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Saturday
The First Lesson
Ecclesiasticus 34:1-8
1 The hopes of a man void of understanding are vain and false: and dreams lift up fools.
2 Whoso regardeth dreams is like him that catcheth at a shadow, and followeth after the wind.
3 The vision of dreams is the resemblance of one thing to another, even as the likeness of a face to a face.
4 Of an unclean thing what can be cleansed? and from that thing which is false what truth can come?
5 Divinations, and soothsayings, and dreams, are vain: and the heart fancieth, as a woman's heart in travail.
6 If they be not sent from the most High in thy visitation, set not thy heart upon them.
7 For dreams have deceived many, and they have failed that put their trust in them.
8 The law shall be found perfect without lies: and wisdom is perfection to a faithful mouth.
1st Lesson Questions -
Do I believe in dreams, divinations and soothsayings? How often am I likened unto a "man void of understanding"? (V. 1) RESOLVE.
The Second Lesson
Matthew 6:19-34
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
2nd Lesson Questions -
Where, and what, are my treasures? (V. 19-21) During the last week, whose servant have I been, most of the time - God's or mammon's? (V. 24) Which do I take more thought of in life - things temporal, or things of God? RESOLVE.