the people all the words of Jehovah, and
all the ordinances: and all the people an-
swered with one voice, and said, All the
words which Jehovah hath spoken will we
do. And Moses wrote all the words of
Jehovah, and rose up early in the morning,
and builded an altar under the mount, and
twelve pillars, according to the twelve
tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of
the children of Israel, who offered burnt
offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of
oxen unto Jehovah. And Moses took half
of the blood, and put it in basins; and half
of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And
he took the book of the covenant, and read
in the audience of the people: and they said,
All that Jehovah hath spoken will we do,
and be obedient. And Moses took the blood,
and sprinkled it on the people, and said,
Behold the blood of the covenant, which
Jehovah hath made with you concerning
all these words.” Exodus 24: 3-5, A. R. V.
Yet before Moses could finish his audi-
ence with God and get down again from the
mountain these very people who had made
such noble and high-sounding promises
were bowing down to a molten calf and
doing homage to a god of gold! “And
Jehovah spake unto Moses, Go, get thee
down: for thy people, that thou broughtest
up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted
themselves: they have turned aside quickly
out of the way which I commanded them:
they have made them a molten calf, and
have worshiped it, and have sacrificed unto
it, and said, These are thy gods, O Israel,
which brought thee up out of the land of
Egypt.” Exodus 32:7,8, A. R. V.
What was wrong? Just this: the people
had promised what they could not do. The
fault was with them. They were carnally
minded and could not thus be subject to a
spiritual and holy law. They were seeking
to establish their own righteousness by their
own efforts, not realizing that without
Christ they could do nothing. When they
had thus tried to clothe themselves with
right doing, they found themselves covered
only with filthy rags.
The old covenant, therefore, was a sys-
tem of reform without Christ. It was a
covenant of works from which Christ, as the
only Mediator of righteousness and peace,
was entirely excluded. “What shall we say
then? That the Gentiles, who followed not
after righteousness, attained to righteous-
ness, even the righteousness which is of
faith: but Irsael, following after a law of
righteousness, did not arrive at that law.
Wherefore? Because they sought it not
by faith, but as it were by works. They
stumbled at the stone of stumbling.”
Romans 9: 30-32, A. R. V.
PTA
1
LANDM
~e=% HERE is in the Bible a certain in-
8) teresting command—one that is,
4d perhaps, little noticed today. It
“2 was given by God, through
Moses, to the Jewish nation soon after the
children of Israel were re-established in the
Promised Land.
The command is definite and direct,
“Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's
landmark, which they of old time have set
in thine inheritance, which thou shalt in-
herit in the land that the Lord thy God
oiveth thee to possess it." Deuteronomy
10: 14. This same injunction is found In
several places in the Bible. In Proverbs it
reads, “ Remove not the ancient landmark,
which thy fathers have set,” and again,
“Remove not the old landmark; and enter
not into the fields of the fatherless.”
Proverbs 22: 28; 23: 10.
In ancient times, when there were no
fences or surveyed divisions of land, 1t was
imperative that there be some way of mark-
ing the boundaries of neighboring proper-
ties. Any object might be used for this
purpose, such as a marked tree, a stone,
a ditely, or a piece of wood; but landmarks
were usually small piles, or cairns, of stones
laid upon the ground, and these may still
be seen in Palestine.
In Egvpt, landmarks were of particular
importance, since the mighty Nile River,
overflowing each year, washed away all
traces of cultivation and ownership. The
land had to be remeasured and allotted
after each inundation: and to mark the
divisions, boundary stones or landmarks
were placed at the junction of two proper-
ties. A collection of such objects is to be
seen in the Egyptian room in the British
Museum today.
Landmarks, wherever found, are still
scrupulously respected in Palestine. As
OCTOBER, 1942
RhS UF A
By Harriet I. Johnson
one passes along a road or pathway, he
may observe here and there a stone placed
at the edge of a field, from which a shallow
furrow has been ploughed, marking the
limits of cultivation of neighboring proprie-
tors.
Occasionally, though, a dishonest land-
owner might shift a landmark to increase
his own holdings. Job says, “Some remove
the landmarks; they violently take away
flocks, and feed thereof.” Job 24:2. In
order to prevent this and to perpetuate the
observance of the rights indicated by land-
marks in the Mosaic ritual, a curse was pro-
nounced upon anyone who should remove
landmarks or cause them to be taken away.
“Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's
landmark,” is one of the laws of Moses
which were read to the children of Israel by
the Levites on Mount Gerizim and Mount
IXbal.
While the value of landmarks may not
be so apparent in these modern days of
court records and surveyed highways, of
fenced fields and carefully laid out cities;
vet there are other ancient landmarks
“which thy fathers have set” that the chil-
dren may not remove with impunity.
Marking the epochs of national develop-
ment are holidays and historic celebrations,
One of these ig Independence Day, cele-
brated in commemoration of the adoption
of the Declaration of Independence and the
beginning of our history as an independent
nation. There are Washington's Birthday;
Flag Day, set apart in honor of our coun-
try’s flag; and Thanksgiving Day, each a
special occasion that gives the thoughtful
citizen opportunity to recall the great
events of bygone years.
NATION =
But these holidays are being obscured
and endangered by the manner in which
they are observed. Commercialized sports,
excursions of every kind, and drunken
orgies turn our national holidays into
death-days, and the pleasure-mad crowds
give little or no thought to their true pur-
pose and beauty.
Another landmark of our nation, and of
every nation, is the home. This also 1s en-
dangered, not only abroad, but in America.
as well. Much has been said and written.
regarding the deleterious effect of modern
life on the home. Apartment and hotel life
bring little of the old-time atmosphere of a
real home to countless city dwellers, and the
itinerant habits required by business and
social life further obscure the importance
and sanctity of the home.
“The restoration and uplifting of hu-
manity begins in the home. The work of
parents underlies every other. Society 1s
composed of families, and is what the heads
of families make it. Out of the heart are
‘the issues of life’; and the heart of the
community, of the church, and of the na-
tion, is the household. The well-being of
society, the success of the church, the pros-
perity of the nation, depend upon home
influences. — Ministry of Healing,” p.
349
’ Ae .
One grand old landmark that will stand
and is known to practically everyone
is the Bible. This wonderful Book has
withstood every assault that has been made
upon it down through the centuries. Men
have attempted to destroy it, nations have
sought to abolish it, but still the word of
(tod remains the only infallible rule of faith
and duty. Satan has ever tried to destroy
the Bible, but failing in this, he 1s now
working desperately to destroy faith in it.
(Continued on page 17)
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