THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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God Takes C are’of P au l and Silas. Acts 16:16-40. Memory Verse.— “ I will fear no evil; for thou a rt w ith me.” Psa. 23:4. Approach.— Do you boys and girls know what a prison is? 'A place where people who have comm itted some crime, are locked up. Is a prison a pleasant place to be in? No, BEGINNERS indeed i t , is not. AND PRIMARY Ju st a little cell Mabel L. M errill w ith iron bars, in fron t and th e pris ons a t th e tim e of our story were very much worse places th an our prisons of to-day. There was an inner prison which was a very dark, dirty place, w ith no windows and very little air. While our sto ry is about some men who were p u t in prison, yet it is a very wonderful story, and very interesting. P rayer. Besson Story.—We remember last week we heard about P au l and his help ers going over th e sea into a new coun try to preach th e Gospel, and how a woman by the name of Lydia believed, and her family. Now in our story Paul is in th e same city of Philippi, and he preached to the people, of Jesus. In the same city was a young woman who had an evil sp irit and who earned much money for h er masters, by pretending to tell persons what would happen to them in the future. This young woman followed P au l and his helpers, and cried out, saying, “These men are th e servants of God, who show people how to be sav ed.” A fter she had followed them a number of days, P aul tu rn ed and said to the evil spirit, I command th ee in th e name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. And th e evil sp irit came out th a t same hour. When th e m asters of th e young woman saw th a t she was made well, and could no longer make money for them by repeating w hat th e evil sp irit said, they were very angry, and caught P aul and one of his help ers, Silas, and brought them be fore th e ru lers of th e city, and
said they were teaching th e people things which were not right. Then the ru le rs commanded th a t P aul and Silas be beaten, and p u t in prison. They were tie d by th eir hands to a post and beaten on th e ir bare backs. Then P a u l and Silas w ith th e ir backs bleeding were pu t in the inner prison or dungeon, and th e ir feet fastened in th e stocks. J u st see how, cruelly they were treated , and they had done nothing w rong; they had told th e people about Jesus and through the power of Jesus had healed th e young woman w ith the evil spirit. The mas ters of th e young woman could not make any more money by having her tell peo ple th e ir fortune. F rom this lesson we learn th a t fo rtune telling is wrong, and w hat they tell us not tru e, because told by an evil spirit, and when th e evil spir it was cast out she could not tell peo ple any more, and she did not w ant to. In the m iddle of th e n igh t P aul and Si las p ra te d and sang praises to God, and the other prisoners heard them . And suddenly th ere was a g reat earthquake, which shook th e whole prison, and all the doors of the prison were opened, and the chains th a t bound the prisoners fell off from them . The keeper of th e pris on, waking ou t of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, and fearing he would be p u t to death for allowing the prisoners to escape, drew out his sword and would have killed himself, but P aul cried to him w ith a loud voice, saying, “Do thyself no harm , for we are all here.” The ja ile r called for a light, and came trem bling into th e dungeon where P aul and Silas were, and kneel ing down before them , cried, “Sirs, w hat - must I do to be saved?” They answered him, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou sh alt be saved.” (F inish th is fascinating story emphasizing the chang ed a ttitu d e of th e ja ile r in his treatm en t of prisoners, and God’s care of P aul and Silas because they were w here'God had sent them. Teach memory verse). 'I f we are doing as Jesus w ants us to do, we can tru s t Him to tak e care of us.
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