Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

assembly,"man."sun."sun"vanities"vanity"universe,"only Beloved Son of God. He was offered a sacrifice for us, that we throughHis death might have life.5. Many things in the life of Josephpoint to the life of Jesus. Name at leastfive of those given in last week's lesson.Again, as above, allow the Juniorsto tell the story of each of these types ofpictures. Perhaps the leader or some ofthe Juniors may think of -others toadd to this list.Further suggestions for review. 1.If flash cards have been prepared andused, they may be made the basis ofreview of the stories suggested by eachone. Many different methods of reviewby use of the cards will occur to theleader. 2. Memory verses of the seriesmay be repeated and their applicationto the stories made plain. 3. Each Juniormay be allowed to name his favoritestory or character and give reasons forthe choice. 4. The group may be dividedin two sides, with each side alternatingin naming a character in Genesis. Anyone failing to give a character not previously named, within a given time limit,must drop out of line. 5. A Junior maygive one fact about a character inGenesis for the others to guess. If noone can identify the person from the oneclue, a second fact may be given, continuing until the name is guessed. Theone guessing the name may then chooseanother character for the group toguess. 6. The leader says, "I met a friendtoday."Some child, "What friend didtoday?"you meetLeader, "I met afriend with an "R" (first letter of thename of a person in Genesis). The firstchild to guess the correct name maycontinue the game, until all charactersstudied in Genesis have been named.The same game may be played usingplace names instead of those of people."I met a friend from "U", etc.Three important things for the teacher to emphasize:1. In the life ofAbraham, God'sFaithfulness.2. In the life of Jacob, God's Grace.3. In the life of Joseph, God's Providence.For your note-books. See if you canname the incident or person referred tounder each letter. Then put the acrostic,with the answers, in your note-book as areview of Genesis.G-od made it in the beginning. 1:1E-vil brought it into the world. 7:6.N-o quarreling over pastures. 13:8.E-nough room for wells without strife.26:19S-aw God near in a dream. 28:16.I-n a prison in Egypt. 41:14.S-aving his family. 47:12.(Adapted from the Sunday SchoolTimes.)362SABBATHSCHOOL LESSONDecember 26, 1954by Rev. Joseph A. Hill(Lessons based on International Sunday SchoolLessons; the International Bible Lessons forChristian Teaching:, copyrighted by the International Council of Religious Education.)THE WHOLE DUTY OF MANLesson Material: Ecclesiastes 1 5; 12.Printed Text: Ecc. 1:2, 3, 13; 2:1, 18; 3:16; 4:1; 5:10-12; 12:1, 2, 13, 14.Memory Verse: Ecc. 12:13the conclusion"Let us hearof the whole matter:fear God, and keep his commandments:for this is the whole duty ofNote: With this lesson the presentwriter lays down his pen, after a year'stour of duty. It has been a real pleasureto present these lessons to the church,but the honor of writing the weeklycomments ought to be passed around.And the church, no doubt, deserves achange.JAH.The title of Ecclesiastes is that affixed to the book in the Septuagint(Greek version of the Old Testament,ibout 250 B.C.) Everyone will recognizethe similarity between this title andour common word "ecclesiastical," coming from the Greek word ecclesia, meaning "an a group of peoplecalled together, hence in the New Testament,"church."The book is so-calledDecause it comprises the instructionPreacher,"given by Ecclesiastes, or "the;vho is known as qoheleth in the Hebrew. Students of Hebrew will recognizethis word as a gal active participle,feminine singular. The reason for thefeminine is probably that it denotes an office (Edward J. Young,Introduction to the Old Testament, Wm.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., p. 339).Qoheleth, translated "the Preacher,"then, is one who gathers or addressesan assembly.Qoheleth's purpose is to examine various areas of human experience to findone life-commitment, devotion to whichis worthy as an end in itself, the goalof life. He seeks the answer to the question, "What is the chief end of man?"To what end may a man devote hisentire life, that will satisfy man's entirenature? He examines several options:pleasure, wealth, business, philanthropy,formalistic religion, compromise. Willwholehearted devotion to anyof these"philosophies of life" bring lasting satisfaction and happiness? Qoheleth conducts an experiment in Goal-ethics, determined to learn from his own experience whether man can find permanentsatisfaction in any of these life-options.Is there finality to anything "under thesun"? Or is there something more tolife? If so, the Preacher meant to discover it.The book is given a certain pitch bythe constant recurrence of the expressions "under the(28 times), "underthe heaven" (3 times) and "upon theearth"(7 times). These expressionsdenote the temporal characteristic ofall the options examined by the Preacher. He finds that men cannot find truesatisfaction by committing his life toany earth-bound endeavor because manis not simply an earthly creature. Manhas a free spirit which soars high aboveall that is earthly. Man's heart is thetranscendent element of his being; man'sheart cries out that there is somethingmore to life than what he can see"under theMan is not simply acreature of here and now. Man's lifeis three-dimentional ; it consists of timespace-eternity.Notice Ecc. 3:11: God"hath set the world in their heart";but the A.R.V. correctly translates,heart.""He hath set eternity in theirGod has placed within the heart ofman an indestructible element whichsoars above the world of time andspace into eternity. Man's heart tellshim that there is a destinyhis choice of a life-option.at stake in"Vanity ofis the refrainthat we hear again and again from thelips of the man who is disillusionedbecause he gave his life to pleasure,wealth, or business success. "Vanity ofvanities; all is that sounds likethe ranting of an agnostic who likes totalk about "the meaningless"the ultimate emptiness" of everything,and gets his university salary by suchperforming. But down deep in his hearteven the agnostic doesn't believe whathe says. His raving is just a mask tocover up the sense of God inscribed onhis heart.Let us look brieflyat a single option,that of pleasure or mirth: We engagein pleasures with our whole being, bodyand soul. A ball game, for example, isnot just exercise for the body; it involves a certain spiritual participation.If you have ever sat in the grandstandin the last of the ninth inning withbases loaded and two men out and thescore tied, you will know what I meanby spiritual participation in pleasures.Sports have a remarkable power ofuniting themselves to our hearts, ofmaking hearts pound with thrills, buoyant with sensation. As a matter of fact,the more we put our heart into recreation, the more pleasure we get out ofit.Now, pleasures recreations, sports,travel, etc. have a legitimate place inlife. But that is not,the question in theBook of Ecclesiastes. The question is:COVENANTER WITNESS