  JEREMIAH'S PROPHECIES. FIRST READING.
THE chapter to-day is one where God is putting us in mind, by His Prophet Jeremiah, whom he sent to speak to the wicked kings, that we ought to remember Him and be thankful to Him. Two of His great mercies are spoken of here. If you go and stand on the sea-shore, you see the great wide sea of waters heaving and moving all over. Then a long wave comes rising up; it runs on and on, and rises high, falls over in white foam, and breaks on the sand with a rush. Then another rolling wave comes after it, and another, and another, each a little higher than the last. They hide the ground; and if you stood still at the edge of the first, they would soon carry you off. Stone is hidden after stone, rock after rock, and you would think all the land would get covered at last. No, there is no fear of that. In six hours' time, the waves leave off coming farther and farther; but each leaves a little bit more ground uncovered, till they have gone quite back to where they were before, and the beach lies fresh and shining in the wet. People call this the tide, and know it always does so; it comes up and goes back at its set times, because God fixed a line for that fierce sea, and said to it, "Hitherto shalt thou go, and no farther; and here shall thy proud There is the wonder of the sea! Now look at the wonder of the land. All over the country, the corn stands up tall and brown; or else it has been cut, and is piled up in shocks; or the wagons are carrying it safe home! Perhaps you have been gleaning in the fields, and have brought home your lap full of corn. THE LORD COMMANDS JEREMIAH.—Jer. 2:16, 17. How did we get the corn that is to make us bread? It was because, when the farmer sowed his grain, God sent rain to make it grow, and caused the sun to shine, so as to draw up the stalk, and swell the grain in the ear; and now He hath "reserved to us the appointed weeks of the harvest." He has given us the glad harvest-time to store up our wheat, to make bread for all the year. Let us thank Him, and never forget who gives us bread, nor to say our prayer for daily bread. QUESTIONS.
SECOND READING.
YOU heard what a bad, cruel king Jehoiakim was. Still there was a hope that he and his people would take warning, when he heard that God would punish his sin; so Jeremiah the Prophet had all his prophecies written out on a roll of parchment, and his friend Baruch went to the Temple, and read to the people that if they would not worship God and serve Him faithfully, He would cause them all to be taken away prisoners to a strange land. Baruch stood reading the parchment; and the people listened to him, and some of them began to grow afraid. But then came some of the king's great people, and when they heard it they thought it would make the king angry. They forgot that God's anger signified much more than the king's anger. They did not want Jeremiah or Baruch to be punished, but they were afraid to let the reading go on. So they told Baruch to go away and hide himself and Jeremiah carefully, and then they took the prophecies to shew them to the king. The king was sitting by the fire warming himself, for it was in the winter. He listened for a little while; but when he found that the parchment was about his sins and God's anger, TWO PAGES OF AN ANCIENT SCROLL OF SCRIPTURES. In a very short time the enemy all came round Jerusalem, and everyone was shut up in the city, and could not get out, and food was very scarce; and Jehoiakim was taken and put in chains; and thus he died, and nobody grieved for him. His young son, Jehoiachin, was called king for a little while, but only for a very little while; for the king of Babylon broke into the city, and made him prisoner, and took him away to be shut up far from So you see God's words through Jeremiah all came true, though Jehoiakim would not heed them. He only made it worse by not listening. QUESTIONS.
THIRD READING.
GOD is pleased with those who obey what their parents tell them. To-day we hear about a family, whose father gave them an order that sounds strange to us. They were never to live in stone or brick houses, but always to have tents; they were not to have corn-fields or vineyards, but only flocks of sheep, and herds of cows and goats; and they were never to taste wine or strong drink, but only water and milk. It was quite a long time after the old father, who gave these orders, had died, that the Prophet Jeremiah was told to try whether they still minded him. He was told to set pots of wine and cups before them, and to ask them to drink. But they all answered steadily, that their father had bidden them never to touch wine, nor have fields, nor build houses; and they were resolved that they would obey him. Then God was pleased with them, and gave a blessing to them by the These Rechabites, as they are called, lived two thousand four hundred years ago; and their children and descendants have gone on like them ever since—living in tents, keeping sheep, and drinking no wine, and obeying the voice of their father, who lived so long ago. They have lasted so long, because God blessed their obedience. Now, sometimes a little child goes out alone, and some friend offers it something nice that it knows its mother would not like it to have. Or some person asks a little boy to come into a beer-shop, and drink a drop, when perhaps his father had told him not. Recollect, then, that if you are steady in minding what you are told, as those good Rechabites were, then God will be pleased with you, and own you for His good child, and give you His blessing. QUESTIONS.
ASSYRIAN ARMLET. |
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