El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-12-10
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
LESSON xl FOURTH QUARTER, ~
TERNATtONAL SERIES, DEC. ~.

ICopyright, 1893. by d. NJ. stearns.l
20. "And they went in to the king and
told all the words In the ears Of the king"
This is King Jehoiakim, a son of Josiah,
who reigned IL years, but did evil In the
sight of the Lord. In the fourth year of
his reign the Lord told jeremiah to write
In a book all the words He had spoken
against Israel since the days of Josiah and
read them to the people II perchance they
might turn from their sins to the Lord AID
have their iniquity forgiven Both in Tia
fourth and fifth years of Jehoiakim's reign
these words were read publicly and pri-
vately again and again (see previous part
Of this chapter), and now some who heard
them tell them 10 the king.
81. $50 the king sent Jehudi to fetch
the roll, and Jehudi read 1t In the ears Of
the king" Baruch the scribe, who had
written the words of the Lord from the
mouth of jeremiah, had also read the
book in the ears of the people and Of the
rulers oversees 6, 8, 10, Is, 49, but now
Jehudi reads. 1t does not matter much
who reads provided he reads distinctly
and give the sense and cause the people to
understand the reading (Neh- viii, 81. As
to the origin Of the words, they were from
the Lord, the Cords words He used
Jeremiah's mouth and Baruch's pen and
mouth, but the message was neither from
jeremiah nor from Baruch, but from God
Now it is .Jehudi's mouth, but it is still
the same message from the Lord
%, 90. "He cut 1t with the penknife and
cast 1t into the fire that was on the hearth,
until all the roll was consumed in the
fire." Thus did Jehoiakim with the roll
containing the message from the Lord
Thus he despised and treated with con-
tempt the message from the Lord and
III ~
not hearken 10 Him. Wh0t q contrast to
Josiah IN our last lesson, who humbled
himself before God and turned TO Him
with all his hearth Jehotakim was o Cain
man, while Josiah, like Abel, had faith In
God All are either for or against God.
"a. "Yet they were not afraid, nor rent
their garments, neither the king nor any
Of his servants that heard all these words. "
The hard hearted, rebellious king would
influence those about him In some meas
ure TO be rebellious, like himself. When
once the heart turns away from God, the
hardness Outlines increases very quickly.
When we receive not the truth In the Lore
of 1t, God lets us believe a delusion and a
lie Oh Thess. ii, IL, 12l 1t Is fearful
thing to even listen to a word against God
or against His word, for, while holiness is
not easily communicated, sin Is, accord
ing TO Hag. ii, 12, ID.
25. He would not hear them" Three
are mentioned who pleaded with the king
not to burn the roll, but he would not
listen to them. He thought that he knew
better than his counselors, he was in his
own esteem wiser than his father who had
humbled himself before God, he did not
believe that He that, being often re-
proved, hardeneth his neck shall suddenly
be destroyed, and that without remedy"
prov. xxx, ID.
&C. "But the Lord hid them" This re-
foy-S 10, Ror1r md ,inh -hnr fhx.I
king would now like to lay hands upon
and put q stop to such words as these. In
verse 10 we learn that when the book was
about to be read to the king some advised
them to hide 50 that they could not be
found, and now we learn that in their
hiding they were guided by God Elijah
was so securely hidden by God that he
could not be found by Ahab in any nation
or kingdom q Kings xvii, 8; xviii, 1O)
There is q rock, the Rock of Ages, in
whom we may SO securely hide that no
evil can befan us (Ex. xxxiii, 90; Isa- ii,
truly receive Christ as their Saviour is
said to be hid with Christ in God. for He
is our life (Col. iii, 3, ~.
81, 2S. "Take thee again another roll
and write in it all the former words that
were in the first roll I have for some
years reveled in the blessed assurance of
Ps. cxix, 80, Forever, o Lord, Thy word
from India last year it was my privilege
while spending few days in London to
rejoice in some blessed fellowship with my
dear brother in the Lord, Rev. John Will
kinson, author of that wonderful book |
Israel My Glory" 1 found him one day
greatly rejoicing in Ps. cxix, 80, on which |
he expatiated somewhat after this fashion:
Just think of what we have here! What
is settleds Thy word. Where is it settled?
In heaven For how long is it settledf
Forever. Whose word Is itY Thine, 0
Lordl Let the enemies throw out Jonah
and his book, and Daniel and his book |
and whatever they do not like, they can
no more destroy the word of God than
Jehoiakim could destroy the words of Jere
miah's roll When we reach heaven, we
shall find Jonah and his book and Daniel
and his book and all the word of God for |
ever settled there"
20. 1.-THE king of Babylon shall certain |
ly come and destroy this land and shall |
cause to cease from thence man and beast"
These were some of the words in the roll |
which Jehoiakim burned which caused |
him to hate it and burn it. Jonah was |
wondrous type of our Lord in His death |
and resurrection, and this the great truth |
which satan hates and may be one reason |
why he would If possible set aside the book |
of Jonah In Daniel perhaps more than in |
any other book in the Bible the Importance |
of the wisdom of this world to understand |
the things of God is made manifest, and |
for that reason, among others, the book of |
Daniel Is disliked. Revelation tells of the |
devil downfall and final doom and there |
fore he would like you not to read that |
book.
30, 81. Therefore thus saith the Lord |
of Jehoiakim, king of Judah" Then fol- |
lows a statement of what would come upon |
him personally for this sin, but he would |
not hearken. In chapter xxi, 10, 1t was |
written that he should be buried with the |