Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-10-03
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL,
Lesson Fourth Quarter, For
Oct. q, 1908.
THE INTERNATIONAL SERIES.

1
Copyright, 1905, by American Press Association
| Throughout the whole of the Scrip
lures there is no way Of reconciliation
to God revealed but by the great sacri-
fee on Golgotha, prefgured in every
true sacrifice from Eden onward. This
redemption is to the end that the
redeemed may serve Him, the only liv-
ing and true God, in truth with all the
! heart, proving in the daily life the
good and acceptable and perfect will
of God q Sam. xii, "a; Thess, j, 8, 10;
! Rom. xii, 1, q. 1t is for God and for
Him alone to appoint to each one his
! place and his service, "to every man
his work. and it is the privilege Of
each one to dwell with the King for
His work" Eph. ii, 10; Mark xiii, "a;
Chron. iv, 23). The redemption is
wholly His own; so are also the works
for us to walk in and the way in
which the work Is to be done. The
work of the Lord can be done only
| by the redeemed Of the Lord and in
| His own appointed way. There never
| lived on this earth but one who al
ways thought Gods thoughts and did
Gods work in Gods way without
| fail, and He who was truly Son of
God and Son of man is wondrously
typified In the ark Of the covenant Of
the Lord of all the earth, which is
mentioned fourteen times in this les
son chapter.
When God redeemed Israel from the
bondage of Egypt that they might
! serve Him, He gave them His holy
law from Sinai, which they promised
to keep, but while Moses was up in
written on tables of stone, absent
| scarcely six weeks. they broke the
whole law JAS. ii, 1O) by breaking the
| first commandment. Then Moses, re.
turning from God, seeing their sin, as
striking object lesson threw down
the tables and broke them. God re-
called Moses, ard, having written the
same words on tables which Moses
had made, He commanded him to
make an ark according to the exact
pattern which He showed him and in
it put the law and keep it there.
/ So the ark of the covenant, made Of
incorruptible wood and pure gold, typi-
| flying the pure humanity and the real
divinity of Christ. kept the holy law
which sinful Israel could not keep.
| Christ alone could say. 81 delight to
do Thy will. o my God-yea, thy law
| is within my heart" ops. xl, 8; Heb.
x, ITO. As the ark was made to keep
the holy law, the tabernacle was made
with the holy of holies specially for
/ the ark, and there in the hottest of all
God dwelt in the midst of His people
over the mercy seat or lid of the ark,
between the cherubim (Ex. XIV, 8, 22).
| The tabernacle, after all its wilder
ness journeyings, found resting place
when Israel entered the promised
land and in the days Of Samuel was
located at Shiloh q Sam. i, 3; iv, 81.
But when Israel, relying upon the ark
rather than the Lord, took it to battle
with them 1t was taken captive by
them and never seems to have been re-
turned to the tabernacle. The Philis-
tines, being plagued by the Lord be-
cause of the ark, for a sinful people
cannot tolerate the Lords presence
| apart from sacrifice, returned the ark
/ to Israel on new cart drawn by two
/ milk cows. the Lord guiding the cows
to Bethshemesh, where over $4,000 died
because they looked into the ark, for
the law apart from the mercy seat
can bring only death. The ark then
passed on to Kirjath-jearim, where
| for long years it continued in the house
Of Abinadab on the hill q Sam. vii,
| 1, p. Now that David was established
in his kingdom Oh Sam. v, 12) one Of
his first thoughts was a place for the
ark of the covenant at Jerusalem, and
this was well and as it ought to be,
| but now we have sample Of thing
that is very common in the church to-
day, the Lords work, or what pro-
fesses to be the Lords work, carried
on in worldly ways. David knew that
the ark should be carried only on the
shoulders of the Levites, holy men
set apart for that purpose; yet, instead
| Of inquiring of the Lord, as was his
usual custom, he consulted with his
captains and leaders and, adopting the
Philistine method, had a new cart
made. on which they started to bring
up the ark q Chron. XIV, 2; xiii, u.
Then came trouble. The oxen STUN
bled; Uzzah, attempting to steady the
ark, died; David was displeased with
God, and the ark was placed in the
house OF Obed-edom, where it contin-
ued three months, bringing blessing
to his household oversees IL, 12). Then
David, realizing that the fault was
his and that on the previous occasion
they had not sought the Lord after
the due order, had the priests and
Levites sanctifed to bring up the ark
of the Lord God of Israel, and they
bore it on their shoulders, as Moses
commanded, according to the word Of
the Lord Il Chron. XIV. 1915. The