G.o.d gives to the earth the rain in summer to make the gra.s.s grow, and the snow in winter to cover the ground.
G.o.d gives to the beasts and to the birds their food.
G.o.d gives to us our homes and friends and all that makes us happy.
G.o.d gives us the Bible to tell us how he loves us.
G.o.d gives us sweet sleep at night.
G.o.d gives us health to enjoy all his gifts.
What has G.o.d given you to-day? Have you thanked him for it?
"Who giveth food to the hungry."--_Psalms 146:7_.
"Who giveth to the beast his food."--_Psalms 147:9_.
"So he giveth his beloved sleep."--_Psalms 127:2_.
"He giveth snow like wool."--_Psalms 147:16_.
"Give us this day our daily bread."--_Matthew 6:11_.
"My peace I give unto you."--_John 14:27_.
"Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all."--_I Timothy 2:6_.
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JESUS AND HIS FRIENDS
Jesus had many friends.
Some of them were people whom he had healed.
Some of them had heard him talk, and had learned to love him.
Sometimes they stayed with him, day after day.
Jesus loved his friends.
Jesus told his friends about G.o.d.
Jesus was so kind and loving to his friends that they could not help loving him.
The friends of Jesus were called disciples.
Disciple means learner.
The disciples learned what Jesus had taught.
Jesus picked out from his friends a few to be with him all the time.
They were sometimes called disciples, too.
Sometimes they were called apostles.
Apostle means one who is sent.
Jesus sent the apostles out to tell others about himself.
There were twelve of the apostles.
The names of three of them were Peter, James, and John.
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[Ill.u.s.tration]
BEAUTIFUL NAZARETH: OUTLOOK FROM HILLS ABOVE TOWN TO HISTORIC ESDRAELON
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood and used by special permission.
After he began his active ministry Jesus had no home, but while he was a boy his home was in the town of Nazareth, beautifully situated among the hills of Galilee. A traveler there describes the town as it now is;--
"Almost in the center of this chain of hills there is a singular cleft in the limestone, forming the entrance to a little valley.
As a traveler leaves the plain he will ride up a steep and narrow pathway, broidered with gra.s.s and flowers, through scenery which is neither colossal nor overwhelming, but infinitely beautiful and picturesque. Beneath him, on the right-hand side, the vale will gradually widen, until it becomes about a quarter of a mile in breadth. The basin of the valley is divided by hedges of cactus into little fields and gardens, which, about the fall of the spring rains, wear an aspect of indescribable calm, and glow with a tint of the richest green. Beside the narrow pathway, at no great distance apart from each other, are two wells, and the women who draw water there are more beautiful, and the ruddy, bright-eyed shepherd boys who sit or play by the well sides, in their gay-colored Oriental costume, are a happier, bolder, brighter-looking race than the traveler will have seen elsewhere. Gradually the valley opens into a little natural amphitheater of hills, supposed by some to be the crater of an extinct volcano; and there, clinging to the hollows of a hill, which rises to the height of some five hundred feet above it, lie, "like a handful of pearls in a goblet of emerald," the flat roofs and narrow streets of a little Eastern town. There is a small church; the ma.s.sive buildings of a convent; the tall minaret of a mosque; a clear, abundant fountain; houses built of white stone, and gardens scattered among them, umbrageous with figs and olives, and rich with the white and scarlet blossoms of orange and pomegranate.
In spring, at least, everything about the place looks indescribably bright and soft; doves murmur in the trees; the hoopoe flits about in ceaseless activity; the bright blue roller-bird, the commonest and loveliest bird of Palestine, flashes like a living sapphire over fields which are enameled with innumerable flowers."
[End ill.u.s.tration]
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JESUS HAD NO HOME
Jesus had no home of his own after he grew up.
Once a man wanted to be his disciple.
Jesus wanted this man to know that he had no fine house where he could entertain him.
He said that the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but that he had not where to lay his head.
His friends asked him to visit them.
They were always glad when he came to see them.
Sometimes a rich man asked Jesus and his friends to dinner.
He made no difference between the rich and the poor among his friends.
One of the homes where he liked to be was the home of a fisherman.
The fisherman"s name was Simon.
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