The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-05-28

ana y enron. ems. ~ 10 Oh.
HELPS OVER HARD PLACES. After th1s;"
his marriage, and coming to age Tvs. 81. "Joash
was minded to repair tho house of the Lord"
the temple, now $50 years old and neglected and
injured. (See " q. There had been several
reforms before this. 1. The people had re-
newed their covenant to God e Kings HID.
9. The people on the same day, by popular
uprising, tore down the temple Of Baal q Kings
HIS. 3. The service Of the priests in the tenn
pie was reorgan!zed q Chron. 23:lS). Now
came tho fourth reform. O. "Go out and
gathers" each one independently. "The Levites
hastened it not:' the delay was very long,
till the 23d year of Joash e Kings 1850. The
reasons were probably OD want Of interest; (2)
the money collected largely belonged to them
by law, and there was not much more gathered
than they needed; (3) the people had not much
interest to give where they saw no results. Q.
Tabernacle Of witness:" the laws Of Moses
were made when there was no temple, but only
the tabernacle. 8. "A chest:" with o small
hole IN tho top. "At the gate:" it was in the
court Of tho priests, near the altar, and near
the door from the court into the temple proper.
0. collection that Moses" etc. Z: see Ex. 30:13;
Lev. 27:2-8; Deut. 1898
LESSON COMMENTS.
The story of the providential preser-
walton of the infant Jehoash Tor Joash)
from the murderous wrath of Athaliah,
is one of the romances of history. In
those wild and cruel days so many Of
the seed-royal had been murdered, that
at last babe only few months old
was the only living descendant of Solo
mon. If Gods promise to David and
again to Solomon was to be fulfilled,
that child must live. Athaliah, how
ever, proposed that that child should
die. Thus we have again, as in the case
Of Jezebel and Elijah, warning of di-
vine and human purposes. For six
months after the massacre of the royal
family Athaliah went on, convinced that
all her plans had been carried out to the
letter. Yet all that time God was silent
ly foiling the queens plans, and that
too by instrumentalities purely human.
One hundred and fifty years the tenn
pie had been standing. But in that CEN
tury and a half the kings had paid more
attention to building new and idolatrous
shrines than to keeping the temple of
God in good order. The result was that
the beautiful building was sadly in need
of general repairs. This Jehoash un-
dertook to carry out. At first, how
ever, the work went on very slowly, for
the hearts of the people and of the
priests too were Indifferent. Appar-
emily they appropriated some of tho
funds to their own use (sce verse y.
Jerusalem's temple is long since de-
stroyed. No building in the world
has ever taken Its place. For
our churches are in no such
sense temples of God as that in
which the structure at Jerusalem was.
Priesthood and temple have long since
been abolished as human and material
arrangements. To call clergyman O
priest" and church "temple Of
God" Except in q broad and general
way), is simply to go back out of Chris
tianity to Judaism. The church has only
one great Priest to-day, and that is
Christ; and Gods temples are human
hearts, and not brick and mortar. Carry
ing out this idea, then, we have the
theme of temple repairs in a spiritual
sense. Every child of God needs to be
on the lookout to see whether his
temple needs repairs. How may we
know when our spiritual building calls
for attention? BY seeing what has
fallen out and what has been built into
the temple of character. See what stones
should be built in: Love, joy peace, long
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance" These are
living stones and may be. likened to
"gold, silver and precious stones" for
value.
Prayerful investigation will show
every one whether he is using such
building material or not. Possibly some
who in years past did use these materi-
ais have allowed them to fall out, and
have replaced them with stones of far
less value. Had Solomon's temple been
built OF stone, wood, straw, gold, hay,
precious stones, stubble and silver, it
would have been a building even more
remarkable than it was. And had
Jehoash repaired it in any way suggest
ed by the above mixture of materials,
he would have become the laughing
stock of his people. Yet something
like this in the spiritual realm NAV
often be seen. What kind of a
spiritual temple would that be that
was constructed of love, hatred, ioy.
envyings, peace, wrath, long-suffering,
variance, gentleness, emulations, good
NSSS, AauAoCAot AdlII, DRUNKENNESS,
meekness, revilings, temperance and
idolatry9 The idea is simply hideous.-
Rev. A. F. Schauffier, d. d.
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS.
/. The influence of childhood's i'm.
pressions.
2. We are greatly affected by those
under whose influence we place our
selves.
8. No training will make us truly
good without right heart.
4. Unbelief, worldliness, sin, neglect,
Will allow the house Of God to decay.
g. We should patiently, earnestly.
diligently, repair all decay In Gods
house.
.. Benevolent contributions are part
of the worship Of God