THE KING’S BUSINESS
594
Pass on what you have learned. This is what Philip did. In Bible study it is true that what you seek to keep for your self you soon lose; but what you pass on to others becomes doubly your own. O make Thy Church, dear Saviour,
proved his Bible by practicing it. So can you, if you will. Get the help o f other Christians. The Lord often uses our fellows to help us. That is why you are reading this. Philip could help the Ethiopian and the Ethiopian was not too proud to accept his help. What Christians have written is helpful, too. Sun day' School teachers should own, or have access to a good commentary such as Jami son, Faucett and Brown or Matthew Henry. Parker’s People’s Bible and Spurgeon’s ser mons are full o f help to a better under standing o f the Word. T HIS lesson teaches the overruling oper ation o f the Holy Spirit in soul-saving. Familiarize yourself with the text of the lesson ; read it over and over again. Here are some graphic pictures: An enthusiastic evangelist in the midst of a revival; a sudden call to the desert; an obedient worker walking and wondering what h is, work was to be; an engrossed Ethiopian searching the Scriptures; an evangelist on the run; an interview and invitation, and an inquirer instructed; the wayside witness o f conviction and conver sion ; a praise service in a chariot. Put the colors in these pictures, make them life like, and they will live in the hearts o f the scholars. First, there is a call. To the flesh this call seems unreasonable, unpropitious and unnecessary. It is difficult to be submis sive to the voice o f God when that voice calls to service which seems to promise small results, but God has said, “Your ways are not my ways.” Philip yields unhesi tating, unreasoning obedience. “Arise, and go” is the command, and arise and go, he did. The call is imperative, the obedience is implicit. Abraham went he knew not where, and Philip went, he knew not where- fo r. Had Philip stopped to confer with flesh and blood, he would probably never have met the eunuch.
A lamp o f burnished gold, To bear before the nations Thy true light, as o f old. O teach Thy wandering pilgrims By this their path to trace, Till clouds and darkness ended, They see Thee face to face.
HEART OF THE LESSON
By T. C. Horton.
Second, the cause o f the call. A man from Ethiopia. No doubt a proselyte of the gate; a believer in the faith o f the Jews; returning to his home, occupied with the Word of God. Here was the occasion o f the strange call— a single person, and he an Ethiopian. “ The hands o f Ethiopia were stretched out” (Psa. 68:31). The importance o f one’s service for the Lord is not to be measured by the multitude reached. Quality is often o f greater impor tance than quantity. W e miss the mark if we despise the day of small things. There may bq one boy or one girl in your class destined to arouse a community or stir a nation. Nothing is small that is done for God, and nothing is so small that God wants done that it may not result in being the greatest work o f our lives. Tradition tells us that this man was the means o f bringing the queen to the feet o f Christ, and of evangelizing Ethiopia and parts o f Arabia. The angel o f the Lord gave Philip a call to go down to the desert, and now the Spirit gives command to go up and join himself to the stranger. How important a mission in which the Spirit and an angel are inter ested ! Here is a lesson on hand-to-hand work for the Lord. The word “join” means “glue” or “cleave.” He is to cling fast to this man until his work is done. God wants
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