This is my outline for teaching Lesson 9 this morning. I decided to add the bit at the beginning about seeing beyond the surface of the scriptural stories, partly because my class members are already so familiar with the narrative but mostly because there has been some discussion about the difficulty of finding value in so many parts of the Old Testament and I wanted to help people remember there are more ways to find value than merely looking at the surface of a world that is so different from our own. I love the idea of types and shadows and personally find so many instances of them in the Old Testament that I want to be able to refer to them throughout the year. I thought if I laid the groundwork for that now, with the story of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac and its such obvious foreshadowing of Christ’s sacrifice, it would be easier to help class members recognize them in future lessons.)

Lesson 9: “God Will Provide Himself a Lamb”

2 Nephi 11:4
Jacob 7:11
Abraham 1
Genesis 15-17; 21-22

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Both the current lesson manual and this trio of lessons scheduled for 18 May, 25 May, and 8 June 1930 examine Joseph’s life in Egypt, noting how Joseph’s faithfulness during trials led to great blessings for himself and all his family.

Joseph

There are many reasons why Joseph should be the favorite son of his father, Jacob. In the first place he was the first born of Rachel whom Jacob had to work so long to get and with whom he was in love from the day he first caught sight of her. Then, too, Joseph was next to the youngest of Jacob’s children. Joseph soon displayed the type of characteristics and disposition which any parent would cherish. Joseph stands out in the history of Israel not only as a great heroic character who saves his family and who becomes great in a strange land, but also as a model boy, son, and brother.

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Artwork by Nelson White; text by unknown author

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next issue (to be updated next Sunday)

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Where do you suppose the church magazines of 1928 found so many corny jokes?

Nothing

“Do you suffer with rheumatism?”

“Certainly; what else could I do with it?”

No; Let’s Hear It

Have you heard the story of the Scotchman who went crazy trying to shoot off a cannon a little at a time?

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Parowan, June 8th, 1897

To the Editor: –

Nearly every Sunday our teacher asks us to write to the Juvenile Instructor. I am willing enough to write, but am one of that kind that never knows what to say.

I am my mamma’s only living boy. Seven months ago my papa died, two weeks ago my seventh sister was born, so you see I can’t spend much time writing, but must round up my shoulders to see how good a crop of corn and potatoes I can raise. It’s my watering turn today, so please excuse me. I have tried to obey my teacher and hope to improve.

RALPH WATSON
Aged 11 years

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The year 1899 was a Jubilee Year for the Sunday School. It had been 50 years since Richard Ballantyne had conducted the first Sunday School among the Mormons in the Rocky Mountains, and all things Sunday School-related were discussed in print and over the pulpit.

In the spring of that year, Robert Aveson, then of Salt Lake City and formerly of London, England, shared his knowledge of the first LDS Sunday School he had attended in London, providing good detail about the people and practices of that early school:

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The early years in the Salt Lake Valley were years of shortages. The seagulls may have beaten back the crickets and saved part of the crop, but no seagull – nor anything else – could prevent wear and tear to a laborer’s clothing, nor produce the fabric to make new clothing. Cloth was one of the scarcest necessities in the early settlement period, and family histories and the amused comments of travelers often record the scarecrow-like appearance of the Mormons of the 1850s.

Samuel Lorenzo Adams (1833-1910) and his wife Emma Jackson Adams (1830-1885) typified the problem. They had emigrated from England in 1852, marrying just three days before the ship sailed from Liverpool. 19-year-old Samuel and 22-year-old Emma crossed the plains with the first company to be fitted out by the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, which severely limited the amount of personal property, including clothing, they could bring with them. They had the clothes they wore, plus a change, and that was about it.

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Priesthood … dances … hypnotism — the Saints of 1897 had questions about them all, and wrote to George Q. Cannon of the Juvenile Instructor for answers:

Q. One of the country ward Sunday Schools, being desirous to raise funds for the use of the school, arranged to have a dance for that purpose; and in order to make the dance more attractive, we suppose, it was arranged that it should be what the superintendent called an “auction-basket dance.”

A. This is a new title for a dance at least to the editor of the Juvenile Instructor. The dance, we understand, is arranged in this way: Each lady is expected to bring a basket of picnic, and then each basket is sold to the highest bidder, and the successful bidder secures for a partner the lady who brought the basket.

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Yeah, I know George Q. Cannon died in 1901 – Al Gore hadn’t even been thought of then, much less the Internet. But aside from that picky detail, can’t you read every word of this 1872 article as referring to some of our online interactions?

There are more ill feelings caused by the simple act of criticism than many persons imagine. It is a habit, too, to which many of us are addicted – a habit that grows upon us imperceptibly to ourselves, but often painfully apparent to others. (more…)

(See here for background)

Keepa’ninny Bessie — who shared pictures of her paper Salt Lake City — tells this story about this “Be Honest With Yourself” card:

The cards were not cheesy to this 1950s teenager. Through the years I’d regretted not keeping better track of mine. Then I found this one in my father’s things after he passed away in 1992. And I knew why he kept it.

That is his daughter (me) sitting on the fountain stool to the left.

His friend, the druggist at the A. & G. Drug Store on South State Street, gave me a job in about 1958. I worked the fountain, clerked, and delivered prescriptions in Mr. Anderson’s little blue jeep. He asked if I’d like to be in a picture they were shooting there one Saturday. The girl behind the fountain in the white starched uniform was working, and her sister and I would be patrons at the fountain in the picture. I was surprised when the card came out to see me wearing a red top. I had worn a blue flowered two-piece dress I’d sewn myself. I was pretty happy though; I looked so much better than in real life.

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