Ezra 7:1-10 Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,… (a talk with children): — The Bible attaches a great deal of importance to first things; the first-fruits of the earth were sacred, the first batch of bread was a consecrated batch, the first hour of the day, the first day of the week, the first week of the month, the first month of the year, the first year in seven years, and above all the first day of the first month, or in other words "New Year's Day," were considered specially important. It was on New Year's Day that the waters of the deluge finally dried up; it was on New Year's Day that the tabernacle was set up for the first time, that the temple was completely consecrated in the days of Hezekiah; and it was on New Year's Day that the captives in Babylon began their march out of captivity on their return to Canaan under Ezra. Now if you will just remember these four striking instances you will say that New Year's Day has a very important history. How monotonous life would be if there were not something new every day! Why you know that little baby boy at home wants a fresh toy every day. The old toys soon become uninteresting and he wants a new one constantly. Now you used to be the same when you were a very little boy, and you are not very different from that now. All through your little life you have been glad of any little change that gives a novelty and freshness to it. God thinks of all that, and therefore He gives you one thing at a time that will be likely to interest you; and when you have made use of that He gives you another and still another. He gives you life moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day. One day is in one sense very much like the other; and yet not two days are alike, especially when you think of the experiences of each day. Every day has something fresh in it; and God ordains all that in order to make you happy and to enable you to learn constantly, from some experience which each day teaches you, something you have not learnt before. This is specially true with regard to the first day of the New Year. You remember when at school you had a copy book given you. When you had it first of all it was a clean and charming copy book. When you began to write you took a great deal of trouble, especially with the first page. There was not a mistake or blot, or careless line on the whole page. The second page had just one little mistake. Then the third, perhaps, had a blot, and then you got rather careless, and hurried over some of the pages as you drew near the end of your copy book. Your teacher was probably vexed with you because you had not improved as you proceeded with it; then you felt ashamed of yourself, and said, "I wish I could begin again." The day at length came when you got a new copy book, and you were permitted to begin again. Now that is just as God deals with you. He gave you a fine copy book last year — it had 365 pages, and clean throughout; and you were expected to write your very best on those pages. I know some of you tried the first day or two, and now and then you tried again; but some of you got rather careless and restless as you advanced. Here and there you did that which was wrong, and that in each case left a blot behind. The Master took note of it, and there it is now in His presence. You cannot be very proud of your last year's history. Yet to-day the Lord says, "I know all about it; but I will give you a new copy book; and will put that old one aside and forget all about it. I will forgive you; but you must try to do better with this new copy book. Do your very best. If you cannot write as you would, ask Me to help you, and I will take your hand and guide it, and will help you to do what is right and well-pleasing in My sight." When I was a boy at school we used to have in our copy books what we called a script line on the top of the page. We used to copy that. Now the Saviour has put the script line over every day for us. It is His own writing, and we have to copy it. (D. Davies.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, |
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