Part 11

Then he sent out, and said that he would have Jezebel buried, for she was a king's daughter. However, when his men went out to look for her, they found that the wild dogs that ran about the streets had eaten up every bit of her, so that there was nothing left of her but her skull and her feet, and the palms of her hands.

You remember that God's prophet Elijah, had told Ahab that the dogs should eat Jezebel, because she was so cruel. She worshipped idols, and killed God's prophets, and had poor Naboth put to death that Ahab might have his vineyard. So God punished her. People need not hope that God will not punish what they have done wrong, for He will be quite sure to punish unless they are very sorry, and pray to Him, to pardon them for Jesus Christ's sake.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was Ahab? 2. Who was Jezebel? 3. What wicked things had they done? 4. What had the prophet told them? 5. What had become of Ahab? 6. Who was king after Ahab? 7. How long was Joram king? 8. Whom did God choose to punish Jezebel and Joram? 9. Who was sent to tell Jehu? 10. What is anointing? 11. Who did you hear of before who was anointed? 12. What did the other captains do to Jehu? 13. Who came out to meet him? 14. What did Jehu do to Joram? 15. What did Jezebel do? 16. What became of Jezebel? 17. What was left of Jezebel? 18. Why did she come to such a shocking end? 19. What does God do to sinners? 20. Does He always punish them at once? 21. Does he forget? 22. What must be done if we would not be punished?

SECOND READING.

"Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel."--_2 Kings 10:28._

WHEN that fierce soldier, Jehu, was made king, the men of Israel cut off the heads of all Ahab's sons and grandsons, and made them up into two heaps at the city gates; and all the people who worshipped Baal were shut up in his temple, and every one of them killed. It is very sad and terrible; but God had commanded that people who prayed to idols should not live, because they taught the rest of the Israelites to be wicked too. When we hear about it, we must recollect that it is a fearful thing to turn away from serving God, and that He is sure to punish those who will not worship Him.

You are not likely to pray to an idol; but I hope you do say your prayers night and morning, and mind them as you say them. Not saying our prayers, and not going to church, is turning away from God; and it would be very sad and ungrateful to do that, for God has done much more for us than He did for the Israelites, and we know more about Him than they did.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who came to punish them? 2. What was done with the heads of the princes? 3. What was done to the worshippers of Baal? 4. Why were they put to death? 5. What Commandment did these worshippers of Baal break? 6. What is the First Commandment? 7. Whom must we worship? 8. When do we worship Him? 9. Must we go without saying our prayers?

THIRD READING.

"The arrow of the Lord's deliverance."--_2 Kings 13:17._

ELISHA grew to be a very old man, and when at last he fell sick and was near his death, the king of Israel, whose name was Joash, came and kept by his bed-side.

Elisha said, "Open the window eastward;" and he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot;" and Joash took his bow and shot an arrow. And Elisha said, "The arrow of the Lord's deliverance." Then he said, "Take the arrows; smite upon the ground."

Joash struck three times on the ground, but he did not go on striking, for he did not think enough of God and His prophet to understand that if he obeyed Elisha God would bless him. So Elisha told him if he had struck many times, he would have had a great many victories over the Syrians, but as he had only struck three times, he would only have three victories. For it is when people begin by obeying in little things that God gives them a great deal.

Then the great Prophet Elisha died, and was buried; and Joash beat the Syrians three times, but no more, because he had not believed and obeyed.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was dying? 2. Who came to see Elisha? 3. What did Elisha tell Joash to do? 4. What did he call the arrow? 5. What did he bid Joash do then? 6. How many times did Joash strike the ground? 7. What ought he to have done? 8. Why did he not? 9. What did Elisha promise him? 10. Why did not he have more victories? 11. If we want to do great things, how must we do little things?

Thirty-first Sunday.

_HEZEKIAH AND JOSIAH._

FIRST READING.

"He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord."--_2 Kings 18:3._

YOU have heard of many bad kings. There is a good king to tell you of at last--good King Hezekiah. He cared for nothing so much as to please God. He would not have any idols, but he cleared them all away, and had the holy Temple all set to rights, and made beautiful as God had commanded; and he had all the services at the Temple at the right times, and used to go and pray there himself constantly. And he did all he could to make his people good too.

But there came a great danger. There was a king of Assyria named Sennacherib, who had quantities of soldiers and horses and chariots, and he used to conquer towns, and carry all the people in them away to live far from home. He thought he would seize Hezekiah and his people in this way, and he did come and do much harm all over the country.

He did not come at once to Jerusalem; but he sent three boasting men, with an army, to stand outside the walls, and call out to the people inside, that Sennacherib was coming to conquer them and carry them away, and that they need not believe their king Hezekiah when he said that God would help them, for no god had ever yet saved a country from Sennacherib.

Hezekiah's people were terribly afraid. Some wanted him to get help from the king of Egypt; but Hezekiah knew that God had forbidden him to have anything to do with the Egyptians. He knew that God could help him, and that the way to be helped was to do just what God told him. So, though Sennacherib had so many men, and he had so few, and the Egyptians had plenty of soldiers and horses, he made sure that God could save him much better than any Egyptian of them all.

Next Sunday morning you will hear what happened.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who is the good king we hear of to-day? 2. What did he clear away? 3. What Commandment did he keep? 4. Where did he go and pray? 5. Who was his enemy? 6. What message did Sennacherib send to the people of Jerusalem? 7. Where did the people want Hezekiah to send for help? 8. Why would not Hezekiah send for help from Egypt? 9. To whom did he trust?

SECOND READING.

"Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: Thou hast made heaven and earth."--_Isaiah 37:16._

HEZEKIAH was king of Jerusalem. He was very good, and always served God and prayed to Him. But a great fierce king named Sennacherib brought an army into his land, and ruined all his towns and villages except Jerusalem, and shut up Hezekiah in his town, so that his people could not dare to come out.

And Sennacherib wrote a letter to tell Hezekiah that it was no use to hope to escape, he was coming to take away the Jews and ruin Jerusalem; and this wicked man even said that Hezekiah need not think that his God would save him, for no nation had ever yet been saved by its gods, so the God of Hezekiah could not help him.

HEZEKIAH'S PRAYER.

In his great distress Hezekiah went up to the Temple, and told God all his trouble. And he said, "Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: Thou hast made heaven and earth." He said he knew the gods of those nations could not save them, for they were no gods, only wood and stone; but he trusted that God would save him and his people, though they were far too weak to defend themselves against this terrible king and his people.

God heard the good king's prayer, and sent him a promise that his enemy should not even come before Jerusalem, nor shoot one arrow at it. And God kept His word. The fierce soldiers of Sennacherib all lay down to sleep one night, but they never woke up again. God sent His angel, with a deadly blast, and all the army that wanted to destroy His people died in one single night.

It was because they and their king had fancied God could not save His people, that they died. And it was because Hezekiah prayed to the Lord and tried to be good and holy, that no one could hurt him. Now try to do like Hezekiah. If you are vexed, or if you are afraid, tell God all about it, and ask Him to help you. And He will be quite sure to hear and help you, if you will only speak to Him and tell Him what is in your heart.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was Hezekiah? 2. What kind of king was he? 3. Who wanted to hurt him? 4. What did Sennacherib mean to do? 5. What had he done to other cities? 6. What very wicked thing did Sennacherib say? 7. Where did Hezekiah go in his distress? 8. To whom did he pray? 9. Why did he say the other cities had not been saved by their gods? 10. What commandment tells us not to have gods of wood and stone? 11. What did Hezekiah ask God to do? 12. What did God promise? 13. And what happened to the soldiers of Sennacherib? 14. Who slew them? 15. Why were these people slain? 16. Why was Hezekiah safe? 17. What did he do that he might be saved? 18. How can you do like Hezekiah? 19. What may you tell God about? 20. What will He be sure to hear? 21. And if you pray to Him, what will He do for you?

THIRD READING.

"Like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might."--_2 Kings 23:25._

THERE is one more good king to tell you about, whose name was Josiah. He was great-grandson to good King Hezekiah. The two kings who had come between Josiah's grandfather and father, had both been very bad men. His grandfather repented when he fell into trouble, and God forgave him; but his father never repented, and died in his wickedness when Josiah was only eight years old. But Josiah was very different. He made his people break down their idols, and clear out the Temple of the unholy things they had brought in, and worship God rightly once more.

THE BOOK OF THE LAW OF MOSES.

While they were cleaning out the Temple, they found a book that nobody knew--the Book of the Law of Moses--that is, the first five books in the Bible. All the time of these two bad kings nobody had minded it, or read it; it had been lost, and everyone had forgotten all about it.

When Josiah knew what it was, and that it was the Law that God had spoken to Moses, he made the priests read it to him and all his people. They were very much frightened when they heard it; for they found they were doing all the very things that God had said He would punish them for, and turn them out of their good land.

So Josiah sent to a holy prophetess to ask her whether, if they left off their sins, and were very sorry, and prayed with all their might, God would still forgive them. But God told her to answer that the people had done so wrong, and grown so wicked, that now their punishment must come; but that, as Josiah's heart was tender, and he loved God, it should not happen in his time, and that he should be quietly buried with his fathers. And, after years of goodness, Josiah was killed in a battle, and all his people mourned over him.

But they had not been really good, they only pretended, just to please him, and went back to their wicked ways, in spite of all the pains he had taken with them; and his own sons were as bad as the rest. So the punishment was obliged to come.

What I wish you to mind to-day is how these people lost their Book of the Law for want of attending to it. If you have not got a Bible of your own, I dare say you soon will have one. And then, pray, do not do like these people of Israel. Do not let it lie by till you forget to look at it, and forget what is in it, and then forget even where it is. If you do, you will grow as bad as these people were, and God will be forced to punish you as He was forced to punish them.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was Josiah? 2. How many kings were there between him and Hezekiah? 3. What sort of kings were they? 4. What kind of person was Josiah? 5. How old was he when he began to reign? 6. What did he have cleaned out? 7. What did they find there? 8. Who gave the Law? 9. What was to happen if it was not kept? 10. How had it been lost? 11. What did Josiah cause the priests to do? 12. Why was he frightened? 13. What did he ask? 15. But why did the people deserve to be punished? 16. What did they do as soon as Josiah was dead? 17. What came of forgetting their Bibles? 18. Ought we to forget our Bibles? 19. If we never read them, can we be good? 20. And if we are not good, what must be done to us?

Thirty-second Sunday.

_JEHOIAKIM'S CRUELTY._

FIRST READING.

"I speak unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear."--_Jer. 22:21._

JOSIAH was the last good king. In his time God called Jeremiah, when he was only a young boy about twelve years old, to be His prophet; and all the time Josiah reigned Jeremiah was teaching the people God's will, while Josiah was doing all he could to help them to do right and serve the Lord.

But the Jews did not heed either the king or the prophet--they only longed after their idols. Even Josiah's own sons would not be good, after they had been brought up by such a holy father; but no sooner was he killed in battle, than they went back to all the bad ways that he had put an end to.

The eldest son, Jehoahaz, only reigned three months. Then God let the king of Egypt take him away; and the Prophet Jeremiah says that it was far sadder for him to go away a captive, and never see his home again, than for good Josiah to be in his grave, loved and wept for by all. For though God had let Josiah die so early, it was in mercy. The people had grown so wicked that they must be punished, and so he was taken away from the evil to come. His next son was king after his brother Jehoahaz.

The next brother was king instead. His name was Jehoiakim. One would have hoped he would have taken warning by his brother's troubles, and served God better. But no! He did not care to attend to poor people. He thought he should be safe in a fine house. He sent for large stones, and had great beams of cedar tree for the roofs, and painted the walls of his great rooms with scarlet. But he paid no wages to his workmen, and was cruel to everybody, and had innocent people killed if they made him angry with them.

Only there was one man who was not afraid of this King Jehoiakim. It was God's prophet Jeremiah. He told the king how little good his fine house would do; and what was more, he said that when he died nobody would be sorry for him. They had wept for his father with a great weeping and many tears; but when the cruel Jehoiakim died nobody would lament. Nobody would say, "Ah, lord!" or, "Ah, his glory!" but they would care for him no more than if he was an ass who was being buried.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was the good king you heard of last Sunday evening? 2. What kind of sons had he? 3. What became of the first? 4. What was he never to do? 5. What was the name of the second? 6. What did Jehoiakim want to build? 7. What were the walls of? 8. How was it roofed? 9. How was it painted? 10. But what did he not pay? 11. How did he treat the people? 12. Who could have made him quite safe? 13. But how must he have lived if he wanted God to take care of him? 14. If God did not take care of him, would his fine house do him any good? 15. Who told him it would do him no good? 16. What had everyone done when Josiah died? 17. Why did they weep for Josiah? 18. But would they care when Jehoiakim died? 19. Why would nobody care for Jehoiakim?

NOTE--The two other Lectionary Lessons for this day are from Nehemiah. If it be desired to read the "story" on them, it is to be found on the 39th Sunday, but it was omitted here to prevent chronological confusion.

Thirty-third Sunday.

_JEREMIAH'S PROPHECIES._

FIRST READING.

"He reserveth to us the appointed weeks of the harvest."--_Jer. 5:24._

THE chapter to-day is one where God is putting us in mind, by His Prophet Jeremiah, whom he sent to speak to the wicked kings, that we ought to remember Him and be thankful to Him. Two of His great mercies are spoken of here.

If you go and stand on the sea-shore, you see the great wide sea of waters heaving and moving all over. Then a long wave comes rising up; it runs on and on, and rises high, falls over in white foam, and breaks on the sand with a rush. Then another rolling wave comes after it, and another, and another, each a little higher than the last. They hide the ground; and if you stood still at the edge of the first, they would soon carry you off. Stone is hidden after stone, rock after rock, and you would think all the land would get covered at last. No, there is no fear of that.

In six hours' time, the waves leave off coming farther and farther; but each leaves a little bit more ground uncovered, till they have gone quite back to where they were before, and the beach lies fresh and shining in the wet. People call this the tide, and know it always does so; it comes up and goes back at its set times, because God fixed a line for that fierce sea, and said to it, "Hitherto shalt thou go, and no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." And if the waves dash and roar ever so loud, still they never can get beyond the bound God fixed for them.

There is the wonder of the sea! Now look at the wonder of the land. All over the country, the corn stands up tall and brown; or else it has been cut, and is piled up in shocks; or the wagons are carrying it safe home! Perhaps you have been gleaning in the fields, and have brought home your lap full of corn.

How did we get the corn that is to make us bread? It was because, when the farmer sowed his grain, God sent rain to make it grow, and caused the sun to shine, so as to draw up the stalk, and swell the grain in the ear; and now He hath "reserved to us the appointed weeks of the harvest." He has given us the glad harvest-time to store up our wheat, to make bread for all the year. Let us thank Him, and never forget who gives us bread, nor to say our prayer for daily bread.

QUESTIONS.

1. What do the waves of the sea do every day? 2. What do people call the coming up of the sea? 3. Need we fear its coming too far? 4. Why cannot the waves come too far? 5. What did God say to the sea? 6. Who made the sea? 7. Can you tell me a verse you say or sing at church about the sea being His? 8. What is it that God gives us every day to eat? 9. What is bread made of? 10. Where does corn grow? 11. Who makes the corn grow? 12. What does God send to make the corn grow? 13. What do we call the gathering in of our corn? 14. Who takes care we shall have a harvest? 15. How should we ask God for our food? 16. How should we thank Him for our food?

SECOND READING.

"Yet they were not afraid."--_Jer. 36:24._

YOU heard what a bad, cruel king Jehoiakim was. Still there was a hope that he and his people would take warning, when he heard that God would punish his sin; so Jeremiah the Prophet had all his prophecies written out on a roll of parchment, and his friend Baruch went to the Temple, and read to the people that if they would not worship God and serve Him faithfully, He would cause them all to be taken away prisoners to a strange land.

Baruch stood reading the parchment; and the people listened to him, and some of them began to grow afraid. But then came some of the king's great people, and when they heard it they thought it would make the king angry. They forgot that God's anger signified much more than the king's anger. They did not want Jeremiah or Baruch to be punished, but they were afraid to let the reading go on. So they told Baruch to go away and hide himself and Jeremiah carefully, and then they took the prophecies to shew them to the king.

The king was sitting by the fire warming himself, for it was in the winter. He listened for a little while; but when he found that the parchment was about his sins and God's anger, he took out a knife and cut the whole into bits, and burnt it in the fire. Was he so foolish as to think that burning the prophecy would prevent it from coming to pass? If so, he made a great mistake; for God desired Jeremiah to have it all written over again, and more too; for the punishment was to be worse now than it would have been before--much worse than if Jehoiakim had listened, and left off his bad ways, and prayed to God.

In a very short time the enemy all came round Jerusalem, and everyone was shut up in the city, and could not get out, and food was very scarce; and Jehoiakim was taken and put in chains; and thus he died, and nobody grieved for him. His young son, Jehoiachin, was called king for a little while, but only for a very little while; for the king of Babylon broke into the city, and made him prisoner, and took him away to be shut up far from home. And as to the dead body of Jehoiakim himself, nobody had time to give him a burial; so it was thrown out at the gates as if he had been a dead ass instead of a king of Judah.

So you see God's words through Jeremiah all came true, though Jehoiakim would not heed them. He only made it worse by not listening.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was the king? 2. Who was the prophet? 3. What had Jeremiah said about Jehoiakim? 4. Where did God tell him to have it written? 5. Who was to read it? 6. To whom did Baruch read? 7. Where did the great people take the roll of parchment? 8. What did the king do to it? 9. Whose words did he throw away? 10. Why would not he listen? 11. Did he hinder the harm from coming? 12. What happened to him? 13. How was he buried? 14. How should he have tried to prevent the harm from coming? 15. How should you behave if you have fault found with you?

THIRD READING.

"Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he hath charged us."--_Jer. 35:8._

GOD is pleased with those who obey what their parents tell them. To-day we hear about a family, whose father gave them an order that sounds strange to us. They were never to live in stone or brick houses, but always to have tents; they were not to have corn-fields or vineyards, but only flocks of sheep, and herds of cows and goats; and they were never to taste wine or strong drink, but only water and milk. It was quite a long time after the old father, who gave these orders, had died, that the Prophet Jeremiah was told to try whether they still minded him. He was told to set pots of wine and cups before them, and to ask them to drink. But they all answered steadily, that their father had bidden them never to touch wine, nor have fields, nor build houses; and they were resolved that they would obey him. Then God was pleased with them, and gave a blessing to them by the mouth of His prophet. He said that there should never be an end to their tribe, because they were so obedient. And so it has been.

These Rechabites, as they are called, lived two thousand four hundred years ago; and their children and descendants have gone on like them ever since--living in tents, keeping sheep, and drinking no wine, and obeying the voice of their father, who lived so long ago. They have lasted so long, because God blessed their obedience.