December 1931
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
559
BLACKBOARD LESSON
went down before his “far-shadowing spear.” Andromache had accompanied him to the gates, and with her came the nurse bearing in her arms their infant child, Astyanax. The moment came when the father must say, “Good by,” and as he reached out his hands to take the little one in his arms, his burnished helmet and wav ing plume so terrified the child that it turn ed and clung crying to its nurse’s neck. Surmising the ground for the little one’s fear, Hector took from his head the fierce and shining _ armor and laid it on the ground, and instantly, laughing through its tears, the child leaped into its father’s arms. When men think of the majesty of God, His divine splendor and awfulness, they are afraid and taken back. If God re vealed Himself only as the Almighty One, and men were forced to contemplate only His resplendent glory, the terrors of His justice, and the terribleness of His throne, these things would strike them deep with awe, and from such a God they would naturally shrink. But Jesus said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” and just as the father of the little child of our story laid aside his fierce armor and re vealed himself in all the tenderness of pa ternal affection, so, as another has said, “God veils His glory and splendor and awfulness and reveals Himself in Jesus Christ to His children, in the sweetest as pects of His love.”—W. E. B ied erw o lf .
Approach: I wonder if you feel a little sorry when Christmas is past and we have to wait a whole year until it comes again. I do, and I am glad that, in our lesson to
HE THAT HATH SEEN ME. HATH SEEN THE FATHER,
day, we are going to talk some mo r e a b o u t t h a t first Christmas Day when Jesus came to earth as a little baby. Lesson S t o r y : Many, many years before Jesus came to earth, God told the people in the world that He was going to send His Son in
Xand MY FATHERare 0NE ✓
ing. But God in Christ is with us in the in carnation, for us in the crucifixion, and in us as we come to Him in simple faith and accept as Saviour the One who is Incarnate Deity. The need of such a revelation is seen in the primal ignorance of man concerning God. Such meaningless terms as “the in finite personal essence,” “the omnipotent and unknowable energy,” and “the supreme principle,” when applied to God, reveal man’s utter ignorance of Him. And yet, there is among men a constant search after God, which never succeeds in its object be cause it never comes to the Incarnate One in whom alone God is revealed. As Dr. Maclaren says, “Apart from this [the in carnate Christ], God is unrevealed after all revelations.” God’s Word is given that we may be lieve that Jesus is the Son of God. To “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God”—born, not by blood, nor by self-effort, nor by the effort of society, but of God. Lesson Questions Vs. 1-10. For what purpose was the Gospel of John written (cf. 20:31) ? What seven marks of the deity of Jesus Christ are found in these verses? Vs. 11-13. What two meanings has the pronoun “his” in verse 11? What does it mean to receive Jesus Christ and to believe on His name? How does this passage re fute the argument in favor of the universal Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man? What is regeneration? Vs. 14-17. At the incarnation of Christ, was a new personality brought into exist ence, or did an already existing personality assume a new mode of existence ? Explain the meaning of John’s declaration that Jesus Christ came after him, was preferred before him, and was before him. What contrasts between Christ and Moses are contained in verse 17? V. 18. What is the natural reaction of the individual to the manifestation of God in nature, God in providence, God in law, and God in Christ? What are some of the current expressions that reveal the igno rance of man concerning God’s nature and work? What value have other revelations apart from the incarnate Christ? Golden T ex t Illustration Among the masterpieces of Thorwald- sen, the Danish sculptor, there is perhaps none more finely conceived or more artis tically executed than that of Hector’s fare well to his wife and child. Homer, too, in his Iliad, has given us a beautiful version of the story. It was at the gates of Troy, through which Hector was about to pass to his last battle, for, in the encounter that ensued, he met the mighty Achilles and
to the world to live and die for them. These words were written in the Bible so that every one might know and expect the coming of the Son of God. But the people didn’t know where or when to look for Him. Because He was God, they thought that He might come from heaven with a great crowd of angels. They certainly never expected Him to come as a baby born of a mother who was so humble and poor that no one had even heard of her. This is one reason why many people found 14 hard to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and many still won’t believe it for the same reason. But there were people then who did believe in Him just as there are now. You remember that the shepherds hurried to the manger to see the Baby and to worship Him, and that the wise men fol lowed the star for many long months that they might find the Child and see and be- lieve. This story is so wonderful that we should think about it all the rest of the year, instead of just waiting for the next Christmas time to come. ■ °A O S lO ' deep. He is careful not to make a splash as he steps, lest he frighten the fish which are feeding upon the vegetation in the shal low water. Suddenly he straightens up and casts his net from him. There is a swish as it hurtles out into the air and spreads out to its full size and shape. It splashes into the water over the place in which the ^sh aJe feeding. The lead weights carry the circumference quickly to the bottom. The fish are trapped in their prison of cords. The fisherman tushes over to the net and gathers it in so that the fish are enclosed in the center of the net. Then he carries his prize to shore and deposits it in the boat. As many as a dozen good sized fish are sometimes caught in one cast of the net. This, then, is how men fish today on the Sea of Galilee. It was the way Peter and Andrew were fishing when Jesus called them to follow Him and to become “fishers of men.” O utline and Exposition The men with whom today’s lesson deals were dissatisfied with their religion, which had become simply a matter of form, a dead thing. They were dissatisfied in mind and in conscience; they had no peace, but
Jesus Comes to Live on E arth J ohn 1 :l-3, 14
Memory Verse: “The Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14).
JANUARY 10, 1932 THE FIRST DISCIPLES John 1:19-51
Lesson Text-. John 1:35-49. Golden Text: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). F isherm en on Galilee E our of the first disciples of Christ were fishermen. In Mark’s account of the calling of the first two disciples, we are told that Jesus called the two brothers while they were “casting their net into the sea.” In order to understand this statement, we shall take a trip with some Galilean fish ermen and see just how they fish. We leave Tiberias
early in the morning and go to the eastern shore of the lake. Up on reaching the oppo site shore, we see the men run the boat up on the beach and take out their nets for fish ing. The net which they use is circular in
shape and about twelve feet in diameter. It is weighted with pieces of lead about a foot apart around the entire circumfer ence. The fishermen carefully rolls the net up into a ball. Then he slowly wades out to where the water is about two feet
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