A Sermon Preached by the Rev. A. N. Rowland on Oct. 15 in Union Churel Shanghai.
Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, The Lord your (od hath given you rest and this land, (therefore) ye shall march befure your brethren armed, and help them, until the Lord have given your brethren rest as He bath given you.... Phen shall ye return to the land of your possession and enjoy: it.?
(Read Numbers 32, v. 1-9, 14 27%. Ts. 6. 32; Joshua Lor. 1215
Luke ¢. 16 v, 19-31).
Here is a great principle in the form of a story. The 12 tribes were half way through the winning of their Promised Land. The country east of Jordan had been conquered, and the splendid graze ing grounds of Gilead and Bashan had been allotted to Reuben, Gad and one half the tribe of Manasseh. But the stiffest part of the enterprise was still to come. The river Jordan with its swift current and precipitous banks made an impenetrable frontier (as our soldiers found. in the late war) except at the fords of Jericho, and the land beyond, from Dan to Beersheba, was strongly held with fortified cities.
Israel were now to divide i foveas the whole enterprise might he wrecked, and if Reuben and Yad were to stay on the Eastern side that is just what would hap-pea. It shows the statesmanship of Moses that he had the mind to see the danger and the heart to in-empire the solution. He instructed the warriors of the settled, tribes to take the brunt of the invasion on behalf of those who had everything yet. to win. And this was not an act of opportunism or compromise, hut of social justice which retains jis force in every age.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.