The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1926-05-20
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
Prepared Especially For The Repub-
lican's Readers by Rev. U. S.
Wright. DID.

"AAShts DsD~
SUNDAY, MAY %, 1926.
ISAAC AND HIS WELLS. Gene
sis 26:12-25. Read chapters 21-27.
A soft answer turneth away wrath;
but a grievOus word stirreth up
anger.-PrOv. 1871.
THRU HIS BOYS EYES.
There is a time when "dad" is the
outstanding hero in his boys eyes.
No one else is quite so strong, nor
knows quite so much, and happy is
he who capitalizes this early picture
against the later day of more critical
judgment. And his religion is the
link with heaven in the child's think
ing so that it was out of Joseph's
life in that little white cottage in
Nazareth that has come the dearest
word for God that ever fell from the
lips of our Lord, Father" No eye
sees quite so clearly as the unspoiled
boys and when after years of ex-
perience one can catch the impress
sion made upon that open mind by
fathers attitude toward Deity a
shaft of light is cast upon his whole
character. And we do have just that
in the word of Jacob as he faced
Laban in the days Ct their differences
and swore by "the God of Abraham
and the fear of Isaac" that certain
things were true. There lies the key
to the two characters. Abraham was
the "friend of God" In all his adj
venturous career that carried him
pioneering across the world of his
day and made him acquainted with
three civilizations there was always
the glad comradeship of Jehovah
entering his tent, talking with him
under the stars, and in that continu-
ing intimacy he took every journey
and lived every stop. He would
walk in and sit by Gods fire and
warm his soul at its blaze. 1t is
perfectly wonderful picture and it
is little strange that God made him
the father Of the faithful. But with
Isaac all was different. He was
afraid of God. He coweed where his
father climbed. He had no enjoy
ment in his relationship with Je-
hovah. To him was always the AL
mighty making demands and thwart-
ing ambitions, curbing instead of en-
couraglng, taking away instead of
giving. Was he not forbidden to go
to Egypt? Wasn't the blessing d.
verified to Jacob when he desired it
for Essau? God was hard fate. His
religious sky was gray with never a
CLEAN of color. Never allowed to
travel a 100 miles in his whole life,
Isaac was fatalist, deep-dyed, with
fear as its distinctive characteristic.
MAKING A BOYS FAITH.
A man may change the faith of
boyhood but it always is struggle
to do it. No less tender spirit than
Jowett was forced to think himself
deliberately away from the picture
that had dominated his early years.
1t was great eye that followed him
all over the room with its caption,
Thou God seest me-" and the police
man idea was continuously at the
threshold of his conscious thought.
Abraham dominated Isaac and one
day called him to follow him on a
trip to the hills to worship. What
boy would not be delighted to go
with his father into such intimacy?
And this boy certainly left the old
skin tent with high expectancy. Even
the mysterious sacrifice added zest
to the adventures what could it
possibly be-" Then came the wind
swept top of rocky Moriah and he
helped build up the stones all the
while eagerly looking for the answer
to the questioning mind. Then sud-
den borrow descended His father
was going to kill him! God was de-
manding his blood. And he felt him
self lifted to the top of the rude pile,
tied fast, and saw his father, with
stern, convulsed face, get ready to
plunge that cleaning knife into his
throat. Could such a picture, burned
into the sensitive mind of a teenage
boy, ever be effaced? Is it any Won
der that such a God should always
be fear? The fact that sentence
was reversed and the ram substituted
would be utterly powerless to change |
its results. 1t was great for Abraham
as he discovered new heights in the
thought of God but it was the boy
who paid the price with a life of |
night-marish religion.
THE MAN AND HIS WORLD.
1t wasn't much of a world. Some
men have spent their days within
sight of their birth place and Isaac
was much of that sort. Within the
radius of fifty miles lived his life. In
the incident Of the lesson we find his
farthest journey that brought him to
Gerar within sight of the Great Sea.
1t brought an adventure in agricul-
ture that gave plentiful harvest of
grain as well as blows. 1t was not |
his territory it is true but it had been
a part of his fathers ranging and it |
p. Il