The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-05-17
Pleasant Fields
of Holy Writ
CoprR1eHr. DAVIS W. CLARK.

this manner cid Absalom to all Israel
that came to the king for judo
so Absalom stole the heart of the men
of Israel. Samuel XIV. 6.
And then stole all courtesy from
heaven
And dressed myself in such humility
That l did pluck allegiance from mems
hearts
Loud shouts and salutations from their
mouths
Even in the presence of the crowned
king.
Second Quarter. Lesson VIII. Isaiah
XXVIu. l-13. May 20, 1917.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF CONTROL.
Ephraim occupied fertile territory,
stretching across the heart of Pales-
tine from the Mediterranean to the
Jordan. In the midst stood SamarIa,
the capital, on a commanding emf
nence. The tropical luXriance of the
valleys hung about it like the baccha-
naian garland on the brow of the
banqueter, And its exuberance was
as evsnescent: for its glorious beauty
was fading flower. Destruction was
at hand. The Capital,
court, and the people were enslaved to
drink Under its subtle delusion they
were in perfect ease. With the pro-
verbal stupidity Of the drunkard they
felt entirely safe, trusting in the noun
tain fastness Of. Samaria. With sense
of justice blunted by the use of intox-
icants, and their basest passions i'll
famed, they oppressed poor and crush
ed the needy. With the Unsuitable
thirst which the use of alcoholic liquors
always begets, they kept crying,
Bring and let US drink the Samari-
tan equivalent to our modern bacchanal,
Here's health to you"
But the judgments of God are abroad
The irresistible Assyrian, Shalmaneser,
mighty and strong, is Gods instrument
of wrath. He looks upon Samaria like
a peculiarly tempting morsel; like fig
ripe in June, so rare and succulent that
one swallows it as soon as it is in his
hand; does not even think of laying it
aside to preserve it or eat it at his
leisure. His coming will be like
tempest of hail, destroying storm, a
flood of waters; figures peculiarly i'm
pressive in that latitude, where in an
hour the dryest water-course becomes
an awful torrent. This prophecy had
its literal fultillment 721 B. c., in the
ninth year of Hoshea, King of Israel.
The country was ravaged by the AS
syriaus under Shalmaneser, and Israel
departed into the cities of Assyria and
Media. The prophet now
turns from Israel to Judah. He con-
trssts the imperishable crown and d.
adem, glorious and beautiful, rewards
of piety, on the brow of Judah the
righteous and faithful residue, NTH the
fading garland of voluptuous pleasure
on the brow or drunken Ephraim. God
shall help Judah's judges on the bench
and her warriors at the gate.
But Judah. too, is not free from this
degrading sin. Even her priests and
prophets are infected with it. And the
people will not endure the prophets re-
Dukes. Listen to their drunken scott
ing: docs Isaiah presume to instruct
US? Does he take US to be just weaned,
that he adopts such a childish way?
Here and there. with no set order, and
canning his words over, as if we were
still in our primers, Tzav lat-zav. trav
LAT zav, quv laquv, quv laquv. The
prophet rejoins: "Ah! if you will not
let me teach you, then the Assyrians
and Babylonians shall and their foreign
accent will seem more like stammering
and twaddle than my instructions. If
they had only hearkened to prophet s
voice, they might have found rest from
warlike preparations. and that more
blessed rest which comes from obedi-
ence to the divine precepts.
But the Lords word was offensive to
them from its very simplicity. They re-
iected it; so like a drunken man, the
nation tottered and stumbled TO its
ruin.
THE TEACHERS LANTERN.
The prophet Isaiah appears in new
role. We have known him as the ar
dent patriot, the evangelist among the
prophets, the wieder Of the most rem
chant and at the same time the most
rhetorically graceful pen of his Ian
guage, but now we see him as the tenn
perance reformer of his day. He does
not however abate one jot of his dignity
as he comes into his new sphere. He
is still prophet, patriot and consum-
mate artist in the use of language.
Few people who repeat the
familiar words Lime upon line, pre-
cept upon precept, here a little and
there little" know that their first use
was ironical. Isaiah quotes the ridcu-
l. L