LESSONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT.

LESSON I.

THE CREATION. — GENESIS, CHAP. I.

THE object of this sublime account of the creation was to teach the great truth which lies at the foundation of all true religion, that there is but one God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and by whom and through whom all things subsist. At the time when Moses wrote, the true God was almost unknown. The world was filled with superstitions, and had gone astray after false gods. The Israelites could hardly be restrained from worshipping a golden calf, as if it were a god. The Egyptians worshipped animals, such as the bull, the crocodile, the snake, and the ibis; nor these only, but they regarded different plants as sacred. Throughout the Eastern world, the sun and moon were thought to be gods, or the abode of gods. One of the principal cities of Egypt was sacred to the sun. Among the Eastern nations, there were hose who considered light and darkness as gods. The air, the sea, the groves, had their peculiar deities. Idolatry prevailed throughout the world, and not only did men offer to their false gods flocks and herds and the fruits of the field, but there was scarcely a people on earth which did not at times sacrifice human beings, as the most acceptable of all offerings. There could be no true religion till these superstitions were removed. And hence the first object of Moses was to give

just ideas of God. It was not his purpose to describe how the several parts of the world were created, — this was left to the astronomer and geologist of after times, but to teach man by whom they were created. He was a teacher of religion, and not of astronomy. The heavens and the earth, he taught, were created by Jehovah. The light, and the sun, and the stars were not gods, but were created by Jehovah. The animals and plants on the earth owed their origin to Him. And, finally, man was the workmanship of His hand. Not only were the gods whom the heathen worshipped no geds at all, but those objects which so many nations fancied to be gods were created by Him. This truth appears to us to be so simple, that it seems impossible that it should not have always been received. But men have never been able to attain to a satisfactory faith in it unaided by revelation, and its universal reception among us, and our freedom from doubt, are probably owing very much to the manner in which it was taught by Moses.

Many of the worst evils of heathenism grew out of the fact that different races of men were supposed to have a different origin, and to be under the protection of different, and often of conflicting, deities. The strifes of men seemed thus to have a Divine sanction. Moses, on the contrary, taught that there was but one Supreme God, to whom all men, of all lands, must look as their original Creator. In this great doctrine of the unity of God, and the unity of mankind as owing their existence to him, Moses struck at the foundation of the worst evils that have afflicted the world. He prepared the way for the teaching of Christ, that the Creator of all is also the Father of all, and that all men are brethren, and equally dependent on the same God.

Q. By whom were the heavens and the earth created?

A. Gen. i. 1.

Q. What are we taught in the first verse of Genesis ? Q. Can you mention some of the false gods which the heathen worshipped?

A. Among the Egyptians, some of their principal gods were adored under the form of animals. The fact that the Israelites had been accustomed to see the image of a sacred calf worshipped in Egypt, probably led them to adopt it for their idol worship. Baal was worshipped by the Canaanitish nations; while the worship of the heavenly bodies prevailed throughout the East.

Q. Who created the light, and the sun, and the moon? Q. Who created the earth, and the plants, and ani. mals upon it?

Q. By whom was man created?

Q. Were those objects which the heathens worshipped really gods?

A. No; they were either imaginary beings, or crea

tures inferior to man, or inanimate objects.

Q. What was the purpose of Moses in saying, not only that the heavens and earth were made by Jehovah, but that the sun and moon and stars, and animals and plants, were created by him? A. It was to teach that these objects, so far from being really gods, were created by the true God, and that thus, when men looked upon them, they might be led to the worship of the one only and true Creator and Upholder of all things.

Q. What beings were last created and placed upon the earth?

2. For what reason may we suppose that Moses dwells upon the fact that the human race owes its origin to Jehovah ?

A. Because that fact is the foundation both of piety towards God and good-will towards men.

Q. What authority was given to man over plants and animals?

A. Every moving thing that liveth, and every green herb, shall be meat for you. Gen. ix. 3. Q. If all men are equally dependent on God for existence, and if his gifts to them were for the ben. efit of all, how ought they to regard one another A. As children of one Father, and as brethren.

LESSON II.

GARDEN OF EDEN..

GENESIS II. - V.

THE great truth set forth in the first chapter of Genesis is, that God is the Creator of all things. The next question of infinite interest relates to the character of that Being who is over all, and to the relations which he sustains towards man. In the third chapter of Genesis, Moses teaches the great truth that the Creator is also the Moral Governor of man.

The account of the garden of Eden, though given in the historical form, has been thought by many to be an allegorical description of the moral condition of our first parents, rather than history. But whatever view be taken of it, the moral truth set forth, with which we are chiefly concerned, remains always the same; namely, that as man is now, so he has been

from the beginning, under the moral government of God. At his creation, man was placed under a Divine law; was held responsible to God for his conduct; and his happiness was made to depend on his obedience. As soon as he began to sin, he began to suffer; and in sinning entered on the road of misery and death.

Our first parents, in their early helplessness, were placed in a garden where all their wants were supplied. The Being who had created them provided for their wants. They were innocent, and at peace with each other and with God.

But they were made for more than this life of passive enjoy ment. That their moral nature might be developed, they were subjected to a law. What was meant by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, of which they were forbidden to eat, we are unable to say. But whatever it might be, the command not to eat was from God; it called into action their reverence for God's authority, and gave to them the idea of duties to be done, as well as pleasures to be enjoyed; while the definite and simple nature of the command fitted it to be a test to themselves of their disposition to obey God. Whatever it was of which they were prohibited to partake, its presence before them was a perpetual trial of their docility, obedience, and reverence. It was the awakening of their moral and religious life.

How long they continued in a state of blissful innocence is not stated. But at length, yielding to temptation, they transgressed the command of their Maker, and in so doing fell from their first estate of blameless peace. This act changed the world for them. They became conscious of guilt. They fled from the presence of God.

What the condition of themselves and their children would have been, had they remained innocent, we have no means of knowing. They might not have needed the discipline of trial, and, like the angels, might have grown up as the children of God. But, as the penalty of guilt, they were expelled from Eden, and doomed to a condition of toil, hardship, and death. It was doubtless necessary, as a means of restraining, pre