Bible stories to tell children

Preface

THE writer hesitates to add another Bible story book to the many good ones we now have, but he nevertheless ventures to send forth this book, because he believes it to be different from the others. The purpose of the author has been to put only a few of the old familiar stories into modern English, using the constructive imagination to complete the pictures. We know, for instance, that when it became necess’ary to hide Moses from the Egyptian soldiers his mother and sister must have talked about it ; when David came to the place where his brothers were in Saul’s army a much more extended conversation must have taken place than the writer of the history has recorded. The author has tried to imagine what these people said to each other and to put it in words.

We are only just beginning to recognize the great importance of the story in education, and we ought to use it even more than we do. It is hoped that these stories will serve in some degree as models, so that those

Preface who use this book will be led to put manymore Bible stories into their own words, filling in such details as any one knows must have accompanied the incidents. Any parent or teacher can do this ; and remember, stories must be told with eyes and hands, as well as voice, so that the scene is brought vividly before the listening child.

The author wishes it understood that no attempt has been made to include all useful Bible stories. The ones in this book are only a few of those which for years he has been telling to little children, and he feels from his own experience that if Bible stories are told as these have been, lasting impressions for good will be made upon the hearts of the children who hear them.

William D. Murray.

New York City .

(Philemon) .....

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XXVI. How Jesus Rose Again (Matt, xxviii

I

Illustrations

Joseph and Mary (Arrival at Bethelem)

Daniel in the Den of Lions Elimelech and Naomi Holy Women at the Tomb

. Frontispiece

Facing page

• 45

• • 99

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II

I

LONG, long ago, before the first Christmas, in a country far away across the sea, a lot of people lived, who were called Jews. God had given them the most wonderful book in the world — the Bible ; that is, they had the part of the Bible called the Old Testament. The land in which these people lived was not like our happy country, for they were ruled by kings who were often very cruel and wicked. If the king wanted to he could even kill people and no one could stop him. The people who lived there didn’t know how to be kind ; for if a poor man became crazy, instead of taking care of him, as we would do now, they just turned him out in the fields to take care of himself, to live or die ; and in some places they made men fight with wild animals, while great crowds of people sat in safe places and laughed at it as if it were fun.

But in their Bible the people of Palestine, for that was the name of their country, had read that a wonderful child was to be born some day. The old time preachers, who were called prophets, and whose sermons they found written in their Bible, had told them that some day this baby would be born and that He would become their king and would be good to them and would help them when their enemies were bad to them. So every time a little boy baby came to one of the Jewish homes his mother wondered,

“ Can this be the one the prophets have told us about ? ” and always she wished and hoped it was.

At the time we are thinking about, when the first Christmas was drawing near, a man named Herod was king and he lived in a beautiful palace in Jerusalem, a great city which was the capital of the country. He hadn’t been a good man, and he really had no right to be king, so like people who are bad he was very often worried about things.

There were two other places besides Jerusalem which we ought to know about. One was Bethlehem, a little village not very far from the capital. It was the place where David, the king, had been born. The king at Rome, under whom King Herod served, had made up his mind to find out how many people he had in his kingdom, so he had sent word all over the land that the people '

must come together in their home towns to be counted. This meant that every one who was related in any way to King David would have to go to this little town of Bethlehem. It wasn’t a very big place ; it was like a village ; and of course it wasn’t easy to take care of all the people who came crowding into it just now. The man who kept the little hotel must have had hard work looking after all his guests, as the crowds kept pouring in.

The other place we must remember was a little village, a long way from Bethlehem, called Nazareth. This was a very small place up on the side of a hill, and was filled, I imagine, with romping boys and girls, as well as men and women, just like other villages. The family in which we are most interested wasn’t a family at all yet. But there lived in Nazareth a carpenter named Joseph, who was a relative of David, and he was going to marry a young woman named Mary who happened also to be related to King David. When Joseph and Mary heard the order of the king about going to their home town to be counted they knew that meant that they must make the long journey to Bethlehem. So they started out together. I don’t know just how they travelled, but I think Mary would ride on one of the little donkeys they had in that country and Joseph would walk by her, leading the donkey.

Over in another country, how far away I don’t know, there were some men whom we call wise men. In some way, it may be from reading the Bible, they had heard about the wonderful child who was to be born : it said in the Bible that He was to be called Wonderful. They understood He was to be King of the Jews, the people who lived in Palestine. Just at this time while they were thinking about this new king, they saw a bright, new star in the sky, and this made them wonder still more as to what was going to happen. I don’t suppose they knew exactly what to do, but perhaps one of them said, “ Let us go over to the place where the star is shining and see if we can find this new king.” So they started on their journey, every one taking with him some present to give to the king when he found Him. One had something made of gold and the others had some sweet perfumes. As they walked along they were surprised to see the star moving. I imagine one of them said to the others, “ Let’s follow the star,” and so they did.

When David was a boy he used to tend his father’s sheep in the fields around Bethlehem. I think it was in these very fields that he had led his sheep by still waters and made them lie down in green pastures, just as he afterwards told us in the Shepherd Psalm. Well, out in those same fields one holy night the shepherds of Bethlehem were watching their sheep. As they sat there in the quiet night, many a time they would talk with each other about the wonderful child who their Bible told them was to be born some day. One would say, “ Don’t you wish that baby would come who is going to be our Saviour ; who is going to help us against these cruel kings who rule over us ? ” And another would answer, “ Indeed I do ; I wish He would be born this very night.” And no doubt the shepherds were there when Joseph and Mary came along the dusty road from Nazareth that first Christmas eve. Anyhow the shepherds were watching their sheep as Joseph and Mary went into Bethlehem, their home town, to be counted ; and out there in the fields those shepherds stayed that night.

When Joseph reached the village the first thing he did was to go to the man who kept the inn or hotel to see if he could get a place where Mary and he could stay that night, for they were tired after their long journey ; but the man could not give them any place, because so many people had come to Bethlehem that every part of the house was crowded. Joseph couldn’t think of letting Mary stay outdoors in the night time, and he just had to find some place where she could sleep. Finally the innkeeper said they could stay in the stable, if they didn’t mind, and, as there was no room for them in the inn, Joseph said all right. I should like to have seen them as they were getting their strange bedroom ready, putting down fresh new straw and making it as comfortable as possible. Of course the sheep wouldn’t be there ; they were out in the fields with the shepherds ; but I feel pretty sure that the cows were there looking with big, wondering eyes at the people who had come to live in the barn. After a while it grew dark and everything was quiet ; night had come and the people had settled down and gone to sleep ; all the animals were resting quietly.

But outdoors in the sky over the fields where the shepherds were watching their sheep a strange thing was happening. A curious light had driven away the darkness of the night and the shepherds were greatly frightened : they had never seen anything like that before. And then while they were wondering what it was all about they were frightened still more by seeing an angel standing near them who said, “ Don’t be afraid. I have brought you good news. The baby you have been hoping for so long has been born over there in Bethlehem. You will find Him in a stable, wrapped up in His baby clothes, lying in a manger.” And then a great crowd of angels appeared in the sky and began to sing, “ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.” And it was all true. That night as Mary and Joseph were resting in the barn a little baby boy came to them, a little boy whom an angel had once told Joseph was to be called Jesus, because that name meant Saviour and He was to be the people's Saviour. Of course, Mary didn’t have a crib all ready for the baby, but she made a nice place in the hay in one of the mangers and there she laid the baby Jesus.

I don’t believe it took the shepherds very long to run into the village to find the baby the angel told them about. And when they got there they found other people there, too, for they had heard there was a baby in the barn ; and then the shepherds began to tell the people, who were looking at the baby lying in the manger, how the angel had come to them in the fields and had told them that this was the baby they were all hoping would soon be born. The people were greatly surprised to find that this poor little child was really the Christ Child, but Mary remembered what the angel had told her and she too wondered what it all meant.

In the meantime the wise men, following the star, had come to Jerusalem, for they thought of course, if a king was to be born he must be in the palace in the big city. If anybody had told us a hundred and more years ago that some day a baby was to be born who would grow up to be the great Abraham Lincoln, I don’t believe we would have thought of looking in a little cabin in the woods in Kentucky. We would have looked for him in some great city : and that is what these men did. So they began to ask, “ Where is He that is born King of the Jews ? We saw His star, and we have come to worship Him.” No one could tell them. By and by news of these strange looking men reached King Herod in his palace and when he heard that they had come looking for a new king who was to be born, he was worried for he didn’t want any one else to be king ; and the people were worried too, for they knew what trouble it made when one king tried to take the place of another king. So Herod sent for these strange visitors and called all his own wise men together and asked them if they could tell where this new king was to be born. Herod’s wise men answered that He was to be born in Bethlehem, for it said so in the Bible, and they read it to him. Then he spoke to the strange wise men and asked them all sorts of questions about the star and their journey, and said to them, “ You go to Bethlehem, for that’s where He’s to be born ; find out all you can about this child and come back and tell me so that I can go there to worship Him too.” Herod didn’t really want to worship Him, he wanted to destroy Him.

They listened to what the king said, and then started for Bethlehem, and as they started, there in the sky above them they saw again the beautiful star, which had been leading them, and which now led the way again. This made them very happy, and as they walked the star went before them until it stood over the house where the Christ Child was. They went into the stable and there they saw Mary and the baby Jesus. They bowed down and worshipped Him and took out the presents they had brought and gave them to Him : the golden things and the sweet perfume.

II

LONG, long ago, when God looked upon the earth He saw so many bad people that He was sorry He had made it at all ; for everywhere He looked He saw people doing all sorts of wrong things. But there was one family of good people, people who loved God and tried to do what God wanted them to do. The father’s name was Noah, and he had a wife and three sons. These boys’ names were Shem, Ham and Japheth and each of them had a wife. And because Noah was good God was his friend ; so one time He came to Noah and said, “ Noah, I shall have to destroy everybody on the earth ; they are so bad I can’t stand it any longer. But I want to save you and your family. I want you to make a boat, for I am going to make it rain so hard and so long that the earth will be flooded and everything on the earth shall die.” And then God told Noah all about how the boat, or ark as it was called, was to be built. It must have looked like a house on a boat. Then God spoke to Noah again, and said, “ After the ark is built I want you to take your wife and your sons and their wives and go into the ark ; and you must take with you two of every kind of animal as well as of birds that fly in the air and the insects which creep on the earth ; and you must also take enough food for yourself and your wife and your sons and their wives, as well as for all the animals.”

Noah was greatly surprised, but he went right to work ; what else could he do ? God had told him what he was to do and that was enough for him ; he did it.

You should have seen Noah, and Shem and Ham and Japheth when they began to build that great boat. There wasn’t any water near their home ; it seemed very strange to their neighbours. They called out to the carpenters who were working at it, “ What are you making?” and the carpenters answered back, “ A boat.” “ Why, what do you want with a boat ? you can’t sail it anywhere, there’s no water.” And the carpenters said, “ That’s so ; we don’t see what anybody wants a boat for.” And by and by Noah came out and told the people how displeased God was with them because they had disobeyed Him, and how He was going to send a flood upon the earth, and how He had told him to make this boat so that when the flood came he might save his family. And do you know I think some of those people would laugh and say, “ What a queer thing that is Noah is doing over there in his yard ; the idea ; you couldn’t flood this earth.” But Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth kept right on working, for they believed that what God said was true.

Then one day it began to rain, and of course the people didn’t think very much about it at first, for they often had rainstorms ; but after a while when they looked over where the ark was standing they saw a strange procession, for the animals and the birds and the bugs were going into it two by two ; and of some, like the pigeons, there were more than two ; lots of food was being carried in ; perhaps some of Noah’s neighbours helped to carry it. At last all the animals and birds and bugs were in the ark and Noah and his wife, and Shem and Ham and Japheth and each of their wives went in and God shut the door after them. I don’t know what the other people did when they saw what had happened. Pretty soon Noah’s neighbours began to wonder whether what

Noah had told them about a flood might not be true ; and it rained and rained, harder and harder, and by and by the ark began to float and as Noah looked out he could see the water getting deeper and deeper, until at last one day he looked out and he could see nothing but water : the trees were covered, the high mountains were covered, and nobody was left on the earth besides himself and his wife and Shem and Ham and Japheth and their wives and the animals and birds and bugs which had come into the ark with them. Many times while they were in the ark Noah got his family together and kneeled down and thanked his heavenly Father for telling them about the flood and saving them when so many people had to be destroyed.

For five months, as long as July and August and September and October and November, they sailed around in the rain in the ark, until God saw that it was time to let them come out. Then one day the rain stopped and the water began to dry up, and after they had been shut up in the ark for one hundred and fifty days the great boat stuck fast on a mountain, the top of which was just a little under the water. By and by Noah opened a window in the roof and let out a raven, but he flew away or else he found something floating in the water on which he could rest for he never came back.

Then Noah let a pigeon go, to see if the water had really dried up, but pretty soon the pigeon came back all tired out, because there wasn’t any place to light on except the ark. This of course showed Noah that the earth was still under water. He waited a whole week before trying again and then let out another pigeon, and this time it came back at evening with some leaves in its mouth ; so Noah knew that the water was drying up so that some of the trees were out and that very soon he could go out. And finally at the end of another week he let out another pigeon and this one didn’t come back at all, because it must have found a tree or a house or something not covered with water on which it would rest. And as he looked out day by day Noah saw more and more of the land getting dry until it was all dry again.

And God spoke to him and said, “ Come out of the ark, Noah, with your wife and with Shem and Ham and Japheth and their wives ; let out all the animals and the birds and the bugs and start a new world.” And Noah went forth, and his wife and his sons and his sons’ wives with him ; every beast, every fowl and every creeping thing went out of the ark.

Do you think Noah was glad ? Do you think he wondered what had become of all his friends, the people who used to live near him and who wondered why he was building a boat on the dry land ? Do you think he remembered as long as he lived how good God had been to him ? I do. And I think Noah sometimes would wonder whether or not there would be another flood, and as he looked at his children and grandchildren he would wonder whether they would be good so that God would take care of them ; or bad so that God would have to punish them. But God isjikea kind father and He loved Noah, so one day He said to him, “ Noah, you needn’t worry ; there will never be another flood ; I will put the rainbow in the clouds, so that every time you look up into the sky when there are clouds and rain, and it looks as if a flood might be beginning, you will remember My promise and feel safe.”

Ill

WE sometimes think that God doesn’t care for people who are far away from us ; they seem to us to be far away from Him, too ; and we call them heathen. But this isn’t true : God has always been anxious that every one should know about Him, and that those of us who do know should tell the others who do not know Him. He has always been sorry for those who lived in countries where they hadn’t yet heard about Him. In the days long ago there was a great heathen city called Nineveh, in which there were thousands and thousands of people, none of whom knew anything about our God. They had gods of their own. For many years these people who lived in and about the great city of Nineveh had been very bad to God’s people, the Israelites, so that these Israelites hated them, and thought God didn’t care anything about them. But all the time God was thinking about them, and one day He 28 called one of His servants named Jonah, who was what we call a minister, but was then called a prophet, and said to him, “Jonah, I have seen how wicked those people in Nineveh are, and I want you to go and tell them what will happen if they keep on.”

Jonah was greatly surprised at being asked to go on such an errand. He was an Israelite, and like other Israelites, he didn’t think God cared for anybody but Israelites, and really he didn’t want God to be good to anybody except the Israelites. Jonah knew how bad the people of Nineveh had been to his own people and he hated them. So he said something like this to himself, “ I won’t go ; I know God can be kind, for He has been kind to us many times ; He just wants to be good to those heathen people, and I want Him to punish them : I won’t go.” Then, when his mind was made up, Jonah felt that he must go away somewhere, and the further it was from Nineveh the better he would like it. He seemed to think he could get where God couldn’t find him. So he hurried as much as he could and went to a place called Joppa on the seashore. At last he found a ship that was going to sail for Tarshish, a place in Spain. This was in exactly the opposite direction from the one in which

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God had told him to go. He bought a ticket for Tarshish and when the ship sailed Jonah was on board.

But God made a great wind blow which made the sea so rough that it looked as if the boat would be swamped. The sailors, who were heathen, were frightened, and began to throw overboard everything they could, to make the ship lighter. Then they prayed to their gods to save them. Jonah must have been very tired, when he went aboard, for even in this awful storm he was down in his cabin fast asleep. So the captain had to go to him and say, 44 How can you sleep in this storm ; don’t you see we are in great danger? We have been praying to our gods but it does us no good ; now you get up and pray to yours and ask Him to save us.”

In those days they had a curious way of finding out who had done anything wrong. They used to put each man’s name on a piece of paper and put all the papers into a basket. Then they would shake the basket, and the name on the first paper which jumped out they thought was that of the guilty man. This is what the captain proposed now. 44 Let us cast lots,” he said, 44 and see which of us is the cause of this storm.” They made up the basket, shook it and the first paper to jump out had Jonah’s name on it. “ Tell us,” the sailors said to Jonah, “ who you are, what is your business, and where do you live? Why has all this trouble come upon us?” Then Jonah said to them, “ I am an Israelite ; I worship the God who made this sea as well as the land. He told me [to go to Nineveh, and I didn’t want to, and now I am running away from Him.” Then they were frightened and said to him, “Oh, Jonah, why did you do this? Is there anything we can do to you so that this awful sea will get calm ? ” For it kept getting rougher and rougher. And Jonah said, “ Yes ; there is one thing you can do. I know God has sent this storm upon us because I disobeyed Him. If you throw me overboard the sea will be calm.”

But the sailors, though heathen, didn’t like to do that ; and they rowed as hard as they could to get to shore, but the sea got worse and worse. Finally they prayed to Jonah’s God and said, “ O God, don’t drown us all because this man has disobeyed you ; and don’t punish us for killing him.” Then at last, when it seemed as if there was nothing else to do, they threw Jonah into the sea.

But, even then, God was good to Jonah and had a great fish ready. When Jonah reached the water the fish swallowed him, and strange to say, Jonah stayed alive. By and by he began to pray to God and after three days the fish put him out on the dry land alive and unhurt.

God thought He would give Jonah another chance, so He said, “ Now, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh and tell them what I said.” And this time Jonah went straight there, and began to preach to the people and tell them that God would destroy them for their sins, if they didn’t stop. They had never heard anything like that in Nineveh before. But they believed what Jonah said, and they were sorry.

The king told them to pray to God to see if He wouldn’t save them. So they prayed and began to do good things and God said He wouldn’t destroy them. But all this time Jonah supposed that God would destroy the wicked people of Nineveh, who had been so bad to his people, and he went outside the city, and built a sort of camp, and sat there to see what would happen. But when he heard that God was going to be good to the people in Nineveh he was so angry he wanted to die. God was good to