of the world. The young people of these denominations and countries have met together frequently in great assemblies. Under such circumstances fictitious barriers fell and the one fellowship in Christ was realized. All these are but a small part of what the young people of the churches have done in the way of Team-Work. Let each one think of other ways of accomplishing this purpose. "Are you a team worker? Can you line up with others in the prosecution of a common purpose? Can you subordinate personal preferences to the consensus of the group, or the plan of the leader, without losing the edge of your enthusiasm and energy? Are you willing to take time enough to work out details of a plan, yielding a point here, broadening your outlook there, so that the impact of a unanimous decision and of a unanimous action may be brought to bear upon the end in view? Do you feel the joy of belonging to the team? Are you loyal to your comrades when the team fails, and ready to try again with them and to try harder when the next chance offers ? "It takes patience and grace to bear with those who seem dull of vision, slow to arrive at decisions and slower still to act. It would be easier to forge ahead alone rather than spend long hours in consultation with others. But there may be something to learn from the more conservative brother. He as well as we may have his contribution to make to the common task." The Congregationalist. 3. Coöperation among the Churches in the Work of the Kingdom. There has been a very marvellous change within the last few years in the coöperation of the churches in individual towns and cities, and in the various denominations throughout the country. This is illustrated by a paragraph in a paper just received as I write : 'Our Government officials set up a new wireless establishment at the southwest corner of the country, at San Diego, California, the other day. By way of testing the equipment they proceeded to talk with Alaska on the north and with Australia clear around the world. In matters of physical communication all the nations are getting together. We can only hope these physical achievements are preparations and foreshadowings of a similar drawing together in the spiritual realm.' In The Churchman Afield a writer lately referred to 165 or more sects in this country, and argued that because they did not unite together in one great body there was no unity. But it would be a great misfortune if all the denominations should unite into one great denomination. It would be as if a great army were to be in one uniform, with one kind of weapons, instead of companies and regiments and cavalry and artillery and airplanes, and all manner of divisions, - but under one general, fighting for the same object. Mr. Babson in the Wall Street Journal, speaking of coöperative organizations, says that "those organizations which are made up of members who have the right spirit, who really believe that confidence reacts as confidence, and distrust reacts as distrust, that what we do to harm others harms ourselves and what we do to help others helps ourselves such associations are very successful. Otherwise they do not work. For an association among competitors to do any real good, there must be something besides an organization, a secretary, and a full treasury. There must be a real change in the hearts of the members." There has never been since the early church so much coöperation, so many things that tend to unity, as to-day. The denominations are closer together. "Take three of the great Kingdom-movements of our day. Take, first, the movement of church unity. By this is meant not organic union, but coöperation, union in the Spirit of Christ for the work of Christ. It means the Federal Council of Churches, the Christian Associations, especially the great coöperating movements like the Laymen's Missionary Movement, and the Anti-Saloon League. What is back of all this? Simply this we believe that we can win the world for Christ's rule, and we are going to join our forces to do so." In a recent number of a daily paper we read: "Five hundred country churches are said to have been abandoned in Kansas in the last five years. Does this condition indicate religious decline in Kansas? Not necessarily. The abandoned churches were the religious misfits of a new community. The system of consolidating schools in central localities is to some extent duplicated in the consolidation of country churches. . . . Cases are plenty in which three local churches have been consolidated into one central church which has had more attendants than three old churches combined." "Take second, the movement of social service. Here again is the fundamental faith that this world belongs to God, and that all its life is to be brought under the rule of Christ home, school, business, state. Social service men are showing the church how to serve its community, are showing industry what brotherhood and justice mean, and everywhere are holding up Christ as the only standard. "Take finally the great movement of religious education. It is new only in the sense that we are just waking to its importance. It is, indeed, simply the method of Jesus. He was the great teacher, using the truth of God and relying upon the Spirit of God to make it effective." This The Following Illustration may awaken some of us to a consciousness that we might take a larger share in our coöperation with our own pastor. "We have been reading the account of a dream, which a certain minister says he dreamed. He appeared to be hitched to a carriage, and he was attempting to pull it along. He reached a point not far from his church; but the mud seemed to grow deeper and deeper; the vehicle drew so heavily that he gasped for breath, and almost sank down exhausted. struck him as the more inexplicable, because, looking back, he saw the entire congregation behind the carriage, apparently pushing it on. But the longer he tried, the harder the labor became, till finally he was forced to stop and examine the difficulty. He went to the rear, where he supposed his helpers were. But nobody could be found. He called, but got no answer. He repeated the call again and again, but there was still no reply. By and by one voice spoke to him by name. Looking up, who should he see but one of his deacons, gazing complacently out of the window ! And on going to the door of the carriage, what was his astonishment to behold the whole congregation sitting quietly inside! And the tired man who relates the story asks plaintively enough at the close of it,' Do you suppose this was all a dream ?'"- C. S. Robinson, LL.D. LESSON VII (20). — February 16. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Exodus 20: 1-17. GOLDEN TEXT.- Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. LUKE 10:27. Additional Material for Teachers: Ex. 19; Lev. 19: 11-18, 32-37; Matt. 5: 17-48. Primary Topic: GOD GIVES HIS COMMANDMENTS TO MOSES. Junior Topic: GIVING COMMANDMENTS TO THE PEOPLE. Thou shalt love the Lord Intermediate Topic: JESUS AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Senior and Adult Topic: THE COMMANDMENTS IN MODERN Life. I. THE SCENE: MOUNT SINAI AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. In the third month, early in June, just fifty days from the Passover when the Israelites started from Egypt, they arrived at the base of Mt. Sinai. The exact mountain is uncertain, but Hastings' Bible Dictionary inclines to the traditional Jebel Mousa, "Mountain of Moses," 7363 feet above the sea, in the wild, mountainous region of the glorious range of granite mountains of which Sinai is the nucleus. At its northern base stretches Er-Rahah, "the wilderness of Sinai," the only plain in the neighborhood capable of holding great numbers of people. 66 They were settled in an oasis, a spot where is a spring and a running stream and the resulting vegetation. It is one of the inexplicable mysteries of nature, a miracle it often seems, that the most barren and repulsive desert will suddenly blossom into life and beauty whenever it is awakened by rain or irrigation. The Oasis of Feiran [where the Israelites were encamped] is an irregular strip of fertility some six miles long, lying within a cradle of granite mountains. Its copious supply of clear sparkling water has made it in all history the most precious possession of the peninsula, the Pearl of Sinai." - F. E. Hoskins, D.D., in From Nile to Nebo. The camp itself (Palmer) was doubtless more extensive, occupying the neighboring glens and mountain sides, wherever there was sufficient fertility for the cattle. Fronting the plain is a lofty and precipitous bluff, Ras-Sufsafeh, whence, probably, the law was proclaimed. The scene presents a vivid contrast of color in the green waving tree-tops and the dark frowning cliffs, standing out against the clear, sapphire blue of the sky." - Mrs. Lewis. "The cliff, rising like a huge altar in front of the whole congregation, and visible against the sky in lonely grandeur, from end to end of the whole plain, is the very image of the mount that might be touched,' and from which the voice of God might be heard, far and wide, over the stillness of the plain below, widened at that point to its utmost extent by the confluence of all the contiguous valleys." II. PREPARATIONS FOR RECEIVING THE MORAL LAW, 19: 10-25. 1. Cleansing. Sanctify them, make them holy, clean outwardly by cleansing their garments, as an aid to, and expression of, moral cleansing from sin in word, thought, and deed. Christ did not condemn the Pharisees for washing the outside of the cup and platter, but only for making that a substitute for the cleansing within. There is a real psychological reason for clean clothes on the Sabbath. 2. Reverence. Bounds were placed around the foot of the mountain, which on no account must be passed, on pain of death. This was to teach the sacredness of the laws to be announced, and the reverence with which they should be received. To change them is to die, for only in obedience to them is life. Not one can with safety be omitted or treated carelessly. Reverence is the only true attitude in the worship of God. Carelessness, neglect, wandering thoughts, irreverence in any of its forms, are deadly foes of religion and morals. There is no separation between real religion and morality. The two are eternally united. In no other religion was it made so clear that the end of the law is to make men righteous. Because, if there be one thing which history has taught more clearly than another, it is that a nation cannot lose its religion without losing also its virtue and its integrity; and the fate of nation after nation, in epoch after epoch, has shown that ages of mental disbelief are ages also of moral iniquity." Farrar. "Some years ago a United States Senator announced that purification of politics was an iridescent dream, and that the Decalogue and the Golden Rule had no place in public life. Washington's whole life is meaningless if it does not show that the Decalogue and the Golden Rule should form the standard for public men above all others." Roosevelt. III. THE AWFUL SANCTIONS AMID WHICH THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WERE SPOKEN, Ex. 19: 16-25. "And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the AND God spake all these words, saying, 2. I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. "And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And . . . the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder." "Even a human voice sounding out from the top of a mountain in tones so loud and clear as to be heard in every valley for miles around would have an unprecedented effect." "Ever and anon a flash of lightning dispelled the pitchy darkness and lit up the Mount as if it had been day; then after the interval of a few seconds, came the peal of thunder, bursting like a shell, to scatter its echoes to the four quarters of the heavens." The reason for these fearful displays of divine power was to impress upon the people for all time the absolute necessity of obeying God's laws. It was a question of life or death for the individual and for the nation. a IV. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AS A COVENANT OF LOVE BETWEEN GOD AND HIS PEOPLE, 20: 1-17. The Ten Commandments are 66 loving covenant with his people, and not arbitrary commandings of God to his subjects." They are a loving covenant that binds two parties in mutual affection and fidelity,' having its statement of promises on the one hand, and responsibilities on the other." "A covenant among the Orientals is, and always has been, a sacred compact binding two parties in loving agreement.' Henry Clay Trumbull. 99 66 On the one hand God agrees to be their God, giving his fatherly care and love and forgiveness and protection, while they, on their part, agree to keep his commandments and serve him alone. If they disobey, they forfeit all these blessings, as described in Deuteronomy 28-30. "Like her in the Knight's Dream of Raphael,' it carries in one hand the book of duty,' This do, and thou shalt live ;' but in the other the drawn sword, 'Do it not, and thou shalt perish.'" Farrar. "There is something finer than to do right against inclination, and that is to have an inclination to do right," says Dr. van Dyke. "There is something nobler than reluctant obedience, and that is joyful obedience." The sum of the commandments as given by Christ in Matt. 22: 37-40, quoted from Deut. 65; 10: 12; Lev. 19: 18, is love to God with all the heart, and love of our neighbor as ourselves. Love is the source and motive power of obedience. Hence there is joy in keeping the commandments. And there is no possibility of keeping them perfectly unless we delight to do God's will. "Joy is duty,' - so with golden lore The Hebrew rabbis taught in days of yore, "But one bright peak still rises far above, It is the Covenant of Love because it is the love of God that requires obedience to the Law. And obedience is the proof of our love to God. There is no other possible way to a successful life. The same principles apply to the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels. The commands of Jesus are a Covenant of Love with his people. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." This was a greater gift of salvation than the making of the pathway for the Israelites through the Red Sea. It is our part of the Covenant to love and obey. When we give our hearts and obedience to Christ, and when we covenant with the church we join, it is a wonderful Covenant of Love. V. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 20: 1-17. FIRST, V. 3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. No other being could have done it. There is only one true God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and the Father of mankind; the God we are to love supremely. Jehovah, the God of Israel, is the one absolute, self-existent eternal God. He is the Creator, Ruler, Preserver, |