"Bring Us Not over Jordan."
By H. S.
VERY different from this was the prayer of Moses. It was a great grief to him that his feet could not tread the promised land. His earnest petition was: "I pray thee, let me go over, and see the great land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon." But he must be content with a distant view of it from the top of Pisgah. But it was the request of the children of Reuben and the children of Gad that they might be allowed to stop short and dwell on the hither side. When they had come to the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, they said unto Moses: "Let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan." And the reason given for this request was because they had a very great multitude of cattle, and they saw that that land was a place for cattle. They cared more for that land than they did for Canaan, that had so long been the land of promise to them and to their fathers. They despised the pleasant land. And thus has it always been, and still is with respect to great numbers. Their hearts are set on their earthly possessions, and they allow them to keep them from Heaven. They set a higher value upon these than they do upon durable riches; and in the pursuit and enjoyment of them they run the risk of losing an heavenly inheritance. "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God?" How many, by their eagerness to gain them, neglect the one thing needful, and are damned in destruction and perdition! And how many that thus are but "scarcely saved," escaping as with the skin of their teeth. So was it with Lot when, for the sake of his cattle, he chose the plains of the Jordan, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. And in the Saviour's parable of the great supper, when the invitation was given, "Come, for all things are now ready," one of those that were bidden said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. I pray thee have me excused." With one man it is riches in one form, and with another in another. It may be cattle, or farms, or stocks, or gold and silver, it all amounts to the same thing. It is the accursed love of the world in some of its alluring forms. It hinders them from giving that attention to their soul that its importance demands, and the result is that it debars them from Heaven. Virtually their prayer is, "Bring us not over Jordan." They cling to earthly things, and the final result is that these become their only portion. There is need for the caution, "Take heed, and beware of covetousness."—H. S., in Advance.