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er’s Com. The words “ to th is house” are evidently designed to meet th e taun t, “He is gone to lodge a t a sinner’s house.” The house, says Jesus, is no longer a sinner’s house. It is now a saved house, all meet fo r th e reception of Him who came to save.— Brown. F o r he is a son of Abraham . Both in de scent and character. This the Pharisees would have denied, for they ranked publicans w ith the heathen.—Dumme- low. Having. Jesu s F o r a Visitor. Luke 19:1-10. Memory Verse.-—“And he made haste, and came down, and received him joy fully.” Luke 19:6. Approach.— Boys, how many of you ever climbed a tree? Perhaps you ju st climbed for the fun of it, or may be you climbed to pick fru it, or you m ight have climbed up to see BEGINNERS over the hea,ds of a AND PRIMARY crowd of people. We Mabel L. M errill are to h ea r about a man who climbed a tree in our story today, and of course ,i t is ju st as interesting as it can be, to see what a grown-up man would climb a tree, for. P rayer. Lesson Story.— In our story last week we saw two men in the temple praying. Jesus told us this story to show us th a t we are all sinners and need to ask Him to forgive us, and to teach us th a t we must not ju st say words when we pray, but we must mean them in our hearts. In our story today Jesus is in a city by the name of Jericho. In th is same city lived a man by th e name .of Zaccheus, who was the chief man over all the tax collectors; he was rich. One day he saw a g reat crowd coming up the street, and ju st like us he wanted to know what it . was all about, bu t he was a little short man, and could not see. Then Zaccheus ran on ahead, and climbed up into a sycomore tree. ( “ Sycomore” [do not confound it w ith our American syca more] means “ fig mulberry,” fig from its fru it and mulberry from its leaf. It is in reality a kind of fig tree.— Pelou-
bosom of an avaricious publican? The, in ternal revolution was as perfect as in stantaneous. “He spake' and it was done.”— Jam ieson. v. 7. Gone to be guest of a sinner. This accusation was though t to* reveal His earthliness. It is now seen to re veal His glory. The Best desires to be the guest of the worst. He spreads His kindnesses for the outcast. He offers His friendship to th e exile. He loves to go to souls th a t have lost th e ir power of flight, like birds w ith broken wings who can only flutter in th e du st.-—Jow- ett. v. 8. H alf of my goods I will give. The genuineness of Zacchaeus’ conver sion was shown by the way. it affected his pocketbook. The love and power of Jesus transform ed th è hard-fisted ex to rtion er into an honest, large-hearted and self-forgetting saint.-—Torrey. If I have ta k en anything. The experience of Christ’s love convinces of sin far more thoroughly th an th reats. The frowns of society only make the wrong doer more h ard and merciless, but the touch of love melts him as a warm hand laid on snow. The sight of Jesus' re veals our unlikéness to Him and makes us long afte r some fain t resemblance to Him. Zacchaeus did not need Christ to bid him make restitu tion , nor show him the blackness of his life. He sees all the past in a new light.— Maclaren. Be." sto re fourfold. The Roman law req u ir ed this. The Jew ish law required but the principal and a fifth more. There was no demand made for either, bu t to testify the change he had experienced, besides rend ering the h alf of his gains to th e poor he voluntarily determ ines to give up all th a t was ill gotten, quad rupled,®-Brown. This, was th e re stitu tion required of a sheep stealer (Ex. 22: 1).-—Comp. Bible: His dishonest ac quisitions added to his w ealth bu t sub tracted from his peace of mind.— Meyer. One particu lar and em inent fru it of tru e repentance is th e making satisfaction and restitu tion to those whom we have injured. As much as in us lies we should undo w hat we have done and unsin our sins.— Tillotson. A new man is this. In all th e purposes which he avows th ere is an a ir of honesty, a whole heartedness which proves th a t the change is thorough and worthy to be recorded.— Angus. v. 9. Salvation come to th is house. Meaning by salvation both Christ H im self and the conversion of Zacchaeus which His words had w rought.— Speak
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