Section 1

i(-t,ures&5tories

J 4ar^oevPRint

Lcthf^op Publishing (cmpanv

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS,

BSr^H

Chap. Copyright No..._nxJ.

Shelf...lS_4 8

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

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BIBLE PICTURES

AND

STORIES

IN LARGE PRINT

BOSTON
LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY

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COPYBIGHT, 1898,
BY

Lothkop Publishing Company.

BIBLE PICTURES AND STORIES

IN LARGE PRINT.

ADAM AND EVE.

God made the sun, the moon, the
stars, the earth, the sea and all the
beasts, birds, insects, plants and fishes.
After that He made man, then woman.
Adam was the first man, Eve the first
woman. He planted a lovely gar-
den and j^ave it to Adam and Eve
to live in. There was every kind of
luscious fruits in this garden and
God was willing* they should eat all
but one ; this He told them they must
not even touch.

For a Avhile they minded God and
were happy, but one day they both
ate some of this fruit. Then God
was very angry and sorry for what
they had done. He drove them out
of the lovely garden forever.

/

CAIN AND ABEL.

Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain
and Abel. Cain, when he got old
enough, became a farmer, Abel a
shepherd. They both brought gifts
to God. Cain's gift was fruit ; Abel's
gift was the very best of his lambs.
For some reason God liked Abel's
gift, but did not like Cain's. This
made Cain hate Abel so much that
he killed him.

When God asked Cain what had be-
come of his brother he said: "I know
not: Am I my brother's keeper?"
But God, who sees everything, had
seen what Cain had done and pun-
ished him by making him wauder
homeless and friendless over all the
earth.

CAIN AND ABEL.

THE FLOOD.

A great many years after Cain
killed Abel — over a thousand per-
haps— the people had grown to be
so very wicked that God made up his
mind to destroy them by a great flood.
But there was one good old man Noah,
whom God loved. So He had him
build a huge boat or ark and told him
to put into it all his own family, and
two of every kind of animal on the
earth. As soon as Noah had done
th i s, th e rain began to fall. It kept on
raining for forty days and forty
nights until everything was coa ered
by the water, even the highest moun-
tains. Nothing was saved except
what was in the ark.

ENTERING THE ARK.

BABEL.

After Noah's death, his sons and
their families kept traveling west-
ward. By and by they came to a
beautiful plain. They were very tired
of traveling, so they rested a long time.
The plain pleased them so much that
they thought they would like to live
there always, and they began to build
a great city and a high tower "whose
top should reach unto Heaven." God
came down to see the city and the tower.
The sight made him angry and at
once he caused the workmen to speak
different languages, so they could
not understand one another and had
to stop building. The tower is called
Babel because God "did there con-
found the language of all the earth."

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LOT'S FLIGHT FROM SODOM.

Lot lived in Sodom, a city so wicked
that not ten good men could be found
there. One evening- two angels came
to Lot, to tell him that God was going
to destroy the wicked city and to warn
him to flee in the morning with his
wife and daughters. Lot and his
family heeded the angel's warning and
fled to Zoar, a city near by. Then God
rained down fire and brimstone upon
Sodom, until it was burned to ashes.
Lot and his two daughters were
saved, but Lot's wife was turned into
a pillar of salt, because she looked
back at the burning city. This the
angels had warned them not to do.

LOT ENTERING ZOAR.

THE FINDING OF MOSES.

In time there came to be so many
Israelites in Egypt that Pharaoh be-
gan to be afraid of them. So he issued
an order that all boy babies should
be put to death. But one mother
hid her baby boy three months.
Then she made a little boat out of
rushes, laid the baby in it, and put
the boat in the water near the shore.
A little while after she did this one
of Pharaoh's daughters came down
to the river to bathe and saw the little
boat. She had one of her maids wade
out and get it. When she saw the
little boy, she felt so sorry for him
that she took him for her own son.
She named him Moses, which means
" drawn out of the water."

THE FINDING OF MOSES.

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THE FLIGHT FROM EGYPT.

Pharaoh made the Israelites work
very hard and treated them cruelly
in other ways. God was sorry for
his people, so he came to Moses and
told him to go to Pharaoh with his
brother Aaron and order him to let
the Israelites go away from Egypt
to a land He had made ready for
them. But Pharaoh did not care
anything about what God told him
to do and would not let the people
go. So God sent dreadful plagues
upon the Egyptians. Still Pharaoh
was stubborn and held out against
God until the tenth plague came,
which killed the eldest child in
every Egyptian house. Then he
sent the Israelites out of the land.

SPRINKLING THE BLOOD.

MOSES STRIKING THE ROCK.

After the Israelites had been away
from Egypt quite a long time, they
came into a dry, stony country called
the Wilderness, where there were no
springs of water and no rivers. They
got very thirsty, but could find noth-
ing anywhere to drink. This made
them angry with their leader, Moses,
so anrgy that they were going to
stone him to death. But Moses asked
God to help him, saying: "What
shall I do unto this people? they be
almost ready to stone me." God told
him to take his rod and strike a cer-
tain rock on Mount Horeb. Moses
did so. At once a clear stream of
water burst out of the rock, enough
for all the people.

si RIKING THE R( >('K.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

When the Israelites came near
Mount Sinai, God said that in three
days from that time he would come
down upon the mountain. But none
of the people except Moses and
Aaron were to touch the mountain.
If they did, they would die. They
could come up into the mountain and
be with Him. God did as he prom-
ised. There was a thick cloud all
about Him, and fire and smoke, and
thunder and lightning's, so the people
could not see him. And the mount-
ain shook and the voice of God was
heard like the sound of a trumpet,
giving to them the Ten Command-
ments. And the people were afraid
and drew back from the mountain.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

BEZALEEL AND AHOLIAB.

After God had given the Ten Com-
mandments, Moses went up into the
mountain and stayed with God forty
days and forty nights. God told him
that the Israelites must build Him a
house to live in which should be
called "The Tabernacle." They
must give gold, silver, brass, blue,
purple, scarlet, fine linen, oils, spices,
costly woods, jewels and other pre-
cious things, for this house. Bezaleel
and Aholiab must build it, because
He had made them wise. Moses
told the people what God had said.
They were so anxious to help that
they brought more than God had
asked for. And God's beautiful
house was soon made.

BEZALEEL AND AHOLIAB.

THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

Once, almost forty years after they
made God's House, the Israelites were
very hungry and thirsty. They said
hateful things about Moses and about
God too, which was very wicked. So
God sent fiery serpents to bite the
people. The bite was poisonous, and
many died. Then they knew this
was because they had done wrong'.
They came to Moses and asked him
to pray God to take the serpents
away. Moses prayed. God told
Moses to make a brass serpent and
set it on a pole where all the people
could see it. When Moses had done
this he told the people to look. Every
one who was bitten was made well as
soon as he saw the brass serpent.

THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

THE PASSAGE OF THE

JORDAN.

After Moses died Joshua led the
people of Israel. They had come
very near to the land God had made
readv for them, hut there was still
the great river Jordan to cross. They
did not know how to get across, for
the water was deep and they had no
boats. But God had a way for them.
He told Joshua to have the priests of
his Tabernacle go into the water first
and stand there. As soon as the feet
of the priests touched the water it
stopped flowing' from above and piled
up in a great heap. So the people
went across the Jordan on dry land.
After the priests left the river, the
water flowed just as it had before.

CROSSING I'HK JORDAN.

THE CAPTAIN OF THE LORD'S

HOST.

When the Canaanites heard how
the Israelites had crossed the Jordan,
they were afraid and shut themselves
up in their city, Jericho. The Israel-
ites had to find some way to break into
the city. One day when Joshua was
walking near the wall of Jericho, he
saw a man with a drawn sword in his
hand. He at once asked the man
whether he was a friend or an enemy.
The man answered : "As captain of the
host of the Lordamlnow come." Then
Joshua knew it was an angel and
fell down and worshiped him. The
angel said: "Loose thy shoe from off
thy foot, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy." Joshua did so.

THE CAPTAIN OF THE LORD'S HOST.

HOW JERICHO WAS
CAPTURED.

The Israelites took Jericho in a
very curious way. Every day for six
days the armed men inarched around
the city once. On the seventh day
they marched around seven times,
while the priests blew their trumpets.
Just as they finished the last march,
the trumpets gave a long- blast and
all the people together gave a mighty
shout. Then that strong-, high wall
fell down flat, and they went in and
took the city and burnt it and every-
thing in it except the silver and gold
and vessels of brass and iron. The
rest of the people of Canaan were
greatly surprised when they heard
how Jericho was captured.

THE FALL OF JERICHO.

ACHAN'S SIN.

Ai was a city not far from Jericho.
Three thousand Israelites went to take
it. But some were killed and the rest
got frightened and ran away . Joshua
felt so badly that he went and told
God all about it God said that the
Israelites had been beaten because one
of them had kept for his own some of
the silver and gold taken from Jeri-
cho. God pointed out th at Achan was
the man who had stolen these things
and that he had hidden them in his
tent. When they looked in the tent
they found them buried in the ground.
Achan and all his family and all that
he had were stoned and burned and
a great heap of stones raised over
them as a warning.

ACHAN CONFESSING HIS SIN.

THE ALTAR ON MOUNT EBAL.

After Achan had been burned, the
Israelites captured Ai and hanged its
king- on a tree. Then Joshua built
an altar to God on Mou nt Ebal of whole
stones that had never been cut. On
the altar he put burnt offerings. On
the stones of the altar he wrote the
laws that Moses had given to the peo-
ple when he was alive. Then he got
all the people together, men, women
and little ones, and read to them God's
promises of the good things that would
happen to them if they did right, and
the bad things that would happen if
they did wrong. The people listened
carefully to the reading. Joshua did
this because he had promised Moses
that he would just before he died.

THE ALTAR ON MOUNT EBAL.

THE CITIES OF REFUGE.

In those old times, when one man
killed another, the friends of the dead
man had the right to kill the mur-
derer. But sometimes it happened
that one person killed another with-
out meaning- to do it. Of course it was
not right that he should be killed for
what he could not help. God saw that
there ought to be some way of saving
him. So he told Joshua to name six
cities to which such a person could flee
and where no one could touch him.
These cities were called Cities of Ref-
uge. Three of them were on the west
side of Jordon and three on the east.
Some say that all the guide posts
along the way had "Refuge!" "Ref-
uge!" written on them.

ill! tNG TO THE tl IV uk REFUGE.

THE DEATH OF JOSHUA.

A long time after the fall of Jericho,
when Joshua was an old man, he made
all the Israelites come into one place
so that he could talk to them, before
he left them, forever. He asked them
to count over the good things God had
done for them, and promised that He
would do even more for them than He
had already. He told them to be
brave, to do as Moses had wanted them
to do when he was alive, and never
to have anything to do with people
who worshiped idols. If they did,
God would punish them. When
Joshua had instructed the Israelites
in all the good ways, having said all
that was on his mind, he died He
was one hundred and ten years old.

JOSHUA EXHORTING THE PEOPLE.

GIDEON AND THE FLEECE.

After Joshua died, the Israelites for-
got God and worshiped idols. So God
punished them as Joshua said . The
Midianites came into the land and
the Israelites had to hide from them
in dens and caves. Gideon, a mighty
man, wasthreshing corn oneday when
an angel came to him and told him to
go and save Israel. Gideon was will-
ing to go, but asked God to show him
some sign that he would beat the Midi-
anites. So one night God made a
fleece that Gideon put on the ground
wet with dew while all the ground was
dry, and the next night he kept the
fleece dry while all the ground was
wet. Then Gideon knew that God
would be ou his side.

EXAMINING THE FLEECE.

THE DEFEAT OF THE MIDI-
ANITES.

Gideon got together a large army,
but God told him that only a part must
fight. So Gideon picked out the three
hundred bravest men and divided
them into three coinpaniesof onehun-
dred each, and put a trumpet in each
man's hand and an empty pitcher and
a lamp inside the pitcher. About the
middle of the night they came to the
camp of the Midianites and blew
the trumpets and broke the pitchers
and held up the lamps and cried "The
sword of the Lord and of Gideon."
The Midianites were afraid and ran
about and cried out and killed one an-
other. The Israelites ran after them
and drove them out of the country.

THE SWORD OF THE LORD, AND OF GIDEON.

THE DEATH OF SAMSON.

Samson was the strongest man that
ever lived. At one tiaie he tore a live
lion apart with his hands, at another
he killed one thousand men, and at
another he carried away the gates of
Gaza, a city of the Philistines. But
the very last thing that he did was
the most wonderful of all. The Phil-
istines had cruelly put out his eyes.
At a feast where there were over three
thousand of them, Samson got a boy
to show him the way, and then putting
his hands upon two pillars that held
up the roof, and praying God for
help, he pressed upon them with all
his might. The pillars broke, the
roof fell. Samson himself and the
Philistines were killed.

SAMSON AND THE PHILISTINES.

RUTH AND NAOMI.

Naomi's home was at Bethlehem.
But one year, because there was 110
food there, she went to Moab with her
husband and her two sons. Both the
sons took wives in Moab. The wives'
names were Orpah and Ruth. After a
little time Naomi's husband died, then
both the sons. Naomi started to go
back to Bethlehem, and Orpah and
Ruth started with her. But Naomi
did not think they ought to leave
their homes and advised them to stay
in Moab. Orpah stayed. But Ruth
said to Naomi: "Whither thou goest,
I will go, and where thou lodgest I
will lodge; thy people shall be my
people and thy God, my God." So
Ruth and Naomi came to Bethlehem.

RUTH AND NAOMI.

BOAZ AND RUTH.

Ruth and Naomi were poor. So
Ruth went out to pick up the grain
which the reapers let fall at their
work. The field into which she went
belonged to a rich man named Boaz.
He was pleased with Ruth, and let her
eat and drink with the reapers. He
told her never to go anywhere else,
but always to come to his field, and
he made the reapers let fall some
grain on purpose for her. So when
she came home to Naomi at night, she
had a very large bundle. Ruth went
to that field all through the harvest.
Afterward she became the wife of
Boaz.