Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-08-10
What May be Learned from q Bible
Lesson.
To the Editor:

| TO the Editor:
There are, upon an average, more than two
hundred people, in Lancaster, engaged every
Sunday in the study of Bible lesson. At the
same time two thousand or more people in Other
parts of Grant county are giving their minds
| and time to the same lesson. A like proper.
ton of citizens of the State of Wisconsin are
attending to the same lesson. Throughout the
United States there are not less than 2,000, 000
of people who are studying and reciting that
same lesson at the same time. Where so
many are like MINDED would not an occasional
reference, in a secular journal, to the question
upon so many minds, meet with many inter-
ested readers? So presuming, | offer . few
remarks upon last Sundays lesson, and if a
dozen readers do not report to the editor that
they we're edited by these remarks, / shall
think it not worth while to repeat the attempt
shall treat the subject with reference to its
instructiveness not with the object of draw.
ing religious inspiration from it.
The lesson for last Sabbath was the FIRST ten
verses of the 10th chapter of the first book OF
Kings. 1t begins:
And when the queen OF SHEDS heard OF the fame
Of Solomon concerning the name OF the Lord, she
came to prove him wish hard questions:
Naturally the first question that presents
itself is, Who was the queen of Sheba? We
are supposed by this time to know who Solo,
mon was. Everybody knows that and yet
very few would know it if we had no Bibles.
He is more universally known than is any king
of England, yet our country is child of Eng
land. We know, too, that there was a queen
of Sheba mentioned as having visited Solomon
but so little is known of her that many think
of her as an invention of fable, used merely to
illustrate Solomon's greatness. And as the
Bible gives US the Oldest history regarded as
authentic, we are apt to overlook the fact that
there were peoples on the Globe OF whom 1t
has very little to tell. The Bible history,
starting at the time Of the Flood, assumes that
the only people on earth were Noah and his
their families. 1t was nearly fourteen hun
dred years after the Flood, and 992 years be-
fore Christ, that the queen of Sheba visited
Solomon The Bible tells US infinitely who
Solomon's people were. 1t intimates that She
ba must have been kingdom of note. Who're
WAS Sheba and by whom peopled Will the
Bible answer these questions or can we learn
from other bookss First establish in your
mind that Solomon's kingdom was q strip of
country the size of Wisconsin, lying along the
eastern end of the ediierranean Sea, on ei>
Their side of the Jordan. Ifyou turn to the 10th
chapter of Genesis, beginning with the 2lst
verse, you there find that Shem was the ia Their
of Arphaxad, Arphaxad was the father Of Sa-
lab, Salah was the father of Eber, and Eber
was the father of Peleg and Joktan, and Jok-
tan had a large family of whom one son was
named SHEBA, "and their dwelling was from
Mesha as thou goest unto Sephar, mount of
the east" With the help of Bible history,
up these points you will find that
Sheba was in the southern part of the PENN
sula of Arabia. In the next chapter of Gene
sis, beginning with the 10th verse, you find
the generations of Shem again named, down to
Peleg, but Joktan is not named. The reason
is that this Bible history was intended to give
only the history of the Israelites. Here it may
be stated that the Hebrews took their name
from Peleg's father; Eber being pronounced
with an spirate-Heber, from which, Hebrew.
Peleg was progenitor of Abraham, as we learn
from this chapter but Joktan was not yet both
were from Eber and hence, genealogically, He.
brews. The Bible tells US where Abraham
went, where his son Isaac went, and his son
Jscob-Israel, and so on down to Solomons
time, but whsn it told us that Joktan had son
named Sheba, and where he was settled, it left
him and there is nothing more about him until
the queen o. Sheba visits Solomon. Solomon's
people had in the mean time been in slavery
for centuries. They had been nomads another
series of years. They had settled in Canaan
and had been a kingdom only about one huns
dred years. They were young nation and
were astonishing the other nations of the Earth
with their progress. They then stood relatively
~ ds lilC CHitSu otohSo va hhSAAN" w
the present old kingdoms and empires of Eu-
rope. But what was the age of Sheba q? In
the last chapter referred to we find Arphaxad
was born two years after the Flood, Salah So
years after him, Eber 80 years after Salah and
Peleg "a years after Eber. Surprising Joktan
to have been born about the same time, we
find it was about l0l years after the Flood
that the father of Sheba was born. As that
kingdom, whose queen visited Solomon, took
its name from Sheba, it may be supposed at
that time to have been an established kingdom
Cor about twelve hundred years. II was es>
tablished under that name over 2,l00 years
before ChIst.
Only one question in this Bible lesson has
been answered, and the answer thus far is all
drawn from that book. From other sources
we may learn great deal about the Sabeans
tSheba ans) or Sabaei, az the Romans called
them. To this day the southern Arabs say
the name Of the father Of their race was Kah-
tan, which, reasonably, is the same as Joktan,
the father of Sheba. INQUIRER.
Lancaster. Aug. 8, 1870.
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