Joshua 20:7

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Skechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah." Joshua 20:7 .

The mountains of the Bible form an interesting subject of study as to their moral suggestiveness. A beautiful thought is it that the cities of refuge should be upon the mountain-top, or should nestle in the sides of the mountain. Two ideas of strength seem to combine here, the mountain itself being strong and the city built upon it inviolable. Thus the works of God and the works of man unite in a holy effort to secure human life. Are not all the works of God intended to save and educate and complete manhood? Whenever the works of God fight against manhood we may be sure that sin is operating with deadly effect in some direction. The whole world-house seems to have been built for the accommodation of the tenant; for him the sun shines, the rivers flow, the earth grows her harvests, and the sea yields its population. Man should add nothing to the works of God that is not in their own nature and according to the direction of their own purpose. To build a home upon the fair landscape is to add to its beauty; to build a church on the noblest elevation on the surface of the earth is to lift the mountain to a higher altitude. The earth is sanctified or desecrated by what is put upon it. The schoolhouse ennobles the district in which it is placed. Every benevolent institution is as a tree of the Lord's own planting, though it be set in the midst of a garden, or made the crowning point of a lofty summit. On the other hand, how much has the earth been desecrated by the presence of buildings upon it devoted to evil purposes. The public-house may be a blot upon the landscape; the building in which evil arts are practised and evil professions are taught is as the presence of perdition in the very sanctuary of nature. We should find more upon the mountains if we looked for more. God has put cities of refuge upon every one of them. The mountains themselves may be cities of refuge; there the weary reap new strength; there the over-driven and fevered brain cools itself and receives a tonic, enabling it to resume the battle of life and carry it on to conquest. Not one thing in all nature has had its full meaning yet disclosed. God burns in every bush; his house is by the seashore; his tabernacle is in the stars; his temple is in the tiniest flower that blooms. The day is coming when the whole earth shall be the mountain of God;-"no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:... and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." To bring about that day we are not called upon to be ideal, to dream away our time, to slumber in selfish contemplation; we are rather summoned to activity, to discipline, to suffering; every man should feel as if the dawning of that day depended upon his individual exertions