hoy
: we divide tho law, whether with Philo int
two pentads, or with Augustine into thre
: and seven, God was dealing with race !
d Its childhood. and their dtg!ts were evident
. ~ Intended to help them remember the ten
, fold law. They could keep and count til
q Decalogue on their fingers,
:, One table Is commonly believed to nav
t contained the laws which express man,
duty to God. the other his duty toward HI
. fellows. The first contained the command
s ments respecting CD other gods, (2l Image.
: (s) the name of God. t4) the sabbath IN
y second Q) parents CD murder, ta) adu
Il terry "a stealing, (5) false Witness e
- covetousness.
g In this vast audience chamber. Il
Il natural subimitS Of which had been ind
Q scribably enhanced by Its supernh seen
the whole nation tarried for eleven month
as If In constitutional assembly, until II
4 fundamental principles Of tho Decalosue ha
been drawn out in particular statutes eth
cal sacerdotal, judicial aud civil. Then
length this movable commonwealth, this pl
grim nation, took up Its march. compactt
4 and defended by such an ethico- religio'
: constitution as had never been dreamed
before.
ANALYSIS AND KEY.