R. TALMAGE'S SERMOX
Lifted #From the Mire.
“Though ye have lain among the pots, yet
shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered
with silver, and her feathers with yellow
guid." Ps, 68: 1%
I supPOSE you know what the Isra-
elites did ¢own in Egyptain slavery.
They made bricks. Amid the utensils
of covkery—the kettles, the pots, the
pans, with which they prepared their
daily food: and when these poor slaves,
tired of the day’s work, lay down to
rest, they lay down among the imple-
ments of cookery and the implements
of hard work. Whenthey arose in the
morning they found their garments
covered with the clay and the smoke
and the dust, and
BESMIRCHED AND BDEGRIMED
with the utensils of cookery, But after
a while the Lord broke up that slavery,
and He took these poor slaves into a
land where they had better garb, bright
and clean and beautiful apparel. No
more bricks for them to make. Let
Pharaoh make his own bricks. When
David, m my text, comes to describe
the transition of these poor brick-kilns
into the glorious emancipation for
whie's God had prepared them, he says:
“[Ticugh ye have lain among the pots,
yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove
covered with silver, and her feathers
with yellow gold.”
Miss Whately, the author of a cele-
brated book, ‘Life in Egypt,’’ said she
sometimes saw people in the East cook-
ing their food on the tops of houses,
and that she had often seen, just before
sundown, pigeons and doves, which
hud, during the heat of the day, been
hiding among the kettles and the pans,
with which the food was prepared,
picking up the crums that they might
find: just about the hour of sunset they
would spread their wings and fly heav-
enward, entirely unsoiled by the region
in which they had moved, for the pig-
eon-is a very cleanly bird. And as the
pigeons flew away the setting sun would
throw silver on their wings and gold on
their breasts, So you see it was not a
far-tetchied simile, or an unnatural
comparison, when David in my text
says to these emansipated Israelites,
and says to all those who are brought
out of any kind ot trouble into any
Kind of spiritual joy:
have Lyn auong the post, yet shall ye
be as the wings of a dove covered with
silver, aml her feathers with yellow
gold,”?
Sin is the hardest or all taskmasters,
Worse than Pharaoh, it keeps us drudg-
ing, drudgiug in
A MOST DEGRADING SERVICE ;
but after « while Christ comes, and
He says:
pass out frown wmong the brick-kiins of
pel; we put on, the clean robes of a
Christian profession, and when, at last,
we soar away to the warm nest which
God Las provided for us in heaven, we
shal! vo fuirer than adove,
coverv hi silver, and its feathers
covered with yellow gold,
I am going to preach
the grandest
the religion
that is, that
adornment Is
Christ.
who suppose that religion is a very dif-
of Jesus
reason wen condemn the Bible is be-
cause they donot understand the Bible;
they have not properly examined it.
Dr. Jonson said that Hume told a
miui-ter in the bishopric of Durham,
that hie |
ed the New Testament, yet all his life
warriuyg against it, Halley the astron-
ower, announced his scepticisimn to Sir
Isanc Newton, and Sir Isaac Newton
sald: "Now, sir, I hive examined the
you never have éxamined.” And so
because they really have never investi
gated it. They think it something un-
desirable, something that will not
thing bypocritical, something repul-
sive, when It is so bright and so
“ beaptiful yon might compare it to
chaflineh, you might compaie it to
a robin-redbreast, you might com-
pare it to a dove, its wings covered
with silver, and its feathers with yellow
gold. ; 1
WASTED PITY.
But how #8 1t if a young man be-
club-rooms where “he assgvintes, all
through the basinesy circles where he
is known, there is commiseration. They
say: ‘*What a pity that a young man
who Lid such bright prospects should
80 have been despoiled by those Christe
faus, giving up all his worldly prospects
for something which Is of no particular
present worth!” Here is a young wo-
man who becomes a Christian; her
yoice, hier face, her manners the charm
of the drawing-room. Now ail through
the fashionable circles the . whisper
goes: What a pitty that such @
bright light should have been extius
guished, that such a graceful gait should
be crippled, that such worldly prospects
should be obliterated!” Al, my friends
it can be shown thai religion’s ways
of pleasantpess, and that all her paths
are peace; that, religion, instead of be-
fog dark and doleful and lachrymose
and repulsive, is bright and bLeautiful,
fairer than a dove, its wings covered
with silver and its feathers with yellow
Be id.
Be: in the Drst place, what religion
will do for a man’s heart. 1 care not
how cheeful a man may naturally be be-
fore conversion,
CONVERSION BRINGS HIM UP
to a higher standard of cheerfulness, 1
do not say he will ‘any louder; 1
do not but he may stand back 4
#gome of his hilarity in which he once in-'
dulged; but there vais te his soul
to young men trouble does come--his
friends are gone, his salary is gone, his
health is gone; he goes down, down,
He becomes sour, cross, queer, misan-
thropie, blames the world, blames so-
ciety, blames the Church, blames every-
thing, rushes perhaps to the intoxicat-
ing cup to drown his trouble, but,
instead of drowning his trouble, he
drowns his body and drowns his soul.
But here is a Christian young man.
Trouble comes to him, Does he give
up? No! He throws himself back on
the resources of heaven. He says:
“God is my Father. Out of all these
disasters 1 shall pluck advantage for
my soul. All the promises ure mine,
Christ is mine, Christian companionship
is mine, heaven is mine. ‘What though
my apparel be worn out? Christ gives
me a robe of righteousness, What
though my money be gone? I have
A TITLE DEED TO THE WHOLE UNI-
VERSE
in the promise, ‘All are yours,”” What
though my worldly friends fall away?
Ministering angels are my bodyguard.
What though my fare be poor, and my
bread be scant? I sit at the King's
banquet!’
Oh, what a poor, shallow stream is
worldly enjoyment compared with the
deep, broad, overflowing river of Gol's
peace, rolling midway in the Christian
heart! Sometimes you have gone oul
on the iron-bound beach of the sea
when there has been a storm on the
ocean, and you have seen the waves
dash into white foam at your feet,
They did not do you any harm. While
there, you thought of the chapter writ
ten by the I'salmist, and perhaps you
recited it to yourself while the storm
was making commentary upon the pas.
sage: “God is our
REFUGE AND STRENGTH,
a very present help in time of trouble,
Theretore will I not fear, though the
earth be removed, and though the
mountains be carried into the midst of
the sea, though the waters thereof roar
and be troubled, thongh the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof.” Oh,
how independent the religion of Christ
makes a man of worldly success and
worldly circufstances! Nelson, the
night before his last battle, said: *“To-
morro I o'all win either a peerage, or
| a grave ia J estminster Abbey.” And
| it does not make much difference to
the Christian whether he rises or falls in
i worldly matters; he has everlasting re-
nown anyway. Other plumage may
{ be torn in the blast, but that soul
| adorned with Christian grace, is fairer
| than the dove, its wings covered with
| silver, and its feathers with gold.
You and I have found out that peo-
| ple who pretend to be happy are not al-
| ways happy. Look at that young man
| caricaturing the Christian religion,
| scoflling at everything good, going into
{ roystering drunkenness, dashing the
{ chamnpagoe bottle to the floor, rolling
i
the glasses from the bar-room counter,
{ laughing, shouting, stamping the floor,
| Is he happy? 1 will go to
HIS MIDNIGHT PILLOW,
| I will see him turn the gas off, I will
| ask myself if the pillow on which he
sleeps is as soft as the pillow ou which
Ah! no,
| When he opens lis eyes in the morning,
will the world be as bright to him as to
that young man who retired at night
his prayers, invoking God's
blessing upon his own soul and the
souls of bis comrades, and father and
{ mother and brother and sister far away?
i No, nol His laughter will ring out
from the saloon so that you hear it as
you pass by, but it is bollow laughter;
in it is the snapping of beart-sirings
and the rattle of prison gates, Happy!
that young man happy?
Let him fill hugh the bowl: he cannot
| drown an upbraiding conscience, Lest
{ the balls roll through the bowling alley,
| that pure young man sleeps,
| saying
| the deep rumbie and the sharp crack
| cannot overpower the volees of condem-
i nation. Let him whirl in the dance of
| sin and temptation and death. All the
brilliancy of the scene cannot make
am sure you will do right; you will,
won't you?” That young man happy?
Why, across every night there flit shad-
ows of eternal darkness; there are ad-
i ders coiled up in every cup; there are
{ vultures ot despair striking their iron
| beak into his heart; there are skeleton
| fingers of grief pinching at the throat.
1 come in amid the elicking of the
glasses and under the flashing of the
| chandeliers, and I ery: **Woel woel
The way of the ungodly shall perish.
| There 1s no peace, saith my God, to the
| wicked. The way of transgressors is
bard.”” Oh, my friends, there Is more
joy in one drop of Christian satisiac-
tion than in whole rivers of sinful de-
light, Other wings may be drenched
of the storm and splashed of the tem-
pest, but the dove that comes in through
the window of this heavenly ark has
wings like the dove covered with silver,
and her feathers with yellow gold,
Again I remark, religion is an adorn-
ment in the style of usefulness iuto
which it inducts a man, Here are
TWO YOUNG MEN,
The one. has flue culture, exquisite
wardrobe, plenty of friends, great
worldly success, but he lives for him.
sell. His chief care is for hus own coms
fort. He lives uselessly, Heo died un-
regretted, Here is another young man,
His apparel may not be so good, his
education may not be so thorough, He
lives for others, Iis happiness is to
make others happy. He is as selfdeny-
ing as that dying soldier falling In the
ranks, when he sald: “Colonel, there
is no need of those boys tiring them-
selves by carrying me to the hospital;
let me die just w I am.” So this
young man of whom I speak loves God,
wants all the world to love Him, is not
ashamed to carry a bundle of clothes up
that dark alley to the poor, Which of
these x men do you admire the
better one a sham, the otoer
{ A PRINCE IMPERIAL, :
Oh, do you know of my
liearer, that is more
Here is some one f;
up. Herelsay ;
duces him to a mission
family freezing to ¢
He may be laughed at, and he may be
sneered at, and he may be earicatured,
but he is not ashamed to go every.
where, saying: ‘Iam not ashamed of
the Gospel of Christ, 1t Is the power
of God and the wisdom of God unto
salvation.” Such a young man can go
through everything. There is no force
on earth or in hell that can resist him,
I show you
THREE SPECTACLES,
Spectacle the first: Napoleon passes by
with the host that went down with him
to Egypt, and up with him through
Russia, and crossed the continent on
the bleeding heart of which he set his
iron heel, and across the quivering flesh
of which he went grinding the wheels
of his gun-carriages—In his dying mo-
ment asking his attendants to put on
his military boots for him,
Spectacle the second: Voltaire, bright
and learned and witty and eloquent,
with tongue and voice and stratagem
infernal, warring against God and pois-
oning whole kingdoms with bis infldel-
ity, vet applauded by the clapping
hands of thrones and empires and con-
tinents—his last words, 1n delirium
supposing Chris: standing by the bed-
side— his last words: “Crush that
wretch!"
Spectacls the third: Paul—Paul, in-
significant in person, thrust out from
all refined association, scourged, spat
on, hounded like a wild beast from city
to city, yet trying to make the world
good and heaven full;
ANNOUNCING RESURRECTION
to those who mourned at the barred
gates of the dead; speaking consola-
tions which light up the eves of widow-
hood and orphanage and want with
glow of certain and eternal release; un-
daunted before those who could take
his life, his cheek flushed with trans-
port, and his eye on heaven; with one
hand shaking defiance at all the foes of
earth and all the principalities of hell,
and with the other
messenger angels to come and bear him
away, as be says:
be offered, and the time of my depart.
ure 1s at hand; I have fought the good
fight, 1 have finished my course, I have
kept the faith; henceforth there is laid
up for me a crown of righteousness
which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
will give me.’
Which of the three spectacles do you
most admire? When
TIE WIND OF DEATH
struck the conqueror and the infidel,
they were tossed like sea-gulls in a
tempest, drenched of the wave and torn
of the hurricane, their dismal voices
| heard through the everlasting storm;
{but when the wave and the wind of
| death struck Paul, like an albatross he
made a throne of the tempest, and one
day floated away into the calm, clear
summer of heaven, brighter than the
{ dove, its wings covered with silver, and
{ its feathers with yellow gold, Oh, are
| you not in love with such a religion—a
| religion that can do so much for a man
{ while be lives, and so much for a man
{ when he comes to die?
I suppose you may have noticed the
contrast between the departure of a
{ Christian and the departure of an inl-
ide, Diodorus, dying mn chagrin be-
| canse he could not compose a joke equal
| to the joke uttered at the other end of his
table; Zeuxis, dying in a fit of laughter
iat the sketch of an aged woman—a
sketch made br hisown hand; Mazarin,
| dying playing cards, his friends holding
| his hands because he was unable to hold
| them himself. All that on one side,
{compared with the departure of the
| Scotch minister, who said to his friends:
| **I have no interest as to whether I live
jor die; If 1 die, 1shall be with the
Lord; and if 1 live, the Lord shall be
| with me.” Or the last words of Wash-
| ington: “It is well.” Or the last words
| of Mcintosh, the learned and the great:
| “Happy!” Or the last word of Hannah
| Or those thousands of Christians who
| have gone, saying: *Lord Jesus receive
i my spirit! Come, Lord Jesus, come
| quickly!” *O death! where is thy sting?
O grave! where is thy victory?”
BEHOLD THE CONTRAST,
| Behold the charm of the one, behold
ithe darkness of the other. Now, I
know it is very popular in this city for
| young men to think there is something
more charming in scepticism than in re-
ligion. They are ashamed of the old-
§
:
i pr
on all these subjects, My young friends,
I want to tell you what I know from
observation: that while scepticism isa
beautiful jand at the start, it is the
great Sahara Desert at the last,
from home to college. At college he
formed the acquaiutance of a young
man whom I shall call Ellison. Ellison
was an fnfidel, Ellison scoffed at relig-
jon, and the minister's son soon learned
from him the infidelity, and when he
went home on his vacation broke his
father’s heart by his denunciations of
Christianity. Time passed on and vaca
tion came, and the minister's son went
off to spend the vacation, and was on a
journey, and came to a hotel. The
hotel-keeper said: “I am sorry that to-
night I shall have to put you in a room
adjoining one where there is a very sick
and dying mah, I can give you no
other accommodation.” “Oh” sad
the young college student and minister's
son, “that will make no difference to
me except the matter of sympathy with
anybody that is suffering.’ The young
man rétired to his room, but could not
sleep, All night long he heard the
groaning of the sick than, or the step of
the watchers, and his soul trembled,
fie thought to himself: “Now there is
only a thin wall between me and a de.
parting spirit, How if Ellison should
know how 1 feel? How if Ellison should
find out how my heart flutters? What
if Ellison knew
MY SCEPTICISM GAVE WAY?!
He not. In the morning, coming
down, he said to the hotel-keeper: “How
the hotel-
, “he is dead, poor fellow! the
told us he could not last through
mght.” “Well,” said the young
“what was the sick one’s name;
k he from?" “Well,” sald the
x, “he is from Prov
“Prov |
man could leave that hotel,
his horse and started homeward, and all
the way he beard something say to him;
“peAb! Lost! DEAD!
Lost!” He came to no satisfaction un-
til he entered the Christian life, until
he entered the Christian ministry, until
he became one of the most eminent mis-
slonaries of the Cross, the greatest Dap-
tist missionary the world has ever seen
since the days of Paul-—-no superior to
Adoniram Judson. Mighty on earth,
mighty in heaven—Adoniram Judson,
Which do you like the best, Judson’s
scepticism or Judson’s Christian life,
Judson’s 8 uffering for Christ's sake,
Judson’s almost martyrdom? Oh, young
man, take your choice between these
two kinds of lives, Your own heart
tells you this morning that the Christian
life is more admirable, more peaceful,
more comfortable, and more beautiful,
Oh, if religion does so much for a
man on earth, what will it do for him
in heaven? That is the thought that
comes to me now. If a soldier can
afford to shout ,*Huzzal’”’ when he goes
ito batts, how much mora jubllantly
he can afford to shout *Huzzal!’* when
HE HAS GAINED THE VICTORY!
heaven! 1 want to see that young man
when the glories of heaven have robed
and crowned him. I want to hear him
is gone, and he rises up with the great
doxology. I want to know what stand-
ard he will carry when marching under
arches of pearl in the army of banners,
I want to know what company he will
| keep iu a land where they are all kings
| and queens forever and ever. If I have
induced one of you this moruing to be
{it. I may notin this world clasp hands
with you in friendship, I may not hear
| from your own lips the story of tempta-
| tion and sorrow, but I will clasp hands
with you when the sea is passed and
| the gates are entered,
| glories with which God clothes His
| dear children in heaven, I wish 1 could
twelve gates, that there
upon vour ear one shout of the triumph,
| one binze of the splendor. Oh, when I
| speak of that good land, you involun-
| tarily think of some one there that you
{ loved—father, mother, brother, sister,
or, dear litile child garnered already,
this morning.
are doing. Singing! You want to know
what they wear.
they wear, Coronets of triumph!
You wonder why oft they look to the
i gate of the temple, and watch and walt,
i will tell you
WY THEY WATCH AND W
and look to the gate of the temple,
For your coming! 1 shout upward the
news to-day, for 1 am sure some of you
| will repent and start for heaven: “Ob,
i ye bright ones before the throne, your
ALT
£
{
i
!
i
i
i
i
i
{ing mid-alr, cry up the name!
| keeper of beaven, send forward the
| tidings! Watchman on the battlements
{ celestial, throw the signal!”
“Oh,” you say, ‘religion I am going
{0 have; it is only a question of time,
| My brother, I am afraid that you
{ lose heaven the way Louls Philippe lost
| his empire. The Parisian mob
around the Tuileries. The
and the commander said to
| Philippe: **Shall I fire now? all 1
| order the troops to fire? With one volley
{ we can clear the place.” “No,” said
| Louis Philippe, “not yet.” A few
| minutes passed on, and then Louis
:
xh
ii
5
{ to fire, “No,” said the general, *'it
' soldiers are exchanging arms with the
| citizens? It 1s too late.”
ithe throne of Louis Philippe.
{ from the earth went the
i Orleans, and all because the King said;
Away
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON,
BUNDAY JANUARY 6,1349,
The Mission of John the Baptist,
LESSON TEXT.
(Mark 1: 1-1: Memory verses, 6-8)
ER
LESSON PLAN.
Toric o¥ THE QUARTER ¢
Myhty Worker,
GoLpeN TEXT vor THE QUARTER;
Belweve me that I am in the Father, and
the Futher in me: or else belweve me for
the very works’ sake.~—John 14 : 11,
Jesus the
Lesson Toric: The Dine Intro.
duction of Jesus,
1. By the Prophets. va. 1-5
2 By the Herald, va, 4.3,
L 8 By the Voice, va 9-11,
GOLDEN TEXT: The voice of one |
crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the |
way of the Lord. Mark 1 : 35, i
Dany Hoxz READINGS:
M.—Mark 1: 1-11, The divine |
introduction of Jesus, :
T.—Mal. 3 : 1-12. The voice of |
prophecy.
W.—Matt, 1-17.
parallel narrative,
T.—Matt, 11 : 1-15. Prophecy ful- |
filled in Jesus, |
Lesson |
Outline: °
" ,
bs
Matthew's |
F.—Luke 3:1-22, Luke's paral
lel narrative,
John 1 : 4-04.
mony of Jesus,
S.-John 1 : 35-51.
of men,
|
8. John's testi |
Jesus accepted |
LESSON ANALYSIS, }
I. INTRODUCED BY THE PROPHETS,
The beginning of t!
Christ (1)
From that time began J«
(Matt. 4: 17).
From the beginning were
{Luke 1 : 2).
This beginning of his signs did Jesus in
Capa (John 2 : 11).
.e gospel of Jesus |
sus to preach |
eyewitnesses |
me from the begin
«ded iy
ning (John 15 : 27
As it 8 written in Isaiah =
the
The spirit of the Lord spake by me (2
Sam, 25: 2).
He spake by the mouth of his holy pro-
phets (Luke 1:70),
rake before by the
mouth of David (Acts 1 : 16).
mke from God, being moved by
the Holy Ghost (2 Pet. 1:21).
Il. The Messianic Prediction:
Make ye ready the way of the Lord |
Thou art my have 1 be
gotten theo
And
(Isa, 7
Out of &
be ruler { Micah, 5
4
testing
BONS
Pa
shall call
1
: 14).
hee shall one come. . . . that
. is
¢ : bers: goxal
i Jesus is the spat:
10%. i
F s
Ssonof God.” (1)
(2) His offic
ine ule,
#
he
tov 1G +
Rev, 19:
thie
prophecy
1. “Jesus Christ,
His human tu
title; (3) His dis
“Behold, 1 send my messenger be-
fore thy face.” (1) The face of the ;
Son: (2) The messenger of God, —
1) The mission of the Messiah; (2)
The m { the herald.
3. “Make ye ready way of th
Tord.” {1} The coming Lord: (2)
The obstructed (3) The
ded preparation
IL INTRODUCED BY
I. The Herald:
John came,
es iad
i
-
S810 O
the a
Way: Oe
. THE HEBALD,
nd
who baptized
i
i
i
In those days cometh John the Baptist,
”
preaching (Matt. 3 : 1).
of God came
{Luke 3 : 2).
unto Jol
n
John (John 1:6).
ke
i +98
There went out unto him all the
| great subject of religion, and should
and all Judea (Matt, 3 : 5).
| a throne in heaven the way that Lous
| Philippe lost a throne on earth,
“When the Judge descends in mi
Clothed in majesty and light
When the carth shall quake wis
Whore, oh whers, wilt thou appear?”
wht
ght,
Bs Toomer
bh fear,
A Deceptive Problem in Maltiplicatin,
A problem that
easy enough to
at a glance seems
tempt a schools
boy to spend a portion of his
Christmas vacation iu an endeavor to
solve it, appeared recently in a Maine
journal, and is as follows: *“Take the
number 15. Multiply it by itself and
you have 225. Now multiply 225 by
itself. Then multiply that product by
itself, and so-on until 156 products have
been multiplied by themselves in
turn,’ The question aroused consider
able interest among lawyers in Port-
land, and their best mathematician
after struggling with the problem long
enough to see how much labor was en-
tailed in the solution, made the follow.
ing discouraging report upon it:
“The final product called for contains
38.530 figures (the first of which are
1412). Allowing three figures to the
inch the answer would be over 1070
feet long. To perform the operation
would require about 500,000,000 fig-
ures, If they can be made at the rate
of 100 a minute, a person working 10
hours a day for 300 days In each year
would be 28 years awbout it, If, in
multiplying, he should make a row of
ciphers, as he does in other the
number of figures used would be wore
than 028,980,228, That would be the
precise number of figures used if the
product of the left-hand figure in each
multiplicand by each figure of the mul-
tiplier was always a single figure; lb
as it is most frequently, and yet not
ways, two figures, the method employed
to ovtain the foregoing result cannot
accurately a . Assuming that
cipher is on An average once in
ten times, 475,000,000 figures is a close
approximation to the actual number,”
wi
ao abundance af corn
by Vuy
i
!
i
i
ducees coming (Matt, 3 : T).
Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you
to flee? (Luke 3 : T).
The Jews sent unto him. ... priests and
Levites {John 1 : 19).
IIL The Announcement:
There cometh alter me he that
mightier than I (7).
is
Holy |
Ghost (Matt, 3: 11).
He shall baptize you. ... with fire {Luke
3:16). i
This is the Son of God (John 1 : 34).
Behold the Lamb of God (John 1 : 56)
1. “John came, who baptized... .and |
preached.’ John’s ministrations: |
{1 Preaching the kingdom; (2) |
leralding the King; (3) Baptizing |
the subjects,
2. “There cometh after me he that is
mightier than L" ( John's pro- |
found humility; (2) Jesus’ exalted
greatness,
3. “He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost.” (1) The divine ad-
ministrator; (2) The human reci-
pients; (3) The vitalizing baptism.
11, INTRODUCED BY THE VOICE
I. The Heavens Opened:
He saw the heavens rent asunder (10).
The heavens were opened, and I saw
visions of God (Ezek. 1 : 1).
Lo, the heavens were opened unto him
(Matt, 3 : 16).
Jesus. ... baptized, and praying, the
heaven was opened (Luke 3: 21).
I soe the heavens opened, and the Son
of man standing (Acts 7 : 56).
IL ‘2 he Spirit Descending.
The Spirit as a dove descend
{10}.
He saw the Spirit of God
ng as
There came therefore a voles wt om
heaven (John 12 : 2¥).
1. “Jesus came, . ...and was baptised
of John in the Jordan.” (1) The
holy applicant; (2) The sacred rite
(3) The noble administrator: (4)
The honored stream,
2. “He saw the heavens rent asunder,
and the Spirit. . . descending: and
a voice came,”’ (1) The rending
heavens; (2) The descending Spirit
(8) The approving voice,—{1) Goa
the Father; (2) God the Son; (3
God the Holy Spirit, — participants
in the Lord’s baptism.
“Thou art my beloved Bon, in thee
I am well pleased.” (1) The Son's
relation to the Father; (2) The
Father's pleasure in the Son.
EE ————
+
sh.
LESSON BIBLE READING.
JOHN THE BAPTIST.
Of priestly descent {Luke 1 :!
Of godly parentage (Luke 1:6),
Ordained to be a Nazarite (Luke 1:
153.
Trained in the wilderness {Luke 1
Matt. 5: 1.4),
Did no miracles (John 10 : 41).
Was exceedingly popular (Matt. 3:5
Luke 3: 10, 12. 14).
Hefused baptisin to many
10 ; Luke 3:7, 8). :
Testified to Jesus as Messiah ( John
29 34).
Joyfully declined before Jess {John :
206-501,
*
od
180
Matt, 5:7
14: 3-3
Luke 3 : 19, 20}.
Experienced gloom
Luke 7: 18, 19).
ered martyrdom (Matt, 14:6 1
Ma 113-18
(Matt, 11
i a
3
i. &
Honored of Jesus
~.11
fvia
- > pw
LESSON SURROUNDINGS.
I'he Gospel story begins in Luke with
he announcement of the birth of Jol
the Daptist, More than thirty vears
after, “John came” as preacher. The
and d chapters of Matthew
and of Luke tell all that is known of the
+ 4
st ¢ secon
history of our Lord and his forerus
iuring these years, The latter “*w
+ deserts till the day of his shewing
to Israel” (Luke 1 Me
ord had grown to full manho
Nazareth, subject unto his earthly par
ents and “in favor with God and men’
Luke 2:52)
The place where John
. according to John's Ge
28). “Bethabara beyond Jordan.’
Revised Version, following
ancient manuscripts, reads °°
nd Jordan.» The former
sted, however, before thie davs of
186-253 A. D.}; and the discov
y the Palestine Exploration Fund
a ford called *Abarah (**Beth-Abara”
he “Placeof Abara,” or *Place of
ing Over’’), within two days’
v of Cana In Galilee
ints to Bethabara asthe m
form. Captain Conder
he readings may be harmoniz
any being equivalent to Ba
lebrew Bashan, and thus indicat-
he district in which the village of
lay, or hich it was the
View
«Bi
bev
LEV EITY
ip Ohl
i See J
S14
wi h
Lie
rior
=
Ts
Hethabara
natural approach. [ this
t, the place of Joh baptizing was
n Perea, at a ford of the Jordan, about
twenty-two miles sout-east of Cana,
miles south of the Sea
and a little above the city of
Beth-shan, Tradition places the site of
of the baptismn at a point much farther
ast of Jericho; but thus in
ct with the biblical indicatic
be time when John began to baptize
in all probability when he was
ars of age, “in the fifteenth
reign of Tiberius Caesar
: This is most convenient
oned as year of Rome 779, A, 1).
iming that John began ®
stry during the summer, and that
* Lord presented himself for baptism
n he was thirty years old, the date
his baptistsn may be placed n Jan.
$id
vary, year of Rome 780, A. D, 27.
is COT
16
of Galilee,
“8
ys.
Bow i
Ie rod
A
“3 =
One Dies
Every Second,
Here are some interesting facts about
the people who compose the population
of the world:
There are 3,064 languages in
the world, and its inhabitants profess
more than 1,000 religions,
The number of men is about equal
The average
years. One-gquarter
the age of 17. To
every 1,000 persons only one reaches
100 years of life, says the Goiden Ar-
gosy. To every 100 only six reach the
wore than one in
500 lives to eighty years of age,
There are on the earth 1,000,000,000
of life is about 33
every year; 91,824 every day, 3,730
every hour, and G0 every minute, or 1
every second.
The married are longer-lived than
the single, and above all, those who ob-
serve a sober and industrious conduct.
Tail wen live longer than short ones
Women have moe chances of life in
The number of marriages is in the
proportion of seventy-five to every
thousand individuals, Marriages are
more frequent after sinoxes—that
is, during the months of June and De
cember,
Those born in Spring are
of a more robust constitution than
others. Births are more frequent by
night than by day, also deaths,
The number of men of bear.
ing arms is calculated at one-fourth
of the population.
i rs MII WO A
Carrying a Coin nm His Leg.
James McNeill, of Cambridge, ac
cording oa Boon »
which has had a strange history, When