T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
165
ciliation by sacrifice.— Brown. The word is used in connection w ith the mercy seat. An instructed Jew would be thinking of the blood-sprinkled mercy seat. H is prayer m ight be paraphrased — “ Be toward me as thou a rt when thou lookest upon th e atoning blood.” The Bible knows nothing of divine fo r giveness ap a rt from sacrifice.— Scofield. v. 14. This m an . . . justified. He went to his house w ith a sweet sense of received forgiveness shed abroad upon his h eart, for God’s justification of the sinner is indeed a tran sitive act, and passes from Him to its object. The other meanwhile went down from the temple, his prayer being finished, w ith th e same cold, dead h ea rt w ith which he had gone up.-—Thompson. Therefore he who would seek justification before God must seek it by hum ility and not by self-righteousness.—Alford. We should avoid the Pharisee’s pride, bu t not neg lect his performances. We should forsake the publican’s sins and retain his hum ility.— Chrysostom. How Two Men P rayed. Luke 18:9- 14. Memory Verse.— “Lord, teach us to pray.” Luke 11:1. Approach.— Good morning, children! I know why we are all so happy this morning; it is because Ju lia is back w ith us, and how glad we are to wel come h er back to BEGINNERS our class, for she AND PRIMARY has been real sick Mabel L. Merrill tor several weeks, and we have been talk ing to Jesus about h er each week and asking Him to make her well and strong again so she could come to Sun day School. Now when we ta lk to Jesus what do we call it? Praying. Yes, and real tru e prayer is thank ing God for w hat He has done fo r us, and asking Him fo r what we need. It is not prayer if we ju st say the words and do not mean them from our h earts. Let us bow our heads and thank Jesus for mak ing Ju lia well, and ask Him to bless us in our story hour and all through the days of th e week.
Lesson StoryJ^-We had such a beau- tifuL story last week about being th a n k ful, and E arl, will you tell us th e story again, for Ju lia was hot here and would like to hear it, and I know we would all enjoy hearing it again, for- you know sometimes we forget to be th ank fu l too. (Review th e story of th e ten lepers, em phasizing the spirit of thankfulness, so lacking in lives today.) When Jesus lived here on earth , th ere were people called Pharisees. They were proud and felt themselves b etter th an other peo ple, and whenever they could they would try to show off before other peo ple, trying to make people th ink they were perfect. There was another class of people, who were very different from the Pharisees, and afte r our story, I w ant you to tell me which kind of peo ple you w ant to be like. Jesus said one day two men went up to the temple to pray; one of th e men was a Pharisee and the other was a man of the other kind of people, called a publican. The Ph arisee chose a place in the temple where the people would see him ; there he stood up proudly, and prayed in th is way: God, I th a n k thee th a t I am not like other men, who are unjust, and who take more th a n belongs to them . I th ank thee th a t X am not a sinner like th is publican. I fast twice in the week; I give to the priests and Levites a te n th of all my money. Now the publican, who felt he had done many things th a t were not rig h t and was sorry for it, stood in a place where he hoped no one would see him, bowed down his head, and. was in g reat sorrow, and this is what he said to God: “ God, be merciful to me a sin n er.” Jesus then told those who were listening to him, th a t this publican went back to his home forgiven more th an th e Pharisee. For Jesus said th a t every one who is proud and thinks much of him self, shall be pu t down, bu t he th a t is humble a,nd confesses his sin shall be raised up higher. Now, boys' and girls, do you w ant to be like the Ph arisee or the publican? Yes, we want to be like
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker