The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-09-18
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Subject: The Death of Moses, Deut.
54:1-12-Golden Text, Psalm
116:15-Memory Verses, 1912


Commentary.
One of the most pathetic events in
the history of Israel Is the death Of
Moses. For forty years he had
watched, as a mother watches over
her children, over The people of God.
For forty years he had planned and
hoped and prayed for the salvation of
Israel. For forty years, the most
conspicuous man of his day, he had
led the people toward the land of
promise. For forty weary, heavy
laden, grievous years he had endured
suspicion and calumny and cursing
that he might guarantee the blessings
promised of God to his people and to
their children's children. For forty
years he had faced privation and
suffering and sorrow for them and
with them. Nurtured in a palace he
had been conspicuously a man Of
God. With the entree to the courts
of Egypt he had preferred to be a
man of the people-his people. And
yet after the bitterness and the buff
feting and the deprivation he was
denied entrance into the land of
promise. Pisgah and no further. It's
pathos is sublime.
And yet, sad as the situation must
have been, there could have been
naught but Joy in the soul OF Moses.
God called him to his reward after
He had granted him the vision of the
promised land as from Pisgah it
stretched northward and southwark,
and westward to the sea But. He did
not summon him until He had given
him the vision. Moses died secure
in the confidence that his effort had
been availing. He must have died
with a song OF rejoicing upon his lips
and a psalm of thanksgiving in his
heart. It could not have been other
wise. God took him to a larger re-
ward full of years and honors.
Centuries had passed away since
God first made the promise to Abra-
ham. Israel had suffered fortunes
under Pharaohs and hardship under
the leadership of Moses. They had
been tutored for Canaan in the hard
schools OF perjury and want and toll.
But they were about to enter into the
realization and fulfllment of the
promises Of God and the dreams of
their mighty leaders. Gods patience
endured. The goal was at hand. The
word of the Lord to their fathers was
about to become effective. And so
it Is ever with the promises of God.
They are infallible. They never de-
Jude. They are always profitable for
announcement and comfort. They
never fail. Regardless of their mag
nitude, their extent or their seeming
impossibility, God always Is able to
fulfill them. He has given the world
in Jesus Christ a wider and a grander.
promise than He gave to Israel
through Abram. But He is able and
willing to fulfill it so Dol as human
ity desires it to become effective and
active. There is nothing impossible
with God.
God took Moses to Himself when
Moses work was finished. God has
a strange way of doing that with
men of peculiar genius. He sent
Moses to Israel when Israel needed a
Moses. He took Moses away from
Israel when Israel needed a Joshua
more than a Moses. Moses was
blessed of God in his death as in his
life. Many a man has attained to
great success only to lose his lustre
in his declining years. Moses was
fortunate, He died at the zenith OF
his power. He is remembered as a
man of pre-eminent ability. His re.
nown is as glorious as it is imperlsh-
able.
Moses death marked the opening
of a great epoch in the history OF
Israel. 1t emphasized the fact that
many are prone to forget, now and
then, that no man is so supremacy
valuable to the world that his place
cannot be filled. Joshua was not
Moses, but he was competent to carry
on the mighty work to which Moses
had dedicated his life. When Moses
died God .~consecrated Joshua to do
the work that was yet unfinished.
And Joshua did it well. He was as
much of a genius in his way as Moses
was in his way. And his capabilities
came seasonably. God has a fashion
of calling men seasonably. The great
men Of history have been the men
who came in the fullness Of time.
Each fitted into the niche which God
needed to be filled. A genius out OF
time, it would seem, is an impossi-
bility. For every mighty genius has
performed a labor for Cod and hui
manity that has wrought itself indel-
IDLY into the fabric of the worlds
life.
The seventh verse tells US that
Moses died in the pink of manly
perfection at the age Of 12O years.
The lesson is obvious. Moses lived
near to God. He kept faith in Him.
He got his peace from Him. He
obeyed the laws of God. Sickness is
. ancient, but it is not really neces-
sary. It can all be traced to viola
tions of natural laws that, if obeyed,
would insure us all a ripe old age. II
a man can live without a day of seri-
Gus illness for fifty years, as many
men have, then by the same token
a MAJ can retain his health until he
goes home to God simply from phys
ical fatigue. Constitutional and in
herited illnesses may be traced to an
tecedent violations of natural law.
The need is that humanity shall obey
the will Of God. We were created
for health and happiness. We were
not born to sickness. God means
that we shall be able to enjoy life and
Him. Only g. we'll man can really
enjoy life. We could all live in the
health of Moses if we lived according
to the mandates Of the God of Moses.
Cr,roon c,,psG,a to Encfocc;Nn