Through God's succeeding minute directions for the building and upholstery
of His tabernacle, "with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and
purple and scarlet, with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them,"
the interest of the little boys rather languished; likewise through His
regulations about such dry matters as slavery, divorce, and polygamy. His
directions for killing witches and for stoning the ox that gores a man or
woman had more of colour in them. But there was no real interest until the
good God promised His children to bring them in unto the Amorites and the
Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the
Jebusites, to "cut them off." It was not uninteresting to know that God
put Moses in a cleft of the rock and covered it with His hand when He
passed by, thus permitting Moses a partial view of the divine person. But
the actual fighting of battles was thereafter the chief source of
interest. For God was a mighty God of battles, never weary of the glories
of slaughter. When it was plain that He could make a handful of two
thousand Israelites slay two hundred thousand Midianites, in a moment, as
one might say, the wisdom of coming to the Feet, being born again, and
washing in the blood ceased to be debatable. It would seem very silly,
indeed, to neglect any precaution that would insure the favour of this
God, who slew cities full of men and women and little children off-hand.
The little boy thought Milo Barrus would begin to spell a certain word
with the very biggest "G" he could make, if any one were to bring these
matters to his notice.
As to Allan, who made abstracts of the winter's study, Clytemnestra and
her transcendent relative agreed that he would one day be a power in the
land. Off to Florida each week they sent his writing to Grandfather
Delcher, who was proud of it, in spite of his heart going out chiefly to
the littler boy.
"So this is all I know now about God," ran the conclusion, "except that He
loved us so that He gave His only Son to be crucified so that He could
forgive our sins as soon as He saw His Son nailed up on the cross, and
those that believed it could be with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and
those that didn't believe it, like the Jews and heathens, would have to be
in hell for ever and ever Amen. This proves His great love for us and that
He is the true God. So this is all I have learned this winter about God,
who is a spirit infinite eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom and
power holiness justice goodness and truth, and the word of God is
contained in the scriptures of the old and new testament which is the only
rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him. In my next I will take
up the meek and lowly Jesus and show you how much I have learned about
him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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