"WHO SAID?" AND "WHAT ABOUT?" One of the ways of gaining familiarity with the Bible is to practice placing phrases in their proper setting; phrases should be chosen which are somewhat familiar, which are so striking in themselves that they will "stick in the memory," and which do not occur frequently. Such a phrase as "Praise ye the Lord," for example, is found in many places, and often without close connection with its context. Such phrases should be avoided. It will be a good exercise for one or two of a home group to pick out a set of phrases, or each one may select some, and so all have a share in both question and answer. The following list is of familiar phrases, largely, but not entirely, from the Gospels. Walk while ye have the light. Not afraid for the terror by night or the arrow that flieth by day. The house of prayer. Many are called but few are chosen. By their fruits ye shall know them. Let the dead bury the dead. A new cloth unto an old garment, new wine into old bottles. Tribute to whom tribute is due. Content with your wages. Fought a good fight. Let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay. Helmet of salvation. Whited sepulchers. Build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous. Ask bread and be given a stone. A great gulf fixed. In perils on the sea. Gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. Fallen from grace. Of little faith. Church of the Laodiceans. Lukewarm and neither cold nor hot. Like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Dreamer of dreams. To the unknown God. Ignorantly in unbelief. The cock crew. A convenient season. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Every wind of doctrine. Not having a wedding garment. Ill favored and lean-fleshed. Bring gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Empty, swept, and garnished. The last state worse than the first. Breathing out threatenings and slaughter. Hard to kick against the pricks. Pearls before swine. Not gather figs of thistles. Unprofitable servants. Thorn in the flesh. They that trust in riches. Love of money is the root of all evil. Where the treasure is there will the heart be also. Fared sumptuously every day. God and mammon. A house divided against itself. The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. Endure for a while. Came up in a night and perished in a night. A den of thieves. As a thief in the night. Righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. Wasted his substance in riotous living. The veil of the temple was rent. Anathema maranatha. Not leave comfortless. Clothed and in his right mind. Go out into the streets and lanes. The lilies of the field. Taught many things in parables. Wheat and tares. Treasure hid in a field. Laborers in the vineyard. Pearl of great price. The wise virgins. The house upon the rock. A certain Samaritan. Not light a candle and put it under a bushel. Behold a sower went forth to sow. A grain of mustard-seed. The lost sheep. The summer is nigh. The poor in spirit. They that hunger and thirst after righteousness. The pure in heart. Good tidings of great joy. I am with you always even unto the end of the world. The light of the world. The bread of life. The water of life. The way, the truth, and the life. Not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. The resurrection and the life. Persons and Places in the Bible A LITTLE DICTIONARY OF THE CONNECTION OF FAMOUS PLACES IN PALESTINE WITH THE A GREAT CHARACTERS OF THE BIBLE JALON. A valley reaching from the hills west of Jerusalem to the Philistine plain. At its upper end is the pass of Bethhoron; at its lower, the Philistine city of Gezer. It furnishes the easiest route from the west to Jerusalem. Armies and caravans of trade have passed up and down it from time immemorial. Joshua chased the Amorites down the valley in the battle, the story of which contains a fragment of an ancient song, "Thou, Sun, stand still upon Gibeon And thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon." Up this valley came the Philistines, invading the Hebrew hill country. Twice the Hebrews drove them back down it in defeat; once under Saul and his son Jonathan (I Sam. 14:31), and again under David (II Sam. 5:25). In the Maccabean time Jonathan led an army down the valley to attack the Syrians. In the Great War General Allenby's army came near the valley and went to the hilltops by a parallel route to the south. Such is in part its record in war. In peace many more travelers have passed over it with no record. Since it was the common caravan route, the writer of the story of Jonah may have thought of that prophet fleeing to Joppa by this valley. If Peter came to Lydda from Jerusalem, this was his probable route (Acts 9:32). Others of the early Christians may have passed over it. BEERSHEBA. A very ancient town, near the edge of the fertile land at the south of Palestine, almost fifty miles from Jerusalem. "From Dan to Beersheba" expressed the limits of Israel. It was never fortified in ancient times, for it only looked out on the desert. In the Great War, however, it was occupied by the Turks and was captured by the Allies in a brilliant attack at the beginning of the campaign in which Jerusalem was taken. Beersheba played a great part in the traditions of Israel. The very name, Well of Seven, or Well of the Oath, is explained as given by both Abraham and Isaac. It was long the home of Abraham (Gen. 21:22-32; 26:23-33). From here Abraham went on the journey to sacrifice his son. Here he made a shrine to Jehovah (Gen. 21:33). At or near Beersheba, Isaac lived all his days. Here Rebekah came as a bride. Here the tribe lived when Jacob and Esau were boys, and from here the young men went |