Correspondence Lessons.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XVI, Issue 9, 1 March 1926, Page 2

Correspondence Lessons.

Lesson 52. THE BIBLE. Before we go any further m these lessons it is well for you to know ab<mt the IJible. Every i>oy or girl should have! one of his or her own. If you haven't one ask mother to give you one. There are two sorts' of Bibles commonly used. One is called the Version." It. is. the one that we generally use m Church. The ; other ,'i? called the /dEevised Version./,' The ''Authorised Version is the one that was made m the year 1611. In many places it is hard to understand, -.-, because m. 1611 some English words did not mean the same as: they mean .now. The "Revised Version " is easier to understand; so I think it would be better if you have the "Revised Version-." \. ;: • : Then again most Bibles are not complete. All of them have m them the "Old Testament" and : the "New Testament "; but most of them leave out the books called the "Apocrypha; " In fact it is hard to get a complete Bible m the shops. ;If you cannot get a Complete Bible from the bookseller ask your Vicar to try to get one for you. The "Old Testament"- is, not one book really,; it is a,, great many short books, all bound together. The' first five books are called the "Books of Hoses"; their names are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These are hard names but , you must try to recognise them and to know where to find them m your Bible. Each of these books is made up out of books- very much older than itself; and .some of. them contain stories that had been told by mothers and fathers to their children for hundreds of years before ever they were written down at all. . The stories, about Adam and Eve and about Noah and the Ark are some of these. very, very old stories. Perhaps you have, heard them or read them ; they . are . some of the oldest stories m. the world, . stories which mothers, and fathers used to tell their, children long before anybody knew, how to write. After ..-these, five books come the. books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Ist. Book' of Samuel, 2nd Book of Samuel, Ist Book ofKings, 2nd Book- of. King's,, Ist Book of , Chronicles, 2nd Book of Chronicles. These Books tell us a. great many stories about the history of the Children of Israel, how they settled m the land. of Cancan (or Palestine), how; they were governed,; the sort of King's they had, the wars they f ought ; how. they sometimes forgot God and worshipped idols and were punished by God, and how m tlie end they, were carried, away from, their. own land by their enemies into grange countries, There are some.

beautiful lessons m them; but only a fewjoffthem are. easy enough for children to understand, and it is so much more important for you to know about Jesus and what He has done for us, that you must learn that first. All. l want you. to do nowis to try to remember where to find ea^cli of jfchese old book's if you are asked to find a passage m them! - ,

There were twelve tribes (very big old families) of the Children of Israel and they were all taken away by their enemies. .Ten .of the ;£ribes were taken away by • the Assyrians and scattered about m hundreds „of towns all over Assyria, and the countries that Assyria, had conquered. Very , few of these people ever found their way. back to their home m Palestine. That is the way God punished them for. their disobedience. But the other two .tribes were carried away by the j£mg\ of Babylon; he kept them m .Babylon for seyenty years and tjben. let; them go home again. From that time those two tribes were called the Jews.; They came; back to Palestine about 540 years before Jesus was . born. : The next two books, Ezra and Jfehemiab, tell us how (as soon as they came back) the Jews built their ' city of Jerusalem again, and how they rebuilt. the temple which their enemies had destroyed. These two are the' -last, of the history books of the Old Testament. ; If we want to know any more about the history 6f the Jews from the year 430 before Christ till Jesus ,' Christ came we have, to turn to the books of the "Apocrypha"— which tell us about some of it. But I muststop this very dry lesson here. I think, .for/an exercise, just to help you to remember the order of these sixteen books, you had better write out a list of them m order and find out from your Bible how many chapters there are m each book. Lesson 53 THE BIBLE. . Last lesson was about those books .of the Old Testament that tell us tihe history of the people of Israel. In this lesson we shall learn about the rest of the books, of the Old Testament.. The Book of Esther is £ very" beautiful book, that tells the story of . how a Jewess r named, Esther, who became 1 Queen of Persia, ,saved the Jewish people, from being massacred. Then comes the Book of Job, a very old story that someone wrote to teach, that we should always trust God and believe m Him whatever trouble, iiiay come upon us, and however everything may. seem to go wrong. : Then comes the "book . of the psalms." This is the old hymn book of the Jews. Some of the psalms! were written by King David, some of them (one, for example), by

Moses) were writtenln^l^ before David lived, very man£ /of ! them were written after, thevr J>vvs . cam^ back from Babylon j;jus^ r as in;-g|^-/^|Mn books there are JsKinm i^mia^^^ltten nearly, two thousand,, years'. : 'i^&fi and some' only a f ew! : y£arSi/»gb^ : ;.:3V&;sing the psalms m Church, but '•■i^^vi|>rds are .different fr^tft^^w&d^^ the Bible because oufeipra^^^it&t are taken from the — a translation made "fy-?^ffclibishop Cranmer neaiily...Boj.y^s_JbeiQr.e,,J;Jie ordinary version was made. People often wonder why the words', ai'.er.dlf,.fergnt.... The psalms were written^ m Hebrew; lots of .people have' £riecl"i;o put them.; into -English; f vT|ke psalm 100— you will find it' is different m the prayer book, m the "■ authorised version " and m the ' ' revised version, ' ' and we have o^her different 'translations of it inHymns^/a^d-Mi'^e and . 516.1 ', It is the same , j mffijtyl p.arts of the Bible, they have 'all translated differently by . people. There are 150' psalms in ; the Jewish hymn book. They- are/; all very- beautiful. Afte : r the •■psalms comes the " Book of Proverbs: "These are wise sayings of great ■teachers, gathered together into a book ; ; some "of them were made by the wise k King Solomon. - ; The next book ;"Ecclesiastis," tells us how empty and foolish it is. . for men to give themselves up to worldly pleasure and enjoyment.!, .. . . , :• Next; comes ..a .''Jove song." called the: Song of Solomon, <f j., ■ ,:•.: . The rest of the Old Test.axnfent^ is made up of the , books of sixteen, prophets, four long books arid twelve short books. The prophets were wise men , who. f earjecl. God : and lv taught ; the truth about Him even ; when ' nearly everyone around -them seemed to have forgotten Him and to be doing wickedly. , : _ \ :, The books of the Old Testament are far toe har,d for l children, to understand, all except some :qf the stories m the earlier .books. So we will not spend any more time over them now. Yau can be quite a good Christian without (knowing them, but when you are .older, you should read them together with .books' which JBible scholars, have written to explam them. The best books" .gif the :Msle for children to read' are the itew Testament books^ : especially the first five of them, the iJospel according to St. Matthew^^t;LMairk;:St^ibke and St. John and the- Book of the Acts of the Apostles,- ,1 have told you a little about the 6jd Testament books so that you will know, ., the , order of them. As an exercise answer the following questions ;:— ,-,- 1. What is the name of the Jews' Hymn 800k 1 ? :; : ' . 2. / How many books of : prophets ; are te^iu ;t]^ jfljd. T^tiii^X .

3. What'^e^lfciie Sanies of the first four r books of the prophets? Wesson of' THE NEW TESTA- /;;',;:; -^, --i^^-r^ ■■:• • ■ ;>v:SDhe former two lessors were -a bit hard for; younger children so I will try to make this one easier. nT ; he' -New ;Testainent begins with iour books called Matthew, ' Mark, Jiuke, John. Mattjii^ and joliii were Apbstles. They were companions >f jesus while he lived on earth, ; they heard Him teach, they -sawc Him work rmiraci.es, <they loved zHiin as ftheir Master, they saw Sim 'die ,on ithe f CrossV they . saw Him jwhen he rose from thie dead and, the •Holy .Ghost came down on them on the day' of ' Pentecost. In their, books ; they ■': tell us what they themselves saw and heard. ■^.'JS^k was a friend of St. Peter, the Apostle. He tells us the story of Our Saviour's life as "Peter' had told it to him. : r . . .• ■■:■ St. Luke was a ' friend of St. Paul. He knew many people who had been our liord.'s disciples and friends. These disciples and friends of Jesus told Luke many things ; they remembered, and he wrote them down m his . book. He wrote his book very carefully and made sure that everything he wrote was true before he put it down. He was a doctor or physician. .In the -first chapters of his book he tells us what the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Lord's . Mother, had told him about the wonderful. things that happened to her before ad after: Jesus was born. . ' ' Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all tell us manw of the. same things, only they tell them m different v ways. So that many of the things that Jesus said and did are told four times over; -There were lots of things that Jesus said and did that ai*e not told at all m any of these four books. How 1 splendid it would be if we could only find some other old book written by one of the Apostles telling us more of : these things !. Perhaps some day other. books may be found. ' -The next book of the New; Testament is called the "Acts of the Apostles."" In thish book St. Luke tells us how, the , Chur, eh grew after Jesus ascended iitito" Heaven. It tells us pnly a very small part of the his|pry;pf!|ne Church. Most of 'it is &bout St.Paul, Jjdw h was (converted, Bow, 'he preiicii^d the Gospel to the ■pibbpi^ Asia Minor and m Greece, We things' he suffered, the way he was persecuted ' by' the Jews because he had become a Christian and how m the end he went as a prisoner to JRpme; ; By and by we shall' learn about some of the; things that the ! us; "— * -■?-■■-'■■.■•>-'■. ■;:■ /'jtfter .the" " Acts of the Apostles/ ccime thirteen lett^ : -#hich' : St. "'Paul wote to the Romans, Galatians,

Corinj;hiaiis,- and 'others. These are beautiful letters. . iWhen you are old enough you should leirn by heart nikny chapters m them;, but you will not' be' able to ? understand them properly without a ' ' commentary ' '—a commentary is a book which explains all 1 the hard parts.- After St. Paul's thirteen letters comes a letter to the "Hebrews." We do not know, who wrote it; perhaps it was St. Barnabas. Then come some short letters, one" written by. St.: James, two by St. Peter, three by, St. John and one by St. • Julde;- ■•■■: ."-.. : :-'." : . ":;--, ' ■ The last book m the New Testament is the book of, ".Reyela^ion." In it St. John tells us of a vision that he saw of Jesus : Christ m Heaven, of the angels and saints worshipping God, o£ the new City of Jerusalem m Heaven and many other wonderful things. ' ' ■ •■■■' All: the .books of the New Testament were written m Greek. One of them, the first letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, was written V. about, twenty years after ; Jesus ascended "to Heaven, but the bopk of Reyelation was not written for perhaps forty years after that. If you had lived, m the days of St. Paul you would have had no New Testament to read; ' People were baptised and confirmed, they received the Holy Communion every Sunday, they lived the life of Christians but they had no New Testament. There was no printing m . thOse days. If anyone wanted a copy, of one of St. Paul's letters he had to copy it for himself or copy it from somebody else's copy. . There were lots of other books written by Christians m the very early days of the Church; some of them were pretended to be written by Apostles' when really they were not, so that when the time came for the Apostles' books to be gathered together to make up the New Testament, the Church had to choose jfrom among all the different books, and say which were really the ones written by the Apostles and their friends. It was three hundred years after' Christ died befbre the Church chose out the books that were everywhere accepted as true and gathered them into the New Testament. ; ! / We accept the books of the New Testament (as Aye have them m our Bible) ! as true, because the Bishops of \ the, fourth century, who Had so many writings to choose' from arid had so many old copies m their churches arid knew the traditions of their dioceses so well' chose but these books arid declared that , after very careful inquiry they were sure these books were true. : ■'■<." Exercise : Write out '■'-.-.. ■"' ] . What the Saints established ' "That we' hold foi'-true; , What the Saints believed .. That believe we too. ...

• ■-■ ■- -;■■ •- '■-■•'■ '■eaM^ES^l^ ;&::^ *■«>''■■■ : Last year all the lessons m April were about what happened m Holy Week^on^^ba^ift^and; on Easter Day. If you have kept your copy of the April ' ' Gazette" for last - year, read it ; over again. I. am sure you do not remember all; you were .told. $en and I cannot m one lesson go oiyw it all'-againv: Jesusrode into; Jerasalem oriJ am. ass on s Palm Sunday (the $jinday before Easter) j this year' Palm Sunday is Match 28th. : , During - the first "four days of the Holy Week He lived at Bethany with Mary, J&artha arid Lazarus, but each day went into Jerusalem. On -Thursday night He gave the Apostles s the Holy Communion forihe •first 'time and ■, told them they were' to •celebrate ' it. always till He came again by doing as He did. He said It ?was His Body and His Blood. Then He went with" His' disciples over - -the brook Kedron into , the Garden of -Getn'semarie. ;• : ';' ': ■' ; ' ! : ''; \ ■■■' ' /■ ■ 1 1^' ' The Roman soldiers and the High priest came, to the garden with Judas Iscariot'to guicle' them: ; They took Jesus away to accuse Him. He was brought rbefjore the -High Priest ; ' before ' Pontius Pilate, the Governor; and before Herod, the 'King;' •■■' ' ■■■■■■.';- ■■■■ . ' '"■"Early on Friday' ■ morning (Good Friday) He? "was ; 'condemned l t& be crucified. They' led Him away' and ln&le Him carry His Cross to a hill called Calvary or Golgotha, and there they crucified Him. They nailed Him to the Cross by His Hands and His Feet and with a Crown of Thorns on , His Head.' When He had hung on the , Cross; 1 for six hours He died, that is He left His Body on the Cross and He went away to Paradise, All Friday night and all Saturday and right up to early on .Sunday morning He stayed m Paradise, and then He returned to His Body on Sunday; morning. His Body had been .taken down from the Cross and was m the. Sepulchre. When He entered His Body ,again it became alive and He passed out of the Sepulchre. This was on Easter Sunday morning. We keep Easter Pay every year arid Sunday: every week m memOi-y of Jesus rising again. Now -how should' we keep Good Friday ? We should be quiet and pray and go to church. We should not go to. picnics or t6 other pleasure parties.. How should we keep Easter Day? We should go to Church arid rejoice because Jesus rose again from the dead. Good Friday is a very sad dayj Easter Sunday is a very joyful day. .■■ :/: 7 ' ; _• \ ' Exercise : Take your New ,Testament, look at the last chapters of St. •-Matt^eWyv'Si|.|:MaxkV-%'"Liike-;ahd' St. - John.and^mike a list of the, people to

whom Jesus appeared after He had risen from the dead*