The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1926-09-23
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
Prepared Especially For The Repub-
LEANS Readers by Rev. U. S.
Wright, ID.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1926.
Review: EARLY LEADERS OF
ISRAEL.

Book of Exodus.
Let us run with patience the race that
is set before us, looking unto Jesus
the author and perfecter of our
faith.-Hebrews 1921, 2.
BUILDING THE CHURCH.
Against the background of centur-
les Exodus opens with Israel enslaved
in Egypt. Dates are uncertain but
the movement we have covered that
has brought the freed people to Sinai
and has kept them in its neighborhood
is to be measured within single year.
We have come to the spring of 1893
if we follow the chronology suggested
by Beecher, but the actual year is
matter of Indifference. Soul time is
the concern of the lessons. And the
progress registered during these
months of intensive teaching are SIM
ply tremendous. 1t was an adult
movement working out a project plan
that eliminated in the building of the
tabernacle contrasting wildly with
the accomplishments of the ordinary
adult class or department of the
church school. They had a great
teacher. And what he did with no
equipment, with sodden-minded folk
who were continually protesting about
the methods used, challenges us to
produce results commensurate with
what we have to work with today. We
are awfully "chesty" about ourselves
perhaps a study of what these
slaves did may produce a decided de-
fation. If it doesn't then we are hope
less.
Force impelled by fear set the
bonds of slavery upon the freedom
loving posterity of Jacob and they
speedily were driven to bodily ex-
haustion. In such conditions the child
Moses was born, cherished by Jocebad
and through her shrewd management
coupled with Miriam's resourcefulness
his life was safe, his heritage of faith
preserved and his future made secure.
God was planning all the days for
their release, but needed a man thru
whom to work His will. In the desert
he saw light and heard voice. Our
usual situation is that of seeing while
we are deaf to the voices that speak
from the thing we see. Men had al
ways known the lightning's flash but
heard nothing but thunder until
Franklin changed it's rumbling notes
into voice Men had always seen
birds fly, but the Wright brothers
heard voice and took to the air. Men
had climbed Pilates stair for long
wears, but Luther heard voice and a
new day dawned for the world, Moses
caught Gods voice and set out upon
his adventurous journey to succor the
slaves and changed all the history of
all the years.
He seized the natural forces that
troubled Egypt and ruined her eco
nomic life and interpreted them to
both Israel and Egypt as the voice of
God demanding a new social order in
which class should not prey upon class
and did it so well that the sons of
Jacob took up their march and Pha-
roah permitted it, though he tried to
revoke his decree. The passover mark
ed the bloody earnestness of Israel in
obeying Gods order and the passage
of the sea wrought an enthusiasm for
their faith that was never lost thru
all the centuries that have scattered
the Jew about the world without a
country but with faith undaunted
still.
Across the waterless wastes they
marched to find sustenance among the
impossible places and to be fed of God
through their wearying journey, The
battle for the springs where they
crept from cover to cover and hurled
rocks at their foes added to their
growing sense of power that is so nee
essary foundation for any perma-
nent building among any
people. Flushed with that feeling Of
success they readily accepted the per-
fecting of an organization, employing
their new-found ability in practical
affairs so that it might grow. AS
teaching method it has no superior.
That it was suggested by shrewd old
Jethro proclaims that the uncultured
mind may often strike upon device
that the trained thinker has overlook
ed and the greatness of the latter is
the acceptance of unpedigreed plans.
The leader who will take only ideas
bearing his particular label (union,
capitalist, racial, UNCONVENTIONAL, K.
c. or K. K. K, etc. is doomed to
spend the end of his days in the ideal
istic poor house.
Under the shadow of Sinai they en-
camped for months. Reared along the
low reaches of the Nile the rugged
grandeur of the mountains took them
out of their old grooves of thinking
and the echoing thunders that were
megaphoned through the defiles from
the storm-swept, lightning-infested
summit induced an awe that was over
towering. Then up into the cloud
covered region Moses crept to