The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-09-11
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
INTERNATIONAL LESSON COM
MENTS FOR SEPT. 8 BY THE
REV. /. w. HENDERSON.

DerS Iext, J0nn
3:14, 15-Memory Verse, o.
Commentary. 4
Doubling, trustees Israel is con-
founded. When the Canaanitish king |
hears that they are coming his way
he sets forth against the Israelttes
and takes many Of them prisoners.
Having no faith in God Israel falls
an easy victim to his prowess as a
warrior. The calamity sends Israel
back to God for consolation and for
comfort. Misfortune is the dynamic
that impels many O man and people
Godward. A trial of her unaided and
unenthused fighting ability displays
Israel's weakness to herself. Strength
is found in communion with God.
Israel prays. And petition brings
power. Israel's prayer is a confes-
sion and a dedication. 1t is a confess
sion of human incapacity and of hu-
man reliance on God. 1t is a dedica-
tion. of the divinely empowered mill
tary energy of Israel to the service of
God. All prayer ought to have these
elements. And all true prayer will
effect results that are beneficial to
humanity and well pleasing to God.
Many a man who is battling with
little success might do wonders for
God If he would apply to God for
strength. S~elf-reliance that discounts
the power Of God is egotism. Self
reliance that comes from the con-
seriousness of Gods favor Is glorious.
The effectiveness Of each is Illus
trated in some measure in the first
four verses in the lesson for the day.
The circumstances surrounding tie
raising of the brazen serpent are sug-
gestive. Thirty-eight years have
passed since the ten spies advised
against doing the will of God and
obeying the call of Jehovah implicit
ly. The years Of wandering in the
wilderness are nearly over. Another
generation has grown to manhood.
God has cared for them all the years
in spite of their weakness and sin.
And yet Israel has not gained that
spiritual consciousness that she
should possess. The way, though
short, becomes beset with difficulties.
And the people; discouraged with the
obstacles along the way, revile
against God and against Moses.
Moses had labored with them and for
them for nearly forty years of desert
wandering. God had fed them. And
yet they forgot all that. They cursed
God. They cursed Moses. With
Canaan just in eight they looked back
through the long perspective of the
years of sorrow that they had
brought upon themselves, upon the
leeks and the garlic and the flesh
pots of Egypt. And, as always hap
pens, leaving their faith in God they
were assailed by worse terrors. The
ssrpents wrought havoc among them.
The results of their sin brought
them back to their sense and to a
realization of the enormity of their
sin. They prayed Moses for, aid. And
Moses prayed for them. Gods pa7
thence went out to them and the fiery
serpent was given as a cure for their
ills and a sign of the interest and the
grace of God.
serpents' bites was simple and ef-
fcient. 1t is worthy of note. Out of
the midst of their trouble Israel cried
unto God and He heard them. And
He afforded them a way of escape
from their Affections. AS soon as
they cried in sincerity and humble
ness with a sense Of their own sin,
God answered them. His method OF
relief was simple. They had but to
look upon the brazen serpent and
they were delivered. But they had
to look. The salvation became eff
fective when they accepted it. That
is to say, it became active when they
looked.
Not otherwise do we experience
salvation in the Christian economy.
Out of the depths Of his sin and
shame man calls upon God for aid.
Christ holds Himself up as the gift
Of God to the age for the healing OF
the sins of the individual and Of the
nations. But the salvation does not
become effective until the man looks
and accepts. And it becomes eff
fective then. The moment that a
man takes Christ as the active truth
of God in his life and renders himself
subject to the control of God as He
reveals Himself in the person of Jesus
Christ and mediates His truth to men
to-day through the person Of the Holy
Spirit, that moment the man is a
saved man. His salvation begins
there. Then he is born anew. He
starts a new existence. He is a new
: creature. He natures in another
sphere.
We are bitten with sin that is o
harmful than the bite of any serpent.
For the sin that destroys us is the
power that is able to confront God
and to utterly confound unaided man.
But ever as the serpent of brass
saved the men who were poisoned
with the venom of the desert snakes
so the crucised Christ saves us from
that body of the living death that
men call sin.
Israel always made a mistake when
she forgor God or attempted to pro-
gress without him. And there is a les.
son there for US. Many men to-day, as
we march toward better and divinei
things, are prone to curse God and
the better leaders of the time. Many
4 philosophy of social regeneration
leaves God out Of account entirely.
Religion as an active force is mini
mizcd. This is a mistake. The sur.
est foundation of success is that
which is built upon the religious con-
seriousness of a people. If We pro-
coed without God-that is to say,
without q proper religious motive
we shall b. bitten with tho sarnant.