Read Ebook: Really so stories by Gordon Elizabeth Rae John Illustrator

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Ebook has 450 lines and 21066 words, and 9 pages

"On the Sunday preceding the crucifixion Christ made his triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. All the people came out to meet him, strewing palm branches in his path to do him honor, just as you school children all cheer when the president, or some great hero comes to town."

"Jerusalem is a warm country and must have many beautiful flowers," said the boy named Billy. "Why didn't they bring flowers instead of stiff, rusty palm branches?"

The boy named Billy looked puzzled. "So they hailed him on Palm Sunday and crucified him the following Friday!"

Somebody nodded. "Human praise and opinion is like that--it is always a variable thing full of chance and change--unstable--but Jesus wasn't moved for a moment by the praise and flattery of the people, because he knew what was in store for him in Jerusalem. He knew that Judas Iscariot, one of his own disciples, would betray him to the chief priests and magistrates who hated him, because they were afraid he would convert the people and uncover their own wickedness. Christ Jesus knew that he must suffer violence at the hands of those who hated goodness so that he might prove beyond shadow of doubt, by his resurrection, that love is greater than hate--that love is always victorious, because God is Love."

"I think this is the best really-so story of all!" said Billy.

The Story of the Bible

"Billy," called Big Sister one Saturday evening, "want to go to the movies?"

"Can't, thank you, Sis," called back the boy named Billy. "Got to study my Sunday School lesson."

"There were many sacred books written by many different men at many different periods of the world's history," said Somebody, "which were accepted as the inspired Word of God.

"At first these were put out as separate volumes, but after a long time they were gathered together and bound into one volume.

"The books of the Old Testament were originally written in Hebrew and those of the New Testament in Greek. Think of the labor of love it must have been to make copies of the Bible. In those days it all had to be done by hand as printing was not invented until a thousand years after the new Testament was written."

"Some undertaking," said the boy named Billy. "Were all other books made the same way?"

"Yes, indeed," said Somebody, "a book was a priceless possession in those days, and there's not much wonder that there were very few scholars--only priests and physicians had the leisure to become learned, even if they could have obtained the books from which to study."

"The Bible we have is then a translation," said the boy named Billy.

"The Bible was translated into various languages," said Somebody, "but the first English version was translated from the Latin by a priest named John Wycliffe, of Lutterworth, England. He believed that the Bible belonged to everybody and should be put into such form that everyone could read it. But instead of being thanked and made much of for the very great service he was doing he was put out of the church and called a heretic for daring to meddle with the word of God--which did not stop his work at all, because he finished it. After his death no one did any more about it for a hundred years or so until Johan Guttenberg discovered the art of printing, and when in 1454 the use of movable type was found possible many copies of the Bible were printed and everyone could have his own.

"In 1516 Erasmus, a learned Greek scholar, published the New Testament, which was translated by William Tyndale, who was so persecuted by those who did not want it published that he was obliged to go to Germany to finish his work; even there he was so hampered that it was not until 1525 that the New Testament was finally printed.

"Merely as literature, it has made a deeper impression upon the human mind than has any other book, and the extent to which it has helped shape the world's ideas cannot be estimated. No matter how much you know of poetry or prose, you cannot consider yourself well read unless you are thoroughly acquainted with the Bible."

"It is wonderful that the language has been kept so beautiful after all those translations and copyings," said the boy named Billy.

"Very likely it was changed a good bit," said Somebody, "but its wonderful message of Truth has not been changed."

"I don't know where there's another story like that of David," said Billy, "and the one about Joseph's coat has any one of the six best sellers beaten a mile."

"I don't wonder," said the boy named Billy.

Good Friday

"Tomorrow will be Good Friday," said the boy named Billy. "That is the day on which Christ Jesus was crucified, wasn't it, Somebody?"

"Yes," said Somebody, "and is why it is remembered by us all in one way or another--by church services, or in our thoughts."

"Of course I know the story," said the boy named Billy, "but won't you please tell it over again?"

"Early in the morning Christ Jesus prayed to God, his Father, saying that his mission had been accomplished . Then he went into the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples. Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, knew the place where he would be and went there with a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees.

"There on that never to be forgotten Calvary, Christ Jesus was crucified with a criminal on either side.

"Jesus' body was taken from the cross and placed in a tomb by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Three days later, on the first day of the week, when some of the women came with spices to embalm the body, they found the tomb empty. An angel who kept watch told them that Christ had risen from the dead. The risen Christ appeared first to Mary Magdalene, the once sinful woman from whom Jesus had cast out seven devils, and who had become one of the most devoted of his followers; and then to others who were close to him. He spent forty days on earth after his resurrection, and then from the midst of his disciples he was taken up to heaven. He left no writings and no organized church. But from recollections of his teachings his followers later put together the record of his ministry, as we have it in the New Testament, and with it there slowly took shape also the organized Christian church, which more and more has ruled men's lives."

"I wish I had been there," said the boy named Billy, "I could have helped some way, I know."

"You can help every day, Billy Boy," said Somebody, "by being kind to everybody, and doing unto others just the thoughtful, loving things you want others to do unto you."

About Easter

"I should say they are a sight," said Somebody; "all the colors of the rainbow and several more besides. What's on them?"

"Easter egg dyes," said Billy; "they splashed, but we got some beauties."

"Try some salt and vinegar and a nail brush and soap," said Somebody. "You'll find some on my wash stand."

The boy named Billy scrubbed with right good will. "It's coming off," he said. "Say, Somebody, please tell me why Easter doesn't stand still, like Christmas and New Year's Day. What makes it come in March one year, and likely as not in April the next? A day is a day, isn't it? Then why do we never know when to look for it? Last year we gathered pussy willows, and this year it's cold enough to skate."

"It is puzzling until you understand about it," said Somebody, as Billy came back with his hands as clean as could be expected. "Let's talk about it. There seems to be no authentic record of the actual date of Christ's death and burial and resurrection. We know that the Crucifixion was on Friday, and the Resurrection was on Sunday, but the date has never been accounted for, although Easter has been celebrated as a church festival since the early days of the Christian church.

"To settle all such disputes it was finally decided by the Council of Nicaea in 325 A. D. that the celebration of the festival commemorating the Resurrection should fall on the first Sunday after March 21st and the full moon."

"And why was the festival called Easter?" asked the boy named Billy.

"It is a sort of made-over festival," said Somebody. "The early Christians called it the Paschal festival, and it was so called until the Christian religion was introduced among the Saxons, who had a Spring festival themselves of which they were very fond, held in honor of their Spring goddess Eostre. They seemed inclined to like the new religion, but refused to give up their goddess, so the Christians decided to keep the festival and the name, but to use it in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ."

"Who was this lady named Eostre?" asked the boy named Billy. "She must have been pretty important."

"Eostre, meaning 'from the East, or Venus, the goddess of beauty,' was supposed to have been hatched by doves from an immense egg which descended from heaven and rested on the Euphrates. Out of it came the goddess of Spring and of beauty to bring warmth and sunshine into the world," said Somebody.

"That must be where the idea of the Easter egg comes from," said the boy named Billy. "I was wondering about that. It's interesting; tell me some more."

"There are many beautiful legends concerning Easter," said Somebody. "One which was quite generally believed in Ireland was that on Easter morning the sun dances. But of course we take that with a grain of salt."

"Just as we take our Easter eggs," laughed the boy named Billy. "Thank you so much, Somebody; and now I'll run and get some flowers for Mother. I'm going to get her a beautiful Easter lily."

Trailing Arbutus or Mayflower

"See what I've got for Mom," said the boy named Billy bursting into Somebody's room one bright morning in the latter part of April. "May Flowers! Beauties! Found them away over in the pine woods just peeping out from under a snow bank."

"Beauties indeed," agreed Somebody, "I'm glad you cut them so carefully. Most children do not understand the importance of cutting wild flowers instead of tearing them up by the roots."

"The Mayflower," said Somebody, "is spring's first messenger wherever it will grow, and its appearance is governed by the length of the winter, and not by the calendar. I've heard of it in the Rocky Mountains in August. It seems not to be able to live in very warm places, but loves to snuggle its blossom children under the snows of winter, who, when they awake push aside the blankets and creep out to tell the world that spring has come.

"And small as it is," went on Somebody, "the dear little pink flower has made history for itself. It was the first flower to welcome the Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers to the new world and as spring, on the bleak coast of Massachusetts, is a late comer, it probably appeared in May, and was christened Mayflower by the pioneers who knew no other name for it. Anyway it was very welcome to those poor people who had come through so many hardships, with its glorious message that the long and cruel winter was over."

"Was the boat named after the flower or the other way around?" asked the boy named Billy.

"I think it must have been that the flower was named after the boat," answered Somebody, "as the Mayflower was the boat they came over in--a little sailing vessel of one hundred and eighty tons. Yet no other ship's arrival has had such significance as that of this little vessel, which brought the Pilgrim Fathers to America in 1620. The sailing of the Mayflower meant a great deal to the future of mankind, because the Pilgrim Fathers formed the compact that established the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. It is well known that they loved the little posie, the first thing that welcomed them with a smile of hopefulness."

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