Bible History

This book was prepared for use in the Catholic Schools in the United States and is an excellent resource for Catholics and others who are home-schooling. Of this book Cardinal Gibbons said: "Father Gilmour's Bible History, published by you, is a work that richly merits, as I am sure it will receive, the liberal patronage of the Catholic schools and academies throughout the country. I am delighted-with it." Henry Edward Cardinal Manning also endorsed this work. Let us consider a sample lesson on the holy Job: Contemporary with the patriarchs there lived in Arabia a man named Job. He had seven sons and three daughters; for possessions he had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred asses, besides many servants. He was much esteemed on account of his great wealth, but much more so for his piety. On a certain day God said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, how there is none like to him on the whole earth?" Satan replied that it was easy for Job to serve God, that he was rich and blessed in all his actions; but, "Touch him," said Satan, "and he will curse you and abandon you." God gave Satan permission, only not to touch his person. Soon after this, while the sons and daughters of Job were eating and drinking together in the house of their eldest brother, there came a messenger to Job to tell him how the Sabeans had taken his oxen and his asses, and slain his servants. The messenger had hardly finished when there came another, telling how fire had fallen from heaven and consumed his sheep and his shepherds. There came still a third, saying the Chaldeans had taken his camels and slain his servants. And while he was yet speaking there came a fourth with the sad news that the house in which his children were feasting had been blown down by a wind and all were killed. When Job heard these things, rising up, he rent his garments, and, falling down, adored God. " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away," said he; "blessed be the name of the Lord." So Job sinned not, and God rejoiced in His servant. Satan again appeared before the Lord and said, if God would but touch Job's person, He would see Job would curse Him. God put Job in Satan's power. Then Satan struck Job with a grievous ulcer, so that he was covered with sores from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot. Job scraped his sores with a potsherd. Job's wife, seeing this, came and upbraided him for his folly. But Job answered, "If we have received good from the hand of God, why will we not receive evil?" So again Job sinned not. When Job's friends heard what had. befallen him, three of them came to condole with him. Seeing him, they wept, and, sitting down, for seven days and seven nights no one spoke, for they saw how great was his grief. At length Job opened his mouth and began to lament his suffering; but his friends only reproached him with his faults. Job would not confess that he was guilty, but stoutly maintained his innocence and his confidence in God. This confidence was not misplaced, for Job was delivered from his afflictions, and had possessions twice as great as before. Again he had seven sons and three daughters, and after this li, ed a hundred and forty years, and saw his children's children to the fourth generation. He died an old man, full of joy and happiness. Job is a figure of Jesus Christ, who, bruised from the top of His head to the sole of His foot, and scorned as a man covered with iniquities, complained not. We see also in Job's case how far sometimes God permits the devil to exercise his powers.