The Mesusah

LITTLE children have been the care of God from the earliest times; on great occasions He has ordered that they should hear His words, when perhaps they were too small to understand them. But little children can learn to obey before they are able to understand all they are told. The Lord God ordered that the children should be taught His ways when His people Israel left the land of Egypt, and again when they entered Canaan, and also when the nation of Israel was gathered together to hear the solemn word of God in the valley between the mountains Ebal and Gerizim.
And the loving Christian father and mother find joy in teaching their children the holy will of God, and in hearing their little ones repeat texts from His word before they can for themselves read the Scriptures.
When the blessed Lord was here on earth, the little children of Israel were taught the words of Jehovah their God. According to the habit of their times, when a boy was five years old he was to read in the Bible, though if not very strong his school life did not begin until he was six or seven years of age. The first concern in Israel was that the children should read the sacred Book.
You may remember how we told you of the doorways of the Egyptian temples last year, and what strange signs and marks were made on them. In that land from early infancy the children of the Egyptians were taught to look to idols and to false gods for protection, and the pictures or marks on the doors allied their eyes and minds to the worship of these vanities. There is a passage in the book of Deuteronomy (ch. 11:20) which says of the words of God, “thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates;” and probably to that word may be traced the use of the “Mesusah.”
You must now look at our picture. Observe upon the door post, just above the staff the man holds, there is a kind of little case represented. This is a “Mesusah.” We have one before us such as Jews in our times place outside their houses, and probably the little case, though in olden days made of metal, was not unlike that which we have. In this case are placed some passages of Scripture, written upon parchment, and tightly folded up. The passages are taken from the Book of Deuteronomy, and include the text already quoted. But since the words of God were hidden in the metal case, the case only and not the words were seen, and there can, be no doubt that too often the use of the case was very superstitiously regarded.
The little children portrayed in our picture are both too young to learn to read; they have come to the door to see their father go out, and you notice he is kissing his hand to the Mesusah. He means by this act to render reverence to God. Or he would touch the little shining case in which the words were enclosed, and teach his children that God was the protector of his house and of them. As the godly Jew touched the Mesusah this beautiful verse was present to his mind, “The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even for evermore. (Psa. 121:8.)
We may be sure that the little ones who thus watched their father day by day would learn to do as he did, and thus from their early infancy the word of God would be connected in their minds with their father’s confidence. As the father came into his house again he would do the same thing, day by day teaching his children to lift their eyes to the bright little metal case on the door post.
It is a very happy thing for us to have texts on the walls of our rooms, though we hope our young readers will not wrap them up in a little case where their words cannot be seen. How often has such a text as “Thou God seest me” been like a burning flame before the eye, stopping the feet from their willful course; how often has such a word as “God is love” drawn a weary heart to God’s own heart, and spoken comfort to the soul.
Let the Christian parent not be behind the Jewish one of bygone years in teaching the children the blessed words of God.

Bible Lesson for the Little Ones.
(Read Matthew 10:1-14)
WE were reading last, in the 9th chapter of the Gospel by St. Matthew, of the day when the Lord called the man who afterward wrote that Gospel, and said to him, “Follow Me.”
Matthew “arose and followed” Jesus.
That was the most wonderful and beautiful day of his life, and he tells us a little more about it, as you will see if you go on reading where we left off, at the 10th verse.
“And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples.” St. Luke tells us that “Levi made him a great feast in his own house, and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.”
What was once said of the Lord Jesus was quite true. Some who wished to find fault with Him said, “This Man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” And Jesus Himself tells us that they used to call Him the “Friend of publicans and sinners.”
What should we do, dear children, if that had not been true? If the Lord Jesus had come down from heaven to look for good people, for people who loved God, and who were always kind and true, He never could have found us. But He tells us who they are whom He came to look for, in these words, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
The next place in which we read about Matthew is in the 3rd verse of the next chapter, where his name is mentioned among the names of the twelve apostles whom Jesus chose. Apostles were people who were sent forth to do something, or to carry some message. So we read, verses 7 and 8, that Jesus sent these twelve forth to “preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That was their message. They were also to do wonderful things, for He gave them power to “heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out devils.”
It was a wonderful day for Matthew when he was chosen by the Lord to be one of His apostles, and was sent forth in His strength to speak His message, and to do such mighty works.
What do we next read about him?
He tells us no more about himself, neither do St. Mark nor St. Luke tell us anything of him in their Gospels; but in the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke tells us that, after the Lord Jesus had gone back to heaven, Matthew was among the number of those who were praying in an upper room in Jerusalem. Look at Acts 1st chapter 13th verse.
Then, in the 1st verse of the next chapter, we read that on that day when the Holy Spirit came from heaven, “they were all with one accord in one place,” so we are sure that Matthew was there with the other apostles. Many things are said about his life after this, and some stories are told of the way in which he died. People think that, after preaching for fifteen years in Judaea, he went to Africa, and was there burnt to death as a martyr; but we do not really know anything more about him than what we find in the New Testament. We know that God gave him the great honor of being one of those four men whom He chose to write the four Gospels.
Matthew had been accustomed, before the Lord called him, to write down the sums of money which were brought by the fishermen and others who paid the taxes at Capernaum. But to know how to write, was not enough to make him fit to tell that good story about the Lord Jesus Christ which he has told. We might have thought if he only could remember the gracious words which he had heard the Lord speak, and the wonderful and kind things which he had seen Him do, that would have made him quite fit to write about Him, so that those who had never seen Him, nor heard Him speak, might know something of the words and ways of the Son of God when He was in this world.
But, no; it was not enough that Matthew should have been with the Lord, and have seen His ways and heard His words. In order that he should write his Gospel as God would have it written, it was necessary that God should tell him how to do it. It was necessary that God should tell him the very words in which to write it. When we read the “Gospel according to St. Matthew,” we are reading the very words in which God Himself has been pleased to tell us the good story about His Son, our Lord Jesus.
Do not forget this, my child.
When you open your little Testament, and turn over the leaves, remember that every page is part of God’s own writing about His Son, our Lord Jesus, and that it is because God loves you that He has given you such wonderful words to read, and to keep in your hearts.
Next time we shall read in the 1st chapter of this Gospel which God gave St. Matthew to write. I hope you understand, not only how to read your Testament, but also how to find chapters and verses. If you do not yet know how the chapters come, nor how to read the figures, ask some older person to show you. You will soon find it quite easy.

Bible Subjects. Peace.
THE passages in the Epistles to the Corinthians which treat of peace are chiefly of a practical nature. How a sinner may have peace before God we have previously briefly referred to, but none the less important is it for such as love the Lord, to seek wisdom from Him as to the great question of peace in daily life. We are creatures of extremes—some make everything of the last, and exclude the first principles of peace with God; others seem content with the assurance that they have peace with God, and are indifferent as to peace in daily life.
“God hath called us in (or to) peace” says the Scripture (1 Cor. 7:15), and a great calling is this for us who live in a troublous world. Home-life is the burden of the context―the Christian in a heathen home; but there God would have peace. It must be an awful break when an idolator becomes a Christian, and the wife remains an idolator, but the burden of maintaining peace is to be borne by the Christian. Idols never give peace, nor do their worshippers obtain peace. God would have His children, even in life’s most trying incidents, manifest that He has called us in peace. Let not the unconverted relation have to complain of any of us that we cause him anger by our unyieldingness. It is for the Christian, who possesses all things, to give way.
And what God would have evident in the homes of His people, He would also have manifest in their religious services; “He is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” (ch. 14:33.) His perfect rule constrains to peace, and where the contrary is, His rule is surely disobeyed.
Further, what God had ordered for us in families and churches He would also have regulating our general behavior. We cannot forget that the Corinthians were not kindly disposed one towards another. Christ had not His great place in their hearts―this, alas! their favorite teachers possessed―hence their contentions. Now the apostle Paul would send Timothy to them, whose gentle spirit they could easily wound, and whom, maybe, they might intimidate. Now he was a worker for the Lord together with the apostle, and the word to the Corinthians about him was, “See that he may be with you without fear.” Again, as such as elevate one servant are apt to despise others, the word was, “Let no man despise him.” We need stir up our hearts to consider these things.
Now, turning to the end of the next Epistle, and remembering the happy fruit the first had produced in the Corinthians, we read, “Live in peace (or peaceably), and the God of love and peace shall be with you.” (ch. 13:11) These four things, be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, are such as we may all prayerfully emulate. Let our Christian ambition exercise itself in such directions as these, and God Himself shall be with us. Yes, He who is the God of love and of peace! This is one of God’s most beautiful names. Sometimes, because of our evil ways, we find God with us in righteousness, or in judgment. The sharpness the apostle used was to lead the Corinthians to a godly state of soul, that, judging themselves and abandoning their evil ways, they might once more be in such a moral state before God that He might be with them. Let us above all things seek so to conduct ourselves one towards another that nothing in us shall hinder our holy God, who is the God of love and peace, being with us.