THE School Managers' SERIES OF READING BOOKS LESSONS FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT WITH THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE BIBLE ancestors—that is, of your fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and so on, as far back as you can tell their names. Most people place their children's names in their family Bibles. When the New Testament was written, the genealogies of the Jews were kept with the greatest care, every one hoping that the Messiah might be born in his family, and from them St. Matthew showed how our Lord was descended from Abraham, in whom God had promised that all families of the earth should be blessed, and from David, to whom He had said, “Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations." ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. THE Gospel of St. Luke begins by telling us about the birth of John the Baptist, who wàs called the forerunner of our Lord. A forerunner is one who is sent forward to say that some great person is coming. John was the son of Zacharias, an aged priest, and of Elizabeth his wife, who were said to have been both "righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." They were trying to obey the laws of God as far as they knew them. An angel appeared to them, telling them they were to have a son, and that many should rejoice at his birth. When their son, who was named John, grew up, he retired into the wilderness, a wild, uninhabited country; he was clothed in camel's hair, and he lived on locusts and wild honey; he was contented with the very poorest and coarsest of food and clothing. You would not expect that many people would wish to go to see such a man. not care to travel after him. You yourself would Yet we are told that "Jerusalem, and all Judæa, and all the region round about Jordan"-that is, the people who dwelt in those lands-went out to hear him preach repentance. His was the voice of which Isaiah prophesied when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord." He did not flatter those who came to listen to him, and who fancied, as so many Jews did fancy, that they were good because they were descended from Abraham-just as some children think now that they must be all right, because their fathers and mothers are religious. He called them a generation of vipers. Vipers are a venomous sort of snake, and the words were used amongst the Jews to describe cruel and deceitful bad people. We are told that many repented. What does repentance mean? Most children answer, "To be sorry." But if people are really sorry-if they truly repent—they are sure to leave off sinning. Perhaps you fancy that you repent, because you are sorry for the punishment that follows when you have done wrong. St. John said, "Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance;" that is, do the things. that will show you have really been unhappy; and he explained what he meant by saying, "He that hath two coats, let him impart," or give, "to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do |