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should, stay by themselves. Bu\: Jesus capie to bring salvation ,to everybody. To help Peter to understand this, the Lord allowed him 'to have a dream, or trance, there on the rooftop. In his dream he saw a sheet let down from heaven three times. It had in it all kinds of animals—not just the kind that the Jews had been taught to eat. Peter heard a voice saying something like this, “If you are hungry, Peter, you may have any of these animals for food.” At first Peter did not under stand what the lesson meant. But when Cornelius and his friends got there, Peter understood. The Lord -had answered Peter’s prayer and had put in his heart a great love for the Lord Jesus, and for Cornelius, and for ail p e o p l e everywhere—no matter to what race . they belonged. Peter knew that the Lord meant that His followers should be one big family, no one better than ariother. The Lord had answered Cornelius' prayer, too— because there was Peter, ready tp tell him how to be saved! They had a happy time together^, thanking the Lord Jesus for answering their prayers. Object Lesson C hristians and C andles OBJECTS: Five candles—red, yel low, black, white, and blue. (The blue should be longer than the others. If colored candles are not available, cover with colored paper.) ' LESSON: This large blue candle reminds us of the Lord Jesus, the Light of the world. Blue is the heav enly color. Before going back to heav en, Christ said to His disciples, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heav en” (Matt. 5:16). When Jesus went back to heaven, only a few people were letting their lights shine. We will let them be rep resented by this white candle.- The candle is white and the light is nearly the same color, fOr it Is clear and shining. This black candle reminds us of those people whose skin is black. Some who call themselves Christians are telling us that we have enough to do at home without going to the foreign mission fields. They forget that the Lord Jesus said to go into all
cleansed, whether Jews or gentiles. There is no room for rate discrimina tion in the body of Christ. Golden Text Illustration A cts 10:34, 35 A group of colored Christian women came to the home of a missionary to pray for the women of the world. They held out imploring hands to Christ in prayer, saying, “Make our black bodies shine for thee, Jesus, our Chief. We are only black women. Thou art the great Chief of the white man, yet we, too, can love Thee.” The missionary tried to tell them that Jesus was a brown baby—not White like us or black like them; and that Ho had been a helpless baby needing a 'mother’s love arid care. Was it foolish to tell them, that? One woman ,took her baby off her back, held him toward the missionary, ariS said, “Small and weak like this? Did a women bear arid feed Him?” “Yes,” the missionary said. They clapped their hands and shout ed their equivalent to “All hail, Baby Chief!” They had never realized all this before. “We thought He was white woman’s baby,” said one, wjiich simply meant that He was ours, not theirs,—-A. H. Small in Five Thou sand Best Modem Illustrations, by Hallock. ; To the Home of Cornelius A cts 10:9-16, 34,, 35; 17:22-31 MEMORY VERSE: “(live thanks un to the Lord .. . . talk ye of all his wondrous works” (1 Chron. 16:8, 9.) AIM: To show that prayer' brings good things to the Lord’s children. APPROACH: When we pray, the most wonderful things happen! LESSON STORY: Peter, one of the Lord’s frierids, was visiting once in
that all men are dependent upon God who created them and appointed the bounds oi their habitation. All of this is in order that men might “seek the Lord. . . and fii*d him,” He being not iar from anyone who will turn to Him. Those to Whom Paul spoke were not ignorant of the true God, yet they did not recognize, acknowledge, and worship Him; hence they were idola- tors, in spite of their much religion. Points and Problems 1. "As they went. . . Peter went up" (Acts 10:9>. Note how the Lord worked both on the side of Cornelius and th a t. of Peter, in order to bring about the fulfillment of a ministry of grace for Cornelius and his household. “They,” that is, the servants of Cornelius were, coming to Peter in response to the definite direction of .the Lord. But “Peter” must also be prepared for this important ministry, and therefore we find him going up to the place of vision. ' In personal evangelism it is neces sary for both the heart of the one who is to hear the gospel and the one* who is to present it to be. prepared, if a great work of grace is to be done in a public ministry, not only does the preacher need to have a vision but the audience needs to be pre pared as well. 2. "Peter went up upon the house top to pray about the sixth hour" (10:9). The roof of the house has long played an important part in the life of the people of Palestine and other Near East countries. The typical roof is flat witfc a retaining wall about it. There the people spend much of their time in the cool of the evening. The roof was also the place of prayer af fording unhindered access into God’s presence. It became the place of vb sion. Every child of God needs a "housetop,” a quiet closet, some place to which he can go to meet God (cf. Matt. 6:6). 3. "But Peter said. Not so. Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean" (10:14). What was Peter’s trouble? He failed to rec ognize that a new dispensation had dawned. There was a time when God had made a clear distinction between animals that were clean and those- which were unclean (cf. Lev. 11:2-27). But since Calvary and Pentecost those distinctions have been removed. A great deal of faulty teaching today is due to the fact that men fail to dis tinguish between the dispensations, and- to realize that God deals differ ently with men in. these seyeral dis pensations. 4. "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common" . (10:15). The vessel in this vision is typical of'the church. All within that vessel are
a home by the sea. The house had a cool, flat roof, and Peter t houg - h t , “What a lovely place to pray!” Perhaps, he said to the Lord as we often ‘ do, “Dear Jesus, help me to love You more.”
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While he was praying, there was a little group of-people coming to that very house. Peter did not know that, of course. He did not know, «either, that one of the men in that group wanted with all his heart to be one of the Lord’s followers, but did not know how, although he had prayed that the Lord would help him. The man’s name was Cornelius. Now Cornelius was not a Jew, as Peter was; he belonged to another nation. The Jews had been taught, before the Lord Jesus came, that they
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