T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S Memory Verse— “Children, obey yo.ur p aren ts.” Eph. 6:1. Approach.— Boys and girls, w hat do you th ink a little boy told me some tim e ago? This little boy loves Jesus and is a very b righ t little fellow and is always found in BEGINNERS Sunday School. He AND PRIMARY has an older broth- Mabel L. M errill er who does not know th e Lord, and he even tried to get this little brother to smoke cigarettes, bu t the little boy said NO. If he will always say no and mean it, he will never be led into doing wrong. Let us bow our heads and ask Jesus to help us to always say no to ,everything th a t is wrong, and yes to Jesus. Lesson Story.—Who will tell us about the g reat prophet of God whose name was Isaiah? Clara, you may tell us what he did in our last story. Now we can learn a splendid lesson from Isaiah, for he did not w ait when God spoke, but answered a t once. When some one asks us to do something wrong, we w ant to speak rig h t up and say no. We are to have a story about another one of God’s prophets today, whose name was Jerem iah. He was faith fu l and tru e to God wherever he was placed. He loved the Jewish peo ple and it made him very sad when they would not obey God. At this tim e th ere was a class of people called Rechabites living in Jerusalem . Sev eral hundred years before a man by the name of Rechab lived at. a tim e when th e rich people ju st used their property and money for th e ir own pleasure, and became very selfish and wicked. He though t if his people would be simple in th e ir life and live in ten ts and keep th eir cattle, they would not become wicked like th e other people. These people prom isd Rechab they would do this, and they also promised th e ir fath er never to drink intoxicating liquors; th a t means any drink contain-
522 the uselessness, danger and sin of re sistance. At th e sound of these strange words his h earers spring upon him w ith rage; they accuse him of connivance w ith enemies of th e country. King Jehoiakim tears up the collection of his first discourses and throw s the shreds into th e fire. The fiery p atrio ts seize th e prophet and throw him to th e bot tom of a well w ithout w ater. He passes whole days and nights in th is horrible prison. But what are his physical suf ferings w ith th e moral to rm en t he en dures in seeing himself trea ted as th e enemy of his country? Can one be surprised if, now and then sinking un der the burden, he is tempted, like Job, to curse th e day of his b irth ? But' these are only tran sito ry mom ents of weakness. Soon faith regains the ascendant, and w ith th e same cour age w ith which he had dared to preach to his people subm ission to th e foreign conquerer, he now endeavors to ani-; m ate them once more w ith hope. Succeeding ages have done justice to Jerem iah. The more his contempo raries ill-treated him, th e more has pos terity exalted him to such a degree th a t in th e tim e of Jesus, as we see in th e New Testam ent, he was known by th e name, “th e prophet.” This was bu t right. If th e picture which he has drawn of the new covenant is th e cul m inating point of prophecy, is no t his own personal fate the most complete type of th a t of the Messiah? Is not his conflict w ith the excited patrio ts and false prophets of his tim e th e pre lude to th a t of Jesus w ith those P h ari sees and zealots who over-excited the carnal hopes of Israel and were p re paring for them the most terrib le of delusions? Jerem iah is certainly, nore th a n any o ther before John th e Bap tist, th e fo rerunner of th e Man of sor rows.— Godet. K3Z§ W t Sons Who Honored Their F ath e r. Jer. 35:5-14, 18, 19.
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker