Part 9

Ornan was a good man, and said he would give the whole place to the king. But David said, "I will not offer unto my God of that which doth cost me nothing." So he bought the place of Ornan, the oxen, and the threshing tools; and the sacrifice was made to show that death must be for sin. Then God pardoned Israel, and the plague was stopped. We should remember that our offerings to God are only worthy if they cost us something. He does not want the things themselves, but He does value the love that gives them.

QUESTIONS.

1. What is a threshing-floor? 2. Whose threshing-floor have we heard of? 3. Where was it? 4. What had happened on Mount Moriah? 5. Whose son was Isaac? 6. Was he sacrificed? 7. Why not? 8. What town was near? 9. Who bought the threshing-floor? 10. Why? 11. What is a plague? 12. Why was the plague sent? 13. What did David see? 14. What was he bidden to do? 15. What did Ornan want to do? 16. What did David say? 17. So what ought we to give to God?

SECOND READING.

"His seed also will I make to endure for ever."--_Psalm 89:29_

YOU know the two Tables of the Commandments were kept in the Ark of the Covenant; and when the Israelites were going about in the wilderness, they had a beautiful tent to keep it in. But now they had come into the Land of Promise, and had no more journeys to make, David wished to build a house, or temple, where the Ark might be kept, and to make it beautiful for the glory of God.

But the Lord had sent a prophet to tell David that he must not himself build a house for God, because he had been a man of war, and had fought, and shed much blood; but that his son Solomon should be a man of rest, and should build the Temple for the Lord.

David did not repine. He thanked God for giving him the hope that his son should do this great work; and all the rest of his life he was busy getting together gold and silver, brass and iron, and beautiful cedar wood, all for the Temple of his God. It was to be built on Mount Moriah, on the threshing-floor he had bought of Ornan, just by the city of Jerusalem, which David had conquered from the Jebusites, and made the capital of his kingdom.

QUESTIONS.

1. What was kept in the Ark of the Covenant? 2. Where was the Ark kept at first? 3. What did David want to build? 4. Why was David not allowed to build a temple? 5. Did he fret and grieve at being forbidden? 6. Who was to build the Temple? 7. What did David get ready? 8. Where was the Temple to be? 9. When had he bought it of Ornan?

THIRD READING.

"All things come to Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee."--_1 Chronicles 29:14._

DAVID had grown to be a very old man, near to his death; but, before he died, he called all the princes of his people together at Jerusalem, and asked them all to bring offerings to help to build a beautiful house, to be a Temple to the Lord their God. So all the people brought what precious things they could, to add to what the king had prepared; and a great quantity was ready--all willingly offered.

Then good King David stood up and made his offering. "All things come of Thee," he said, "and of Thine own have we given Thee." And he thanked and blessed the Lord God, who had been with him all his life; and he blessed his people Israel, and showed them his son Solomon, who was to reign after him; and he gave Solomon a charge to build the Temple of the Lord, and bade them all serve the Lord with all their might. And the crown was set on Solomon's head, and he was king; and David died at a good old age. He was the shepherd boy who came to be a king, and who first sung so many of the beautiful Psalms that are still our best words for praising God.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was David? 2. Who was his son? 3. What was Solomon to do? 4. What had David got ready for Solomon? 5. What did he ask his princes to bring? 7. What for? 8. When did David meet all his people? 9. Who was to be king? 10. Why was David glad? 11. What did he say to God? 12. Whose are all things? 13. What charge did David give? 14. What had David been before he was king? 15. What did David write? 16. What are the Psalms?

Twenty-fourth Sunday.

_SOLOMON IN ALL HIS GLORY._

FIRST READING.

"Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty."--_1 Chron. 29:11._

THE last thing King David did was to have his son, young Solomon, anointed to reign, and then to show him to the people, and charge them to help him build the Temple for the Lord God. For he said Solomon was still very young, and the work was very great; so he begged the people of the tribes to bring their offerings; and so they did.

They brought gold, silver, brass, iron, and beautiful stones, or the wood of oaks and cedars, according to what they had or could give; and when David saw it he was very happy and glad, and offered it up to God, and prayed that God would give unto his son Solomon a perfect heart, that he might serve God and keep His laws.

Then there was a great feast all round Mount Sion, all the people eating, and drinking, and rejoicing, and praising God, who had delivered them from all their enemies.

QUESTIONS.

1. What did David ask of his people? 2. What did they bring him? 3. What were all these things for? 4. Who was to build the Temple? 5. Why was not David himself allowed to build it? 6. Yet what did he get together for it? 7. Why was he happy? 8. What did he ask God? 9. What great rejoicing was there? 10. Why was everything happy now with the nation?

SECOND READING.

"Give me now wisdom and knowledge."--_2 Chron. 1:10._

WHEN King David died, Solomon was still almost a boy. But God spake to him in a dream by night, and said, "Ask what I shall give thee." Then Solomon said he was but young, and knew not how to rule over this great people that God had given him; and therefore he prayed, above all, that God would give him a wise and understanding heart.

And God was pleased with Solomon's choice, and said that because he had cared for wisdom most, and had not asked for riches, or long life, or to put down his enemies, that therefore, besides wisdom, God would give him all the rest--riches, and honor, and length of life--and he should be wiser, and greater, and richer, than any king ever was before him, or should be after him.

All this was because he had cared so much to have a wise and understanding heart to know good and evil. That was first with him, and so God gave him all the rest. So it will be with all those who seek first of all to be good. God does not make us wise all at once like Solomon, but if we care about it, He will help us to get wise by little and little if we really try, and then He will bless all we do.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was Solomon? 2. Whose son was he? 3. What was he king of? 4. How old was he when he began to be king? 5. What did God say to him at night? 6. What did Solomon wish for most? 7. What did God give him besides? 8. Why did God give him all these things when he did not ask for them? 9. What should we care about most? 10. What will God do for us if we care most about goodness? 11. How will He help us to get wise? 12. But what must we do ourselves?

THIRD READING.

"The wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.--_1 Kings 3:28._

HERE is a story to show how wise and clever King Solomon was. One day when he was sitting on his throne two women came to him: one with a live baby, the other with a dead one, both boys, and just of the same age. They said they had been living alone together in the same house, each with her little baby, till one night one of the women rolled over her child in her sleep and smothered it, so that she found it was dead.

But each woman said it was not her baby but the other's that was dead, and that the mother of the dead one had put the little corpse down by the other sleeping woman, and taken her living child out of her bosom to herself. How was it to be known which was right?--for nobody out of the house knew the two little ones apart, and each of the women declared that she was the mother of the live child, not of the dead. So they came to the king to judge between them.

And what plan could Solomon take to find out the truth? He sent for the executioner, with a sword, and said that as the women could not agree, both the children should be cut in two, and each woman should have the two halves. One woman was content to have it so, but the other only cried out in grief and dread, "O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it."

Then Solomon saw in a moment which was full of mother's love, and which was full of hatred and jealousy; so he said, "Give _her_ the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof." And so the true loving mother had her child safe and well, and the other was disappointed in her spite.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was Solomon? 2. Who came before him? 8. What had happened to one baby? 4. What did both the women say? 5. What had Solomon to decide? 6. What did he command? 7. Did he really mean to kill the child? 8. But what did he want to find out? 9. What did one woman say? 10. What did the other woman say? 11. Which was the real mother? 12. What did Solomon command? 13. Would not the loving mother rather give the child away than have it killed?

Twenty-fifth Sunday.

_SOLOMON'S FALL._

FIRST READING.

"All the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart."--_1 Kings 10:24._

KING Solomon was the greatest king in wisdom and riches who ever lived. He had an ivory throne with golden lions standing on the steps, and a beautiful house lined with sweet cedar-wood. He sent ships which brought home gold and silver, and apes and peacocks; and it was said that gold was as common as silver generally is, and silver as common as stones!

All people honored him, and the Queen of Sheba came from her far-off country to see him, because of the fame of his greatness. And when she saw him she was quite overcome, and said that all she heard was not half so grand and glorious as what she saw. Very happy, she said, were the people who stood round him and heard the words of his wisdom.

We have the words of his wisdom in the Book of Proverbs in the Bible, for his wisdom came from God. And though we shall never see his purple robes or his gold and silver, do you know what our blessed Saviour said?--"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

The least little flower, if you look well into it, is more beautiful than anything King Solomon ever wore, for God made it; and he could only put things together that were made already.

QUESTIONS.

1. Why was Solomon so rich? 2. Whose son was he? 3. What had he built? 4. When he had built the House of God what did he build? 5. What sort of throne had he? 6. What were the steps? 7. Who came to see him? 8. What did she say of him? 9. Where have we got his wisdom? 10. What do we call it? 11. What did our blessed Saviour say about him? 12. What have we got which are more beautiful than Solomon's robes? 13. Why are flowers more beautiful than Solomon's robes?

SECOND READING.

"Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes."--_Psalm 89:32._

IT is very sad to say that as Solomon grew old he left off being good. He married a great many wives, and brought them from the heathen nations round; and he did not teach them to worship the true God, but let them worship each in her own way.

So, out in his gardens, one lady had her idol to the moon, and another had hers to the dreadful idol Milcom, and so on; and though Solomon knew so much better, even he was persuaded to come and pay honor to these idols, just to please these women--he, the son of David, whom God had blessed so much.

And what the king did the people were sure to do. So God spake to Solomon, and told him that since he had fallen away from the right way, he must be punished, and that ten out of the twelve tribes would be taken away and not belong to his kingdom.

It was not to happen in his own time, but in his son's time, but it must have been very sad to him to know that his beautiful kingdom and great power were to be so lessened, and that his son Rehoboam was a very foolish young man, who would spoil everything. But he was not to lose all, only part, for the sake of the holy King David, to whom God had promised that his throne should last for ever.

QUESTIONS.

1. What wrong did Solomon do? 2. Where did his wives come from? 3. What did they want to worship? 4. Did Solomon let them? 5. What did he do himself? 6. Why was this wrong? 7. What is the First Commandment? 8. What did God tell Solomon? 9. How was he to be punished? 10. How many tribes were to be lost? 11. How many were to be kept? 12. Why were any to be left? 13. What had God promised David? 14. In whose time was the trouble to come? 15. What was the name of Solomon's son?

THIRD READING.

"I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand."--_1 Kings 11:35._

THERE was a strong brave man of the tribe of Ephraim, named Jeroboam, and God sent his prophet to speak to him. Jeroboam had a new mantle on, and the prophet took it and tore it into twelve pieces, and gave Jeroboam ten of them.

Then the prophet said this was to show how God was going to tear away ten tribes from Rehoboam, the grandson of David, and give them to Jeroboam, because Solomon was bringing idols in to be worshipped. And he told Jeroboam that all should go well with him, and he would be a great king, and his sons after him, if he would go on serving the Lord, and the Lord only, and would keep from idols.

QUESTIONS.

1. What was to be taken from Solomon's son? 2. What was the name of Solomon's son? 3. Who was to have the tribes? 4. Who told Jeroboam so? 5. What sign did the prophet give? 6. What was torn? 7. Of how many tribes would Rehoboam be king? 8. Of how many would Jeroboam be king? 9. Why were any taken from Rehoboam? 10. Why were any left? 11. What does the Second Commandment say? 12. How long would Jeroboam go on well?

Twenty-sixth Sunday.

_THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL._

FIRST READING.

"This thing became a sin."--_1 Kings 12:30._

SOLOMON'S son was named Rehoboam. He was foolish and hasty; and when his father's wise old men gave him good advice he would not listen to them, but only cared for his young friends, who were as foolish as himself. So when the Israelites came to him to ask him not to be hard upon them, and make them bring him so much corn and so many sheep, the old men told him to answer them kindly and gently, but the young men said he had better be fierce and sharp. So he followed the young men's advice, and made a very unkind answer.

This made them all so angry that they said they would not have him for their king any longer; but they took Jeroboam, a brave strong man of the tribe of Ephraim, and made him their king. Only two tribes still held steady to Rehoboam. These were the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. God left him these, because of the promise that King David's sons should go on sitting on his throne. But ten of the tribes had made Jeroboam their king; so that now there were two kingdoms--a large one called Israel, and a small one called Judah.

This was because Solomon had let his heart turn away from God, and had not taken pains to keep his people holy, but had cared more for riches, and power, and glory. But Jeroboam did not take pains to serve God. He set up two calves, made of gold, for the Israelites to worship, instead of going to the Temple.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who was Solomon? 2. Who was his son? 3. Whom did Rehoboam like best? 4. What did his people ask? 5. What did the old men advise? 6. What did the young men advise? 7. Whose advice did he take? 8. What answer did he give? 9. What did the Israelites do? 10. Whom did they make their king? 11. How many kingdoms were there? 13. How many tribes made up Israel? 14. Who was king of Judah? 15. Who was king of Israel? 16. Why did not Rehoboam lose all? 17. What had God promised David? 18. Why did Rehoboam lose any? 19. What foolish answer did he make? 20. What idols did he set up?

SECOND READING.

"I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee."--_1 Kings 13:16._

IT is a sad story that you hear to-day. There was a man who was called a prophet, because God spoke to him, and used to send him to declare His will to the people.

Once God called this prophet, and told him to go to a place called Bethel, where the wicked king of Israel, Jeroboam, had set up a golden idol in the shape of a calf, and was teaching the people to pray to it, instead of going to the Temple at Jerusalem to worship. He was to tell the king of his sin, and how his idol should be overthrown and destroyed; and when he had done this, he was to come home at once, by a different way, and neither eat bread nor drink water, but come quickly back.

The prophet went to Bethel, and he spoke God's words to the king boldly; and when the king put out his hand to strike him God struck the hand, so that Jeroboam could not draw it back till the prophet prayed for him. Then Jeroboam felt God's power, and wanted the prophet to come to his palace with him. But the prophet said no; for God had commanded him to go home at once, without eating or drinking in that wicked place. So he set off.

He had so far done well; but before he had gone all the way he grew tired, and he sat down under an oak. It was a great pity that he delayed, for there was a bad man coming after him with a lie upon his lips. This man told the prophet that God had said he was to come back and eat and drink; and I am grieved to say the prophet listened, and turned back.

He ought to have known that God would have told him Himself if he was to go back; but he did not think--he did what pleased himself, not what pleased God; and he went back to feast with this stranger. But God's anger came upon him. When he went back in the evening, a lion came out of the wood and killed him.

The lion did not kill the ass he rode upon, nor tear the body, and the ass did not run away from the lion; but the lion and ass both stood by the dead prophet till--who do you think found him? The very man who had tempted him to do wrong! Must not that have been a terrible sight?

QUESTIONS.

1. What had God told the prophet to do? 2. What had He told him not to do? 3. What was the first wrong thing the prophet did? 4. What harm came of his lingering? 5. How did he disobey? 6. What was his sad end? 7. Who found him lying dead? 8. What were standing by him? 9. Why did he come to this sad death? 10. How did he fall in the way of the wicked man? 11. What is the way to fall in with bad people? 12. Then how should you always go on messages, or to school? 13. Is it enough to mind only half what you are told?

THIRD READING.

"The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth."--_1 Kings 17:14._

IT is very sad to say, but the Israelites went on getting more fond of idols, and would not worship God. They grew so wicked that at last He punished them, to teach them who sent the rain and did them good.

He would not let it rain for three whole years. No rain by day, no dew by night! The corn would not grow, the grass dried up, and all the streams were nothing but stones; so that there was nothing to eat or to drink, and everyone was in sad distress.

There was one good man, a prophet, called Elijah, and God took care of him. He sent him to a lonely place, by the side of a little mountain stream, where there still was water to drink; and every morning and evening there came two ravens, who were sent by God, to bring him bread and flesh. That was a great miracle, or wonder, which God worked to feed His prophet.

In time the brook dried up, and then God sent Elijah to a town called Zarephath. There Elijah saw a poor woman gathering sticks, and he asked her to give him a bit of something to eat. But the poor widow woman said she had nothing for herself and her son but a handful of meal and a little oil, and she was going to make a cake of it, and bake it with a fire of her sticks; and that was the last she could get, so they must die of hunger after they had finished.

But Elijah still told her to make him a little cake first, for he said, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth."

And the woman believed him, and gave him a bit of her last cake. And it was as he said. There was always meal and oil enough to feed them day by day: the widow, and her son, and the prophet, went on living on the meal every day, for God fed them.

At last the child fell sick and died; and his mother grieved for him. But Elijah laid the child on his bed, and prayed to God to have mercy on the widow: and God had mercy. The little child's soul came back, and he was alive again; and Elijah gave him to his mother.

Are not these three great wonders of God's goodness? God does not let us see miracles now, as He did in those times, because we are taught to believe in Him without them. But He still takes care of us. He takes care that if we trust to Him, and pray to Him, we shall have our food every day. And if we are ready to give what we want ourselves away to one who needs it, He will make it up to us, and take care of us all the more. And though no one is brought to life now who has died, yet God often gives us back our friends when they have been very ill; and we know that we shall all rise up from the dead and live with God for ever, at a greater call than Elijah's.

QUESTIONS.

1. What is a miracle? 2. How many miracles have you been hearing of? 3. For whom were they worked? 4. Who worked them? 5. What were the three miracles? 6. Why was it a miracle that the ravens fed Elijah? 7. Why did the ravens bring Elijah the food instead of eating it themselves? 8. What was the next miracle? 9. How came the widow always to have enough? 10. How did she show that she was worthy to have a wonder worked for her? 11. Why was God pleased with her? 12. What more did God do for her son? 13. Who prayed for him? 14. How could you try to be like the good widow? 15. What is the way to be helped? 16. What do you ask God to give you every day?

Twenty-seventh Sunday.

_ELIJAH AND AHAB._

FIRST READING.

"The Lord, He is the God; the Lord, He is the God."--_1 Kings 18:39._

YOU heard last Sunday how sadly the Israelites were behaving when they prayed to a golden calf. They had a still worse idol afterwards. His name was Baal; and they wanted to worship him instead of the true God. To-day there is a beautiful chapter that I hardly like to put into my own poor words. Listen to it well in church, and you will hear how wonderful it is.