The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-18

enter into Canaan's rest and to take pos
session of the blessings promised by the
reaches the place of making the cove
Various lessons may be drawn by Spir-
Lord. He turns his back upon Satan and
the world, typifed by Pharaoh and the
Egyptians. BY faith he puts between him
and the adversary a firm resolution for
righteousness and obedience to God
through whose providential leadings he
nant.
Thenceforth as a new creature he jour
neys on, beset by the trials of the wilder
ness, until he comes to the position of an
advance soldier of the cross. There he
perceives the new life, in harmony with
Gods promises. He would at once with
faith and courage enter and possess all
the good things of the spiritual life.
The people of the land would to him
represent the weaknesses and oppositions
of his fallen nature, all Of which are to
be overcome. To the extent that he can
overcome these, he enters in and pos
sesses his Inheritance promised of the
Lord Some can do this promptly, by
reason of faith; others too often be-
come discouraged, fearful-mumurers-
sometimes wishing that they had not
left the world, and that they could re-
turn thither.
Did God Encourage War?
In studying this lesson, many are per-
picked. They say, it seems unreasonable
to believed that God gave Moses and the
Israelites such message. Contract this
with the Scriptural declaration that God
will make wars to cease unto the ends
of the earth" Agnostics inquire, where
is the justice of commissioning the Is
raelites to steal the lands of the Ca
naanites, and. according to some Scrip
tures to exterminate utterly all the peo-
pies of the land.
To understand the Bible, we must view
1t from its own standpoint, and not from
the standpoint of our creeds formulated
| in the darker days, nor from the stand
point of our own imperfect reasoning.
The Bible is consistent. beautiful God
| like, only when viewed in its own light.
In the first place, we must remember
that the Bible entirely antagonizes the
| theories of our creeds, which tell us that
all thosel slaughtered Canaanites went
straight to an eternity of torture, because
they did not know the true God and Jesus
| Christ, whom He sent ito be the Savior.
! The Bible tells us that all mankind are
children of Adam, all perishing because of
| his death sentence. When they die, they
are not alive anywhere. They are dead.
| They are suffering the penalty which God
| pronounced-"Dying. thou Shalt die
| Genesis 2:17, margin.
| 1t matters not, therefore, in what way
we die, or very much whether our expert
ences are longer or shorter. In the case
of the peoples of Canaan, God declared
that their iniquity had come to the full.
/ That Is to say, Divine Justice determined
| that for them to live longer would not be
/ to any advantage. They We're merely
cumbering the earth.
| God was using the Israelites as typ
/ ical people, through whom he was making
types and shadows of coming blessings.
He would make the slaughter of the Ca
naanites illustrate the destruction of the
works of the flesh and the Devil, which
His people are to accomplish in them
selves by fighting the good fight of faith
and overcoming the evil tendencies in
| trenched in their own flesh.