Image provided by: Friends of the Dallas Library; Dallas, OR
About Christian herald. (Portland ;) 1882-18?? | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 1883)
3 CHRISTIAN HERALD. JU tant influence on his life. The one Ebal and Gerizim, the summits of Gerizim similarly to the recital of voluminous that it constitutes the was the sudden death of his friend which áre two miles apart in a the blessings for obedience. Such life-study of the learned class in and fellow-student Alexis. Some line. Bright rivulets, fed; as the a scene, transacted about twelve China. God put all the fundamen say this young man was assassinat natives say, by no fewer than hundred years before the first tal laws for the government of his ed in Erfurt, and others that he eighty springs, run down the slopes Punic war, and one thousand years people on two pieces of stone, such and sparkle over the sunny glen; before Socrates, is unique in the that Moses could carry them down was struck dt»d, Luther’s side. The other was that, gardens musical with many birds history"of the world, for" whim did the patldess steeps'of Sinar one as Luther was returning from surround the walls of Wablus, the any other nation thus pledge itself under each arm; and Christ’ con Magdeburg to Erfurt, when near modern representative of Shechem, to a high religious life as the re densed these “ ten words ” into one Thou shalt love the tatter city, he was overtaken in which nestles close under _ 111 e cognized condition of its prosperi word—“ love.” ty ? Even the curses pronounced the Lord thy God with all thy shadow of Gerizim ; figs, walnuts, a fearful thunder-storm, and as some think, his friend Alexis was mulberries, oranges, lemons, pome- are peculiar to Israel > for they are heart, and soul, and strength ; and struck d o wn by bis sid e. — He was- --gr anat e s;- vin es,-aud^- plu i m». fil li ng. -dixac-.U.d utAtmidy- against idolatry, so much alarmed that he then and the scene with rich luxuriance, the but against disobedience to parents, law we are to repeat at our She there made a solemn vow that if more striking by its vivid contrast inhumanity to the blind, to stran chem, and, in the words of the Book the Lord would spare his life, he with the barren, stony mountains gers, widows or orphans, dr the of Common Prayer, are to “ engrave would become a monk, and thus around. Gerizim, on the south side removal of the landmarks of a on our hearts.” dedicate himself to God. I think of dike valley bowers 1’00(1 feet neighborTModern.. “ 3. Israel signalized its entrance“'-“ slowly striving toward a standard above it in a huge dome of chalk it most probable that Alexis was on the promised land by a solemn struck by lightning.— Lutheran hollowed into many caves at its so generous, pure and lofty.” rededication to a life of obedience ’ With this description, 1 content to the law of God. The. religion of foot, and surmounted by dark blue Observer. limestone, rising in ledges and myself with a very brief suggestion obedience is the foundation of The Reading of the Law.1 shelves to the summit. Ebal, on of the practical lessons it conveys to national well-being. This was the BY LYMAN ABBOTT. the north side, rises in a gentler us in our own time and «for our own foundation which Alfred the Great . slope of steel-blue* rock,“with pre-" life. laid, on which England was built. The scene which has been selec cipitous cliffs atop, 200 feet higher 1. God is a law-giver. The the This was the foundation which the ted for our study to-day has been so admirably described by Dr. than Gerizim; its north side, like ologians of the past century placed Puritan fathers in New England — — Cunningham Geikie2 that I make -that—of—the_ other Jiill. rich in perhaps too great an emphasis on laid, on which America was built. no apology for transferring his springs from the dip of the strata ; this fact; we are therefore in dan For want of this foundation”"the graphic description of this column but its south side, even when richly ger of placing too little emphasis French Republic perished before its instead of attempting one of my covered with corn in summer, de upon it. Law is the essential con founders had died. Let it be ours pendent on rain and irrigation .for . dition o£-weU’being; lawlessness is to see that our country does not F ~ own: “God had commanded through its fertility. Thousands of flowers disintegration and death. Obedi- become removed from its founda Moses that the tribes should, as of every color springing up amongst ence may not bo the highest virtue, tion, that our State without a soon as practicable, assemble at the grass, in the valley itself and but it is the first virtue. Obedience Church does not become a State Shechem, in the center of the land, on the slopes, in the meadows and to law is the first condition of a without the religion of obedience to renew their allegiance to him on the open ground, make the spot righteous .childhood;1 of good citi and allegiance to God. 4. A purpose and pledge of and to hear once more the pro still more delightful. Wherever zenship;2 of acceptance with God.3 water reaches, either naturally or VVe are to obey his law not because clamation of the conditions on obedience to God’s law is the true otherwise, it is paradise ; but above we like it, not because we see it is and only safe inauguration of every which he gave them the country. that limit the barrenness is well- for our interest to do so ; not work and every life: the nation, Accordingly, /ill the nation, includ nigh complete. Yet it is a won- prompted by hope nor impelled by ing the women and children, and the family, the individual. If in *drous valley in the thirsty East. fear, but because it is his law and even the multitude of other races your time you have never recited we are his children. Liberty is hot “ Having selected huge stones God’s law of love and pledged which had come up with them from lawlessness ; it is such sincere, sim and made them smooth with a yourself to obedience to it, do so Egypt, were led on a stupendous ple, genuine, habitual, native obe coating of plaster, Joshua caused an Dow. If you never have done this pilgrimage from the banks of the dience to.law that law has ceased abstract of the law to be inscribed as an individual, do it to day. Jordan at Gilgal to the valley be to be a statute without, to which on them, and then set them up on Shechem is long since reached by tween Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, by force of will we conform, and Mount Ebal. An altar of unhewn you. Build your altar ; read God’s in the midland hills. It was a has'become a nature within, from law; dedicate yourself and yours to spot sacred in the history of Israel, stones "was next raised close by which without conscious effort our obedience. for there Abraham and Jacob had them, that their erection might be life proceeds. in turn pitched their tents, and consecrated by burnt sacrifices and 5. The altar and the stones with This is the lilterty to which we the law upon them went together. there the latter had bought the peace-offerings. The trilies which field in which they Were to bury had sprung from the lawful wives are called by the gospol; the liberty Neither prayer without obedience the mummy of Joseph, as he had of Jacob then took up their place of the Psalmist, to whom God’s nor obedience without prayer is commanded their forefathers hun on Mount Ebal, while those de law was *not a regulation imposed iteligion; but prayer and obedience. dreds of years before. The well scended from the handmaids of from without, but a life .developed —Christian Union. that Jacob had dug was also be Leah and Rachel, with Reuben, from within. “ The law of the fore their eyes, and the oak be stood on the slopes of Mount Lord is perfect, converting the 1 was once in a large company neath which he had buried the Gerizim; the priests, with the Ark, soul; the statutes of the Lord are idolatrous images and ear-rings of occupying the valley between the right, rejoicing the heart; the com- where very severe things were spo- his encampment. The valley itself, two hills, surrounded by the elders, rnandment of the Lord is pur(Ç ken oí an absent gentleman, when a ■person seasonably observed that perhaps the most beautiful spot in officers, and judges of the nation. enlightening the eyes.” 2. The law for us is as simple though the Lord was pleased to ef Palestine, was worthy of the grya£ The whole law as given by Moses national act they had assembled to was now read aloud to the vast though a profound and far-reaching fect conversion and edification by a perform. Running north and multitude—those on Mount Ebal one. It is all comprised in one variety of means, he had never south, with a width of from a responding with a loud Amen to word—“ love.” Confucius left the known anybody convinced of error quarter to half a mile, it is hemmed the rehearsal of the curses for laws he prescribed for the govern by what was said behind his back. in between the twin mountains disobedience, and those on Mount t ment of mankind in a system so —John Newton. * 1 ’ ”