Arizona republican., 1920-08-07
INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SCHOOL LESSON
BY REV. E. D. RALEY

after chapter of revenge visited by the victorious upon all the house of the vanquished.
 We must not forget that David lived
 in a different age from this and that the practice at that time was to ex-
 terminate all trace of lineage to the throne from the enemy family. It
 makes David stand as high above the age in which he lived as the star Vega is above the sum- He deserves much
 credit for this magnanimous attitude. There is the tracing of the spirit
 brought into the world a thousand years later by the Messiah. At this point it is we'll that he is in the lineage
 of the Christ
 The story of Mephibosheth occupies
 the second place in the lesson. Twenty
 million Sunday school folk will attempt to pronounce this name once more. It is one of the hard names and a test
 word in pronunciation If you cannot pronounce and accent it correctly, you cannot pass into the inner charmed circle Your life may not depend upon it but try and get it for the sake of
 remembering the story. It is one word that will always serve as key to unlock an interesting chapter in Jewish his- tory.
 The boys will want to know why Mephibosheth was a cripple. It is an I to Hastings Bible Dictionary you can get the story in full. Tn brief it Is as follows: It was in the battle where the 1 Philistines slew Saul and his sons. The i battle of Gilboa where Israel was scat tered to the four winds. The little boy was only five years old when his fla l ther and his grandfather were slain. i When the news of the battle reached
 Jonathan's home, the boy was grabbed tip by a nurse who started to run
 away with him, but in her haste and excitement. dropped him. He was picked up a hopeless cripple for life. Boys will be able to sympathize with a crippled boy who is forever shut out Of
 the boy paradise of play and other | activities. It will be easy to teach them
 a lesson of gratitude for good bodies and the importance of keeping them sound and healthy.
 On the other hand it will furnish an l opportunity to teach courage and res l ignation when misfortune does come. | We can tell them of the many men | who have been successful in life though handicapped with i'll health or crippled bodies. Milton was blind. Beethoven was deaf. Calico and Bun van were put in prison. Pope was a hunchback. George Matheson is a helpless invalid yet he is writing some 1 of the finest hymns and stories of | courage and optimism. We see a man | in Phoenix every day working hard and apparently happy with both legs
 gone We must help boys and girls
 get the iron of will and grit driven so deeply into their souls that they will
 never show the coward, no matter how handicapped by physical or eireum-
 stantial limitations. Family poverty lack of education, necessity for hard work at low wages never can keep 2 1 Garfield or an Edison from becoming g what God meant them to be. We have a lot of high salaried, glib l tongued traitors telling our citizens
 every day that they can never be any
 thing but wage slaves until they quit
 work and go to fighting and destroy | ing what other have fought for and
 saved We must guard our youth
 against the poison of this un- American
 doctrine We even find teachers oc-
 casionally anG professors in universi-
 ties who teach this stuff. So far as | we know, Mephibosheth never made any attempt to defy his defect. He ate
 and slept and took as a matter of 1 course all that he could get without any attempt to give anything back. Many of us would have done as this boy but there are few who do not
 do as this boy and to the few who 1 rise above conditions. we owe gratitude
 for all the progress in the history Of
 the world. Teach the lesson that some | of the finest spirits in all history are found in crippled bodies. We do not need to leave Phoenix to find them.
 Teach the great lesson of kindness. 1 Thank God our boys and men were not
 taught in German schools where the fundamental principle instilled into all ! was that the biggest thing one could do was to overcome the other fellow