Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-03-20
In The Religious World;
(REvIEw OF SUNDAY SCHOOL LEssoN)

, who wanted drink was not different
| from other travellers whom she had
often obligingly served. She com
mended herself to Eleizer, who had
been commissioned to find wife fo1
Isaac, because of her quick helpful
ness and wholesome good nature He
saw that this ready and efficient WON.
an was the very wife for his master.
Going WITHDRAWING.
Let us not cry shame upon Isaac
that he did not do his own wooing.
Aside from the fact that he was not
that sort of man, being of temper
that. let's other people do for him, it
was the usage Of the land and the
time-a usage which still persists in
the same region-for marriages to be
arranged by Intermediates. The
"shadchans" of the east side of New
York are still engaged in the same
business. The wife for Isaac was of
his fathers providing. We may be
sure that he would accept whatever
was given to him, for he was mega
tive character, whom somebody has
called "a valley between two hills"
a mere link between Abraham and
Jacob. ..s
When Abraham was dying he COM
misisoned his servant to find a wife
of his own people for his son Isaac.
The long years. and the wisdom that
comes from quiet communion with
God had taught Abraham that wise
marriages are made within the faith
and within ones own racial group.
He would not thwart the plans of God
by mixing the blood of the chosen peo-
pie with the heather of Canaan. That
way always comes trouble. The
persistence of the children Of Abraham
in pure Jewish strain throughout the
centuries since is one of the marvels
of time The truth thus early taught
by Abraham has been we'll learned by
his descendants. s
= A Wife or Mission?
Knowing somewhat of human ma
ture, and feminine nature at that, the
canny servant Eleizer raised mes
ten with his dying master. What
if none of the daughters of Abra-
hams kindred up in Mesopotamia
should be willing to make the long
se? Should Isaac return to Meso-
potamia? The answer was clear; tbs
family mission came before the Wife
[saac's work in the world was to
carry out the covenant of his father
with Jehovah, and to possess the land |
If promise. If the wife would not |
share that lot with him, then she
should not be his wife The divine |
,all and commission take precedence
Of all human relationships.
The problem is an overcoming |
)ne. What if woman will not marry |
l man because she has decided not |
% be a minister's wife, or not to go
o the foreign mission field? There
s but one course open. 1t is as clear
IS scripture. She may stay behind,
,ut the man must go. No woman is
it to be wife who will not share her
life, going wherever his call |
eads him.
In remote village along the In
and Sea of Japan, I one time ran
'cross one Of these common tragedies.
The man was in the employ Of great
American corporation. He had been
to a position of RESPONSE
)ility. His feet We're on the ladder
Ind mounting upward But his wife
and childishly said that she
would not live in Japan. Either the
uture had to be sacrificed, all for a
whim.
One proof Of Rebekah's foreordina-
ion to be the wife Of Isaac was her
prompt readiness to go with the mes
engers, without days delay, straight
,ack to the southland. She had the
quality of decision which many a man
ince has wished for her sisters. She
tnew her mind; she knew her hours;
he had the courage to turn her back
N the past, for the mysterious future
o which she had heard the call.
Religion and Eugenics.
Some old fogies used to wall a
,reat deal in public about the mod
,rn young peoples societies, because
hey said they were just match
making organizations" They COM
planned that young men and young
women met each other in Christian
Indeavor and marriages resulted.
IS if there were any better or nobler
way to meet sharer of ones
whole life than in the work Of the
church and in allegiance to God!
The big problem of eugenics which
S looming large upon the social
lorizon will scarcely be solved in
he legal and scientific way that
some scientists plan. The normal,
lnartiticial form of eugenics is for
oure men and pure women, whose
ives are given to service to God, to
ind each other and to pledge their u
mutual faith within the comprehen-
tive Christian covenant
The two most important hours in
persons life are his first conscious