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    Songs For Young People

    Retrospective #21 October 2, 2017 Randy C. Hicks
    I still haven't figured out how to edit these pictures!
    I still haven't figured out how to edit these pictures!

    Who remembers our Sunday School Song Book known by the above title?

    Maybe it was your job to distribute and/or collect them during the Company Meeting?

    Do you remember that the newer one was a yellowish color and the older one blueish maybe?

    Or was it greenish?

    The contents of the book included the following:
    1. Prayers for your use
    2. Responsive exercises 
    3. Songs
    4. Choruses

    And don’t forget the page under the cover page, Page #3, which contained, among other things, the Ten Commandments in short rhyme!

    Are you able to repeat it now without looking at the following?

    1. Thou shalt have no God but Me.
    2. Before no idol bow thy knee.
    3. Take not the Name of God in vain.
    4. Nor dare the Sabbath Day profane.
    5. Give both thy parents honour due.
    6. Take heed that thou no murder do.
    7. Abstain from words and deeds unclean.
    8. Nor steal, though thou art poor and mean.
    9. Nor make a wilful lie nor love it.
    10. What is thy neighbour’s do not covet.
    (Exodus 20/Deuteronomy 5)

    During my sojourn at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland, while I was the SA Chaplain, I did numerous Religious Studies courses and several concerned books of the Old Testament. One of them covered material on the Ten Commandments and just as I had guessed there was a significant question in my final exam based on this very subject! I calmly, but quickly, jotted down the Ten Commandments in short rhyme on the back of one of my exam papers and I was off to the races!

    I find it interesting that to this very day I am still able to bring this up on command (one of the very few things in that category!) and I’ve been able to use this tool both in preaching and teaching throughout the years.

    This was not my intended post for today. What I had planned will come at a later date. Today's new focus comes as a result of this morning’s news relative to the tragedy that occurred last night in Las Vegas and yesterday in Edmonton - added to the tragedies we all know that have occurred on our planet over recent weeks and months both local and international. Some of these crises come about as a result of nature and its laws others because of human brokenness and the crossing of the lines drawn above.

    A dear friend of mine did her own little rant on Facebook a few days ago about how badly our old world is doing in so far as how humanity is treating humanity. I immediately thought of her this morning. While her thoughts may have been extremely negative and discouraging one can understand what brings them about. Many of us have had (still have) such thoughts.

    However I did hear a commentator, when referring to these types of situations, saying, that while the worst of our brokenness is magnified – so too is the best of our being-healed-souls! And as I broaden my view I have to agree. I too see the love of God ministered through the hands of people – family, friends, neighbours, first responders, and fellow citizens, national and international helpers, yes, people of all nations, creeds, languages, cultures, races and religions stepping up to do what they can to comfort, cheer, fix, mend, restore, renew and encourage with hope our human family and yes, as the Salvation Army we too are there!

    When asked which of the commandments was the greatest, Jesus succinctly summarized them by saying: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. ’There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31 NIV)

    Or again: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12 NIV)

    You see we believe that by the Grace of God it can be done!

    We believe that by the Grace of God it is being done!

    We believe that by the Grace of God we are doing it!

    Comment

    On Sunday, May 31, 2020, Mary Maillou said:

    This is how I learnt the ten commandments back in the early. 1960s though I could not remember how the last two rhymed. I had asked various Salvationist members here in Mackay over the last 20 odd years and no-one knew of this thyme. So glad I found this .

     

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