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The Creation.

GENESIS I. 1.

Y dear young friend, how could all things be, without being made? To be sure, some one must have made them. Why, look at your shoe; it would not have fitted your foot, if the leather had not been cut out and sewn together in the shape of your foot; and you never thought that a shoe came by chance, and was made by no one. No: in fitting the foot there is some plan, and skill, and work.

But what is a shoe, compared with an insect? Who could make a fly? No man could make a fly. He could make something like it, of cloth, or steel, or wood; but he could not give it life, eyes to see, and feet to walk, and wings to fly.

Then an insect is more curious than a shoe; and as man could not make it, it must be made by some one more wise and powerful than man.

But what is an insect compared to a man? King David said, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made." We think, and talk, and do, many curious things: our frames are all wonderful: what a number of faces are there in the world, and yet no two are exactly alike! what a number of voices, and yet all differ!

But what is one man to millions of men; and what are millions of men to millions of worlds, in which, perhaps, there are other men?

Oh, then, how great is God! He made the sun, which is more than a million times larger than the earth, and which gives us light and heat.

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He made the moon, to light us at night. "He made the stars also." And these are so contrived, as to make day and night, spring and summer, autumn and winter.

How good, too, is God. "God created the heaven and the earth." All that moves and grows upon the earth he made: man, and beast, and fish, and birds, to live on it by land and water; and gave them all that grows upon it for their use. But I cannot tell you of all its pretty flowers, its pleasant herbs, and its sweet fruits. Think of these things; and love, and serve, and pray to that God who is so great, so wise, and so good, and can keep you, and guide you, and bless you.

The Fall of Man.

GEN. II. 15-17.

When God had made man, he gave him everything in the world to enjoy, and even all the beasts were to obey him. It was, then, no unkind thing of God that he should tell Adam to do as he bid him. He put him into a garden called Eden, and he gave him the fruit of every tree in the garden except one; and Adam was not contented, but he must eat of that very tree of which God told him not to eat. O Adam! what hast thou done?

Now, God is too good to tell a lie; and as he had told him, that if he did eat of that one tree of knowledge, he should surely die, so it came to pass. Adam's body began to decay, though he lived to be very old; and Adam's sons, and all their sons, and sons' sons, and their children ever since, have died. So death came into the world.

The Murder of Abel.

GENESIS IV. 8.

This is the first murder that ever took place in the world. Cain and Abel were both Adam's sons. Cain was a wicked man, and Abel was a good man. Cain and Abel went to worship God, as they did at that time, by offering up a sacrifice; and God showed by some sign when he liked the offering. Cain's offering was, no doubt, not given heartily; and, as God only loves those whose religion is sincere, God only showed that he loved Abel. At this Cain was in a very great passion, and proved how rightly God had judged that he was a wicked man; for he fell upon his brother, perhaps with a great club, and killed him.

Let us learn from this to pray to God sincerely, lest he should not hear us when we ask him to accept of us, as we should, through Jesus Christ. Let us also remember the danger of being in a passion; for it was this that made Cain kill Abel.

The Death of the oldest Man who ever lived in the World.

GENESIS V. 27.

"And all the days of Methusaleh were nine hundred and sixty and nine years." Why, what an age! people do not live so long now! No: God let people then live a long while, that the earth might increase in inhabitants; and he who keeps man alive now, often for seventy, eighty, ninety, or a hundred years, could as easily keep Methuselah alive nearly a thousand years. But God did not forget his threat to Adam, "Thou shalt surely die !" "But," you may say, "what had this old man done, that he should die?" Why, when Adam had sinned, all those that sprung from him—that is, his children and children's children of every new race-had a like spirit with himself; and, though they had no forbidden tree in Eden, yet they often did things which they knew God could not love, and this exposed them, as it does us, to the pain of death. Thank God that in Christ—that is, if we believe in him and love him, and do as he bids us-we shall all be made

alive in another world, where there will be no death.

The Flood and the Ark.

GENESIS VI. 17.

Men grew worse and worse, so that they were wicked everywhere. "And there were giants in the earth in those days." This means, some very huge, tall men, and also some men of great name, like kings; and they were at the same time tyrants,—that is, very cruel.

66 saw the wickedness of man."

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And God, who sees everything, the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."

But there was one good man, with his family; his name was NOAH. It is said, he was "a just man and perfect;" which means, he was a good man; for no man could be quite perfect after Adam fell, because all his children became sinful like him.

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