King's Business - 1923-08

857

THE KING'S BUSINESS

Antonia, held In silence the audience In the Acropolis, moved the mixed mul– titudes at Corinth, and was as earnest with the little company of Lydia's household, and the startled jailer at Phlllppi, as when he wept over the crowds In Ephesus. He was a great· hero. He did not hesitate to face the an– ger, the mockery and the menace of a whole nation, and that his own, In behalf of the truth. He did not hestitate to stand up against the whole church and rebuke Its Chiefest Apostle. And on that dark and terrible night when the wild winds broke from the black clouds and the blacker sea be– came white with the rage of the storm, and the ship moaned and careened, and broke, plank by plank, and sailors and soldiers shivered with fear, and cried with terror, he stood forth calm and unmoved, and in a voice which rang across the sea, and has rung across the ages to us, cried: "Sirs, I believe God, that It shall be even as it was told me." One word alone can give the secret of his Christian life and that word Is ''Consecration;'' an absolute surrender of all he had, and was, to Christ. One watchword alone was in his life, that mightiest phrase which a human lip can utter and a human heart can feel , FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. For Christ's sake he broke with Tra– dition, for Christ's sake he became an outcast from his nation, for Christ's sake he lived yonder in Corinth, and ate black bread, and was naked, and cold and hungry. When foes assailed him; when friends betrayed him; when his heart broke because of human meanness; when the night grew dark and he was alone and the clammy ooze of the deep dungeon was about him, there was one magic whispered watchword which stir– red through his soul and held him, and that magic watchword was, "FOR CHRIST'S SAKE."-!. M. Haldeman in "How to Study the Bible." How Paul Became A Christian. Acts 22:3-16. Memory Verse. "What shall I do, Lord?" Acts 22:10. Approach.-(Of course the teacher will read the account of Saul's conver– sion in 9th chapter of Acts.) Children,

what book Is this I hold In my hand? A Bible! Whose BEGINNERS word Is It? It Is

AND PRIMARY Mabel L. Merl'ill

God's word. How we Jove this pre– cious book, for It

tells us of Jesus our Saviour, who Is the light of the world. When Jesus comes in to our hearts, all the darkness and sin must go out. Just like when we turn on the light at night when It Is dark, and we can not see what is in a dark room, but the moment we turn on the light, the darkness Is all gone. We have a wonderful story today of a man whose heart was all dark and full of evil deeds, and when he let Jesus come in, the darkness was driven out and he became a great preacher. Prayer. Lesson Story.-In our story last week we heard about how brave Barnabas and Paul were as they went about tell– ing the good news about Jesus. Now in our story today we are to hear how Paul (or Saul, as he was called before he knew Jesus,) came to know J esus as his Saviour. Saul had been sent to the best schools as a boy, but had been taught to hate Jesus, and so when he grew up to be a man, he still believed what he had been taught as a boy, and so he wanted to get rid of all the peo– ple who did believe In Jesus. The fol– lowers of Jesus had to worship Jesus behind locked doors, for Saul and other men with him, spent a great deal of their time hunting for the Christians, so they might put them in prison, and sometimes they had them killed. One day Saul with others, started to the city of Damascus to find some more people who believed in Jesus. About noon time, suddenly a bright !lght shone from heaven; It was a great deal brighter than the sun, and Saul fell to the ground, and all the men with him. (Acts 26: 14). Saul could not see now, but he heard a voice speaking to him from heaven. This Is what the voice

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