The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1917-07-04
SUNDAY SCHOOL NOTES
Side LIghts on Next Sundays
Lesson for Teachers and PupIls
Edited by Charles x. Meyers.
CRAWFORD COU NTY n d 7
SCHOOL ASSOCIATION

IICSluGIl, MCIlCllIy,
First Vice. President, Il. G. Dannctt
West Side.
Second Vice.President, e. G. Wig
gins, Dow City.
Third Vice President, VIM. Lind.
berg. Kiron.
Fourth Vice President, Edward Ly.
on, Charter Oak. r.. ~,'. =
Observation-Disclosures, Chas. x. Mey,
rs.IDenison.1Troc e -.
LlGmentaENi Superintendent, Mrs.
Anna Williams, nDenson. u .:s
Secondary Superintendent, Frank
Woolston, Denison,s ,,
Adult and Home Superintendent.
Mrs. e. w. Pierce. DenisOn, 80.
Educational Superintendent, Miss
Monetta Jorsensen, Vail
Supervision Superintendent, Il. L.
Hoffman, Denison
July a-Ahaz, the FaithIcss King
2 Chron. 20.
In our lessons for some weeks, we
shall have before US the history of
the Jews under various kings. 1t is
an old story to say that after the
death Of Solomon, the Kingdom was
divided. The portion about Jerusa-
lem. which was in the division of the
land called Judah, is known to history
as the Kingdom of Judah. Tho lar.
ger part of the land division in the
north part Of Palestine and containing
ten of the tribes is known to bible
history as the Kingdom of Israel
Our lesson today has. TO- do with.
one of the kings in the southern. part
or of Judah, and his name was, Ahaz.
He became king when. but =, twenty
years old, succeeding GOTHAM his faith
er. There now took place something
which am unable to explain, and
it is this: Why in SO, many cases the
record says that good king was
succeeded by his son, who went to
the limit in badness and on the other
hand bad kings were succeeded by
sons who were spoken Of as good
or that they did right in the sight
of the Lord" The reason for this.
be what it may, we will comment for
short time on the record of AhaZ,
the faithless king.
One might well suppose who was
not acquainted with the history OF
the Jews, that well brought up son,
knowing the blessings which came i'll
the reign OF God-fearing father, would
continue to govern in that way. This
is seldom the experience of the Jew
ish kings. .Ahaz for instance began
to set up idols for the worship of the
great heather god .EaaiaE. Having
thus started downward career
things rapidly went from bad to worse
Ahaz simply went to the limit of his
wickedness in burning incense to his
false gods and even burning his own
children with fire to please these
gods. Well, what other results could
happen than that ,the true God, He,
OF Abraham. Isaac. Jacob and David,
saw to it that downfall and dire pun
%sisllpent came on king Ahaz and his
people.
Enemies. game down from the pow
crfnl Kingdom of Smyrna. snotc the
people with great slaughter and took
large numbers of them as captives
to damascus. This was not all, FOR
thettkinS of the northern kingdom OF
Israel moved down and took an i'm
nense number of captiveS also. Note |
this, at this time. When these cap
tives were taken into the land of Is |
rael. a prophet OF the Lord named |
Oded, stood forth and made so strong |
plea against the keeping of fellow |
Jews iii bonds. His arguments pre-
vailed. Tho captives were clothed, |
fed and taken back to their own co,m-
try. Oded saw that it was because |
Of sin that the Jews OF Judah were in |
trouble. lie knew God still loved
them and would not hold those guilt |
less who made them captivcs and en-
shaved them.
All these Calamities were of no
avail to cause Ahaz to see the errors
of his ways. He tried to build himself
up by making alliances with heather
kings but to no avail. Then he
took the sacred vessels of the temple
broke them up, shut the doors of the
temple and set up heather affairs.
There was but one end OF such as
he sAnd that was utter failure as IL
king, and early death.
AS we look back on his case. we
snW why did he turn away from
Cod" Why, when things began to
set bad, did he not sacrifice to the
true God, 3cOulcsS his wrong dOingstI
and save himself and his people from
the dire calamities, which beset them?
There goes with these questions,
these: Why do boys and girls. mon
aud women, this very day, turn from
God, refuse to ask His help. but try
all manner of things to turn their
luck to prosperity? Why will men
plunge deeper and deeper in paths
which lead to destruction when a
loving God stands ready to help if
guilt is confessed and pardon asked?
The men and women now are greater
fools than that long ago King Ahaz
who never saw q y New Testament. |
knew nothing OF Jesus and was sur.
rounded by flOurishing heather ma
tons. The lessons for us to learn are
these: Let children of Cody parents
follow in their paths; to improve ones
bad condition by plunging deeper in
to sin never pays. Righteous
ness pays right now, and certainly
willy when it comes to face all eter-
Mtg Don!tt think it smart to defy
God, for ifjsfou do it will be like kick.
ingRgainst b stone wall, expecting to
n0Sinjure Yourself: