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selves with the chief ointments.” Break ing costly vials of precious spikenard, fit only for the anointing of the Lord’s min istering feet, to pour on their polluted bodies ripe for hell. A Christian (?) young man I knew pleaded seriously as an excuse for not giving to a certain Y. M, C. A. the $90 a year it cost him for cigars. (8) With stolid heartlessness—“Not grieved . . . for Joseph,” ancestor of Ephraim and Manasseh, the leading tribes. “Joseph”—Israel, the kingdom. The de plorable social, economic and defenseless state of the realm roused no sympathetic patriotic spirit in the profligate princes, the natural dependence of the people.’1' III. B lindness . ' So blinding are the effects of sin (2 Cor. 4 :3, 4). It blinds to personal degradation, moral obligation, and impending judgment. It blinds our leaders, legislators, and en franchised citizenship, who in their indif ference, and opposition to reform, and con cession to evil doers, “forsake their own mercies” (Jonah 2:8).** "See Clipping: from the Independent—Page 305 •‘See Temperance Items—Page 304
timent catered to by the courts leaves it al most unpunished. But the crying wrongs of our time are in the exploiting of child hood, womanhood, unskilled labor. There is “corporate greed,” and union greed, and commercial greed, and general greed. One would have the injunction and forbid the boycott, the other vice versa. One would use the Sherman act against the money trust, but not against the labor trust, and vice versa. All would gain and none would give. (5) With luxuriousness.—“That lie upon beds of ivory,” which reminds of the ivory palaces (3:15), and all accompany ing appointments and apparel. It is much the same now, but more glaring in the brighter light. Luxury is a sin of the rich and the middle classes, for it is a rela tive thing, and high living is even more evident than high prices. Meanwhile the world perishes for the “Bread of Life.” (6) With abandon to pleasure, “The viol . . . and instruments of music.” It is said of our times that the public has gone mad on amusement (see 1 Tim. 5:6). (7) With wanton waste, “Anoint them
LESSON XIII. — June 29th.- —T he ; V ictories oe F aith . (R eview ). G olden T ext : This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith .— 1 John 5:4. Bring out by question the facts, the faith,and the victories of Joseph’s story. Th e Third Quarter LESSON I. — July 6th. —T he C hild M oses S aved from D eath .— Exod. Whoso shall receive one of these little ones in My name receiveth 1 : 1 - 8 — 22:2 2 : 10 . G olden T ext : Me. —Matt. 18:5. I. E xodus . Our quarter’s lessons are
nds With “to be continued.” . Even the last leaves us in expectation. Man had very auspicious beginnings but sad endings; it was so in Paradise, and again at the Flood, and at Babel, and the fourth time started him out anew in Abraham. Then we left him in Egypt, at the end of the Fourth age or dispensation. There we find him now in shameful bondage. Exodus, which means “The Way Out,” tells how he got out of it, for a, fresh beginning. Its key-note is, . therefore, “Redemption,” for
from Exodus. Genesis is the book of be ginnings. Exodus is a continuation. Gen esis did not end the story. Exodus takes it up with the word “And” (in the He brew). All the strictly narrative books of the Bible are connected by “And” down to the end of Ezra, for the Bible is one book. Deuteronomy and Nehemiah do not begin with “And,” for they are records of “The words” of Moses and Nehemiah, respec- tively: Every book of the Bible practically
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