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| Oh no! Not again! |
Description of Illuminated Scripture: baby leans on and looks at a world globe, speech bubbles, ding-bats, simple symbols, the baby thinking,
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| Someone needs a good wash... |
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| Someone call the Red Cross! |
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| Someone should pray... |
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| The keys to the problems... |
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| Portrait of the Widow of Nain. |
The widow of Nain's son (Luke 7:11-19) was the first person Jesus raised from the dead. It was after He and his disciples and a multitude following Him had left Capernaum and had entered the village of Nain, which lies on the lower slopes of the Little Hermon. When Jesus came to the gate of the city, "Behold, there was dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her."
Luke goes on to relate that Jesus had compassion upon her, as He always did upon women in distress. No one asked Him for help, but walking up to the widow Jesus said, "Weep not." Such words
were not a feeble effort to console her. They had a deeper meaning, as she was soon to learn.
He came and touched the bier of her son and spoke to him, "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise." And the young man who had been dead began to speak. Though Luke does not give us a definite
picture of the mother or express how she felt when her son was raised from the dead, the one graphic stroke is sufficient: Jesus "delivered him to his mother."
The most amazing phase of the healing of the widow of Nain's son is that all who had witnessed this miracle "glorified God" saying a great prophet had come among them. And they recognized that Jesus was a far greater prophet than had been Elijah, who had raised from the dead the son of the widow of Zarephath. Elijah had raised her son after he had gone into a room alone and prayed for the boy. But Jesus healed the son of the widow of Nain instantaneously as a bewildered crowd looked on.
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| The Egyptian wife of Joseph, Son of Jacob. |
JACOB'S PILLOW
The bed was earth, the raised pillow stones,
Whereon poor Jacob rests his head, his bones;
Heaven was his canopy; the shades of night
Were his drawn curtains, to exclude the light.
Poor state for Israel's heir it seems to me
His cattle found as soft a bed as he:
Yet God appeared there, his joy, his crown;
God is not always seen in beds of down.
Oh, if that God shall please to make my bed,
I care not where I rest my bones, my head;
With Him, my wants can never prove extreme;
With Jacob's pillow give me Jacob's dream.
Philip Quarles.
JACOB'S DREAM
The sun was sinking on the mountain zone
That guards thy vales of beauty, Palestine !
And lovely from the desert rose the moon,
Yet lingering on the horizon's purple line,
Like a pure spirit o'er its earthly shrine.
Up Bethel's rocky height abrupt and bare
A pilgrim toiled, and oft on day's decline
Looked pale, then paused for eve's delicious air;
The summit gained, lie knelt, and breathed his evening prayer.
He spread his cloak, and slumbered; darkness fell
Upon the twilight hills; a sudden sound
Of silver trumpets o'er him seemed to swell,
Clouds heavy with the tempest gathered round;
Yet was the whirlwind in its cavern bound;
Still deeper rolled the darkness from on high,
Gigantic volume upon volume wound;
Above, a pillar shooting to the sky;
Below, a mighty sea that spread incessantly.
Voices are heard, a choir of golden strings,
Low winds, whose breath is loaded with the rose:
Then chariot-wheels, the nearer rush of wings;
Pale lightning round the dark pavilion glows.
It thunders; the resplendent gates unclose;
Far as the eye can glance, on height o'er height
Rise fiery waving wings, and star-crowned brows,
Millions on millions, brighter and more bright,
Till all is lost in one supreme, unmingled light.
But two beside the sleeping pilgrim stand,
Like cherub kings, with lifted, mighty plume,
Fixed, sun-bright eyes, and looks of high command:
They tell the Patriarch of his glorious doom;
Father of countless myriads that shall come,
Sweeping the land like billows of the sea,
Bright as the stars of heaven from twilight's gloom,
Till He is given whom angels long to see,
And Israel's splendid line is crowned with Deity.
Rev. George Croly.
In Search of A Wife
In the lone field he walks at eventide,
To meditate beneath the open sky,
Where born on lighter wings prayers upward fly,
And down from Heaven sweet answers swiftly glide.
But as he glanced around that landscape wide,
Far off a train of camels meets his eye,
And as they nearer come he can descry
A maiden vailed, - his unseen, God-sent bride.
Thus while to Heaven thought after thought was rising,
The fair Rebekah step by step drew nigh,
With life's chief joy the prayerful saint surprising:
For those who think of Him God still is thinking,
With tender condescension from on high,
Some comfort ever to some duty linking.
Rev. R. Wilton.
THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH
Calm is it in the dim cathedral cloister,
Where lie the dead all couched in marble rare,
Where the shades thicken, and the breath hangs moister
Than in the sunlit air.
Where the chance ray that makes the carved stone whiter,
Tints with a crimson or a violet light
Some pale old bishop with his staff and mitre,
Some stiff crusading knight!
Sweet is it where the little graves fling shadows
In the green churchyard, on the shaven grass,
And a faint cowslip fragrance from the meadows
O'er the low wall doth pass !
More sweet, more calm in that fair valley's bosom
The burial-place in Ephron's pasture-ground,
Where the oil-olive shed her snowy blossom,
And the red grape was found;
When the great pastoral prince, with love undying,
Rose up in anguish from the face of death,
And weighed the silver shekels for its buying
Before the sons of Heth.
Here, when the measure of his days was numbered,
Days few and evil in this vale of tears!
At Sarah's side the faithful patriarch slumbered,
An old man full of years:
Here, holy Isaac, meek of heart and gentle,
And the fair maid who came to him from far,
And the sad sire who knew all throes parental,
And meek-eyed Leah, are.
She rests not here, the beautiful of feature,
For whom her Jacob wrought his years twice o'er,
And deemed them but as one, for that fair creature,
- So dear the love he bore, -
Nor Israel's son beloved, who brought him sleeping
With a long pomp of woe to Canaan's shade,
Till all the people wondered at the weeping
By the Egyptians made.
Like roses from the same tree gathered yearly,
And Hung together in one vase to keep, -
Some, but not all who loved so well and dearly,
Lie here in quiet sleep.
What though the Moslem mosque be in the valley,
Though faithless hands have sealed the sacred cave,
And the red Prophet's children shout ''El Allah!''
Over the Hebrews' grave;
Yet a day cometh when those white walls shaking
Shall give again to light the living dead,
And Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, reawaking,
Spring from their rocky bed.
Mrs. C. F. Alexander.
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| Herodias, Killer of John The Baptist. |
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| "Is not the Lord gone out before thee?" |
An erring woman remembered only by her wickedness - that was Potiphar's wife. When she attempted infidelity with young Joseph during her husband's absence from home, she disgraced the distinction she might have borne, that of respected wife of the chief of the Egyptian king's bodyguard.
Egyptian sculptures and paintings on the walls of ancient tombs help us to picture her as a woman wearing a dress of exceedingly fine linen, pleated into a chevron pattern in the back. Around her high waistline she wore an ornamental girdle and on her head a gold band set with jewels. Her sensual lips were heavily painted with a' purplish pigment, and her slanting eyebrows were made darker with heavy black dye. Around her ankles were gold bands, and she wore other heavy jewelry in her ears and around her neck, and on her long tapering fingers were rings with large jewels.
We know she was a spoiled, selfish woman, probably older than Joseph and certainly more worldly. She knew nothing of Joseph's God and the high standards upheld by those who believed in Him. Her gods were the physical pleasures, and she spent her days trying to satisfy them.
The setting in which she moved was one of elegance and splendor. Her house, similar to Egyptian royal houses of that period of about 1700 B.C., had a block of high rooms surrounding the main room and inner garden court.
This Egyptian house kept Joseph, the young overseer, busy, for it had stables and harness rooms, shelter for small wooden chariots, servants' quarters, granary courtyards, and conical grain bins, as well as an agricultural center. Even the trees, set in brick tubs containing Nile mud, had to be watered daily. There were slaves to direct, purchases to be made in the market, and distinguished guests who demanded personal attentions.
As supervisor of all this, Joseph, who had been purchased from the Ishmaelites in the slave market, had risen to a place of high trust, for the young Hebrew was faithful, honest, upright, and conscientious. We can be sure, too, that he was beautiful of form and face like his mother Rachel and humble and consecrated like his father Jacob.
It was with dignity that he moved about his master's house, wearing a skirt of fine linen tucked under a colorful belt from which hung a leather tab. On his feet were simple sandals with pointed upturned toes, and his abundant black hair probably hung to his shoulders. But one would be less likely to observe the details of his dress than his quiet demeanor and the noble qualities in his smooth- shaven face.
He was a sturdy, stalwart youth whom evil women would delight to tempt. Potiphar's wife probably was dissatisfied with her own husband. Here in her own house was this handsome young Hebrew with whom she would like to take liberties.
Because Potiphar was one of King Pharaoh's important officials, it is quite natural to suppose he had to be away from home a great deal, and he had entrusted to Joseph not only the safekeeping of his most valuable possessions but also the protection of his family. For a man to feel safe about his family, especially his wife, he had to leave as overseer one who had not only superior ability but also a deep sense of integrity.
Potiphar's wife, however, had no appreciation of good character. After her husband had departed, she sought to become familiar with Joseph. And one day, when no men were about the house, she said to him, ''Lie with me'' (Gen. 39:7). But he resisted, for he had disciplined himself to do what was right.
He must have startled this evil woman when he answered her invitation by saying, ''There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?'' (Gen. 39:9).
Potiphar's wife had not dealt with such an honorable man before. She was angered, but she was not outdone. Day by day she invited him into her private boudoir, but he always retreated from her advances, because he knew God had great purposes for him to serve, and he must uphold that which was right and good.
Finally, when Potiphar's wife could not entice Joseph, she caught his garment in her hand and held it; but he fled, leaving it with her. This woman who had not received what she asked for determined to hurt Joseph, in order to save face herself. She screamed loudly to other men in the household, saying, ''See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice,'' (Gen. 39:14).
She now kept Joseph's garment and showed it to her husband on his return. When Potiphar saw it, he immediately cast Joseph into prison, for his wife had lied, saying, ''The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us, came in unto me to mock me: And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled out.'' (Gen. 39:17-18) .
These are the last words of this despicable woman, who has become a symbol of the faithless wife. Her obscurity, except for her wickedness, is final, but the young Joseph rose to noble stature, even within prison walls. Her own silence, in face of the youth's term in prison, is even greater admission to the bad character of Potiphar's wife, who was not only a sensualist but also a coward who could not admit her own guilt.
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| "Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name!..." Psalm 142:7 |
Description of Clip Art: man chained in jail, prisoner in black and white, bars on the window, prison with cement block walls and floors, alone in the dark, ball and chain, the burden of prosecution, scriptures for those who are in prison...
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| "Let the groans of the prisoners come before you; according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!: Psalm 79:11 |
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| "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13 |
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| "Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison..." Hebrews 13:3 |
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| "The Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people." Psalm 69:33 |
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| Mary Magdelene, "See, He Is Risen" Jesus casts seven demons out of the woman of Magdala. She becomes one of His most faithful followers, going with Him all the way to cross. She is first to know He has arisen and to report this to His disciples Peter and John. |