St. Johns review. (Saint Johns, Or.) 1904-current, 1915-04-23
An Interesting Essay

Essay written for L. st. Johns
Union S. S.: ] was asked to tel
you some Of the facts we have
learned in our Sunday School
lesson during the past few
weeks of the little journeys
among the Books Of the Bible.
The Bible is the sacred book OF
Christians and is'called a sacred
book because it contains the
earliest and most important
teachings of our religion.
II is not one book but many
books bound in one volume real.
ly "a literature that contains pc.
etry. prose. history. biography,
story, law. sermons and epistles.
There are thirty-nine books in
the old Testament. the longest
being Psalms and the shortest,
Obadiah. The first five are Gen.
esis. Exodus, Leviticus. Numbers
and Deuteronomy.
In the new Testament there
are twenty-seven books. the first
four being called Gospels. In
our journey we found more prose
than poetry.
There are five entire books OF
poetry and many of the others
quote it.
Here in an example of poetry
"The heavens declare the glory
of God. And the armament
showeth his handiwork. Day
unto day uttereth speech. And
night unto night showeth knowl-
edge"
l04th Psalms is another fine
poem. In the Acts which is
prose we find poetical quotations.
In our search for story books
we find Genesis a splendid book.
perhaps the best in the Bible.
All Of the interesting stories
about Abraham. Isaac. Jacob.
Noah and the flood. Adam and
Eve and Cain and Able are found
in Genesis.
The word Genesis means be-
ginning. The word Exodus
means going out and il tells of
the going out of the people of
Israel from Egypt. through the
desert. To find the promised land
of Palestine.
The great man who led this
going out was Moses who was
given law on Mt. Sinai. The
law as we have it is called the
ten commandments.
In the books of Judges we
learn of the early history of Is
rael when they were not much
more than half civilized and
lived in tribes governed by
jugdes somewhat like the Ara
bians of today. The name of
one of these judges or sheiks
was Samson. the strong man.
In the books of Samson we find
stories about the prophet Sam
uel. King Saul. David as a boy.
a young man and a king. and
Samuel amounting David TO be
king.
In the two books of Kings are
interesting stories about King
Solomon. the prophet. Elijah
and Elisha, all the building and
dedication of the splendid Tenn
pie in Jerusalem. The visit of
the Queen of Sheba to Solomon
is also found here. She found
great splendor and a wise king
so she said THE half had not
been told to her."
In cur search for story books
and biographies in the New
Testament we find some very
fine ones. The first four books
are called Gospels. and the per-
son talked about is Jesus. whose
resurrection we celebrate today.
In the first IL verses of III Mat
thew is told the birth of Jesus,
and in Luke III Al to 81 of his
going to Jerusalem with his par
ents walking part of the way
and part of the way riding on
the back of a donkey. camping
out nights. 1t must have been a
great event in the life of a boy
of II.
At Jerusalem his parents
missed him and upon searching
found him disputing with the
doctors who thought him very
wise. This event is shown in a
painting by a great artist Hoff-
man. Our teacher showed us a
print of this great picture.
like this picture of Jesus better