1. BLESSED is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
3. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
4. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
6. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found; surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
7. Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.
8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will guide thee with mine eye.
9. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding; whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.
10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.
11. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous; and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
Golden Text: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Ps. 51:10.13
NOTE.—The psalm on which this lesson is founded is supposed to have reference to David’s sin and its forgiveness in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, tho there is nothing positive with respect to this. An account of David’s year of idleness and luxury, which led to temptation, his sin of adultery, his plotting to take the life of the brave and loyal Uriah, to hide his sin, the consummation of the plot, the reproof of the Lord’s prophet, Nathan, the humble repentance of David, and the Lord’s forgiveness, are all told with much detail in chapters 11 and 12 of 2 Samuel. With these chapters Psalms 51 may be read with profit. The psalm on which this lesson is based may be studied with profit by every sinner, and “all have sinned.”
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) What does David say of his own condition, and what may every forgiven sinner say, when forgiveness had been pronounced upon him? Ps. 32:1. (2) How does the Lord count one thus forgiven? Verse 2, first part. (3) What is his actual condition when the Lord has spoken his forgiveness? Verse 2, last part. (4) What does he say of his condition before he had acknowledged his sin? Verses 3, 4. Note 1. (5) What did full and free confession bring him? Verse 5. Note 2. (6) What is the characteristic of those who seek God for forgiveness? Verse 6, first part. Note 3. (7) How will such ones fare in the time of trouble? Verse 6, last part. (8) What does God become to the one thus forgiven? Verse 7. Note 4. (9) What blessed assurance does the Lord give such? Verse 8. (10) What admonition does the Lord then give? Verse 9. Note 5. (11) What are the respective portions of those who do wickedly and those who trust God? Verse 10. (12) What is the privilege of the latter? Verse 11. (13) What is ever a good prayer for the sinner to pray? Memory verse.
NOTES.
1. When I kept silence, etc.—Punctuate and read the verse thus: “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old; through my roaring all the day long (for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me), my moisture is turned to the drought of summer.” The common version is not intelligible. Keeping silence is not roaring or crying. The statement of the psalmist is that in himself, in his sins, there was no rest day or night. If he remained silent, he was in pain, expressed by the phrase, bones waxed old, grew brittle. When he cried in his soul anguish, the grief was not assuaged or the soul agony eased. His moisture became drought. Nothing that man can do will take away sin; and the unavailing effort, to a sensitive conscience, only makes the anguish more unbearable.
2. I acknowledged, etc.—Boothroyd translates, “At length I acknowledged my sin unto thee; and mine iniquity I did not attempt to hide.” The beginning of the psalm would seem to indicate that David had endeavored to hide his own sins till they became unbearable, and then he cast them all off upon the Lord by confession; for true confession is giving all our sins up to God.
3. Godly.—One who is godly is in agreement with God. In sin, controlled by the carnal mind, man is at enmity with God. Rom. 8:7. When God reproves man of sin, and man accepts of that reproof and confesses his sin, acknowledges that to be sin that God declares to be sin, he is in agreement with God. Such an one will seek for God’s forgiveness, and at the time when God reproves of sin. That will always be a time when God can be found.
4. To the child of God, to the forgiven one, God becomes all in all. He is a hiding place from evil, a preserver from trouble, a guard before and behind, on the right hand and on the left. In this confidence, whatever may have been his past, the Christian walks.
5. Be not as the horse, etc.—This is the attitude of the believer. To express it in the positive instead of the negative, we could say, Be meek, be teachable, not intractable. Do not have to be forced to do God’s will, obedient only when hard discipline makes it necessary, keeping the path only when restrained. Let the question of the heart be, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” and, knowing his will, do it gladly. “The meek will he guide in judgment; and the meek will he teach his way.” Ps. 25:9.
“WHEN therefore the Lord knew how that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples 2 than John (altho Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples), he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. And 4 he must needs pass through Samaria. So he cometh to a 5 city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground 6 that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat 7 thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water; Jesus saith unto 8 her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away 9 into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore saith unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a Samaritan woman? (For Jews 10 have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from whence then hast thou 12 that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his 13 sons, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, 14 Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life. 15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come all the way hither to draw.”
QUESTIONS.
1. Of what knowledge on the part of the Pharisees was Jesus made aware?
2. Who actually performed the rite of baptism?
3. To what country did Jesus go?
4. Through what country must he pass?
5. To what city did he come?
6. What historic occasions were connected with this place?
7. What was Jesus’ physical condition? What did he do in consequence of this? What time of day was it?
8. Who came to the well? What request did Jesus make of her?
9. Where were his disciples?
10. How did the woman reply to the request of Jesus? What was the cause of her astonishment?
11. With what spiritual teaching did Jesus meet her inquiry?
12. How did the woman show that she did not understand his teaching?
13. What unfavorable comparison did she draw?
14. What is said of those who drank at the well?
15. What is said of those who should drink of the living water?
16. What would the living water become?
17. What request did the woman make which showed that she still failed to understand Christ’s words?
NOTES.
1. HOW PLAINLY the expression “being wearied with his journey” brings out the humanity of Christ! See Heb. 2:14, 17, and 4:15. When Jesus needs food for himself, he waits, altho “wearied,” while his disciples go to buy it, but when others “have nothing to eat,” he has “compassion on the multitude,” and works a miracle to supply their needs. Nothing for himself (Rom. 15:3), but everything for others (Phil. 2:4).
2. “THE Samaritans were of heathen origin” (2 Kings 17), but “an adulterated Judaism was grafted on their native religion. They accepted the five Books of Moses, and looked for a Messiah—as indeed they still do. The origin of their hatred of the Jews is told in Ezra” (Ezra 4:1-3). “They were treated as heathen, who had no part in the religion of Israel. Hence the implacable religious enmity which for centuries manifested itself in all sorts of petty annoyances, and, when occasion offered, more serious injuries.”
3. It is of the greatest importance to know the gift of God, and to recognize the presence of Jesus to impart it. “If we are not deriving from Christ what we recognize as living water, it is because there is a defect in our knowledge, because we do not know the gift of God.” In speaking of living water Christ “referred to the divine grace which he alone could bestow, and which is as living water, purifying, refreshing, and invigorating the soul.”
4. “Jesus did not intend to convey the idea that simply one draught of the water of life would satisfy the receiver; he in whom Christ abides has within himself the Fountain of life. From this source he may draw strength and grace sufficient for all his needs. Jesus will cheer the life and brighten the path of all who receive him. From the heart in which Christ dwells, flow out words and deeds of love that will carry a blessing to other lives. The grace of Christ in the soul is like a spring in the desert, welling up to refresh all, and making those who are ready to perish eager to drink of the water of life.”
Suggestions for Further Study.
1. Note the universal character of this lesson and the one in the previous chapter, altho each was given to a single individual. What two classes are represented by Nicodemus and the woman?
2. Observe how an acquaintance with the facts of Old Testament history is taken for granted in the narratives of the New Testament, and how the two are welded together. “The New Testament is enfolded in the Old; and the Old Testament is unfolded in the New. For what is the law but the Gospel foreshadowed? and what is the Gospel but the law fulfilled?” “There are in the New Testament nearly one thousand direct quotations from, and palpable allusions to, the Old Testament Scriptures.”
3. This is a lesson on gifts and giving. How many times is this thought suggested? What contrast is brought out by the word “buy” in verse 8?
4. Study this lesson given by the great Teacher, as an illustration of gentleness and tact in personal labor.
5. Mark the contrasts in this lesson. Jesus “asks for a drink of water; yet he offers to set flowing wells and fountains of water. He is a suppliant for the gifts of another; yet he talks of being able to give with unlimited munificence. He is an obscure Stranger; yet he is greater than the venerable patriarch” Jacob.
6. See in the woman’s question in verse 12 the great hindrance to the reception of new truth in all ages. Compare chapter 7: 48, etc.
7. Compare the “living water” of this lesson with the “everlasting life” of the last lesson.
OUR WORK AND WORKERS.
Brother R. M. Kilgore reports twelve or more converts at Rockwood, Tenn.
At the recent small local camp-meeting at Waterloo, Quebec, six were baptized.
Brother Minard Wood reports ten adults as having accepted the message in New Haven, Conn.
From Cass County, Texas, Brother J. N. Somerville reports 25 converts to the Sabbath and kindred truths.
Elder H. F. Phelps reports a recent accession of nine persons to the church at St. Paul, Minn., only two of whom were by letter.
Elder Wm. Covert writes from Wisconsin that forty-three have been baptized in that conference by the various ministers in less than a month.
Brother J. G. Baharian writes to the Review of the baptism of four precious souls at Ovajuk, Nicomedia, and two at Shagshag. He reports great opposition from Armenians in Brusa, because he had converted a man from infidelity to Christ.
At Oak Level, Ala., are nine families who have yielded to present truth, partly through the labors of Brethren Wells and Drummond, and partly through the missionary efforts of one brother in Battle Creek, Mich., Chas. F. Wilcox, and one in Chattanooga, Tenn., L. Dye Chambers.
Six more precious souls followed their Lord in baptism in the Oakland church, the evening of July 22, Elder W. N. Glenn administering the ordinance. This makes 29 who have joined this church by baptism since the recent days of fasting and prayer. And there are more to follow.
The sanitarium at Boulder, Colo., has been enlarged, and better equipped for service. It consists of three buildings, the main one being 96x45 feet, with a large annex, and two cottages. At present there are fifty patients in the home, and the building is rapidly filling. At the head of the institution is W. H. Riley, M.D., whose experience and skill are a guarantee of the best work. He is assisted by Drs. W. H. Hubbard, G. W. Burleigh, Kate Lindsay, and Mrs. Eva Reed.
Brother and Sister Lingle write from Honolulu, under date of June 22, to the Iowa Workers' Bulletin, that the way has not opened yet for the establishment of a sanitarium, tho the prospects are favorable. The health of Elder Gates is not good. Expenses for living are high, wood costing from $10 to $14 per cord; coal, $12 to $14 per ton; potatoes, $1.00 per bushel; flour (fifty-pound sack), $1.25 to $1.50; gasoline, 35 cents a gallon. A four-room house rents for $25 per month. Bananas only are cheap, one stalk can be bought for 15 cents. Barring the bananas, these prices are but little different from those in San Francisco and Oakland.
Robert Morehead, a Sabbath-keeper of Greensboro, N. C., was arrested, and tried before Justice Keith, of that place, for Sunday labor, on June 27. The justice is a Methodist. The charge made against Brother Morehead was false both as to day and date, but it was a matter of rumor that Mr. Morehead kept the seventh day, and of course he worked on Sunday; and, therefore, the dignity of the law must be upheld, so he was promptly fined, with cost of prosecution. But respectable citizens, enlightened as to liberty, not of the faith or color of Mr. Morehead, furnished security for cost of appeal to the circuit court, and provided counsel. “It is refreshing to find,” as Brother Allen Moon remarks, “that there are some noble men still to defend the cause of liberty in the face of the intolerance that is manifesting itself all over the land.”
Your Life Work
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NEWS AND NOTES
FOREIGN.
—The fact has just been brought to light that the island of Madagascar is rich in gold.
—A statue of Li Hung Chang was recently unveiled on the private grounds of Herr Krupp.
—The inhabitants of Crete have formally decided to fight for their rights unless the sultan accedes to their demand.
—Mount Kirishimo, Japan, turned into a volcano on the night of June 22, sending forth great quantities of ashes and small stones.
—The Spanish Patriotic League, of Argentina, offers to present the Spanish Government with an armed cruiser of 4,500 tons displacement.
—The Canadian Government is taking precautions to prevent the shipment of munitions of war to the Cuban insurgents from any point within the Dominion.
—The Japanese have decided to run a line of steamships from Yokohama to San Diego, California, and another line to some point in Washington or Oregon.
—A museum in Berlin has secured possession of Luther’s Bible which he used in his study. Its margin is covered with notes in the Reformer’s handwriting.
—Spain is complaining to the English Government that munitions of war valued at $400,000 have been shipped to the Cuban insurgents from the port of Liverpool.
—One of the newest and most ingenious inventions of the day is an apparatus for measuring the intensity of odors, recently perfected by M. Eugene Mesnard, of France.
—It is officially reported that Gen. Jose Maceo, of the Cuban insurgents, was killed in a fierce encounter with the Spanish, and not by order of court-martial, as reported.
—The island republic of Costa Rica has adopted, during the current month, an absolute gold basis for its currency, and has declared out of circulation all foreign and domestic silver.
—Frederick Shroeder, of the East African Plantage Company, has been arrested for crushing the hands of his negro employees in a copying press, as punishment for trivial offenses.
—A body of American filibusters, landed in Cuba by the steamer Three Friends, fell into the hands of a Spanish column, and twelve were killed, the rest escaping to the mountains.
—The English and Matabeles met in the Matopo hills on July 21, and a spirited conflict ensued, in which fifty Matabeles were killed and their position captured. The English lost three killed and seven wounded.
—A missionary writing from southern Formosa declares that the Japanese are rapidly exterminating the Chinese in that island, and that over sixty villages have been burned and thousands of persons put to death with revolting cruelty.
—The Turks in attempting to gain possession of a strategic point in Crete on July 20, met with such a determined resistance on the part of the Cretans that 200 of the former were killed and 600 wounded. The Cretans lost 88 in killed and wounded.
—Gallais, the man who started last summer to wheel his wife around the world in a wheelbarrow, has returned to Paris. He says they were attacked by wolves in a forest of Croatia, and his wife was so badly hurt that she died soon after at Belgrade.
—News from Constantinople confirm the report that forty villages of the Armenians were destroyed by the Turks on June 25, and at least 12,000 persons massacred. The Armenian relief societies have once more appealed to the public for funds.
—M. Faux, a Swiss engineer, has discovered a process for hardening steel by electricity. The tests of his experiments show that it is possible to harden tools to such a degree that they will work metal as an ordinarily tempered tool works wood.
—The Spanish police of Havana claim to have discovered and taken possession of large quantities of ammunition, rifles, and dynamite bombs belonging to the insurgents. It is supposed the dynamite was to have been used in carrying out the threat of the rebels to blow up the city.
—A missionary in Yokohama recently applied to the chief of police for permission to distribute Bibles among the policemen. The permission was granted, and the chief, much to the missionary’s surprise, said: “Its teachings are good, and if they were followed, it would lessen my work very much. I myself have one which I study secretly.” He then advised the missionary to distribute the Scriptures among the “lost women” of his city and adjacent towns over which he had jurisdiction.
—Imperial Chinese troops to the number of 6,000 were recently annihilated by the insurgent Mohammedans of Lanzhou, whom they had been sent to subdue. The rebels are now marching through the country pillaging and murdering officials on every hand. It is claimed that it will take 50,000 troops to restore order.
DOMESTIC.
—A monument is to be erected in Chicago to the memory of Eugene Field.
—A monument to the memory of John Brown was unveiled July 21, at his old home, North Elba, New York.
—Mounted bandits robbed the post office at Separ, New Mexico, on July 21, and carried off a considerable amount of money and stamps.
—The Cook’s Inlet mining boom is falling through as fast as the disappointed miners can obtain passage back from the bleak Alaskan diggings.
—An insane farmer at Attica, Mich., on the morning of July 21, murdered his three children, set fire to the house, and then shot himself.
—Chicago astronomers have perfected an instrument with which they will be enabled to study the sun’s corona without waiting for an eclipse.
—The sailing vessel City of Philadelphia, with crew of twenty-six men, went down on May 13, while rounding Cape Horn. All hands were lost.
—Immense forest fires are raging in the mountains near Spokane, Wash., and it is estimated that millions of dollars worth of timber has been destroyed.
—A flood near Frankfort, Kentucky, on the night of July 20, resulted in the loss of nine lives. Many bridges were washed away, and hundreds of acres of crops destroyed.
—The United States has again called upon the Government of Colombia to make an apology for an outrage committed upon the American vessel Whitford in March last.
—The county of Fresno, Cal., was visited by a heavy thunder-storm on July 25, which burned out telegraph and telephone wires, and did considerable damage to property along its route.
—Wm. J. Bryan, Democratic nominee for President, was nominated for the same office by the Populists in convention at St. Louis, with Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia, for Vice President.
—New York bankers are taking steps to prevent a further reduction of the gold reserve in the national treasury: $23,000,000 will be turned into the subtreasury in exchange for legal tender notes.
—A large party of excursionists, without a guide, are lost in Sulphur Cave, near English, Indiana. They entered the cave on July 19, and at last accounts had not been found, altho a well-equipped party is searching for them.
—The Standard Oil Company of America has effected its long desired combination with the Russian Oil Company. This makes the largest trust in the world, and one of the most dangerous, practically controlling the oil market of the entire world.
—An incorporated company, with a capital of $2,000,000, is laying plans for a mammoth electric plant to be situated in the hills of Tuolumne County, Cal. The company proposes to furnish the cities of Stockton and San Francisco with electric power by wire.
—Postal officials claim that the government has lost a revenue of $250,000 annually on account of the practice of railroad companies in carrying their own mail unstamped. This practice being contrary to law, a war is now on between the postal authorities and the railroad companies.
—A cloudburst on Bear Creek, Colorado, on July 24, drowned twenty-nine persons, who were camping along the stream, destroyed bridges, and ruined a great amount of property. A heavy storm struck Golden, Colo., at the same time, in which three lives were lost and much property destroyed.
—By the spreading of the rails on the coast division of the Southern Pacific Railway Company in Niles Canyon, on July 26, a freight engine and four cars plunged down a steep embankment to the bed of the creek, seriously injuring three train men. A number of campers narrowly escaped being crushed by the derailed cars.
—The barkentine Herbert Fuller, of Boston, put into Halifax, N. S., on July 21, flying the signal of “Mutiny on board.” It was found that Captain Nash, his wife, and second officer Bramberg had been murdered in their bunks. The mate was ironed by the cook on suspicion, and on landing, the entire crew was placed under arrest.
—It has been authentically announced that steel bullets and steel-jacketed bullets may be deflected from their course by the use of electricity, the extent of deflection depending upon the strength of the current employed. So important is this discovery considered by military men that it is feared armies will be compelled to go back to the old large-bore rifles, carrying lead balls.
