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the bridegroom came. The two parables referred to represent two classes of people that are superficial, shallow, easy-going, hoping for the best, and comparing themselves with creatures below them, instead of the great example and model Jesus Christ, to grow up to his stature.

On the other hand, dissatisfaction with self, his attainments and doings, is an indication of healthy development and growth.

Listen to the Apostle Paul: "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am also apprehended of Christ Jesus.

"Brethren, I COUNT NOT MYSELF TO HAVE APPREHENDED, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, AND REACHING FORTH UNTO THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE BEFORE,

"I PRESS TOWARD THE MARK FOR THE PRIZE OF THE HIGH CALLING OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.” Phil. 3:12-14. Compare Rev. 3:14-22.

CHAPTER XXXII.

ACHAN-THE TRANSGRESSOR.

Far-Reaching Effects of Sin.

It is a most remarkable, astonishing, astounding, amazing, stultifying, and hazardous condition, this, that sin and sinning is so indifferently, so lightly considered. Hazardous? Yes, in the superlative: it is a disruptive, fatal condition. For sin disregarded or ignored is not repented, is not forgiven or reconciled, is not amended or abandoned; but it continues to hold the sinner in its shackles, making him more and more indifferent and reckless, and instrumental for evil. And it bodes no good for our generation and our time.

We will now turn to Achan. "And Achan answered Joshua, and said: Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:

"When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels in silver, and a tongue of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.

"And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and LAID THEM OUT BEFORE THE LORD.

Note-So shall all hidden sins be exposed and displayed before the eyes of all men, and the Lord God, the Judge of the quick and the dead, and punishinent pronounced and meted out to every transgressor, just as it was here in the case of Achan.

"And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan, the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the tongue of gold, and his sons, and his daughter, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent and all that he had; and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.

"And Joshua said:

"Why has thou troubled us? THE LORD SHALL TROUBLE THEE THIS DAY.

"And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones."

Now, we notice:

1. The divine command: "And ye, in anywise keep YOURSELVES FROM THE ACCURSED THING, lest ye make YOURSELVES accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.

"But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord."

2. Far-Reaching Consequences of Achan's Sin.

(a) Loss of battle of Ai;

(b) Death of thirty-six soldiers of the children of Israel that were slain in the battle;

(c) The execution of Achan and his whole family, sons and daughters and all his property destroyed as having been con

taminated by Achan's impure and accursed eyes, mind, and hands, working together in the act.

3. It was a secret sin. No one had seen it committed. No one knew anything about it, but the Lord and the invisible witnesses. Yet these were dire and fatal consequences.

O my God, open our eyes, and our minds to perceive, understand, and comprehend how terrible sin is in itself as a rebellion against God and in its effects and consequences among the whole human family on earth, and also among invisible spectators and observers; that our every act and thought, and desire, and utterance have their effects for good or bad, cheering or disgusting, attracting or repulsing, in both the visible and invisible world; in the visible by human beings and all creatures; in the invisible world by the God head and angels; the good, our guardian angels; the evil ones, lucifer, satan, and his crowd-the good, to guide and to protect; the satanic to tempt, to mislead. Grant that we may discern the craftiness and vileness of satan, and give strength to resist, and to conquer; to the rescue and salvation of our souls, redeemed with the blood of Jesus Christ, and to redound to Thy glory, now and forever more. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

God's interpretation of Achan's act.

"Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.

"Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither WILL I BE WITH YOU ANY MORE, except ye destroy the accursed from among you

* * *

"O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you." Joshua 7. "I will not be with you any more." That is enough for defeat. If the Lord leaves us, then all is lost. Then the armies and forces of hell are let loose; and pity us, or any community or nation, when the Lord withdraws His helping or protecting hand.

"I hope the Lord is on our side," said a friend to Abraham Lincoln at the beginning of our Civil War.

"That's of no importance," answered the pious and dignified Lincoln.

Lincoln's friend was surprised at such an unexpected retort. "Surely," insisted Lincoln's friend, "we can't hope to win unless the Lord is on our side.

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"No," replied Mr. Lincoln, "that is not the most important thing. But the most important thing is this:

"ARE WE ON THE LORD'S SIDE?"

Abraham Lincoln was right.

Prayers and supplications were offered both in the North and

the South, fervent prayers, devoted prayers, for God to bless their armies and give victory.

But the South had that accursed thing, the slavery, human beings in bondage. Hence God would not, could not consistently -and God is always consistent-give victory to that section, contaminated with slavery; for then He would have sanctioned, confirmed and ratified that inhuman institution, "that accursed thing."

If the church of the South had studied the Bible as devoutly and freed from preconceived ideas and local prejudices, as the church of the North, there would have been no strife between the two sections, no civil war, no destruction of cities, no devastation of plantations.

Why were not the warnings of a Wendell Phillips, the pleadings and convincing arguments of William Lloyd Garrison, the sympathetic renunciation and biblical elucidation of the Rev. Elijah Lovejoy, and the vehement oratory of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher-why were not these heeded, considered, and God's will and direction solicited in their prayers?

A sad story. "Besides the enormous debt of some $2,800,000,000 entailed on the country, and the utter ruin of the wealth of the South, the war cost over a million lives, not counting the maimed and diseased who lived on for a few years or more of suffering. There died in hospitals and prisons or on the field of battle an average of seven hundred men a day for four full years."

Why this enormous sacrifice?

1. Because the Christians, the light of the world, the church, were not in a condition, honestly and devoutly to desire to know the will of God, hence incapable to receive and to transmit, to expound, to proclaim, God's will and direction.

2. Because slavery was very profitable and convenient to the inhabitants of the Southern States.

Therefore this enormous sacrifice in life, in property, and in funds, resting as a burden on successive generations..

Now, a war, a world war, more terrible than any previous war, is effecting and agitating the world. Our beloved country has become a partner to it, a belligerent, an ally to the Entente. Now, have we no accursed thing to be destroyed before the Lord will be with us to give victory? How about the liquor traffic? How about the converting of bread products into beer? How about prostitution, red light districts, toleration of vice? How about law-enforcement? How about Sabbath desecration? Are we not boasting, where like Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and Jeremiah, we ought to bow down at the mercy seat with broken hearts and contrite spirits, confessing our sins and to cry aloud to show forth our local and national sins that the accursed thing may be destroyed from among us? For, remember, the one man Achan, caused the defeat of a whole army, because the Lord refused to be with them.

If we heed not, our losses and disappointments may be humiliating, crushing, heart-breaking, in sacrifices of life and money though our cause is just and our efforts and aim laudable.

Yes, Joshua acted strictly according to God's command, yet his army was beaten at Ai, and a number of men killed, just because that sneak and thief Achan had done an accursed thing, and although nobody had seen it or knew anything about it.

O my friends, have we any Achan, any accursed thing, in our camp?

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