THE LESSON STORIES OF JESUS.
When Jesus was at prayer His disciples stood reverently apart from Him,
and one day a disciple came near when he had ceased and said,
"Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."
Then the Lord taught them the beautiful prayer that is now said daily
all around the world, and known to every one of us, beginning, "Our
Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name."
And He told them how pleased God is to have His children ask Him for
what they need, or come to Him in trouble.
"Ask, and it shall be given you," He said; "seek, and ye shall find;
knock and it shall be opened unto you."
"If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give
him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a
serpent?"
"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give good gifts to
them that ask Him?"
It was while the Lord was teaching in the country called Peraea, east
of Jordan, that He told many things that His disciples remembered and
wrote in a book afterward, when the Holy Spirit had come to "bring all
things to their remembrance," as He had promised.
He had been teaching three years, and was thirty-three years of age.
Some of the people who lived, at Bethabara, by Jordan, were present
when He was baptized by John, and they were glad to have him stay among
them and teach, for they were a kindly people, and though not learned
like the men who were often to be found in the Temple courts and in the
Synagogues, they were the common people who, hearing the word and
loving it, were wiser than the Pharisees.
The Lord told many stories that these people would remember, and
afterward understand by the teaching of His Spirit which He said would
be given to them. You will read all of them in the Gospels, but here
we cannot tell them all.
The story of "The Fig-tree in the Vineyard," "The Great Supper," and
"The Foolish Rich Man" were stories of warning to those who were
turning away from the things of heaven to the things of the world, and
they were meant for all who should read them in the ages of the world.
So were the three stories--they are called "parables" in the
Gospels--of the lost things; "The lost sheep," "The lost piece of
money," and "The lost son." They were given to us to show the great
love of the Heavenly Father for His children, and His constant care in
seeking for them when they are wandering away from Him. These stories
are the voice of the Father always and everywhere calling His children
home, and many a poor soul has turned homeward with tears of repentance
after reading them.
One of these stories of lost things will be told here, but it is far
more beautiful in the language of the Scriptures.
There was once a rich man who had two sons, and the younger one came to
him and said,
"Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me."
And so the father divided his property, and gave the younger brother
his share. In a few days he had gathered it all together and settled
his affairs so that he could go away. He went into a distant country,
and there he spent all that he had among bad people who seemed to be
his friends, but were really his worst enemies.
When all that he had was spent there came a time of great trouble.
There was very little food in the land, for there was a famine, and he
was obliged to go to work for the little he could get. It was not easy
to find work, for the only thing he could do was to hire himself to a
man who kept pigs. His work was to stay in the fields and feed them
with husks, the hard pods of the carob tree. Sometimes he was so
hungry that he would have been glad to eat even these, but "no man gave
unto him." Then the young man "came to himself."
"How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare,"
he said, "and I perish with hunger!"
"I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I
have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be
called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.'"
The father must have been watching for his lost boy, for while he was
yet a great way off he saw him, and ran to meet him. He put his arms
around him and kissed him without once speaking of his sins, and he
called his servants to bring the best robe and put it on him, and a
ring for his hand, and shoes for his feet, and then to kill the fatted
calf to make a feast for all,
"For," he said "this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost,
and is found."
The elder son had been away in the field but when he came home heard
music and dancing, and called to a servant to ask what these things
meant. When he had heard he was very angry, and would not go in. His
father came out to beg him to come in and greet his brother, but he
said,
"Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any
time thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might
make merry with my friends." But the father said,
"Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet
that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead,
and is alive again, and was lost and is found."
[Illustration: The return of the prodigal]
There are other stories told by Jesus while in Peraea, which you will
find in the gospel by Luke, the beloved physician. One is about the
"Unjust Steward," and another is the story of the "Unjust Judge."
Still another is called "Dives and Lazarus," or the "Rich man and the
Beggar."
The parable of "The Pharisee and the Publican," describes two men who
went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a
publican.
[Illustration: The Pharisee and the publican]
The Pharisee prayed with _himself_, thus, "God, I thank thee that I am
not as other men are, or even as this publican. I fast twice a week.
I give tithes of all I possess."
And the publican, standing afar off, dared not even lift his eyes to
heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, "God be merciful to me a
sinner!"
"This man," said Jesus, "went down to his house justified rather than
the other; for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he
that humbleth himself shall be exalted."