RECAPITULATION.



WE have now passed over four thousand years of the history of our race, giving particular attention to the dealings of God with his people. 

We have noticed the creation of the earth, and all things in it; the institution of the Sabbath; the loss of Paradise; the first shedding of human blood; the sacrifices that typified the offering of Christ; the translation of Enoch; the preaching of Noah; the destruction of the wicked by the waters of the flood; the bow of promise; the confusion of tongues; the calling of Abraham; the trying of his faith; the spotless life of Isaac; the sins of Jacob, and his consequent banishment; his hard service for Laban; his wrestling with the angel; the death of his beloved Rachel; the cruel conduct of his sons, in selling their brother as a slave; Joseph's integrity and faithfulness; his gift as an interpreter; his exaltation by Pharaoh; the famine, and the visits of his brothers, who came to Joseph for food; the removal of his father and all his family to Egypt; and the cruel bondage to which they were subjected after the death of Joseph.

Then Moses is born, and soon after, adopted by the king's daughter; when grown to mature manhood, he prefers to join his despised countrymen rather than to be a prince in the house of the mighty Pharaoh; his indignation at the cruel treatment practiced upon his brethren causes him to slay an Egyptian, and for this, he goes into banishment forty years.

Then the Lord speaks to him from the burning Bush in Horeb, and commissions him to return to Egypt, and deliver his people. The plagues are inflicted to show the Egyptians that the God of the Israelites is infinitely superior to the gods they worship, and that he is able to destroy them at will; the Passover is instituted; the first-born are slain; the Red Sea is crossed, and the hosts of Pharaoh destroyed.

The Israelites are supplied with bread from Heaven, and water from the rock. On arriving at Sinai, they covenant to obey the voice of God, and he gives them his Law, the Ten Commandments. They remain at Sinai nearly a year, while the tabernacle is building, and then set forward toward the Promised Land. In a few days they near its border, and send spies forward to reconnoiter. The people believe the evil report of the spies, murmur and rebel against God, and are condemned to complete forty years wandering in the wilderness. Moses instructs and solemnly warns the people, and having ordained Joshua to succeed him, dies upon Mount Nebo.  Joshua leads the host through the divided waters of the Jordan, takes Jericho and Ai, defeats five kings at Gibeon, overruns southern Palestine, conquers the king of Hazor and many other kings in a great battle by the waters of Merom, and in a few years completes the conquest of almost the entire land.

Then the people of God were for many years under elders and judges, sometimes forsaking God, and falling under the dominion of cruel and oppressive enemies; and again repenting, and finding deliverance by the mighty hand of Him to whom they had been so untrue.

Finally the people clamored for a king, and were ruled successively by Saul, David, and Solomon, each of whom reigned forty years. After the death of Solomon the kingdom was divided; ten of the tribes from that time were known as the kingdom of Israel, and the others, as the kingdom of Judah. The twenty kings of Israel were all wicked and idolatrous men, and after existing about 250 years the nation was entirely subdued, and carried into captivity by the Assyrians. Some of the kings of Judah were noble, God-fearing men, but many more practiced all the abominations of the heathen nations around them, refusing to heed the admonitions of the prophets whom the Lord had sent to warn them. So they were finally abandoned to their enemies, and carried away to Babylon, where they remained captives seventy years. The temple was destroyed, and Jerusalem lay in ruins; but soon after the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon, Cyrus gave the Jews permission to return to their own country, and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah were leaders among the Jews at that time, and were very zealous in restoring the ancient customs and forms of worship, and in bringing the people into strict obedience to the requirements of the law. Malachi was the last of the prophets, and a synopsis of the events occurring between his time and the life of Christ is found in the last part of 

Lesson 110.

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"WHAT shall I do," said a teacher, the other day, "to catch and hold the attention of my class?" "Be in earnest," was the answer. Earnestness always arrests attention and holds it. The man who cries "fire," or "murder," with the earnestness of conviction, does not fail to rouse every one that hears the cry. Let us utter the great truths of the Bible as though we believed in their reality, and no one then will be listless or indifferent.

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MAZARINE BIBLE.

THE new Lenox Library, in New York City, contains a magnificent copy of the Mazarine Bible, printed in Metz, by Guttenberg, in 1455. It is the first book printed from movable types, and yet, strange to say, it is one of the noblest monuments of the "art preservative of all arts" in existence. There are only two copies of this Bible on this continent, the other being owned by the heirs of the late George Brenley, of Hartford, Conn. The last copies sold at the Perkins sale, London, June 6, 1873, brought $17,000 for the one printed on vellum, and $13,550 for the one on paper.





BEFORE Joshua died, he gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem. Beginning back before the time of Abraham, he gave a brief account of what God had done for his people. He told them how the Lord had called Abraham and given him all the land of Canaan; how he multiplied the seed of Abraham; and how, when they had become bond-men in Egypt, the Lord plagued the Egyptians, and delivered his people by the hand of Moses, making a way for them to escape through the Red Sea; how he brought them through the wilderness, and drove out the Canaanites before them, giving them cities that they had not builded, and vineyards that they had not planted.

When he had talked to them in this way, he asked them to choose the God whom they would serve, whether it should be the Lord, or the gods of the heathen nations around them. "And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey." So Joshua made a covenant with the people, and wrote it in a book. After this, Joshua died, and was buried on the north side of a hill in the mountains of Ephraim.

''And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that over- lived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel."

Then there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord nor the works, which he had done for Israel; but worshiped Baal and Ashtaroth, the gods of the nations round about them.

Then the Lord gave them into the hand of spoilers; and wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil; and they were greatly distressed. But whenever the people turned to the Lord, and cried to him, then he heard them, and raised up judges, who delivered them from the hand of those that spoiled them; for "When the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge." "And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them."

The first of these judges was Othniel, the son-in-law of Caleb. He delivered them from the king of Mesopotamia. Then came Ehud, who conquered the Moabites by first killing their king with his own hand, and then leading an army against them. Shamgar, also, performed great feats of courage against the Philistines.

At this time the land had rest eighty years; but the people again did wickedly, and fell into the hands of Jabin, king of Hazor. The Lord then raised up Deborah, the prophetess, to judge them. It was by her advice that Barak gathered an army at Mount Tabor, whither Sisera led the host of Jabin, and was utterly defeated.

After a peace of forty years, the people again forsook the Lord, and for seven years were cruelly oppressed by the Midianites, who robbed them of their grain, their fruit, and their cattle  and drove them into the dens and caves of the mountains. Then they cried to the Lord for help, and he sent an angel to call Gideon to deliver his people. Gideon met an immense army of the Midianites in the valley of Jezreel, where he defeated them in one of the strangest battles ever known. '' And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon."

All Gideon's seventy sons, except one, were slain by a cruel half-brother named Abimelech.

Abimelech, however, did not rule long before he was mortally wounded by a stone, thrown from a tower by a woman. Then Tola judged the land twenty-three years, and after him Jair, twenty-two years.

Again the people fell to worshiping idols, and were given into the hand of the Ammonites.

This time, when they called upon the Lord, he told them to go to the gods, which they worshiped, for help; but finally they pleaded so earnestly that the Lord put his Spirit upon Jephthah, and through him conquered their enemies. Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, each held the office of judge for a few years; and about this time Eli and Samson judged Israel forty years.


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RESPECT to aged persons is one of the virtues. There is no period in life when our parents do not claim our love and warmest affection. It should be our constant study howto best promote their happiness and welfare.


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 "IN six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."
"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and ..... took the man and put him in the garden to dress it and to keep it"; but Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and lost their beautiful home. This was indeed sad, but other trouble came upon them; for Cain, their oldest son, became jealous, and slew his brother Abel.
As men multiplied upon the earth, wickedness increased, until God was obliged to destroy them all, saving only the family of Noah. Noah and his sons were good men; but their descendants forsook the Lord, and so the Lord confused their speech at the tower of Babel, and they were scattered abroad upon the earth. After this, God chose Abraham, and called him to leave his native country and go into the land of Canaan. Isaac was the only son of Abraham and his wife Sarah. He was the father of two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob was the father of the twelve patriarchs from whom the tribes of Israel were named. Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob, having been sold as a slave by his envious brothers, became, next to the king, chief ruler of Egypt. Finally, his brethren and their father came down to Egypt to escape the famine. 
Here they remained 215 years. While Joseph lived, they were well treated; but after his death, they suffered great affliction, till the Lord, by the hand of Moses, brought them out of Egypt into the land of Canaan. In making this journey they had to pass through a barren country, called in those days a wilderness. In this wilderness they had to wander forty years, till they had learned to obey the voice of the Lord.
At Mount Sinai they remained a year. Here the Ten Commandments were spoken by the voice of God, and written by his finger on tables of stone. Here, too, the tabernacle, with its holy vessels, was built, according to the pattern, which the Lord showed Moses.
At the waters of Mer'-i-bah, Moses became impatient, and so displeased the Lord that he 
was not permitted to go into Canaan, but died in sight of the promised land, and was buried by the angels of God. Joshua then led the people across the Jordan. To make a way for this, the Lord rolled back the waters of the river, leaving its bed dry for the people to pass through.
On the plain of Jericho, Joshua was met by the Captain of the Lord's host; and at the taking of Jericho, the Lord's host threw down the walls of the city. At the siege of Ai, a much smaller city, the Israelites were put to flight, because there was iniquity among them; but when all had been made right, the Lord gave them an easy victory over the men of Ai.
Next, the ceremony was performed on Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, and soon after, Joshua was deceived by the crafty Gibeonites. The league with these men led to a battle with the kings of the surrounding cities, and it was in this battle that Joshua commanded the sun and moon to stand still. Then came the battle at Lake Merom, followed by the conquest of all the cities in the northern part of Palestine. Finally, about six or seven years after crossing the Jordan, Joshua completed the conquest of the country, and divided it among the different tribes of his people, just as Moses had directed.