McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXXIII · Part 8: Truth, wisdom and work

77. The Sermon on the Mount

Goal: Your child reads selections from the Sermon on the Mount aloud and explains several of its teachings in their own words.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook or lined paper and a pencil

What's in the book

Selections from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5 to 7): the Beatitudes, teaching on oaths, loving enemies, judging others, prayer, the Golden Rule, and the houses built on rock and sand. Definitions and Exercises follow.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    The new words are at the end of the lesson, under Definitions. The small number in front of each word is the paragraph or verse where it is used. Read them together before the lesson. A few of them:

    Disciple, one who receives instruction from another.

    Blessed, happy.

    Inherit, to come into possession of.

    Mote, a small particle.

    The book also defines publicans (tax collectors, who were often oppressive and hated by the Jews) and scribes (men among the Jews who read and explained the law to the people).

  2. Read it aloud

    Read the first part aloud to your child slowly, then let your child read the rest. The verses are numbered in the book. It begins with the Beatitudes:

    Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

    Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.

  3. Talk about it

    SayWho delivered this sermon? Who are blessed? and why?

    SayHow should we treat our enemies?

    SayShould we judge others harshly? What does Jesus say of him who finds faults in his neighbor, but does not see his own?

    SayWhat is said about prayer? About our conduct to others?

    Let your child look back at the page to find answers.

  4. The two houses

    Ask your child to retell the ending: the wise man who built his house on a rock and the foolish man who built on the sand. Say: What do you think the rock stands for?

  5. Tell it back

    Your child chooses one teaching from the sermon and explains it, with an example from everyday life.

  6. Copywork

    This is the Golden Rule (remember Lesson LI). Your child copies it exactly:

    Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them;

  7. Words to learn

    Learn: disciple, blessed, inherit, revile, persecute, despitefully, publicans, mete, mote, hypocrite. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

Afterwards

Learn the Beatitudes, or the Golden Rule verse, by heart this week.

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