Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-05-27
THE TEMPLE REPAIRED.
LESSON TX, SECOND QUARTER, IN
TERNATloNAL SERIES, MAY 81.

Text OF the lesson, II CIron. xiv. Ala.
Commit Verses, s-Io-GoIden Text, IL
Cor. tx, 7-Coramentary by the Rev. d.
M. stearns.
Compiled from Lesson Helper Quarterly by per
mission Of H. Hoffman, pIblijher Philadel
phia.l
4. "And ii came to pass after this that
Joash was minded to repair the house Of
the Lord"
We now go backward in the history to a
period about a hundred years earlier than
the last lesson. Joash was the seventh king
Of the two tribes, and began to reign about
hundred years after the death of Solo
mon. Only seven years old when he began
to reign, he reigned forty yeara Tvs. y.
8. And he gathered together the priests
and the Levites"
go out unto the cities Of Judah, and
gather of all Israel money to repair the
house of your God from year to year, and
see that ye hasten the matter"
This would have been u sort of compul.
sorry taxation for the house of God, and
was contrary to the principle laid down in
Ex. XIV, 2-"Of every man that Civ
eth it willingly with his heart ye shall
take my Offering" And again in Ex. xxxv,
8, whatsoever is of n willing heart let
him bring it, an Offering of the Lord"
O. "And the king called for Jchoiada,
the chief, and said unto him. Why hast
thou not required of the Levites to bring
in out Of Judah and Jerusalem the collec.
tionP
The priest and the Levtes probably
understood their business better than the
king did 1t was not in their commission
to go out collecting money, but it was
commanded that the people should bring
in their offerings according to their ability
(Deut xvi, 10, Il; NAL. iii, 10Y.
z For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked
woman, had broken up the house of God"
This was the woman who counseled her
son Ahaziah (the last king to do wickedly,
and who, after his death, regncd six years
(chap. xxi, @ g. 10 See her miserable end
In chap. xiii, l5 She was the daughter
of Ahab xxi, 6J, and when we remember
that Jezebel was Ahnb's wife we cannot
wonder at her Conduct and that of her sons
"And also all the dedicated things of the
house of the Lord did they bestow upon
Baalim."
8. "And ut the kings commandment
they made chest and set it without at
the gate of the house of the Lord"
There was u hole in the lid of this chest,
and ii was set beside the altar on the right
side as one cometh into the house of the
Lord Oh Kings xii, 81. Things are looking
better now; this is more like Gods way,
and there will surely be blessing,
8. And they made a proclamation
through Judah and jerusalem to bring in
to the Lord the collection that Moses, the
servant Of God, laid upon Israel in the
wilderness"
y, This is more fully stated in II Kings xii,
4, 8, and carries us back to Elk. xxx, 11-16,
where all who were numbered were to give
II half shekel us an Offering unto the Lord
TO make an atOnement for their souls, the
rich not giving more aud the poor not Civ
ing less than half shel{el
10. "And all the princes and all the PEG
pie reioiced, and brought in and cast into
the chest until they had made an end"
This pleased the Lord, for God loveth
cheerful giver," and "it there be first
willing mind, it is accepted according to
that man hath, and not according to
that he hath not Oh Cor. tx, Z; viii, 12).
IL "rhus they did, day by day, and
gathered money in abundance"
AS the chest was filled it was emptied,
counted, put mp in bags aud set in its place
again QI Kings, xii, 100. At the building
of the taberpacle of Moses the money and
material from the willing hearted offerers
came in 80 abundantly that orders had to
he issued to restrain the people from bring
ing, for they brought much more than
enough (llx. XXXvi, O, y.
12. "And the king and Jehoiada gave it
to such as did the work of the service of
the house of the Lord"
al lntI tn bn
and builders, and to masons and hewers of
stone, and to buy timber and hewed stone
30 repair the breaches of the house of the
Lord III Kings xii, II, l2). They did not,
like many nowadays, get the work done
first and then look for the money to pay
for it, but they first saw the wherewithal on
hand and then went forward with the work.
IL does seem so unscriptural to have a debt
upon any building dedicated to God, or to
undertake any work for God without see.
ing how to pay for it.
10. 80 the wurlmcu wrought, and the
work was perfected by them"
King, prieot, people and wOrkmen, all
Iaborers together. So now every preacher,
teacher, missionary, evangelist, orthe hum
blest scholar who gives II penny to help
send the gospel to others, are all laborers
together in building up the great temple,
the church OF body of Christ, which shall
in due time be perfected (Eph ii, 1922; !
Cor. ill, ~. A strange thing is written
concerning the oversecrS of this work to
whom the money was given TO pay the
workmcn, which is also written of others
in the days Of Josiah viz, that they dealt
so faithfully that no reckoning was kept
with them ll Kings, xii, ID NNii, y.
"And they set the house of God in his