Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1907 — THE CITIES OF REFUGE [ARTICLE]

THE CITIES OF REFUGE

Sunday School Lesson for Nov. 3,1917 Specially Prepared for This Paper

LESSON TEXT.-Joshua 20:1-9. Memory verses 2, 3. GOLDEN TEXT.—“My refuge U in God.”—Psalms 62:7. TlME.—Tfte latter part of Joshua’s life. It Is uncertain how long he lived. Josephus says that his administration lasted 25 years. PLACE.—The administration capital seems to have been transferred from the military Headquarters at Gllgal to the religious center at Shiloh, a ttfwn ten miles north northeast of Bethel. (Josh. 19:1; 19:51; 21:2.) Comment and Suggestive Thought. In order to understand the ordinances concerning the Cities of Refuge which are referred to in four of the first six books of the Bible, it is necessary to realize two great facts. First. That there are some crimes that must be removed if a nation would exist and prosper. Such are treason, which, strikes at the life of the nation, and murder, which strikes at the existence of the family as well as the individual. Breaking the sixth commandment wrongs not merely the individual. It is a threefold crime: 1. Against the individual. It takes away his most precious possession; everything so far as this world is concerned. 2. Against the family and the nation, for it takes away a member, often the support, of the family, and one of the essential members 'and defenders of the nation. 3. Against God, the giver of life. Hence the severest punishment possible is meted out to whoever perpetrates this crime 7 and ought to ber in order to prevent as mpny as possible from committing the crime. No other punishment is adequate. We pity the murderer for. his suffering. We ought to have still more pity for the innocent victims. Murder would be almost entirely expiated from the list of crimes if every wilful murderer was immediately punished. Second. In the early days when nations were small and weak, when thdte were multitudes of small semiindependent tribes, there was no general government to enforce the law and exact justice when the men of one tribe committed a crime against another. Hence there grew up the custom of blood revenge, according to which the tribes, or the relatives of the murdered person, were compelled themselves to punish the murderer, who was naturally, in most cases, the member of another tribe. There was no one else to do it. It was very much like lynch law, where the people feel the need of punishment for safety’s sake, and fear the delays of the usual processes of

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