NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON.
By Fannie Bolton
THE golden text of the lesson contains the intrinsic meaning of the Nazarite's vow. It reads, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." The Nazarite was one who voluntarily set himself apart from the unholy practices of the world, to become a vessel meet for the Master's use. He offered himself to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, and took upon him, with his vow of separation, certain marks of his service and appointment, as a priest takes upon him the robes of his office. ONE of the definite requirements in a Nazarite was entire abstinence from wine and strong drink, and from everything of the nature of an intoxicant. He was also to keep himself from contact with anything of a polluting nature; for he was to be holy unto the Lord. Perfect temperance was to characterize his living, and true temperance is a total abstinence from all that is injurious, and a moderate use only of that which is good. THE very nature of wine and strong drink is contrary to the reasonable service that is acceptable to God. Says the wise man, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." This fact is so apparent that there is scarcely any need of the aid of inspiration to enlighten the mind to the terrible truth. The shore of the past is marked by the wrecks of men and nations, whose noble crafts struck on the rock of intemperance, and plunged down into the sea of degradation and ruin. Even in this our day of boasted light, we see on every hand the direful effects of wine and strong drink. The whole land is under the shadow of its curse, and the whole heart sick under the woe of its evil. Homes are filled with its misery, the streets with its beggars, the poor-houses with its paupers, the asylums with its inebriates, insane, and idiots, the land with its crime, the prisons with its criminals, and the gallows with its victims. Hell is enlarged, and opens her mouth for the offspring of this prolific mother of debauchery and vice. LIKE a searing stream, intoxicating liquors burn through the fine tissues of the body, till not only the functions of the physical being are wholly deranged, but affection, intelligence, and spirituality are wholly wiped out; and he who was made in the image of God becomes the apparent child and work of the devil, a dishonor to God and a curse and blot upon his creation. HOWEVER moderately intoxicating drink may be used, it will result in evil, and evil continually. In its first entrance it is an alien and enemy to the mechanism and organism of man. Insensibly it blunts his fine moral perceptions, deadens his affections, steals the bloom from his soul, and degrades his entire being. Then when the advantage is sure, and it will be sure finally, it blots out all that is fine and God-like. FROM this fact it is evident that its use is incompatible with service to God. An entire separation from wine and strong drink is essential in the servant of the Most High. God is a spirit, and he who worships him must worship him in spirit and in truth. This worship requires the exercise of the delicate spiritual faculties and perceptions that are the first to be blunted by the use of stimulants. THE Lord does not force men into his service, but he kindly unfolds his requirements for the good of those who will choose him and his way. They must cleanse themselves from "all filthiness of the flesh and spirit," and perfect holiness before him. Those who are received by him at last have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They are without spot or wrinkle, blameless before high Heaven. Christ was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil, and save his people from their sins. He calls them to the Nazarite's vow: "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." THE flesh must be in subservience to the spirit, not the spirit to the flesh, and the use of intoxicants helps to bind the spirit in a most bitter bondage to the flesh. While the separation to the service of Christ calls for self-denial, it brings the truest liberty. Says the psalmist, "I will walk at liberty; for I seek thy precepts." When every faculty of the mind is brought into subjection to the will of the Creator, and that is, into harmony with the original law of its being, its possessor knows "the glorious liberty of the sons of God;" he is in Christ Jesus, and there is779no condemnation, but the peace that passeth understanding. The Lord commanded Moses to pronounce a blessing upon those who separated themselves from the pollutions of the world to serve him. He was to say: "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." These words of blessing belong to all who give themselves in unreserved surrender to the service of their Lord and Saviour.