Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1891-05-28
THE TEMPLE REPAIRED.
International Sunday-School Lesson
for May 81. 1891.

/ CENTRAL TRUTH.-It Is blessed TO give and 10
labor for Gods spiritual temple.
| TnE.-During the first two-thirds Of the
reign Of Joash, S7s-s40 The repairs were COM
! pleted in his twenty-third year, B. c. SJ6-one
hundred and thirty four years before our last
! lesson
PLACE-Jerusalem, In the kingdomof Judah.
KNGs.-Joash, eighth king Of Judah. Jehu
was king Of Israel during the first part Of
Joash's reign.
AFFAIRS IN IsRAEL-Ahab and Jezebel, his
heather wife, had done their best to destroy
the worship Of Jehovah and increase the
/ wicked idol worship Of BaaL Just about the
| time that Joash was born Jehu became king Of
Israel He destroyed the family Of Ahab and
! the priests Of Baal making great reformation.
AFFAIRS IN JUDAH-The grandmother Of
Joash, Queen Athaliah, was the daughter OF
Ahab and Jezebol, and inherited the disposition
| and talents of her wicked mother. She killed
all her grandsons except Joash, who was res
/ cued and hidden by his aunt Jehosheba, and
| became ruler Of Judah. She neglected and in
jured the temple OF God, and had temple to
/ Baal even in Jerusalem Many Of the people
| became idolatrOus and wicked.
PRoPHET.-Elisha was living in Israel all the
| days Of JOash.
PARALLEL ACCOUNTS Kings, ch. 12. The
history Of the times is given in Kings S:25 to
| 1920; and Chr0n. chs. - to "a
| HELPS OVER HARD PLACES. AFTER this"
| his marriage, and coming to age Tvs. 81. "Joash
was minded to repair the house OF the Lord"
| the temple, now $50 years old and neglected and
| injured. (See '. -. There had been several
reforms before this /. The people had re-
| newed their covenant 10 God q Kings HID.
2. The people on the same day, by popular
uprising, tore down the temple OF Baal q Kings
1l:lS. 8. The service OF the priests in the tenn
pie was reorganized e Chron. 23:1S). Now
came the fourth reform. 8. Go out and
I Vie.
hastened it nOt:" the delay was very long,
till the 23d year OF Joash e Kings 1870. The
reasons were probably O) want OF interest; (2)
lsthe money collected largely belonged to them
by law, and there was not much more gathered
than they needed; 81 the people had not much
interest TO give where they saw no results. 9.
| Tabernacle Of witness:" the laws Of Moses
were made when there was no temple, but only
the tabernacle. s. "a chest:" with a small
hole in the top. "At the gate:' 1t was in the
court Of the priests, near the altar, and near
the door from the court into the temple proper.
0. collection that Moses'' etc.: see Elk 3O:13;
Lev. 81 :2-S; Deut. 12:5-1S.
LESSON COMMENTS.
The story of the Trovidential preser-
vation of the infant Jehoash Tor Joash)
from the murderous wrath of Athaliah,
is one of the roma ices of history. In
those wild and cruel days so many Of
! the seed-royal had leen murdered, that
at last babe only a few months old
was the only living descendant of Solo
mon. If Gods promise to David and
| again to Solomon vas to be fulfilled,
that child must lire. Athaliah, how
ever, proposed tina. 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 bc.sn carried out to the
letter. Yet all that zine God was silent
ly foiling the queens plans, and that
too by instrumentalities purely human.
One hundred and ifty years the tenn
pie had been standing. But in that CEN
tury and a half the Kings had paid more
attention to buildin;, new and idolatrous
shrines than to lzee-4ing 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 cut. 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 the
funds to their own use (see verse y.
Jerusalem's temple is long since de-
stroyed. No buili ling in the world
has ever taken It's place. For
our churches age in no such
sense temples OF God as that in
which the structu1S at Jerusalem was.
Priesthood and tenn bic have long since
| been abolished as human and material
arrangements. To call a clergyman
| priest and a church a temple of
God'' (except in a broad and general
way), is simply to 60 back out Of Chris
| tianity to Judaism. The church has only
| one great Priest to-day, and that is
Christ; and Gods semples 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 spisitual building calls
for attention? By seeing what has
fallen out and what has been built into
thetemple of character. See what stones
should be built in: ''Gove, JOY, peace, long
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance" These are
| living stones and may be Gkened to
''gold, silver and precious stones" for
value.
Prayerful investigation will show
every one whether he is using such
building material oF 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 Sclomon's temple been
built of stone, wood, straw, gold, hay,
precious stones, stubble and silver, it
would have been 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 may
often be seen. What kind of
spiritual temple would that be that
was constructed of love, hatred, joy,
envyings, peace, wrath, 1ong-suffering,
variance, gentleness, emulations, good
ness, murders, faith, drunkenness,
meekness, revilings, temperance and
idolatry? The idea is simply hideous.-
Rev. a. F. Schaufier, d. D.
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS.
1. The influence of childhood's i'm
Cressions.