Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by Georgia HomePLACE, a project of the Georgia Public Library Service.
About Dade County weekly times. (Rising Fawn, Dade County, Ga.) 1884-1888 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 1887)
T. A. HAVRON, Publisher. He lest MU;. The Accepted Usage of the Best Writers is efER’S mSwmMm '( ■,| | With Dtalisn’i Eefiresst Index fbr 75 cents iMitict&l. WORCESTER’S UNABRIDGED QUARTO DICTIONARY, THS LARGEST AND MOST OOMPLETE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. WITH A SUPPLEMENT, ■ MBHAOING 204 ADDITIONAL PAGES. AND OVER 12,800 NEW WORDS AND A VOCABULARY OF SYNONYMES OF WORDS IN GENFRAL USE. THE NEW EDITION OF WORCESTER'S DICTIONARY OONTAINS THOUSANDS OF WORDS NOT TO fe€ FOUND IN ANY OTHER DICTIONARY. Fully Illustrated, and contains Four Full-page Illuminated Plates. Library Sheep, Marbled Edges, SIO.OO. STANDARD WORKS Of T-L of or one o FOR EVERY LIBRARY. LIPPINCOTT’S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. A New Thoroughly Revised and Greatly En larged Edition. A universal Pronouncing Dictionary of Biography and Mythology. Containing complete and concise Biograph ical Sketches of the Eminent Persons of all Ages and Countries. By J. Thomas, M. LIPPINCOTT’S PRONOUNCING CAZETTEER OF THE WORLD. A complete Geographical Dictionary. New Edition. Thoroughly revised and greatly enlarged. Containing Supplementary Tables, with the most recent Census Re turns. Royal 8 vo. Sheep $12.00. (CHAMBER’S ENCYCLOP/EDIA. American Revised Edition. The best in every way. A Dictionary of Universal Knowl edge. Profusely Illustrated with Maps, Plates, and Wood-Cuts. 10 vols. Royal 8 To. Several editions, at various prices. Now Offered at Greatly Reduced Prices ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHEMISTRY. Theoretical, Practical, and Analytical, as ap plied to the Arts and Manufactures. By Writers of Eminence. Profusely and Handsomely Illustrated. In Two Vol umes. Each containing 25 Steel Plate En gravings and Numerous Wood-Cuts. Im perial 8 to. Price Per Set: Extra Cloth, $15.00. » Library sheep. SIB.OO. Half mor rocco. $20.00. READER’S REFERENCE LIBRARY. Containing ‘THE HEADERS HANDBOOK” “DICTIONARY OK PH RASE AND FARCE” “DICTIONARY OF MIRACLES.” “WORDS, TACTS AND PHRASES,” “ANCIENT AND MODERN FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS.” “WORCESTERS COMPREHENSIVE DIC TIONARY,” “ROGET’S THESAURUS,” and “SOULE’S ENGLISH SYNONYMES,” 8 vols. Bound in half morocco, gilt top. Per set, in pasteboard box, $20.00. Any vol. sold separ ately. a*LI SV ALL BOOKSELLERS. OR WILL BE SENT, MDWtAOt nil, ON AEOEIPT OP THE PRICE BY J. B. Lippincott Company, Publishers, 715 Sou 717 market Street, Philadelphia llPPlNCOTT’S g NEW- wain, NOW READY Price Reduced to $2.00 per Aonam. For Sale by all Newsdealers. Everybody should read it. Sample copy sent, post paid, on receipt of 25 cents. ST. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., E*l>i)ti<L:li>bi» HAULING IN THE NET. A Memorable Day at the Brook lyn Tabernacle. Over Three Hundred New Members Re ceived by Rev. Dr. T. I»e Witt Tal mage—An Impressive Sermon by the Eminent Divine. Brooklyn, N. Y., Jan. 23.—Over three hundred new members were received at the Brooklyn Tabernacle to-day. In com memoration of this event, Dr. Talmage preached the following sermon, choosing for his te-1 the eighth verse of the six tieth chapter of Isaiah: “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows!” He said: When God would set fast a beautiful thought, he plants it in a tree; when He would put it afloat, He fashions it into a fish; when He would have it glide through the air, He molds it into a bird. There is to many of us a complete fascination in the structure and habits of birds—the blackbird, floating like a flake of darkness through the sunlight- the meadow lark, with head of fawn and throat of velvet, and breast of gold; the red flamingo, flying over the Southern swamps, like sparks from the forge of the setting sun; the pelican, white and black, morning and night, tangled in its wings—they seem not more of earth than Heaven, ever vacillat ing between the two. No wonder that Audubon, with his gun, tramped through all the American forests in search of new specimens. Geologists have spent years in finding the track of a bird’s claws in the new red sandstone. There is enough of God’s architecture in a snipe’s bill or grouse’s foot to confound all the universities. Musicians have, with clefs and bars, tried to catch the sound of the nightingale and the robin. Among the first things that a child notices is a swal low at the eaves, and grandfather goes out with a handful of crumbs to feed the snow birds. The Bible is full of ornithological allusions. The birds of the Bible are not dead and stuffed, like those of the museum, but liv ing birds, with fluttering wings and plum age. “Behold the fowls of the air,” says Christ. “Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, ard though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down,” exclaims Obadiah. “Gavest thou the goodly wings to the peacock!” says Job. David describes his desolation by saying: “I am like a pelican of the wilder ness; lam like an owl of the desert; I watch, and am as a sparrow on the house top.” “Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed time; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the ),ime of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord,” says Jeremiah. And in the text Isaiah looks ahead and sees the gathering of many people unto Christ and the Church, and it makes him think of a flock of pigeons alighting on their coop, and all at once try ing to get in at the window of the coop, and he cries out: “Who are those that fly as a cloud and as the doves to their win dows!” This is one of the memorable days of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. On other Sundays we drop the net; to-day we haul it in. On other days we send out the invitations for a King’s party; to-day we sit at the banquet. On other days we fight the bat tle; now we claim victiry through our Lord Jesus Christ. Ye who have toiled and contributed and prayed for the success of this institution take unto your souls the grand satisfaction of this hour. To you, O, men and women, is fulfilled the promise: “ Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.” Wake up, O, Church of God! and bring garlands and music and let us celebrate our “harvest home.” Oh, this mercy of God! lam told it is an ocean. Then I place on it four swift-sail ing crafts, with compass and charts and I choice rigging and skillful navigators, and tell them to launch away and discover for me the extent of his ocean. That craft puts out in one direction, and sails to the north; this to the east; this to the south; this to the west. They crowd on all their canvas and sail ten thousand years, and one day came up the harbor of Heaven, and a snout to them from the beach: “Have you found the shore?” And they answer: “No shore to God’s mercy 1” Swift angels, dis patched from the throne, attempt to go across it; for one million years they fly and fly, but then come back and fold their wings at the foot of the the throne, and cry: “No shore Ino shore to God’s mercy 1” Mercy! Mercy! I sing it; 1 preach it; I pray it. Here I find a man bound hand and foot to the devil, but with one stroke of the hammer of God’s truth the chains fall off and he is free forever. Mercy l Mercy 1 Mercy 1 There is no depth it can not fathom; there is no height it cannot scale; there is no infinity it cannot com pass. When persons apply for membership in to any society, the question is asked: “W ho are they, and where do they come from?” and as this multitude of people pre sent themselves to-day for membership it is right that we should ask: “Who are these that come as doves to their win dows?” They are captives, whose chains have been broken; they are soldiers, who have enlisted for a thirty years’ war; they are heirs of Heaven. They come as doves to the windows, first, because they fly low. The eagle darts up, as if to strike its beak into the sun. There are birds that seem to dwell under the eaves of heaven; you see them as lit tle specks against the sky, so far off that you can notguess the style of their plumage or the shape of their bodies; they float so far away that if the hunter’s gun be dis charged at them they do not change their course. Not so with the doves or pigeons, they never take any high excursions. They fly around your roof and alight on the fence, and seem to dislike great altitudes. So these souls who come to Christ and to His church to-day fly* low. They ask no great things; they seek an humble place at the feet of Christ: they are not ashamed to be called beggars for mercy; they are willing to get down on their knees, and to crawl under the table, and to pick up the crumbs of the Gospel provision. There were days when they were proud and punctilious and Inexorable and puff 'd up; but not now. The highest throne on earth could not tempt Mary away from Jesus’ feet. Stoop, O pardoned soul, if thou wouldst enter. Heaven. A higli look and a proud heart God hates. Fly low. It is a j, e cy that thou cans! fly at all. Remem ber all the years of thy sin; thy days of TRENTON, DADE COUNTY GA., FRIDAY, JANUARY 28. 1887. youthful wandering; thy days of manhood transgessions; thy sins—dark, brooding, dreadful sins—against thy soul, against thy Bible, against thy God. In one of the benevolent institutions of Europe where the destitute are provided for the new comers have their photographs taken while in rags before they are washed, so that they may always have in the pict ure a reminder of the degradation from which they were lifted; so in his book God keeps before thee a picture of thy former destitution and raggedness of soul. Fly low. It is an offended God before whom thou com est. Thou deservest His wrath. He scat tered the one hundred and eighty-flve thousand Sennacherib’s host in a night; He abhors sin; He will judge the nations. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty. Fly low. A thousand years ago an emperor plant ed a rose bush from which roses are plucked to-day. At the foot of the cross nearly nineteen centuries ago a rose was planted which blooms to-day; stoop down, if thou wouldst pluck it. O, for more of the child-like spirit! I rejoice in the be lief that those who come to Christ to-day, come aware of their sins and their wants, and have learned how to fly low. Again, these persons who come to-day are like doves on their way to the dove-coto because they fly for shelter. The albatross makes a throne of the tempest; the sea gulls find their grandest frolic in the storm —their merriest hour seems to be that in which the surf of the sea piles most high. Not so with doves. At the first blow of tho northeaster they fly to the coop. Eagle contends with eagle in mid-air, and vulture fights vulture on the bosom of the carcass, but doves at the first dash of the bird of prey speed for shelter from fiery eye and iron beak and loathsome talon. So to-day these souls come here for shelter. Every one has a besetting sin; that sin is always after you. The robber watches you when you come out of the bank; sees in what pocket you put the money; notices where you go to dine, and where you sleep, and what kind of a lock you have on your door; so there is some sin ever on a man’s track. It goes with him to the store; it sits on the money safe; it looks over his shoulder while he makes out the bill of lading; it goes out with him to dine; it walks home with him at night. As to some dog that you do not want to follow you but persists, you say to it: “Back home with you!” You stone it away and start on. After awhile, casually turning your eye, you find it close after you with a sneaking look Wherever you go, sin goes; where you stay, sin stays. You have watched the hawk above the barnyard; it sails around and around over the brood of chick ens around and around, now al most down to the flock, then back again, until at last it drops and seizes the prey. There is a hawk ready to pounce on every dove, and that is the reason that these doves come to-day to the windows—they want shelter in the grace of God and in Christian associations. They say: “If there be any power in your prayers, let me have them; if there be any virtue in good counsels, give them to me; if there be any thing elevating in Christian associations, let me feel their influence.” “Where thou dwellest I will dwell. Thy people shall be my people, thy God my God!” Open your doors, oh, Church of God! and let them come in “as doves to their windows.” Christ is the only shelter of the soul in trouble. What can you do without him when sorrow comes? Perhaps at first you take valerian to quiet your nerves or al cohol to revive your spirits; but have you found any thing in the medicines or phys ical stimulants sufficient! Perhaps in the excitement of the money market or in the merry-making of the club you have sought relief. This world has no balsam for a wounded soul, no shelter for a bruised spirit. The dove in the time of the deluge flew north, and it was all water, in which were tossed the carcasses of the dead world, ai d the first solid thing that the dove’s feet touched was the window of the ark. Bo the soul in trouble goes out in one direc tion and finds nothing substantial to rest upon, and in another direction and every whither, but there is no rest for the dove save the ark. “ Substantial comfort will not grow In nature’s barren soil; All we can boast, till Christ we know, Is vanity and toil. But where the Lord has planted grace, And made His glories known, There fruits of Heavenly joys are found, And there alone.” You lost a parent; some one said that it was in the regular course of nature that your father should expire. Did that com fort you! You lost a child; somebody said if that child had lived it might have turned out badly. Did that comfort you? You lost your property; they told you that riches were very uncertain. You knew that before. You were sick; they ex plained to you that the difficulty was in the secretions or in the sciatic nerve. Did that soothe you? O, the despicable quack ery of earthly comfortl But when Christ comes to the soul and says: “I took your estate because I wanted to give you more valuable treasures; I made you sick in body that your soul might be brought up to eternal health; I took your loved ones away because I have a better and brighter place for them in My owfn presence”—then the wound heals; then the tears dry off the face; then God has become the everlasting portion of the soul. Oh, the air is full of black wings and ravens’ beaks. They join their wings of darkness until they shut out the light of the sun. They have fattened on the car casses of men. Their clangor is horrible to the ear—trouble and disease ani death coming down on the wind. No wonder these souls have com? for shelter “as doves to their windows.” What does the pigeon in the coop care for the hawk in the sky? Safe in Christ, safe forever. The mountains may depart, and the hills be re moved. but Thy loving kindness shall never fail. Again, these souls, like, doves, fly home. Most of the winged denizens have no home; now they are at the north and now at the south, as the climate indicates. This year a nest in one tree next year a nest in an other tree. The golden oriole remains but three months of the year in Germany, and is then gone; the linnet of Norway crosses the ocean to find rest from the winter’s blast; the heron, the goldfinch and the gross beak are migratory; the cranes call each other together a few days before go ing, choose their leader, arrange them selves in two lines, forming an angle, and ar > tr> n v Ahu the pigeons alluded to in the text. summer and winter and always, have a home in the dove-cote. And so Christ is the home of those who come to Him. He is a warm home; they rest under the feathers of the Almighty.” Christ tells us that chickens find not a warmer place under the wing of the hen than we in Him. He is a safe home; our fortunes may go down ten degrees below zero; the snows of trouble may fall; the winds of persecution may howl; the jackals of death mav stalk forth —all is well, for “ great peace have they who trust in God.” From this home we shall never be driven out. The sheriff may sell us out of our earthly house, or the fires may burn it down, or the winds carry it away, but that home shall always be ours. Men talk as though starting for God weve putting out on a trackless moor, or wandering through the sands of a great Sahara. No, no; it is coming to the warm est and best of homes, “as doves to their windows”. Again, these souls to-day gathering for membership, are like doves, because they come in flocks. The buzzard, with dripping beak, fluttering up from the carrion is alone. You occasionally look up against tho wintry sky and see a solitary bird winging past. But doves or pigeons are in flocks; by scores and hundreds do they fly. You hear the loud whirr of their wings as they pass. So to-day we seo a great flock coming into the Kingdom. It is not a straggler trying to catch up \vith his regiment; it is a solid phalanx, taking the Kingdom. It is not a drop on your hand or cheek that leaves you in doubt whether it rains or not, but the rush of an unmistakar ble shower. There are all ages in this flock. Some of them are young, and the very first use the} make of their wings is to fly into tho Kingdom. Some of them are old, and their wings have been torn with shot and ruffled with the tempest, and they had al most dropped into the sea. Some of them have been making a very crooked course; they dipped their wings in fountains of sin; they wandered near the gulf of perdi tion, but they saw their danger they changed their course. They have come at last “as doves to their windows.” I thank God that I have lived to see this day; to my dying hour I shall not cease to praise Him for this manifestation of His grace. Praise to Him, sun and moon and stars! Praise Him, Church militant on earthl Praise Him, church triumphant in Heaven! Let the church beneath raise up its right hand of gratulation, and the church above reach down Us right hand of joy, and while the two are clasped, let the elders of the church put to our lips the wine of earthly celebration, and the cup bearers of Heaven bring up out of the vaults of eternity the oldest wine, pre pared by Hiin who trod the wine-press alone", and so let two worlds at once keep jubilee! Who are these who come to us to-day? Many are young. Until Robert Raikes came there was no organized effort for saving the young. We spent ail our strength trying to bend old trees, when a little pressure would have been sufficient for the sapling. We let men go down to the very bottom of sin before we try to lift them up. It is a great to train on the track than it is off. The experienced reinsman checks the fiery steed at the first jump, for when he gets full swing, the swift hoofs clicking lire from the pavement and the bit between his teeih, his momentum is irresistible. It is sain that the young must be allowed to sow their “wild oats.” I have noticed that those who sow their wild oats seldom try to raise any other crop. I the heaviest snow-storm I have to see a dying girl. Her cheek on the pillow was as white as the snmv on the casement. Her large round eyShad not lost any of its luster. Loved onX stood all around the bed trying to hold her back. Her mother could not give her up; her father eould not give her up, and one nearer to her than either father or mother was frantic with grief. I said: “Fanny, how do you feel!” “Oh,” she says, “happy, happy, Mr. Talmage. Tell all the young folks that religion will make them happy.” As I came out of the room, louder than all the sobs and wailings of grief, I heard the sweet, clear voice of the dying girl: “Good night; we shall meet again on the other side of the river.” The next Sabbath we buried her. We brought white flowers and laid them on the coffin. There was in all that crowded church but one really happy and delighted face, and that was the face of Fanny. O, I wish that to day my Lord Jesus would go through this audience and take all these flowers of youth and garland them on His brow. But while a great flock this day comes to the dove-cote of mercy, the largest flock is going the other way. It is a very easy th'ng to tame doves. Go out with a hand ful of corn to feed pigeons and they will fly on your shoulders and hands, so tame are they. God has fe 1 those who are before me with “the finest of wheat,” and yet you have flown from Him all your lives long; you have taken your clothes out of His wardrobe and your bread out of His hands. God’s spirit will not always strive. In the morning you have gone out, alter a se vere night, and seen the birds dead on the snow; so, after awhile, God’s mercy will cease, and the earth will be covered with the bodies of those who perished in the storm. That storm is coming; it will shiv er the mast of pride; it will drive into the white reefs of death every cargo of sin. The cedars of the mountain will split in the hurricane, and the islands shall be moved out of their places, and the continents shall be rent assunder, and th; hemisphere shall whirl like a top in the fury of that day. The mountains will be blasted and the beasts, in affright, be pitched from the cliffs in an avalanche of terror. The dead shall rush forth from their sepulchres to see what is the matter, and all those who de spise God shall horribly perish. Now, do you suppose that I can stand here and know that that day is coming without telling you about it! My last rest ing place will probably be near yours. IV hat if. when I get up in the resurrect on day, 1 should see you rusning at me across the lots of the cemetery, and hoar you cry: “Why did you not tell me of this? If it had not been for your neglect I should have been on the way to glory.” I can not pre pare myself for such a consternation. “Can you tell me how far it is to hell?” said a young man, as, on Sunday, on horse back. he dashed past a good Christian deacon. At the next turn in the road the horse threw the scoffing rider, and he was dead. He wanted to know how far it was to hell, and found out without the deaoou’s tailing bun, So fhou art mounted on a swift, steed, whose hoofs strike fire from the pavement as he dashes past, and you cry out: “How far is it to ruin?” I answer: “Near, very near!” “ Perhaps this very day Thy last accepted time may be; Oh 1 shouldst thou grieve Him now away, Then hope may never beam on thee.” Oh that my Lord God would bring you now to see your sin and to fly from it; and your duty, and help you do it, so that when the last great terror of earth shall spread its two black wings, and clutch with its bloody talons for thy soul, it can not hurt thee, for thou art safe in the warm dove cote of a Saviour’s mercy I “ Come in! come in I Eternal glory shalt thou win.” ART'HCIAL limbs. Arehwologieai Researches Proving Tlial They Were Known in Rt-note An tiquity. The history of medicine is all but silent on orthopaedic surgery. And jet Greeks and Romans, who, as archaeology has shown, had anticipated much cf modern dentistry, can not have been without arti ficial substitutes for limbs lost in tho vicis situdes of peace or war. Herodotus tells us of a captive who amputated Ins foot to free himself from the shackle, and thus escaped to his friends, who replaced the limb by a wooden one. The elder Pliny (Nat. Hist., vii., 28, ed. Mayhoff) records the case of M. Sergius, great-grandfather of Catiline, who lost his right hand in his second campaign, was wounded twenty three times in two campaigns, and thus had the complete use of neither hand nor foot. Twice made prisoner by Hannibal, he twice escaped after twenty months spent in chains. He fought four battles with his left hand only, and then made himself a hand of iron, which he fastened on to fight with, and, thus accoutred, raised the siege of Cremona, protected Pla centia, and took twelve camps of the enemy in Gaul. Similar substitutes for amputated arms or legs must have been in use even before the time of Sergius; so at least we may infer from the treasure-trove turned up at Capua in 1885 in a tufa-grave. Among the contents of this tomb was an artificial leg, made of bronze, wood and iron, the skel eton being entire, save the bones represent ed by the artificial limb. This (probably unique) relic is nowin the museum of tho Royal College of Surgeons of London, and is thus officially described: “Roman artifi cial leg. The artificial limb accurately rep resents the form of the leg. It is mada with pieces of thin bronze, fastened by bronze nails to a wooden core. Two iron bars, having holes at their free ends, are attached to the imper extremity of the bronze. A quadfflateral piece of iron, found near the position of the foot, is thought to have given strength to it. There was no trace of the foot, and the wooden core had nearly all crumbled away. The skeleton had its waist surrounded bj T a belt of sheet bronze, edged with small riv ets, probably used to fasten a leather lin ing. Three painted vases (red figures on a black ground) lay at the feet of the skele ton. The vases belonged to a rather ad vanced period of the decline in art (about 300 B. C).” Commenting on the above, General H. H. Maxwell says: “It is im portant to add, from other sources, that the upper third of the leg was hollow, while the lower two-thirds were filled with wood.” —London Lancet. An Unworthy Ideal. I was reading of that disappointed and misanthropic genius Dore, whose illustra tions in black and white have won for him a wide reputation. Starting with a sen sitive organization, and tender affections, he became the victim of ambition for praise as a painter in oil. It was characteristic of him to ignore model and law, and to de velop his powers according to his own capricious fancy. “My mind is my model for every thing,” he once said. And then he loved Paris rather than humanity at large, and craved her honors, and worked his brain and hand in hope against hope of receiving a tribute from her artistic tri bunal commensurate with his genius. His egotism led him to think no laudation could exceed his merit —he made no effort to cultivate humility; he aimed not so much to be true to nature’s simplicity as to startle the world by the number and va riety of his original conceptions and the rapidity of his execution. He aimed to create a sensation and secure a medal from the French Academy. He created a sensa tion, he failed to gain the medal, and he died of a broken heart. Are there not men now living, and scarcely gray-headed, whose once tender and aspiring soul has been embittered® whose passion for great ness has soothed tho freshness out of their who are growing pre maturely old and fretful, have even aban doned hope, because success has eluded them; and has it not been because their ideal was a brilliant vanity?—Dr. J. Spencer Kennard, in Ilomiletic Review. True Charity. It ts an inadequate interpretation of charity to think of it as mere alms-giving. You speak of a certain person known to be a friend to the poor. “There is Mr. X,” 'you say. “He is a very generous man. He can’t keep money. He doesn’t know the value of money. He would give away his last cent.” Your friend replies: “Yes, and he is one of society’s most dangerous enemies. He gives indiscriminately. He gives because he hasn’t the courage to say no! And hundreds and thousands of shift less and crafty bummers, frauds, tramps, cranks and other vermin just live and per petuate themselves on that kind of benev olence,” and that is true. Begging is a business. People get rich at it. Crime is encouraged by it. Only recently a poor English woman left alone with a little sick ly babe found that the child excited the sympathy of the people, and she carried it, poorlj' clad and hungry, in her arms from house to house. Money poured in. She made quite a little fortune. But the cruel, heartless exposure, and long-continued hunger slowly murdered the child. Every one that gave so much as a penny helped to kill that nabv. So, if charity meant simply alms-giving, you could easily imag ine conditions and circumstances wherein it would be an injury to the world.— Rev. Charles Conklin. Ideas do not die In their beds. They are shot down in the streets, tortured at the rack, burnt at the stake and crucified on the cross, and the more they are slaught ered the more t fey live. I ik ■ human snuli their iiumort: 1 work bcg.ua with death.— Chkuyo Express, VQL.iII [ -NO. 49. THE CALL OF ABRAHAM. International Smnlay-Seliool Lesson for January 30, 18K7. [Specially arranged from S. S. Quarterly,] Gen. 12:1-9; commit verses 1-3. 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abram: Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: 2. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing; 3. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that cur. eth thee; and in thee .‘-hall all families of the earth be blessed. 4. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him: and Abram ve* seventy and five years old when he depart ed out of Ilaran. 5. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son. and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten In Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. 6. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. 7. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said: Unto thy seed will I give this laud; and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, Who appeared unto him. 0. And he removed from thence unto a mount ain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, haring Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east; and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. 9. And Abram journeyed, going on still to ward the south. Time —This lesson begins B. C. 1931, about 427 years after the flood, the last lesson. Chronology —Abraham was born B. C. 199(5, two years after Noah’s death, and half-way between Adam and Christ. Ho left his home in Ur B. C. 192(5, remained in Haran five years, and left for Canaan B. C. 1921. Places — Ur of the Chaldees. Either (1) the modern Oorfa (the classic Edessa) twenty-live miles north of Haran; or (2) Mugheir, on the west of the confluence of the Tigris with the Euphrates, one hundred and twenty-five miles north of the Persian Gulf, where the Chaldeans first settled. Haran , in Mesopotamia, on the Belik. a branch of the Euphrates. It is now a small village. Canaan , t. e. Palestine. Sichem, Shechem, near the middle of Palestine, be tween Mounts Ebal and Geriziin, where Jesus talked with the woman of Samaria about two thousand years after this. Persons Abram (high father), af er wards changed to Abraham (father of a multitude), son of Terah. He lived in his native place in Chaldea seventy years; then five in Haran; and afterwards one hun dred years, mostly in Canaan; and died, B. C. 1822, aged 175. Sarah: Abraham’s wife, and either his half-sister, or his niece on his father’s side, and sister of Lot, the same as Iseah (Gen. 11:39.) Lot: son of Haran, Abraham’s eldest brother, and nearly as old as his uncle, Abraham. Helps over Haro Places— l. Had said: before his start from Ur (Acts 7:2); possi bly the call was renewed in Haran. Abra ham doubtless was an eminent servant of God even then. His family probably pos sessed the early records of religion. Applications — (l) A similar command is virtually given to us. The world around us lies in wickedness; we are to regird it as a wilderness through which we are pass ing as strangers and pilgrims to our Father’s house. (2) We know not at first just where wo are going, when God calls us from tho world to enter into His service. It is al ways to the land which He will show us. Life and duty and work will unfold them selves to us as we obey. A Great Nation is one (1) of large num bers; (2) of high character; (3) of great prosperity and culture; (4) of noble ideas, aims and hopes; (5) of great influence in blessing others; (6) and all tiles j will be only in a nation which serves an 1 obeys God. 3. In thee all families be blessed: the Bible, the Christ, the preservation of our religion, our salvation, we owe to Hin 5. Substance: flocks, cattle, rich >s. Tii • prom ise had already begun to be fulfilled (Gen. 13:2.) Souls: servants (Gen. 14:14) (5. Plain of Moreh: rather oak, or oak-grove of Moreh, near Sh jchevn. 7. And th ■ L>rd <o peareil: to tell him that he was now in th > promised land, and to strengthen his faith when he foun 1 the lan 1 oecupie i. Tiie Seven Promises to Abraham (1) To make him a great nation. (2) To bless him. (3) To make his name great. (4) To make him a blessing to others. (5) To bless his friends. ((!) To oppose his enemies. (7) In him all families of the earth should bo blessed. Promises to Us. (1) God’s promises to us are great and precious. (2) They are larger and fuller than those to Abraham. (3) They are compensations for the things we are called to leave. (4) They are al ways calls upward, to better things, to higher joys, to larger fields, to richer ex periences. (5) They are for all who will receive them. Golden Text—l will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.—Gen. 12:2. Central Truth -The Christian life a journey from the world of sin to the prom ised lan t of holiness and Heaven New Testament Light on Old Testa ment Themes —l. (Joel's Call to -as —From what does God call us? (n Cor. 5: 14-17; r Pet. 2:9.) To what does He call us? (i Cor. 1:9; Gal. 1:6; 5:13; Eph. 3:16-19; i Pet. 1:3, 4.) By what docs He call us? (Rom. 1:6; Rev. 22:17; n Cor. 5:20.) Do vva ever have to leave friends and home? (Matt. 19:21-23, 33-38.) What enabled Abra. ham t) obey! (Heb. 11 :S) Do we need the same faith? (John 3:16; Rom. 10:9.) 11. God's Promises to us —What are some of the temporal promises to us if we obey God’s call? (Matt. 19:29; i Tim. 4:8.) What other promises does God make? (Mark 16:16; John 1:12; 3:16. 36; i Cor. 2:9.) Are these good reasons for obeying God’s call? 111. In what respects was Abraham’s pilgrimage a type of Chr.stian life? (Heb. 11 :s 10.) LESSONS FROM THE LIFB OF ABRAHAM. 1. The Christian life is a pilgrimage from worldliness afid sin to holiness and Heaven. 2. God calls us to leave all, and to follow our Saviour. 3. God calls, by His Word, by con science, by the Holy Spirit, by teachers, by His providence. 4. Faith only can lead us to obey. 5. God gives us abundant promises for t'ae life that now is, and for that which is to come. 6. God’s promises aie begun to be ful filled in this world. 7. The good man always carries his re ligion with him. 8. The institutions of religi tn arc n *o 1- fut to the continued existence and useful ness of religion.
