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THE K I N G ’ S BUSINESS v. 38. Pray ye. ' Pray for laborers and you will become a laborer. Begin as a disciple and you will become an apostle. Our Lord is King and ii He sends He gives His signet ring of au thority (Matt. 28:18).—Meyer. Lord or the harvest. The seed is His, the field is His, the harvest is His.—-Horn. Com. That He will send. When we pray this prayer we mean that if it is the will of God we are ready to become laborers. We mean that when God raises up others, we will furnish the means to convey them to the heathen and sup port them when they get there.— Knill. The original word is more forcible, used in Mark 1:12 and translated “ driveth him.” —Carr. Jesus Forgiving Sins. Matt. 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12., Memory Verse.— "Forgive us our sins.” Luke 11:4. Approach.— How many of you boys and. girls ever had a dirty face and hands? All of you. Yes, we all have to say we have had our faces and hands soiled with dirt many BEGINNERS times, and yet this AND PRIMARY morning they are Mabel. L. Merrill nice and clean. James, how did you get the dirt off and look so nice and clean this morning? Washed with soap and water. Yes, what would we do without soap and water? We get the dirt out of our clothes the same way. Now, suppose, Kenneth, you tell a lie, could you see any dirt on your face? No, but would the lie soil your life? Yes, indeed it would; it would make your heart dirty, and Clara, which do you think is the worse, to have a dirty face, or a dirty heart? Yes, i t is much worse to have a dirty heart, for we can soon wash the dirt, off from our faces with soap and water, but can we wash the dirt from our hearts? No. Is there any way we can have clean hearts again after we have sinned and made them dirty? Yes, Jesus can wash them
and make them clean. Prayer. Lesson Story.^-In our story today Jesus is in a house talking to the peo ple. There is a great crowd of people around the door of the house, and we know the house is full of people, so full that not another person pan get in. Coming down the street are four men carrying something. I wonder what it is? It is a mattress of sleep ing mat and a man is lying on it. The man on the mattress is paralyzed so that he can not walk or move very much. These four men who are car rying him are friends of the paralyzed man, and where do you suppose they are taking, him? Yes, they are bring ing him to Jesus. Now I think they must have felt rather discouraged when they got near the house and saw the crowd, but they knew Jesus could help the sick friend, so they did not give up but carried the sick man up a stair way leading on to the roof of the house where Jesus was. The houses of the people were usually square, and but one story high. The roofs were flat, with a wall, or railing around them, so that persons might safely walk there. In the center of the house was a large square room called the court. Over this the roof was left open, but in time of rain, or much heat, an awn ing or covering of some kind, was stretched across the opening. The men took off the covering and let the sick man down on his bed or mattress into the room where Jesus whs. Don’t.you think the people in the room must have been surprised to see a man, bed and all come right down before them? Now what do you suppose Jesus did? When Jesus saw how much faith they had, He spoke to the sick man saying, “ Thy sins are forgiven, thee.” But some of the people who were sitting there, said to themselves, “Who is this, that pretends he is able to forgive sins, as if he were God?” Jesus- knew what these people were thinking, and
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