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Title: Young Bible Reader
Date of first publication: 1847
Author: Anonymous
Date first posted: July 23 2012
Date last updated: July 23 2012
Faded Page eBook #20120728
This eBook was produced by: L. Harrison & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
The images for this eBook were provided courtesy Special Collections, University Libraries, Ball State University
Here are the two first people that ever lived. They did not have any father or mother: for nobody ever lived before they did. God made them and put them into a beautiful garden, full of birds, (you can see the little birds behind the woman,) and pretty animals, and full of all sorts of fruit. God told them that they might eat all the fruit they wanted, except that which grew on one tree in the middle of the garden. He told them never to touch that. Do you think they obeyed him? No. Look at the picture and you will see a great snake on the tree. He has been giving the woman some of the fruit, and she is handing some to her husband. Can you tell me their names? They were called Adam and Eve.—God was angry at them when they ate the fruit, and would not let them live any longer in the garden, but drove them out. God is displeased with bad children.
Only see that naughty man who is standing up there. He has just killed his poor brother, and now you see him lying dead on the ground, with his arms stretched out. That wicked man who stands with his fists doubled up is Cain, and the one lying down dead is Abel. God loved Abel because he was a good man: and one day when they both came to offer to God a sacrifice, God would not take Cain's sacrifice, for he was a wicked man, and God does not like wicked men. But He received Abel's sacrifice, which you see burning on an altar behind Cain.—Cain was very angry to think that God loved his brother more than he did him, and so he took a club, one day, and struck his brother, and knocked him down, and killed him. This is the first man that was ever killed. They were sons of Adam and Eve. You see how dreadful it is to get angry. Little boys and girls should remember that God sees them when they are angry.
Here is an old man. His name is Noah. Behind him you see a house in a boat, and a great many people coming out of it. I will tell you all about it.—The people all over the world, once became so wicked that God could not let them live, and was going to drown them all. But Noah was a good man—and God determined to preserve Noah alive—so he put Noah and all his family into the ark which you see, and many animals of all kinds. When God had shut them all in, it rained forty days and forty nights, all over the world. The waters became so deep, that men could not live in their houses, and they got up into the trees and mountains; but the water came up and drowned them all. Noah was in the ark just one year and ten days. During all this time he was safely kept by God, who will always keep us from harm if we love and obey him. When the waters went away, Noah came out of the ark. He has just come out, as you see in the picture.
I have just told you about the flood. But now I will tell you about another dreadful thing which happened a long time since. The men who lived in Sodom were so wicked that God would not let them live any longer. But he did not drown them, for he had promised not to. But he rained down fire from heaven and burned them all up, except Lot and his family. They were good, and God told them to go out of the city. And here you see them in the picture. How sorrowful they look. One of them has her hand to her eyes, crying. See the city is all on fire, and one poor man is trying to run out of the gate. God told Lot's family not to look round after they left the city; but his wife did not obey, and looked round to see the city, and God turned her into a pillar of salt.
We should always believe that God will do as he says. The earth will pass away, but God's word will all be fulfilled.
Only see! there is a pile of wood, and a boy named Isaac is tied up and laid on it. And there is his father with a great knife going to kill him. His father's name is Abraham. Abraham was a good man and loved God. He had but one son, whom he loved very much. God wanted to see if Abraham would mind him in every thing, and so he told him to kill his son Isaac. Abraham, though he loved his son so much, did not want to disobey God. But just as he lifted his knife to kill Isaac, God called to him out of heaven, and told him to stop; for God saw that Abraham was willing to do just what he told him; and, on looking around, he discovered a ram caught in the thicket, which he took and offered to God instead of his son. Oh, how glad they both were, when they heard God speak and tell Abraham not to kill Isaac!
In the picture you see Abraham is looking up to hear the voice of God.
I am going to tell you a little about Joseph, but I want you to get your Bible and find the story, and read it all, for I know you will like it. Joseph is that little boy standing by the dog. His brothers are going to sell him to those two great men standing in the middle of the picture. His brethren hated little Joseph, because their father loved him more than he did them. One day, when Joseph went out to see them in the field, they caught him, and sold him to some merchants who were going to Egypt. Joseph's father had given him a handsome coat of many colors. This his brothers took and dipped in blood, and carried to their father Jacob, wickedly telling him that Joseph had been destroyed by wild beasts. But, if you read the story in the Bible, you will see how great a man Joseph became, after he went to Egypt.
You see the men counting out the money in one corner of the picture.
This picture tells you about a very wicked king, whose name was Pharaoh. He was king of Egypt, the place where Joseph was carried. He made slaves of all the Israelites, and made them work, and beat them, and used them very cruelly indeed. God told him to let those poor people go; but he would not, and God punished him until he did.—But after they had gone, he was sorry that he had let them go, and went after them with a large army of soldiers. Soon he came in sight of the children of Israel; they were pent up between the mountains, and were sore afraid. Then God bade Moses, the leader of the children of Israel, smite upon the waters. And when Moses had done this, God opened the sea and made it stand up like walls on each side, while the Israelites marched through. But when Pharaoh was going through, God let the waters come together and drown him, and all the men who went with him.
When the children of Israel had escaped from Pharaoh, they traveled a great while in the desert. God had commanded Moses to bring them up out of Egypt, that they might go and worship Him in Canaan. But soon they complained against God, and wished to go back again to Egypt. They had become so much like the Egyptian idolaters, that they neglected to worship the true God. Once they were not satisfied with the food which God gave them in the desert, and began to murmur and wish for meat. So God sent them whole flocks of quails, and they caught them and began to eat. You can see them catching them in the picture.
But while the people were eating the quails, God sent a plague among them, which killed a great many of them; for it was very wicked to be discontented with God, and murmur against him. God always gives us what he thinks best for us, and he knows our wants much better than we do.
Pray, look here! See that great opening in the ground, and men falling into it! Here stand Moses and the priests; and at their left hand the fire blazes up. God sent the fire to burn up the wicked men who would not obey his servant Moses; and God made the ground open wide and swallow up a great many. God does not like to punish; but if people are wicked and do what is wrong, then he certainly will. If God does not punish naughty boys, and girls, and men, in this life, they must remember that he will punish them after they die. The names of those men falling into the ground, in the picture, are Dathan and Abiram, and their friends. They had banded themselves together for an evil purpose.—They were going to resist the will of God. But vain were their efforts. God was offended, and they were cut off in their sins.
Let us not provoke God's wrath, but cheerfully do his will.
Samson went down to Timnah to get him a wife, and a great lion met him and was going to kill him. But Samson was not afraid, and he caught hold of the lion and tore him to pieces. Do you not see, in the picture, how he has got the lion by the nose and is tearing out his tongue? Samson was the strongest man that ever lived; he could beat a great many hundred men, and could break any ropes they could tie him with.
Samson once went to the city of Gaza. The people, hearing of his arrival, set a guard about the house to kill him as he went out in the morning. But Samson rose at midnight, and took away the two gates of the city. One day some wicked people wanted to sport with him, and they put out his eyes and carried him into a great house, larger than many churches. But he took hold of the pillars and pulled the house down, and killed thousands of men, and himself among them.
That great man, with feathers in his cap, and his hand on his sword, is Goliath. He was a great giant, and had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot. On one side of him you see a boy—his name is David. Goliath was a wicked man, and was very strong, and he wanted somebody to come and fight with him, for he thought nobody could beat him. But David, though a boy, took a sling and put a stone in it, and whirled the sling round and round, and sent the stone at the giant, and hit him in the forehead and knocked him down. Then David ran and jumped up on to him, and pulled out his sword, and cut off his head and killed him. You see, in the picture, David whirling the stone in the sling.—And it came to pass, when the army returned from the slaughter of the Philistines, the women came out dancing and singing, and exclaimed, Saul (the king) hath slain his thousands, but David hath slain his ten thousands.
Once, when there was a great famine in the land of Israel, there lived a good man named Elijah.—When men cannot get anything to eat, and the ground will not bear any fruit, there is a famine. Now God loved this good man, and would not let him starve to death, as a great many poor people did. God told him to go away by a river, and live there among the trees and rocks; and every day God sent two birds, with meat in their bills, for Elijah to eat; and he drank water out of the river, and so he did not starve to death. You can see the birds in the picture flying with meat in their mouths, and there is Elijah holding up his hands to take it, and just before him is the river. Do you not think that Elijah was very grateful to God for thus providing him with food? No doubt he was very grateful. We all ought to be very thankful to God for the food he gives us. Many little boys and girls are obliged to beg their food from door to door. But it is not so with us.
Now I am going to tell you a dreadful story about some very naughty, wicked boys, and what became of them. Elisha was a good man; and once when he was going home, there came out of a city a great many little boys, who were very saucy, and they laughed at him, and mocked him, and cried out to him, "Go up, thou bald head, go!" that means, go along, you old man with a bald head! God was very angry to see one of his servants used so by boys, and so he sent some bears out of the woods, and they caught the boys and killed nearly fifty of them. You see the bears in the picture, and the good man too. This is like many children whom we have seen around some poor man in the streets. Instead of permitting him to pass peaceably along, they would cry out after him, and call him hard names. They also were very wicked, and ought rather to have helped him. We hope that no little boy who reads this book will ever be found doing so wickedly.
Jonah was a prophet. Once God told him to go down and preach in a great city, called Nineveh. But Jonah did not wish to go, and got into a ship and was going another way. Then God sent a great storm after the ship, and the men in the ship knew that it was sent because Jonah was there. So they took him up and threw him into the sea. A great whale swallowed up Jonah; and he was in the whale's belly three days and three nights. Then Jonah repented and prayed to God, and God made the whale throw him up on to dry land; and so Jonah did not die, though he was punished for disobeying God. You see the whale casting Jonah up on dry land. Jonah afterwards went and preached against Nineveh, as God had commanded him. And the people of Nineveh received the word of God, and repented of their sins. Now if Jonah had not gone, perhaps they would have been destroyed. We should always do as God bids us.
Only see! there is Daniel in the lions' den!—Daniel was a good man, and loved God, and loved to pray to him. But the king did not, and he said, if any body prayed to God for thirty days, or a whole month, he would throw them into the den of lions. But Daniel loved God more than he feared the king; and so he would not stop praying; and the king took him and threw him into the den. The lions were very hungry, but God would not let them touch Daniel. They lay all around him, but did not bite him. The king was very anxious about him all night, and as soon as there was any light, he went to the den. He was very glad when he found that Daniel was alive, and had him taken out immediately. But when the wicked men, who told the king to kill Daniel, were thrown in, the lions caught every one of them, and killed them and ate them up. They did not pray to God, and God sent not his angels to preserve them.
Herod was a wicked, cruel man; and when Jesus Christ our Savior was born, Herod was afraid that Jesus was going to be a great king, and would take away his power and rule over him. He sent some soldiers to Bethlehem, and killed all the little children who were not two years old; and he did this expecting Jesus would be among them. But an angel told his mother what Herod wanted, and she got up in the night and took the child and went down to Egypt, a great way off, and lived there till Herod died. Herod was a tyrant, that is, he was very cruel, and killed people. You can see these wicked men in the picture, with their long knives, tearing these little children from their mothers' arms, and cutting off their little heads. But they did not kill Jesus, as they intended. He was not in Bethlehem when they arrived. For an angel came to his parents, and told them to flee with the child into Egypt, and stay there till Herod was dead.
This picture tells you what Christ did. Once there was a man named Lazarus, and he fell sick and died. His sisters were very sorry, and sent to Jesus, and said, "If thou hadst been here, our brother would not have died." Christ went out to the place where they buried him, and took away the stone which they had put on his sepulchre, and cried with a loud voice to Lazarus. When he called, Lazarus came to life and rose up from the tomb; and you see him in the picture coming up from the grave. Christ and his disciples are standing by with his sisters.
Many other wonderful things were done by Jesus, about which you may read in your large Bible. You will there learn that when all men shall have been laid in their graves, that Christ will again come upon the earth. He will come with great glory, and the dead shall come forth to meet him in the skies.
Jesus Christ was a good being, and always did good and never hurt any body; yet the wicked Jews hated him and crucified him. It is true, they did praise him at times, and cried Hosanna to the Son of David. But soon their praises were turned to bitterness. They had expected that Christ would come to set up a great earthly kingdom. But, no! His was a kingdom of righteousness; therefore they rejected him. They nailed his hands and his feet to the cross, and pierced his side with a spear, and left him hanging on the cross in great agony. After he died they took him down, as seen in the picture, and then they buried him. After three days he arose again from the dead, and saw his disciples, and then ascended into heaven, where he now is. My dear children, he died for your sins—to save you from eternal death; and, oh! how careful you should be to love him, and mind him, and do all that he has told you in his holy Bible.
Do you see that woman putting something into a box, on one side of that man? She is a poor widow! She loved God, and wanted to do all she could to honor him and support his worship. As I said, she was very poor; but she put all the money she had into the treasury. Christ praised her for it, and said, that she had done even more than rich men, for she had given away all she had, but they only gave a very small part of their riches. Do you think that you would be willing to give away your money to send missionaries to the heathen? or to educate poor children who are not able to go to school? Good children always love to be generous and to aid others. We have known many little children meet together once in a week to do good. Some would bring their knitting work, and some would bring their sewing. When they had finished their little articles, they would have an auction sale, and the money would be applied to objects of charity.
Peter was one of Christ's disciples; he was a very good man, but was rash and hasty. One day when Christ was telling his disciples how every body would hate him, Peter exclaimed that he never would do so! He thought that he would die before he would say that he did not know and love our Savior. But Christ told him that before the cock should crow twice, he would deny him three times. When the wicked Jews had taken Jesus and were going to crucify him, some of them asked Peter if he was not a disciple of Jesus? Peter, afraid that they would kill him too, said he was not.
And pretty soon he said so twice more, just as Jesus had said he would. But Peter was afterwards very sorry that he had said so, and wept bitterly.—Peter failed to keep his promise, by being off his guard. He had made a very positive promise, and he should have been very watchful over his words. How careful we should all be in making promises!
After Christ died, Paul used to go into different towns and preach the gospel and form churches, and the good people loved him very much. Once when he was preaching at Troas, and preaching to them the last time he ever expected to, his discourse was very long, so that some of his hearers fell asleep.—There was a young man in the third story, (higher than the gallery of a church,) who fell down while asleep on the ground, and was killed. But Paul came to him, and brought him to life in the name of Jesus Christ. This was a miracle. Nobody can do miracles now, although some people think they can; but you must not believe them. Paul was once a very wicked man; he hated Christians so bad that he followed them even unto strange cities, desiring to slay all whom he might see. But when he was converted, he was very sorry for his wickedness, and went about doing all he could to build up the kingdom of Christ on earth.
I said, a little way back, that good men loved Paul. But all men are not good, and the wicked men all hated him very much indeed, and tried even to kill him. They used to beat him and put him in prison. Once they found him in the temple at Jerusalem, and caught him, and gave him to the Romans, and wanted to have them kill him. But Felix, before whom they brought him, would not hurt Paul until he could defend himself. When Paul spoke and proved that he had done nothing worthy of death, and showed that he had preached righteousness, and temperance, and a judgment to come, Felix trembled, and was very much terrified, for he never before had heard any good preaching.
This picture shows you Paul standing with his hand lifted up towards heaven. And he also felt the power of truth, convincing him of sin. For the great men of the earth are like others, sinners against God, and need to repent.
[The end of Young Bible Reader by anonymous]