again no one replied. “Bring me the mule with the white star on its forehead," he ordered; "put it in the tent yonder." This was done. "Let every man pass into the tent, one at a time, close the flap behind him, and when he and the mule are totally alone, let him take a firm grasp on the tail of the mule. If the mule brays that man is the thief."

One after another, the men all filed into the tent, remained a moment, and then emerged. And the mule did not bray. "Now," said the chief sternly: "Let every man come to me, in turn, and as he draws near let him place his hands on my face, one on either side, and I will tell who is the thief, since the mule will not."

More than a score had obeyed his order when suddenly the sheik placed both his hands on the man before him and cried out: "This one is the thief; this one stole the visitor's silver! We need look no farther." The man fell on his face, groveling at the sheik's feet, and confessed his guilt. Even the way he had hid the silver agreed with Achan's way, for he had buried it in the earth.

The missionary begged the sheik for an explanation. "My people must often be governed through their superstitions," he returned. "After the thief refused to confess the first time, during the half hour I gave him to do so, I singled out the white-starred mule, and, unseen, smeared his tail with the oil of a pungent herb. Thieves are cowards, and I knew well enough that the man who stole your silver would shrink from doing what I ordered. So I directed that the tent flap be put down. This left the hand concealed from all of us. Being a coward and superstitious, he feared that the mule would announce the blackness of his heart. (His sin had found him out, you see.) The guiltless ones took the tail in their hands, but the thief let the tail alone. When a man placed his hands upon my face I knew at once by the odor of the herb that he had done as I bade him. On the thief's hands there was no odor of the herb."

"You know now how the thief was found," continued the shiek," but to these people it will be a mystery forever and will be told of by children yet unborn."

The Eye of your Judge is upon you. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman tells of a man in one of our public schools in a great city who, seeking to illustrate a certain truth before the children, drew the picture of an eye on the blackboard. It was so perfectly drawn that the child sitting on one side of the room thought the eye was looking at him, and the child sitting on the other side of the room thought it was fixed on him. Into every part of the room the eye seemed to be looking, and the little children became so nervous and excited that the picture of the eye had to be erased. And I should like to say to you who sin, that there is an eye that is upon you, an eye you cannot paint out. "Our secret sins are in the light of his countenance."

And from a native Zulu preacher comes this application of the thought in Dr. Chapman's words: When we sow our fields we see nothing further of the seed. But after some days it begins to be noticed, as it sprouts. So is it with sin. For the moment it is hidden from men but soon it is manifest. The sinner fears the coming discovery even when the wickedness is hidden away in his heart and unknown to others. Remember, then, sinner, that your deed has never been hid from the eye of the Judge!

Your Sin may not be found out but it will find you out. The inevitable fate before the sinner is not that the sin he commits will assuredly become known. It may escape the knowledge of others, in his lifetime and afterwards. The inevitable thing is that the sin will not fail to find him out. Says David Smith, writing in "A Man's Need of God": In one of his immortal dialogues Plato has shown that there is no escaping the penalty of sin and no possibility of peace until it be faced. The wrongdoer, he says, who is convicted and punished is happier than the one that gets off scot-free. And this is terribly true. A sinner may shun detection and never be brought before an earthly tribunal; but there is a more awful tribunal which he cannot escape. His sin grips him, and it never lets go. It racks him ruthlessly, remorselessly, with a slow dragging, bitter and ever more bitter torture. And there is no deliverance for him until he faces his sin and confesses it and accepts the consequences. You remember the grim imagination of Greek mythology, that no sooner was a crime wrought than the Furies, the bloodhounds of Hell, got on the sinner's track and hunted

Quarter

December 14

him day and night until he atoned with his own blood for the blood which he had shed. And what is this but a picturesque rendering of the stern law of moral retribution? David Smith, in Man's Need of God.

The Universal Law. Every sin you commit will hunt you down, find you out, and make you pay. There has never been one sin committed on this earth that the man who committed it did not suffer for it. There has never been one sin committed that paid. You may escape the law of man. You can't escape the law of God.

Your sin will find you out: that is, in the court where there is no bribing— the court of physical retribution for moral offences. Your sin will find you out in your own body. It is true that all sin registers itself in your body. Even such sins as anger, jealousy, envy, pride, ill will, hatred, have physical results. A fit of anger upsets your stomach, poisons your blood, disorders your nerves, and oftentimes results in paralysis and death. You sin in any way and your sin will find you out in that physical frame.

Your sins will find you out in your own character. Every lie you tell poisons your moral blood and undermines your moral constitution. Every sin you commit breeds an ulcer in your character far worse than an ulcer in your body. Do you suppose you can oppress a man in his wages and not suffer more in your character than he suffers in his purse? Do you suppose you can overreach a man in a business transaction and not suffer more in what you become than he suffers in what he loses?

Your sin will find you out in your conscience. In the mercy of God we are so constructed that to be conscious of sin means agony-hell on earth. Nothing can soothe the torment of an accusing conscience. In my office in Chicago I have seen strong men sob like children. What was the matter? Memory and remorse. I have seen one of the strongest men, intellectually and physically, I ever knew, throw himself on the floor of my office and sob, and groan, and wail, and writhe. What was the matter? Memory and remorse. If your sin never finds you out anywhere else it will find you out in that conscience which a holy God has given you to be a reminder of himself.

There is another place where sin will find us out-in eternity. Death does not end all; there is a life beyond the grave, and into that life we carry our sins and their consequences.

Be sure-be sure-be sure your sin will find you out. Sermon by Dr. R. A. Torrey.

II EVERY TRANGRESSOR A TROUBLER

Condensed from a

The Far-reaching Effect of Sin. Achan alone was guilty, yet we read: "Israel hath sinned; yea, they have even transgressed my covenant, they have even taken of the devoted thing, and have stolen, and dissembled also." No one's sin affects himself alone, is the teaching of this lesson. None of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself. "The hands of Achan were stained with the blood of the thirty-six that perished in the flight to Shebarim." From this time the pass was known as "the valley of Achan," "the valley of him that troubleth," and in the genealogical list of 1 Ch. 2.7 the line of Carmi ends with "Achan, the troubler of Israel." "No man sinneth unto himself. One plaguestricken man may infect the city; one beast with rinder-pest may decimate the herds."

Leave the Track Safe for Others. The belated guest was explaining the causes of his delay. "The thing that held us longest," he went on, "and ran into weary and vexatious hours, was a row of twenty broken rails. We waited and waited, while the workmen replaced the rails. They would replace one rail, and we would pull up a quarter of a mile behind their hand-car and watch them replace another, and so on, till it got dark, and they worked by the light of lanterns, and we got hungry and more than a little impatient."

"But what could possibly have broken so many?" asked his host.

"That's where my parable comes in. There had been a freight train ahead of us with a broken car wheel. It was a heavily loaded car, and whenever that break in the wheel came over on the rail it came with a thump. If it hit on a

tie, the chances were that it was all right, but if it hit between the ties, it was likely to break the rail. And as a matter of fact, it did break twenty rails. Yet it pulled its own load through and delivered its freight unharmed to the next station, which happened to be as far as it was going. There they discovered the damage, and sent the section gang to flag us and replace the rails.

"I had plenty of time to think out my parable. Listen to it: The car that did the damage did not go into the ditch, as it deserved to do, and logically ought to have done; but it left the occasion for twenty wrecked trains and many lost lives behind it. There are lives like that, old fellow, lives that run merrily on and land at the terminal, apparently all right. But the lesson of the thing to me was that every man is bound, in fairness, not only to deliver his own cargo, but to leave the track in good condition for others behind him. Unknown.

Sin is an Infectious Disease. If a person could sin by himself, he alone would suffer, but sin in any form is an invasion upon territory and privileges to which we have no claim whatever. The man who swears pollutes the ears of some other man. The man who steals takes that which is the property of another. Every wrong, no matter of what nature, is an injury to some one else. A drunkard wastes money which belongs to his wife and children. When a boy lies, some other boy is involved. Sin is like a weed which outgrows the field where it first found root, and ruins other fields not on the same property. It is infectious, contagious, malarious. It cannot be restricted to the person committing it. I. Wesley Johnston.

III THOU SHALT NOT COVET

Eve and Achan. Why did Eve eat of the forbidden fruit? Because she looked at it, and longed for it, and coveted it so that she thought nothing else so desirable as that forbidden fruit. Why did Achan take the devoted things? Because he looked at that beautiful Babylonish garment and gloated over the ingot of gold till he coveted them more than all else, till he was ready to barter his honesty and his country's honor for their possession.

Cain coveted his brother's prosperity; Lot coveted the good things of Sodom; Jacob coveted his brother's birthright; Joseph's brothers coveted his special favors; the children of Israel coveted the flesh-pots of Egypt; Gehazi coveted the gold that was not rightfully his; Ananias and Sapphira coveted credit for generosity without deserving it.

Where there is Covetousness. Have you any idea how much of your life is spent in coveting? Do you really know what coveting is? What is it you do the evenings that you spend poring over the advertisements of bargains to be put on sale next day? You covet. What is it you do the days upon days you spend hurrying from shop to shop, looking at, fingering, sampling goods that you have not the money to buy? You covet. What is it you do, sighing deeply at the passing of an automobile, a Paris gown, a Paris_hat? You covet.

"To covet is to desire inordinately; to wish to gain possession of in an unlawful way." Every time you let yourself long intensely for anything beyond your means, you virtually consent to doing something unlawful to possess it. Herein lies hidden and unsuspected the origin of many evil deeds. In particular, to covet is the beginning of most of the wrong-doing of women. It leads to the breaking down of health, to straining after the unattainable, to running a husband in debt, to cheating home and children. "Thou shalt not covet" is an upto-date commandment which should be obeyed. Harper's Bazar

How to Overcome Covetousness. Fill your hearts so full of gratitude to God for the good gifts he has given you that you will not think of being covetous of those you lack. An ancient fable impresses this truth:

A dove thus made her complaint to the guardian spirit of the feathered tribe: "Kind genius, why is it that the hoarse-voiced and strutting peacock_spreads his gaudy train to the sun, dazzling the eye of every passer-by; whilst I, in my plain plumage, am overlooked and forgotten by all? Thy ways, kind Genius, seem not to be equal towards those under thy care and protection."

The Genius listened to her complaint, and replied: "I will grant thee a train

Quarter

December 14

similar in richness to one of the gaudy bird you seem to envy, and shall demand of thee but one condition in return."

"What is that?" eagerly inquired the dove, overjoyed at the prospect of possessing what seemed to promise so much happiness.

"It is," said the Genius, "that you consent to surrender those qualities of meekness, tenderness, constancy and love, for which thy family have been distinguished in all time."

"Let me consider," said the dove. "No-I cannot consent to such an exchange. No, not for all the gaudy plumage, the showy train of that vain bird, will I surrender those qualities of my family from time immemorial. I must decline, good Genius, the condition you propose."

"Then why complain, dear bird? Has not providence bestowed upon thee qualities which thou valuest more than all the gaudy adorning you admire? Art thou discontented still?"

SENTENCE SERMONS

No rush to battle atones for sin in the tent. G. Campbell Morgan.

The way of the transgressor's mother is also hard. Youth's Companion. There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed: and hid, that shall not be known. Mt. 10.26.

Your acts are detectives, keener and more unerring than ever the hand of sensational novelist depicted; they will dog you from the day you sinned till the hour your trial comes off. Beaconsfield.

As the man who commits some evil deed has to fear that, notwithstanding all precautions, it will one day come to light, so, too, he must expect who has done some good thing in secret, that it also, in spite of himself, will appear in the day. Goethe.

THE LESSON'S MEANINGS FOR US

Thou shalt not covet. Said Sadi, the Persian poet: I never coveted but once, then my feet were sore; I had no money to buy shoes, but soon I met a man without a foot and then I became content.

Success in Canaan was dependent upon the keeping of the covenant. God's promises are conditional.

Sin is a scourge which wreaks vengeance on the sinner and brings suffering to many others.

WORK TO BE ASSIGNED FOR THE NEXT LESSON

Questions to look up. I. How did the Israelites attack Ai again and with what success? 2. What occurred on Mount Ebal? 3. How much of the land was conquered at this time and from what book do we know this? (Clipping, 17, p. 461.) 4. What did General Booth say about his having wholly followed the Lord? (Clipping, p. 465.) 5. What are some of the things Joshua said in his farewell address? 6. What do we know about his death? (Josh. 24.29, 30.) Questions to think about. 1. What had Caleb learned about the Anakim long before this? 2. What had he seen of Hebron? 3. At that time what was said about Caleb's spirit? 4. For what were the Levites set apart? 5. How many years had been spent in Canaan according to the statements in verses 7 and 10? 6. What does the expression "made the heart of the people melt" mean? 7. How many of the original company who left Egypt had been kept alive till now as well as Caleb? 8. For what is "to go out and come in" a proverbial expression? 9. What oft-repeated promise is fulfilled in this lesson? 10. Did Caleb claim too much? (Clipping, p. 464.) II. Which do you like the better, an easy or a hard task?

Note Book Work. In your Biography of Joshua write Part VI, Dealing with an Offender.

LESSON XII-DECEMBER 21

THE DIVISION OF THE LAND

Golden Text

Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and

all these things shall be added unto you. Mt. 6.33

HOME DAILY BIBLE READINGS-M. Josh. 14.1-14. The Division of the Land. T. Num. 33.50-56. The Division Ordered. W. Josh. 20. Cities of Refuge. T. Num. 35.1-8. Portion of the Levites. F. Jer. 2.1-13. Jehovah's Love, Israel's Apostasy. S. Jer. 4.19-31. Ruin and Exile. S. Hos. 2.14-23. A New Beginning.

STUDY Josh. 14 READ Josh. 12-14 COMMIT vv 13, 14

I And these are the inheritances which the children of Israel took in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed unto them, 2 by the lot of their inheritance, as Jehovah commanded by Moses, for the nine tribes, and for the half-tribe. 3 For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe beyond the Jordan; but unto the Levites he gave no inheritance among them. 4 For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim: and they gave no portion unto the Levites in the land, save cities to dwell in, with the suburbs thereof for their cattle and for their substance. 5. As Jehovah commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did, and they divided the land.

6 Then the children of Judah drew nigh unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that Jehovah spake unto Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning thee in Kadesh-barnea. 7 Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of Jehovah sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 8 Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed Jehovah my God. 9 And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy foot hath trodden shall be an inheritance to thee and to thy children for ever, because thou hast wholly followed Jehovah my God. 10 And now, behold, Jehovah hath kept me alive, as he spake, these forty and five years, from the time that Jehovah spake this word unto Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. II As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, and to go out and to come in. 12 Now therefore give me this hill-country, whereof Jehovah spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakim were there, and cities great and fortified: it may be that Jehovah will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as Jehovah spake.

13 And Joshua blessed him: and he gave Hebron unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 14 Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite unto this day; because that he wholly followed Jehovah, the God of Israel.

WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED

Lesson Outline. I. The Division of Canaan, 1-3. II. The Portion of the Levites, 4-5. III. Caleb's Request, 6-12. IV. Hebron Assigned to Caleb, 13-15.

2-3. By the lot. See p. 462.-Moses had given the inheritance...beyond the