Part 5

Then David answered, "Thou comest to me with a sword and with a shield, but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand . . . and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee. For the battle is the Lord's."

So, as the Giant came forward towards David, David ran to meet him, and put his hand into his bag and took a stone, and slang it, and it hit the Giant on his forehead, so that he sank down on the ground on his face. Then David ran, and took Goliath's own sword, and cut off his head with it.

And when the Philistines saw that their Champion was dead, they fled, and the Israelites followed after them and the Victory was won.

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XVII. THE FIRST AND SECOND COMMANDMENTS: AND HOW THEY WERE BROKEN

"I am the Lord thy God, Which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."

_I. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."_

_II. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God."_

THE Children of Israel had left Egypt. God had brought them out with a strong hand. They had left their enemies the Egyptians, some of them dead in their houses, for all the firstborn were dead; and some of them overwhelmed in the Red Sea, where they had attempted to follow the Israelites, for whom God had made a way on dry ground, through the midst of the waters.

And now God had led them about in the wilderness, for they were obstinate and disobedient, and He could not let them go into the Promised Land of Blessing, because their hearts were too hard to learn His great lessons.

In the third month after leaving Egypt, they came into the wilderness of Sinai, and the whole congregation camped before the mount.

Then God called Moses to come to Him to the top of the mountain; and here God spoke to him, and sent him down to repeat to the congregation all the words which He had told him.

And God told Moses that it was a very solemn thing for Him to speak in their hearing, so they were to set bounds round the mount, that no one should come too close.

God said that He would come to Moses in a thick cloud; but that the people should hear His Voice when He spoke, and should believe Moses for ever.

While God was telling Moses all these Commandments, on the top of the mountain, there were thunderings and lightnings, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord Jehovah descended upon it in fire; and even the mountain trembled at the Presence of the Holy God.

And this was the First Commandment—

"Thou shalt have no other gods before ME!"

Nothing else in the world nearer and dearer to us than God!

I heard the other day of a terribly injured soldier, who sent this message to one who had written to sympathize in his great deprivation: "Don't pity me; the sacrifice has been worth it; for I have found God!"

Oh! What it is to learn that!

Now we come to the Second Commandment—"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image."

[Illustration: Moses cast down the two Tablets which God had written.]

When the Children of Israel stood round that mount, and heard God say that, if they would obey His voice, they should be a peculiar treasure to Him, they promised that they would faithfully keep all that the Lord said.

But I am sorry to tell you that they soon forgot their promises, and did the very thing God had told them not to do. And this was how it all happened.

Moses was up on the mount with God for forty days and forty nights, and God gave Moses the two Tablets of stone, on which God Himself had written His Ten Commandments.

But forty days and forty nights seemed a long time to the thousands of people waiting below on the plains; and they "gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said, Up! make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!"

Then Aaron bade them bring him gold from their ornaments, and he cast the gold into the fire, and it melted down into a great piece of gold, which looked like a calf.

Aaron took a tool and moulded it, and the people said, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!"

Then they offered sacrifices to the golden calf, and feasted, and rose up to dance.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for the people have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. Now, therefore . . . let Me alone, that I may consume them!"

But Moses besought the Lord most earnestly to turn from His anger, and asked Him to remember His servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and begged Him to forgive the sin of His people.

So Moses went down the mountain with God's Law in his hands. But when he and Joshua, who was with him, saw from the mount what had happened, and that the people had already broken God's two first commandments, Moses cast down the two Tablets which God had written with His own Hand, and they fell beneath the mountain and were broken to pieces.

And the Lord sent a sore punishment to the people who had sinned, and three thousand of them died.

The next day Moses went up to the Lord again, and his words of entreaty are most touching—

"Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of Thy Book which Thou hast written."

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My Book."

This is an awfully solemn story. We do not read that the people themselves repented—if they had, the Holy God would have forgiven them out and out.

For He says in the 55th of Isaiah—

"Let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."

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XVIII. THE NEXT TWO COMMANDMENTS: AND HOW THEY MAY BE KEPT

_III. "Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord My God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain."_

THINK of the name of the person whom you love the best in the world, and then think how you would feel if you heard any one speak against that name. Would not you feel grieved? Would you not turn away from the one who spoke against that loved name? And say: "I cannot hear you speak like that—I love that name above any on earth."

Yes; if you think of it, you will see that it is so.

And if we feel so about an earthly love, and an earthly name, what ought we to feel about that "Name which is above every name"?

No wonder God says in His Holy Law: "Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain!"

And our Lord, in the Prayer which He has told us all to use, says—

"Our Father, which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name!" It is the first request of that wonderful prayer.

Do you see the baby boy in your home? He has hurt himself, or got into some difficulty. He can just say one single word, and that word is the only name he knows; and you hear him calling out in his distress, "Mother! Mother!" Over and over, till she comes running in, and in a moment he is in her arms!

And this brings me to a text I am very very fond of: "The Name of the Lord is a Strong Tower! The righteous runneth into it and is safe."

A few years ago a sister of mine was walking on a lonely road, and just as she was crossing a railway bridge between two brick walls a man sprang out and seized her watch and chain.

No one was in sight, and she knew she was utterly helpless, and that the man's strength would soon wrench the watch away.

Then she bethought herself of the Name of Jesus! And she called to Him aloud, "Lord, help me!"

In an instant the man relaxed his hold, dropped the watch and chain, and made off as fast as he could, and she saw him no more! Surely to her the Name of the Lord had been a strong tower, she had run into it and was safe!

And this is only one instance of very many that I have known, when the Holy Name of our God, or of our dear Saviour, is all-powerful to help us in our greatest need.

If we hallow the Name of our God in our lives now, there will be a time when we shall see His Face, and His Name shall be in our foreheads, as a token that we are His for ever.

And now we come to another thought, about another Commandment—

_IV. "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God . . . For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth . . . and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."_

You will see it begins with the one word—

"REMEMBER!"

What are we to remember? A father goes out in the morning, and as he turns away, he says, "Remember, children, what I have told you to do!"

So our Heavenly Father says to each one of us, about the Sundays that come every week: "Remember! This is My Day—it is the Sunday of the Lord thy God!"

Then let us rejoice that such a day is given us. A rest from our lessons; a rest from our work; a time when we can read a nice book in which we find something to help us about pleasing God.

Sunday is given us to do good in. Think how our Lord, when He was on earth, went about healing and comforting on the Sabbath Day! And He told the people "it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath Day."

If we look out for opportunities, we can think of things to do that will help others. We can paint texts to send to invalids or to cottages; we can put sacred pictures, if we have any, into scrap-books for the Children's Hospital, or we can paste some white paper on a used picture post-card, and write neatly a verse or two of a hymn, and send the cards, when done, to cheer the wounded soldiers! Such a hymn as "Fight the good fight," or "Jesu, Lover of my soul," or "I heard the voice of Jesus say."

An elder sister, perhaps, can show the little ones a Bible picture-book, and tell them some simple stories about Little Samuel or Joseph. Or she can read aloud a Sunday story-book to the others, while they paint or chalk some outlined texts.

In a large family I know, this was a very favourite occupation.

Then singing hymns! Oh, how children love hymns!

As you begin to "remember" to make God's Day a holy, happy one, you will find that there are things to do in it, for His sake, that will make you happy, too.

It is a day for worship, for rest, for peace, and for loving ministrations for others, and you will find that "in keeping His Commandments there is great reward."

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XIX. THE POTTER'S VESSEL

THOSE who have visited the East tell us that even to-day the potter still sits at his work, making jars and jugs to carry the precious water from the wells.

Now we must suppose ourselves entering the little courtyard where the potter sits at work, or bending our heads to enter the shady little building or shed, where the rays of the mid-day sun cannot reach him.

He has just brought a lump of clay, and placed it on the middle of his wheel, and with his feet, he gives the wheel a twist, and begins to mould the great lump of clay into a round sort of mass.

[Illustration: THE POTTER'S WHEEL.]

So the visitor ventures to say: "May I ask what you are making, sir?"

And the potter looks up, with a half-smile, as he answers: "I am going to make a lovely jar," and then his feet twist the wheel round and round, and the visitor stands by watching.

The potter puts his thumb into the place where the neck of the jar will be, and as he twists and moulds, the visitor sees before his eyes the ugly bit of clay coming into an elegant shape.

At length the jar is done, and the visitor asks another question. "What will you do, now?" he says.

"I shall paint it with beautiful colours—"

"And then?"

"Then I shall put it into the oven and bake it, so that the shape and the colours will stand fast."

The visitor hesitates. At length, he asks, "You do not make them all alike? Some are plain and homely; some are beautiful, and I suppose costly?"

The potter smiles, as he rises and places his jar on a shelf out of harm's way.

"Well, sir," he says, "it's just as I choose to make them! Some are so precious in my eyes that I love to look at them; some turn out so badly, that I have to mould the clay over again. Just as I like, sir; just as I like! It is my clay, and my work; but I want the pieces that I make, to come out beautiful and lovely."

[Illustration: I shall paint it with beautiful colours.]

So the potter takes another lump of clay, and goes to his wheel again; and the visitor, thanking him very much for his kindness, turns away thoughtfully.

Had he not read somewhere in his Bible about the Clay and the Potter?

"Yes," he said to himself at length. "It was in Jeremiah, and when I get back to my Hotel, I will look it up."

And he found what he wanted, in the 18th Chapter of Jeremiah, where the Lord told the Prophet to go down to the potter's house, that He might tell him there, what he was to say to the Jewish people, who at that time were sadly disobedient, and had turned away from God.

So Jeremiah went down to the Potter's house; and behold, he was making something on his wheel.

But as he made it, the vessel which he was moulding was marred, or spoilt, under his hand; so he turned, and made the piece of clay into another shape, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.

And the Prophet stood and watched him.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, and the Lord told him he was to go to the people of Israel and tell them His message. That if they continued in their evil ways, He would take them out of their own land, and from their beloved City, Jerusalem, and He would send them to be Captives in a distant land.

And God said, "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you, as this potter has done with his clay?"

For God loved the Children of Israel, and He wanted to make them good and beautiful, like the potter wanted to make his jars.

But the Children of Israel rebelled against God; and though He had sent great deliverances many times, and brought them right out of the bondage of Egypt, and into the beautiful land of Canaan, they very quickly forgot Him again.

They forgot all His love towards them, and began to serve other gods, which they made with their own hands; and they even sacrificed and burned their own sons on their altars.

So God sent Jeremiah with His message to them—that if they would turn away from their evil ways and come back to Him, He would forgive them and give them every blessing; but if they refused, then Jerusalem should be destroyed, and God would send those who were left after the battles into a far country where they should be Captives for seventy years.

Yet even with all these solemn warnings, the Children of Israel—the Jews—refused to obey God; and very shortly those things came to pass which Jeremiah had told them.

But God has given great promises to the Jews, and He is very patient and longsuffering.

By and by after seventy years, He brought them back in a wonderful way to their own Land, which they again inhabited, and built cities and lived in them.

But it was not very long before they again began to depart from God's laws; they ceased to obey those things which were plainly written in the Old Testament Scriptures; and at last, when Jesus Christ came to earth to be their Messiah and King, they did not remember all God had said in the Bible about Him, and they rose up against Him, and crucified the Lord of Glory!

And so, again the Heavenly Father, who calls Himself the Potter, has had to send the Jews out of their Land, and He is moulding them now by trials and sorrows, so that by and by they may be purified and restored to His favour.

For when Jesus comes back to Earth, as He surely will, "they will look on Him whom they have pierced," and will turn to Him, and be saved.

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XX. JEHOSHEBA, THE GOOD AUNT

2 KINGS 11.1-21. 2 CHRONICLES 22, 23, AND 24

QUEEN ATHALIAH, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, was a very wicked woman.

Her son Ahaziah only reigned one year in Jerusalem, and she was his counsellor to do evil. But at the end of the year he was slain by Jehu, and the Throne of Judah became empty.

Then Queen Athaliah determined to destroy all the Royal Princes, and ordered all the sons of Ahaziah to be killed, in order to reign over the Kingdom herself.

But while these terrible scenes were happening, and the Princes of Judah were being killed one after another, there was a Princess, Ahaziah's sister, who made a brave resolve, and carried it out most successfully.

She knew that one of the King's sons, whom Athaliah had intended to kill, was a baby of a year old, and she determined that she would do her utmost to rescue him from the soldiers who were ordered to carry out this wicked scheme. This Princess was called Jehosheba, and she was the wife of the High Priest, and evidently could go into the outer rooms of the Temple.

So while the shouts of the soldiers, and the cries of those who were being murdered, were filling the air with terrible sounds of confusion, Jehosheba stole swiftly to the place where she thought she should find the baby boy, and hiding him under her beautiful robes she bore him into the Temple, far away from the noise and turmoil, and she hid him in a bedchamber, under the care of his trusted Nurse.

[Illustration: BORE HIM INTO THE TEMPLE.]

The bedchamber was probably a little room where the mats and bedding for the priests who lived in the Temple, were kept, and at night they were brought out and laid upon the floor in the larger chambers; for that is the custom in the East.

No one missed the little child, for Athaliah believed that all the Royal Princes were slain. So she immediately put herself on the Throne, and reigned over the kingdom, practising all her wicked ways as before, in defiance of the Commands of God.

You will not wonder that she came to a very sorrowful end, as we shall hear presently.

Meanwhile, Joash, the little heir to the throne, was kept hidden safely in the Temple. You can picture to yourselves how Jehosheba would have often gone to that far-off bedchamber to play with her little nephew, and how she would teach him all she could, to prepare him for the Kingdom.

It is evident also, when we read the accounts, that her husband, Jehoiada, the High Priest, was often with the child: for by and by when six years had passed away, and little Joash was seven years old, Jehoiada determined that he should be crowned King.

So he called the Captains of the army, and they started out all over the land of Judah, and gathered the Levites from all the cities, and the chief fathers of the people, and they all came up to Jerusalem.

[Illustration: Then Jehoiada . . . put the crown on his head.]

Jehoiada shewed them the little King, and made arrangements for their guarding him on the Coronation Day. He also armed them with spears and shields and bucklers which had been King David's, and said to them, "Behold the King's son shall reign, as the Lord hath said of the sons of David."

So the Captains and the Levites did exactly as Jehoiada told them, and stood on guard about the King, with their weapons in their hands.

Then Jehoiada brought forward the little son of King Ahaziah, and put the crown on his head, and the roll of the Testimony in his hand, and they made him King, and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him; and those about him clapped their hands with joy, and said, "God save the King!"

But when Athaliah, the wicked Queen, heard the shouting and rejoicing, she hurried into the House of the Lord, and when she saw the King standing by a pillar, and the Princes and the trumpeters around him, and all the people rejoicing, and sounding the trumpets, she rent her clothes and cried, "Treason! Treason!"

But Jehoiada quickly commanded the Captains to seize Athaliah, and take her out of the Temple, and to kill her with the sword outside the Courts; and there she was slain.

Then Jehoiada made a covenant with the King and all the people, that they should be the Lord's people, and not idolaters any more; and they went into the house of the idol Baal, and broke it down; and they broke up the altars of Baal, and his images into small pieces, and killed the priest of Baal.

So all the people rejoiced greatly, and they brought the King to the King's house, and he sat on the Throne of Judah.

As long as the faithful High Priest lived, Joash was a good King. Jehoiada was his counsellor and friend, and under his advice Joash did much to repair the Temple of God.