AN UNEXPECTED PRIZE by Mrs. F. A. Reynolds

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 25, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 46.

AN UNEXPECTED PRIZE.

By Mrs. F. A. Reynolds

CHAPTER I. "THE MISSIONARY'S OFFER."

MRS. MANTON sat in the little family sitting room rocking baby Ora's crib with her foot while she read an interesting account of the founding of a missionary station in India. It was Sunday afternoon and the children, Paul and Hope, had gone to Sunday school, while Mr. Manton, like many business men, was very literal in his ideas of Sunday rest and was lying asleep on the sofa, with a paper over his face.

Mrs. Manton finished her article and, dropping her magazine in her lap, glanced at the clock, wondering why the children were so late home from Sunday school. Just then she heard rapid steps, then the gate swung to with a hasty click, and light feet bounded up the walk to the door. The next instant Paul and Hope bounded into the room, flushed and breathless, and began to talk together in excited whispers, as their mother, lifting a warning hand, pointed to the sleeping baby.

"We had company," began Paul.

"At Sunday school," put in Hope.

"A missionary," they both added.

"And he made a speech"—said Paul.

"And said"— interrupted Hope.

"There, that will do," said Mrs. Manton, repressing an inclination to laugh. "You are too excited to be polite. Go and put away your things, wash your faces, and brush your hair, then, if you are cool enough, I'll hear one of you tell the story."

The children went away reluctantly, but soon returned, quiet and refreshed. Mrs. Manton smiled. "Well, now, Hope may tell the story, and if Paul wishes to add to it or correct it, he may do so in a gentlemanly manner."

So Hope began in a more collected way. "Mr. Gordon, a missionary from Siam, was at Sunday school, and the superintendent asked him to speak, and he did. "He is a brother to Mrs. Allen, you know, and Bertha says he talks just splendid at home.

"He told us he thought he might be asked to talk a little, so he had brought a map to show us where he has been living and working the last five years. Then he showed us Siam on the map, and told us lots of interesting things about the country, a good deal like what we read at our last missionary meeting, but his telling it made it true, you know.

"Then he told us about the people and how he tried to teach them and study their language, and he said after he had tried different ways of putting the truth before them, he had decided that they understood him best when he told the simple story of Jesus, and taught them the ten commandments, telling them it was God's law we must all obey. He had the ten commandments on a linen chart in their language, and had the people learn to repeat them, and he tried to explain them, so they learned by them who God is, and that we must worship him alone—and—and all the rest, you know. Then he asked us how many of us could repeat the ten commandments perfectly, and, do you know, mamma, no one but our minister and Miss Langdon could! Oh, I was so ashamed!"

"Of yourself or the school?" asked her mother.

"Both," replied Hope promptly.

"But I thought you knew the commandments," added Mrs. Manton.

"So did I, until he said 'perfectly,' then I knew I couldn't repeat them just right."

"Well, what then? Was Mr. Gordon very much shocked?" asked Mrs. Manton.

"No, not so very much. He said he thought our school was like many others, and that his little Siamese school could do better than most schools in our country. Then he said he was going away, and would return in a month, and he would give a beautiful Oxford Bible to the scholar who could recite the ten commandments most perfectly and could tell in the best and shortest way what they meant. He said he could not afford to make such an offer to every school, but he was interested in having his little nieces and nephew learn God's law."

"And he showed us a Bible like the one he will give," said Paul. "It is gilt, and bound in heavy limp morocco covers, and has lots of study helps in it."

"We mean to try for it," said Hope.

"Indeed we do," said her brother.

"That's right," said Mr. Manton, who had been awakened by the children's entrance, and had listened with interest to Hope's account of the talk of Mr. Gordon.

"Can we begin to-day?" asked Hope.

"The sooner the better," replied their mother. "After lunch we will see what sort of a beginning we can make."

It was now two o'clock, and they went to the dining room, where a cold lunch, simple but palatable, was spread on the table. When the lunch was disposed of, they all returned to the sitting room, and prepared to begin their study.

"In the first place," said Mrs. Manton, "what are the ten commandments?"

"God's law," Paul replied.

"Yes, and where are they found?"

"In the Bible," said Hope.

"True, but the Bible is a large and varied book. Where in the Bible may we look for the ten commandments?"

"In the Old Testament," said Paul.

"Yes, but get closer—in what part—in which book?"

"I think it is in Exodus, mamma," said Hope, "because it was when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, and they built a tabernacle afterwards—and—"

"Yes, in Exodus. Paul, you may find the chapter. Hope, you may hand me the Bible Dictionary. We will read a description of the place where the law was given. Do you remember where it was, Hope?"

"On Mt. Sinai," she replied.

"The account is in the twentieth chapter of Exodus," said Paul.

"Read aloud," said his mother, "beginning with the sixteenth verse of chapter 19."

Paul read to the twenty-first verse of chapter 20, then they began to talk about it.

"You see you must memorize from verse 3 to verse 18. Hope, read about Mt. Sinai in the dictionary."

Hope did so, then they found it upon a map, and so had something of an idea of the place in which God chose to give his law.

"How did he give it?" asked Mr. Manton.

"He spoke them—the commandments—first, then wrote them with his finger on two tables of stone. That's what Mr. Gordon said to-day," replied Hope, "but it doesn't say so here," she added.

"No," said her mother. "Turn to Deuteronomy, fifth chapter, verse 22."

Hope found and read the passage.

They were quiet for a time, Paul reading the commandments over slowly to himself, while Hope traced on the map the route from the Red Sea to Mt. Sinai.

"Why, it's right there, mamma!" she cried, "just a little ways!"

"Yes, God did not let his people go far without his law to guide them. "There are two tables of the law, you know; the second table includes the last six commandments, referring to our duties and relations to our fellow men. The first four refer to our duties toward God."

"Mamma, you say 'our duties.' The commandments were given to the Hebrews; are they meant the same for us, just as they stand—meant for us just as they were for the Jews?"

"I believe so, Paul," said his mother decidedly. "There were other laws given the Jews referring to ceremonies typical of Christ's coming, that were done away with when he came and died and rose again, but the ten commandments I believe embody God's law for all mankind, for all time. What made you ask, Paul?"

"Because I saw a scrap of paper somewhere that said the commandments were abrogated at the cross, and I looked in my dictionary to see what that meant. 'Abrogate' means to repeal, or make void. So I thought maybe when Christ died that put an end to the ten commandments."

"Some people argue that way," replied Mrs. Manton, "but it isn't consistent. A law is in force until it is repealed by the same power that made it. God gave the ten commandments publicly. He has never annulled them; so they are still in force. Christ never annulled them; indeed, he ever confirmed them, as, for instance, when he said: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'"

"Don't you see he combined the first four and the last six into a first and second? If we worship God and no other, if we reverence his name and day, we show we love God. If we honor our parents, and regard the lives, property, and reputation of our neighbors, as our own, we obey the last six commandments, while following the golden rule. I do not think we can get rid of God's law by trying to believe it abrogated."

"I don't see," said Hope reflectively, "how we can explain each one, as Mr. Gordon asked."

"I'll tell you," said her father; "you learn to repeat them correctly, and the meaning will come to you."

"Mr. Gordon said," added Paul, "that we should find ourselves and others breaking one or more of the commandments every day."

"That's true," said Mrs. Manton. "Watch

and you will soon see the whole ten broken."

"But Mr. Gordon said if we broke one, we broke all, and needed Christ just as much," exclaimed Hope.

"True again," said her mother. "Now I must run over and see how old Aunty Arnold is, so you can study awhile now."

Mrs. Manton ran across the garden to the old lady's cottage, and Paul and Hope began to learn God's law. (To be continued.)