Genesis 12:10-20 And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.… A little newsboy, to sell his paper, told a lie. The matter came up in Sabbath school. "Would you tell a lie for three cents!" asked the teacher of one of the boys. "No, ma'am," answered Dick, very decidedly. "For a dollar?...No, ma'am." "For a thousand dollars?" Dick was staggered; a thousand dollars looked big. Oh, would it not buy lots of things! While he was thinking, another boy behind him roared out, "No, ma'am!" "Why not?" asked the teacher. "Because, when the thousand dollars is all gone, and all the things they have got with them are gone too, the lie is there all the same," answered the boy. Christian character: — Seaweed plants, which live near the surface of the water, are green, whereas those in lower beds of the sea assume deeper shades of rich olive, and down in the depths still below, far removed from worldly glare, and where no human eye can penetrate, these flowers of ocean are clothed with hues of splendour. Abram's surface qualities do not look so very attractive, mingling as they do with human defect. But the deeper down we gaze into the moral depths of his being, the fairer are the flowers blooming there. Gazing into the clear tranquil depths of Abram's spirit, far removed from worldly glare or natural discernment, we behold richly-coloured graces and virtues. (W. Adamson.) Parallel Verses KJV: And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land. |
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