The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-12-16
OLD MANS AMBITION.
yhc International Sunday SchOOl Les
son for Dec. 81 Is: Tine Div1Sion
OF the Land Josh. IA
1Bv William T. Ellis.)

pick social problem shine from TINS
old story Of how the Jews divided up
the Land. One affects the
basic question Of property, and the
other points to individual efficiency as
II solution of difficulties. FOR mere
We find our old friend, Caleb, he VINO
wanted to go up and win canaan
when ten other spies were craven OF
heart and brought back reports OF
fear. Now, forty-fve years later, an
old man. past eighty, he fulnllS the
ambition Of middle life and conquers
the hill country with its giants. Il
AS today's slang would put the case,
il took nerve for these Israelites to
go to parcelling out the territory that
was still in the possession OF their
enemies. They did not control the
land, yet they allotted it. This was
conquest by anticipation, an evidence
of faith. Just SO the japanese MADE
provision for Russian prisoners and
for the care Of their own wounded,
before a single gun had been fired. In
the same way that the Israelites made
plans for the Promised Land, having
taken God at his word. so some ripe
saints speak of heaven in the present
tense. as if they had already entered
INTO possession. Whatever God prom
Uses is as good as ours already.
The Problem OF Property.
Unlike a type Of person-known to
US, the Bible always faces the hard
facts of life. 1t does not shrink from
actual conditions on earth and in hu-
man nature. And the end Of the long
wandering in the wilderness present
ed IL problem of property, the old
old. basic question Of making a live
1ihood. Some men would Danish this
from the Book, as an economic Ques-
ton. But religion cannot be divorced
fvnpn Gnciol nrob1nrnc ffor or-nro tho
most mystical, spiritual and ecstatic
sermon is ended, the hearers are
obliged. to go home and eat. Every
normal life must be concerned with
things mundane as we'll as with things
celestial. The complete gospel pro-
gram includes a new earth. Practi-
cal life and religion are one, or
neither is anything.
A wise word has been written on
this ap~portionment of the Promised
Land by DR.. Charles r.. Brown, the
new moderator of the Congregation
National Council-"How much it
means that the chosen people, in that
rude period of the worlds history,
did not undertake to divide up the
taking the best Of it because they
were strong, leaving the fragments to
n weak! How much it means that
they did not divide it up solely by
the power of purchase, those who had
the longest purses aking the choicest
sites. leaving to the poor the less de.
sirable tracts! They sincerely tried
AS best they knew, to ascertain tht
divine will in the matter and to divide
up the land according to that ascer
tanned will. 1t was a splendid ideal
however imperfectly they may hav,
worked it out.
God cares about his distribute,
OF goods which goes on, equitably O
inequitably. under his great eye. Go,
cares about these inequalities of con
dition among his children, so glar
ing oftentines as to be cruel. Go,
cares that the weak are here an,
there thrust aside by the shrewd an
the strong, and thus defeated in tn
dearest and noblest desires Of thei
disappointed hearts. There is a wi
or God concerning all these question
as to wages and hours, as to the an
preparation of and and of mines, a
to the enjoyment Of luxury or tn
suffering of perjury. And our ow
commonwealth will never measure u
TO its full moral dignity. it will neve
attain that full degree of suitabl
prosperity, where each family sha
sit beneath its own vine and fig-tre
until, in ways appropriate TO our da,
WISE and good men are equally inter
upon knowing the wifi of God toucl
inS all these interests and of ODE,
ING that will in the current distrib,
ZION of the goods of life"
Providing for the Preacher.
The old echoes in the new TO-DAY
special interest in providing a livir
wage and pensions for preache
seems like a paraphraSe of the +
peated statements in this particul
history, concerning the portion
the Levites. They, the priestly trit
We're not given an allotment Iii
the others. but were to be the specj
care of all. for their ministry was
The whole people. The narratiy,
reiteration of this point is really il
preSSive.
There is a place. an i~ndispensit
place. for the minister in society.
heed nm more than we need a
merchant. For his business is TO Ike
alive that element of life which Il
human society above the brute or,
ton. Any one who has studied I
history Of the West is aware Il