The Detroit times., 1911-01-14

successful one according to worldly
standards. but failure from the d.
vine standpoint. Omri, great gen.
eral, succeeded to lsraels throne al
ter the death of Jeroboam. He was
very successful and conquered the
Moabites, to the East OF the Jordan,
putting them under an annual tribute
of the fleece OF two hundred thou
sand sheep. He built new Capital,
the city of Samaria, and successful
ly outranked Jeroboam as mislead-
er Of his people, along religious lines.
According to Israers Covenant with
the Almighty there was but the one
Levitical priesthood and the one holy
temple OF Jehovah's presence for the
whole people Of Israel, and II was at
Jerusalem. AS worldly wisdom guild
ed Jeroboam to completely separate
the ten tribes from the two tribes by
establishing new places OF worship
and simplifying the worship and sym
bolizing God by a golden calf, so the
same spirit Of worldly wisdom sug-
gested to Omri still further depar-
ture from God and still closer ap-
proach to the customs and idolatry
of surrounding nations.
Omri died, or, according to the rec
ords, "Omri slept with his fathers. :"
We are not from this declaration to
draw the inference that as a wicked
man he went to eternal torment and
that the nature of the torment Is
sleep. Neither are we to think OF
Omri as sanity and going to heaven
and to imagine that those in heaven
are asleep. Neither are We to think
of him as having gone to Purgatory
and that the experiences there are
drowsy. We must leave all such un-
scriptural notions respecting the dead,
good and bad. We must come back
| to the Bible and from 1t learn that
all who die, like st. Stephen (Acts
| 7 :60), fall asleep to await the morn
| ing of the resurrection, when the Re-
deemer will call all forth from the
tomb John 6:2s, 20. Rev. Ver.).
Ahab and JezebeI.
Ahab's name signifies, Like his
father" And surely he was! His
name was appropriate. His was q
reign still more successful in UNI
righteousness. For twenty-five years
he devoted himself to the further un-
dermining of true religion and to the
introduction of the worst forms OF
licentious, heather idolatry. He was
greatly assisted in this course by his
wife-Jezebel. the daughter OF the
King of the Sidonians. Her name
signifies chaste; yet she used her
great influence with her husband
and throughout the nation for the
furtherance of unchastity in connec-
ton with the orgies known as the
religious rites and ceremonies, con-
uected with the worship OF Baal and
of "Ashtoreth," the female divinity
worshipped.
Lessons Here For us.
All civilized people are deeply In
tsrested in earthly governments and
their success. We all crave social
and financial prosperity. Neverthe-
less II is still true that prosperity is
Injurious In proportion as 1t separ-
ates the people from the Divine ar
rangements and the blessings which
thereto attach. Only righteousness
can truly exalt a nation. Every
form Of iniquity Ia injurious, however
1t may at the time seem contrary to
this. Ours Is the day OF the great
est worldly prosperity this earth has
ever known. But alas! II is not a
day Of religious prosperity. On the
contrary, there never was a time
when unbelief in a personal God and
In the Bible as his revelation was so
general amongst intelligent people.
Our church edihces are becoming
temples of fashion, concert and lee
! ture halls, while the real worship
which alone Is pleasing to the Al
mighty is far removed.
The worship of Mammon, the bow
Ing TO the golden calf, the sacrificing
Of lives to the requirement of wealth,
belong to our day as truly as to that
of Ahab-but on more refined scale
and therefore the more deceptive and
insidious.
Continually we fnd that God uses
the wrath Of man to praise him. The
effect Of the prosperity OF Ahab and
Jezebel was twofold; IL ensnared and
degraded one class, while II aroused
and separated from itself another
class--those who worshipped God in
spirit and In truth. Such left the
ten-tribe kingdom and its idolatry
and identified themselves with the
twotribe kingdom Of judah and its
true worship.
So l. IL today. The success of
Nammon, the rejection of the Bible