The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1893-02-23
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

| PSs 119.18
TIME.-The first day Of the seventh month,
Q. the middle or last OF September, A. ID. a.
about two months after the arrival OF Nehem
| ah in Jerusalem, and q week after the compile
ton OF the walls on the 25;h of Elul, the sixtl
month ~(Aug gustScptember) The first day O
the seventh month was September 22 in 1892
| In 1893 1t will be September H. and in 1894 Octo
| ber l.
PLAoE.-Jerusalem In the open square OF
| Ophel, southeast of the temple are q, and nea
| the water-gate. through which water wal
brought for use in the temple.
THE SECTION OF HISTORY includes chapter,
$40 Chapter is repetition of Ezra 2, re
viewing the first coming of the ancestors of tn,
present gene ration to Jerusalem in b. G. $50
ninety years before (see Lesson L), as O basi.
OF repopulating Jerusalem and Of knowing who
we're the true Jews.
LESSON NOTES.
The Month Of Meetings. The walls OF
Jerusalem, though three or four miles
long, were finished in fifty-two days
week before the beginning of the
civil year, or the seventh month, Tishri,
OF the common Jewish year. This
month (September-O October) included
three great festivals: Q) The Feast OF
Trumpets, ushering in the new year
and the new moon; (2) the great Day of
Atonement, the 10th of the month,
and (3) the Feast of Tabernacles, from
the 10Th to the 21st, the Jewish Thanks
giving. In a calendar of the Jewish
year for ls92-94, prepared by a
Jewish rabbi, six feasts are assigned to
this month, while no other has more
than three. In addition to these Nebe-
m1ah held another solemn meeting Of
confession and renewing the covenant.
This month was largely given up to re-
hgious meetings. chiefly for the study
of Gods Word
At this time began under Ezra a new
era of Bible study. We must remem-
Der that at this time there was no print
ing and no cheap paper; that copies of
the law were scarce and expensive.
Even in A. d. 1879 in England it took
the wages of laboring man for thir-
teen years to buy Bible. Probably
there were few copies in existence even
before the destruction of the temple,
and many of these may have been de-
stroyed. Ezra renewed the study of the
Bible, inaugurated class of scribes,
for copying and teaching the Law, and
synagogue meetings for reading it. He
had the law copied, and doubtless mod
ernized SO as to be understood by the
people, as the English of Shakespeare
is modernized in all our ordinary copies.
The inner life of the people is far
more important than outward defenses.
The real walls of a city are the charac-
ter and heart of its inhabitants. The
walls of Jerusalem would last but a
brief time, unless the people themselves
were renewed Hence this series of
meetings was as important as the build
ing Of the walls, and the task to be ac-
,omplished by them much harder. A
Massachusetts minister of the olden
lime once told his people that it was
easier for God to create world than to
'enew their hearts, for he had no oppo-
'ition in the creating.
"a Sunday School ofthe Olden Time.
Vers. L. 2. This chapter should begin
With the last clause of the last verse of
he previous chapter: ''And when the
seventh month was come" etc.
The occasion was the celebration of |
he new-moon feast of the seventh
month (chap. 1879. The beginning of
very month was ushered in as sacred
estival: but this, the commencement
I the seventh month, was kept with
distinguished honor as 1.-THE feast of
rumpets" (Lev. 23:24). Trumpets were
lown everywhere, unless the feast fell
n the Sabbath. They proclaimed
ay OF rejoicing, like our Christmas
ellis; they were public acknowledges
lent of Jehovah as king, summons
'r the people to range themselves
nder His banner; they were a call to
'pentance: Rouse ye, rouse ye from
our slumber; awake, awake, from
our sleep, you who mind vanity"
Its Members "All the people gathered
1emselves together as one man." Thev
lme from all the surrounding coun-
y. The numbers present have been
lrlously estimated at from twenty
lousand to fifty thousand. The con-
was made up of "men and
omen, and all that could hear with 7,
(ver. q, i. c., parents
ought those of their children who
ere old enough to understand. They
ere eager to learn their duty, fo,' they
ked Ezra to bring the book of the {
w.
The Leader. '"They spake unto Ezra '
e scribe:" (See Lesson Wiz This is {
e first mention of Ezra in the present
'ok, and the first proof that we have .
4d that he was contemporary with I
ehemiah. Itseems impossible that he c
ould have been in Jerusalem during G
e events narrated in Neh. 80, and '
we played no part in them Probably a
returned to the court of Artaxerxes t
on after effecting the reforms which
relates in Ezra 10, and did not re- i
ut Jerusalem till about the time when l.
walls were completed. If he had thus O
st returned after an absence of more f
an ten years, it would he natural for \
people to request him to resume the n
'rk of exposition of the law to which c
had accustomed them on his former
1T (See Ezra 7:1O. 25).
fhe 1ert Book. '"The book of the n
W" The common name of the five Il