August, 1937
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
304
be a soft rubber ball to which is attached a long rubber band. If this cannot be se cured in a variety store, ordinary rubber bands can be fastened together to give the same effect.) Lesson: Who knows what a boomerang is? “ It is a weapon used by the blacks of Australia.” How does it differ from other weapons? “As a rule, it returns to the one who throws it.” Yes, and the sender has to be skillful or the returning boomerang does him more harm that it does to the enemy. Here is an imitation boomerang. This is made of card board, but the Australian blacks make theirs of hardwood. This rubber ball is like a boomerang in that it comes back, and is apt to hit the sender as hard as the one '¡at which it is thrown. Evil words and deeds are like boom erangs and return balls. They often return to the sender and do him more harm than they do to the one at whom they are aimed. But God commands us to send out good words and deeds instead, for He says to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” In Luke 6:31, we read: “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them like wise.” This same truth is brought to our attention in another way in Romans 12:19-21: “ Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not over come of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
BLACKBOARD LESSON
making their stupendous blunder, in at tempting to establish social justice without God. AH such attempts as these are doomed to ultimate failure. “Without me,” declared our blessed Lord, “ye can do nothing.” 2. “ Thou shall not wholly reap the cor ners of thy field" (Lev. 19:9). This pro vision was made for “the poor and stranger” in the land. W e should notice -carefully here that when charity was extended to the needy, they were expected to do some thing for themselves. The wheat and the grapes were not harvested and delivered to the homes of the needy, but the poor were expected to do some work. This is still a sound principle today. Some forms of charity encourage indolence, and they train people to become permanent paupers. 3. "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man” (19:32). It is a striking fact here that the divine laws of social justice are connected directly with respect and honor for old age. It is scarcely necessary to point out that in modern days, those who shout the loudest about “social justice” are inclined to treat the “ hoary head” with open contempt. In their eyes, the wisdom of age and experi ence is not an asset, but a liability. A Union soldier, bitter in his hatred of the Confederacy, lay wounded at Gettys burg. At the close of the battle, General Lee rode by, and the soldier, though faint from exposure and loss of blood, raised his hands, looked at Lee and shouted, “Hurrah for the Union!” The General heard him, dismounted, and went toward him. The soldier later confessed, “ I thought he meant to kill me. But as he came up, he looked at me with such a sad expression upon his face that all fear left me. He extended his hand and said, ‘My son, I hope you will soon be well.’ ” There he was, defeated, retiring from a field that cost him and his cause their last hope, yet he stopped to speak kindly to one who had taunted him—to speak to him as he would have spoken to his own son.— Atlantic Monthly. At Harvest Time L eviticus 19:1-18, 32-37 Memory Verse: “ Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Lev. 19:18). Approach: Last week we talked about what a wise king said about drinking wine. We learned that wine would be bad for our bodies. God wants us to take good care of our bodies. In another place in the Bible, God Golden Text Illustration L uke 6:31
4E UJOUID TOOT men SHOULD DO TO 40U.— STtm .
THOUI sunu nor
■ THU ntlÛHfcOR.-
r W) mynomc-nfiLsoM-
IlEITWED DE.RL rOLSEW-
GOUDRDD DOtUn i : ns fl TRLtbCRBEB- hotc my sto m a 6UT loue my I b THOU l sutur ili mint werbt — DO LIE ÖL50 TO TUÖT1 LIKEWISE.'. strong and healthy. But how can the people who are poor take good care of themselves? God planned for them so that they might have strong and healthy bodies, too. Lesson Story: When God was giving Moses the laws or rules that the children of Israel were to obey, you remember that they were not only to love God, but they were to love their neighbor as well. If their neighbors were poor and needed food, they were to provide it for them in this way: They were not to go out and find the poor and hand over to them a certain amount of food; but rather, they were to leave a little of their grain in the field at harvest time, and a few bunches of grapes on the vine. This food was left so that the hungry ones might go and get it for themselves. This was God’s provi sion for the poor. Do you remember the story of Ruth, the young widow woman, who would not leave her mother-in-law, Naomi, but who in stead followed her back to the country from which she had come, and who found her relative, Boaz, as she was gathering grain in his field? It is a beautiful story, and it was because Boaz was obeying God’s law and leaving some of the grain in the field that this story ended as it did. Are we being as kind to our neighbors as God wants His people to be?
Object Lesson B alls and B oomerangs
Objects: A boomerang cut from card board, and a return ball. (The boomerang is somewhat the shape of a carpenter’s right-angle square. The return ball should
SEPTEMBER 12, 1937 A NATION NEEDS RELIGIOUS HOMES D euteronomy 6:1-9; 11:18-25
the many false gods of pagan peoples. He is true both in His being, His words and His works. Further, He is the living God, as distinct from all others, which have “mouths, but they speak not; eyes . . . but they see not; They have ears, . . . but they hear not; . . .” (Psa. 135: 15-18). The supremacy of this living God must be acknowledged in every way (v. 5). If God is the one true and living God, then of necessity there must be the demand that He be loved with the entire being. Both the unity of God (v. 4) and His personality (v. 5) make this requirement absolutely essential. We are told to love Him. We cannot love an impersonal creation, how ever much such an object might be liked or admired. Thus the personality of God
Lesson Text: Deut. 6:4, 5; 11: 18-25. Golden Text: “ Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). Outline and Exposition I. T he C ornerstone of a T ruly R eligious H ome (6:4, 5) E XALTATION of God must be main tained if there is to be any true re ligion in the home. Fallen man nat urally turns to the worship of many gods, as the history of the race abundantly proves. But Jehovah, the only true God, the God of Israel, is “ one Lord” (v. 4 ). Not only so, but He is the true God as opposed to
calls the bodies of Christians the “ tem ple of God,” and He w a r n s us against taking poor care of our bodies. So we know that it is im portant to eat good food and to rest and exercise and do all those things that will m a k e our bodies
<>'V | S L O *
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter