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June 1928
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K i n g ’ s
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was so quick in anticipating objections, acute in making reply, had such readiness of utterance and rapidity of mental move ment. There is a tradition that Barnabas was one of Paul’s fellow students. It is important to remember that among the Jews, the learning of a trade was a vital part of education. One o f the rabbis has said': “He that teacheth not his son a trade doth the same as if he had taught him to steal.” After Saul’s college course, he evidently returned to Tarsus to take up the trade o f tent-making (Acts 18:3). This involved working with two kinds o f materials—cloth, made by weaving and spinning the long hair o f goats (called cilicium) and the skins of animals stitched together. Chrysostom refers to Paul as “a tent-stitcher” and in one place as “a leather-cutter.” Possibly young Saul did a little grum bling in those days of hard work, but little as he knew it, he was “ laying up in store against the time to come." Young Moffat, who became the great missionary, many a time blessed the memory of his grandmother, who forced him as a boy to learn how to do many things. “You do not know what you may need' in after life,” she would say, and how true it prov ed! So, we read that Paul in Ephesus and Corinth ministered, to 'his own necessities by' tentmaking. What satis faction it must have given him at that time, to be independent, because he had mastered a trade in his youth! Did Paul ever come in personal contact with Jesus Christ ? It ,is an open question. No reliable' answer can be given. Some take his words in 2 Cor. 5:16 as meaning that he had seen and conversed with Jesus in the days o f His personal ministry. His training would' have prejudiced him against much o f our Lord’s teaching, had he heard Him,, and knowing the ardor of his temperament, we are not surprised in seeing Saul the fiercest antagonist o f the Gospel. At about the age o f 35 we find Saul in volved in the persecution which arose about Stephen. He took some part in the murder and began to drag men and women to jail because o f their faith in Jesus. Such a ferocious spirit did he dis play that we find Luke describing him in terms descriptive of some savage mon ster—as “ breathing out threatenings and slaughter” (Acts 9:1 ). This is the man who was so suddenly and thoroughly converted by a vision of the glorified Christ on the road to Damascus. The. story o f it will be con sidered in succeeding lessons. When was Paul born? What kind of a .city was Tarsus? What was the government of the city? What kind o f a population did it have? What were the educational influences o f Tarsus? Did Paul have any brothers or sisters? To what sect o f the Jews did' Paul’s people belong? After whom did Paul’s parents name their son? What did the name mean? How did Paul come to be a Roman citizen ? What language did Paul learn as a child? Where did Paul attend college and who was his principal professor? . C an Yoy. A nswer T hese ?
What was Gamaliel’s method of teach ing? In what kinds o f manual labor was Paul skilled? What were some of the causes for Paul’s antagonism to Jesus and His followers? In what ways was Paul prepared in his youth for the very work God called him to do later? . —o— - G olden T ext I llustration Remember now thy Creator in the days o f thy youth (Eccl. 12:1). Coming home from college, a young man one evening in conversation with his only surviving parent, shocked him with a sneer against the Christian Faith. Not a word of reproach came from the lips of the father. He went to his room and all that night the young man heard the tramp of his sleepless father. The sound was a knell o f sorrow, the cause of which he well knew. The next morning the father brought to his son the well-worn Bible of his mother. He asked his son to read it and compare its teachings with the memories of the life o f his sainted mother. The youth did so and found a- tear-stained and underscored verse: “ By their fruits ye shall know them" It was an arrow to his heart. jThe beauty o f his mother’s character; the patience,, purity and fidelity she had shown, were convinc ing evidence^ of the unspeakable -superi ority o f the Christian character over the hollow fruits o f his skepticism. He knelt and gave his life to his mother’s Christ, to be greatly used o f God in the years that followed.
FRED S. SHEPARD ’S BLACKBOARD OUTLINE
Child Training by
P R A Y E R RECEPT (Teaching) RACTICE (Example) From a child thou hâst known the holy scripture||i^2 Tim. 3:15. children o f Israel that they must keep God’s Law in their hearts and that they must also’ teach it to their children. They, were to talk about God’s Word when at home so the children would learn it and know what it meant; the children were to study it every day at school, and at Sun day school. They .were also to go to church and listen to the Word o f God. Do you go to church and listen to God’s Word? (H ow sad in these days in many churches there is so little o f the pure Word for the few children who attend to listen :to.) The Bible, which we all have now, could be owned by but a very few in those days, because it was very large and cost a great deal. As only a few could have a Bible, the people wrote the commandments and other parts o f God’s. Word and carried it with them. Saul as a child was taught the Bible, and when he grew up and came to know Jesus, his name was changed to Paul.. • He wrote a letter to a young friend of his and begged him to remember and obey all the good lessons he had been taught when he was a child. The verses and hymns learned when we are children will come back to us in later years, when other things have been forgotten, and when we need the help and comfort that God’s Word will give to us. A child who has someone to tell him early about God and His Word has something to bring him joy as long as he lives. All that we find in the Bible is given by God Himself. There is not a word there which He did not cause to be written. Our memory verse teaches us that God’s Word will keep us from sin when we hide it away in' our hearts. Have you someone in your home who is telling you about Jesus and teach ing you His W ord? (Prayer.) Knowledge and Judgment “I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment" (Phil. 1:9). The sort o f men needed today is well expressed by old Dr. John Brown, of Haddington, who spoke homely Saxon to the students who applied to him for in struction. He would say, “Young gen tlemen, ye need three things : ye need learning, grace, and common sense. As for the learning, I’ll try to set ye in the way of it; as for grace, ye must always pray for it; but if ye have na brought the common sense with ye, ye may go aboot your business !” These three weighty things will be good' ballast for a ship, and enable a man to outride many a gale that would otherwise capsize him.
The Story o f Paul as a,Child. Acts 21:39; 22:3; 23:16; 26:4; 2 Tim. 3 :15.
Memory Verse.-L“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Psa. 119:11. Approach:— Show the children an alarm clock and explain its use. When the alarm goes, o ff in the morning it -will wake us, but if we do not obey it, and go
to sleep again, we will not hear it , as plainly the n e x t time, and if we con tinue to disobey its call it will soon l o s e power to arouse us. So it is with us; if we obey the voice of God, we shall hear it and way.
Lesson Story.— Last week we had such a good time as we looked at the pictures of our lesson stories, showing us what a wonderful Saviour we have in Jesus Christ our Lord, and teaching us to be loyal to Him always. This is the first day of the week and the .first day of a brand new month, and we are going to get acquainted with Saul of Tarsus, and learn what he did as a child. Saul was born in a great city called Tarsus, but he was sent to school in Jerusalem. He had a very wise teacher who taught him to obey the laws of his country and the laws of God. Saul did not know Jesus, and did not believe He was the Son of God. When he grew up to be a man he became a great missionary for Jesus. Moses told the
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