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STORIES FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT

ON HOLY GROUND

THE CREATION.

THE earth is our beautiful home. The Lord has made it for us to live in while we are learning to live in the still more beautiful home in heaven. The earth was not made in a moment, but the Lord was forming it through six long ages before it was ready for people to live in. Many of the

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"The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed
the dry land."-PSALM XCV. 5.

rocks that you see were made long before there were any people on the earth, and the rocks have kept hidden away to show us the forms of many animals and plants that lived before there were people.

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We can learn something about the earth's first beginning, before there were plants or even rocks; for telescopes show us in the sky stars and earths that are younger than ours, which the Lord is only now making ready. There was a time when the earth was not solid, but was like a cloud from the great fires of the sun. Little by little the cloud cooled, and the earth was one great ocean with heavy vapors wrapped all about it. If we had seen the earth then, we should not have thought that it could ever be made the beautiful home that it is now. But the Lord's care was over it, and His power was at work upon it. "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved [or brooded] upon the face of the waters."

By and by the clouds grew thinner and light began to reach the earth, enough to make the day different from the night.

Then the air grew clear between the heavy clouds above and the water beneath; this was the "firmament" dividing the waters from the waters.

As the earth cooled, for it had been very hot, its crust wrinkled and grew uneven. The water ran into the hollows and made seas; mountains and lands rose up above the water; the earth was becoming ready for men, "and God saw that it was good."

Now the Lord made little plants begin to grow and afterwards large trees.

All this time there was only the dim light which came through the clouds. Now the clouds broke and for the first time the sun shone through from the clear sky, and at night the moon and stars.

Then the Lord made moving creatures, first fishes and birds, then other animals. At last the earth was ready to be the home of people. What a beautiful home it was! The Lord made men in His own image, and He "saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

When we see the land and the ocean, the sunshine and the moon and stars, the plants and trees, the birds and animals, we must remember that the Lord has made them all, and made us, too, so that we may live in a happy home here and be ready for the home in heaven.

But the story of Creation is much more than an account of how the natural earth was made. It is a Divine parable, telling us how the Lord creates a heavenly character within us, not all at once, but step by step. With the stories of the Garden of Eden and the Flood, it was given to people long, long ago, when they understood heavenly parables, and was a part of an Ancient Word before our Bible was written. It is a very ancient story full of sacred meaning.

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"He sendeth the springs into the valleys."-PSALM civ. 10.
"The trees of the wood rejoice before the LORD."-PSALM Xevi. 12, 15.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

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