And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day

"The pastures are clothed with flocks."-PSALM 1XV. 13.

and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make

man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.-Genesis I.; II. 1-3.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

HAVE you ever thought what a lovely, happy place this world would be if people were all good and lived as the Lord's obedient little children? It would be almost like heaven. At first they did live so, and the earth was like a beautiful garden in which people were safe and happy. The Bible is telling of that happy time when it describes a garden planted eastward in Eden. Eden means "delight."

But we read of something that crept into the garden and brought unhappiness. It is called a serpent, which tempted the people to eat of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The serpent was the same one which brings unhappiness now, the serpent of selfish pleasure, which makes us choose what seems to us good instead of obeying and trusting the Lord. That is what made the world unhappy long ago, and it makes it unhappy now, unless we learn again to be like the Lord's good little children. It is a beautiful parable.

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every

"Thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it."-PSALM lxv. 9. "The earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works."-PSALM civ. 13.

tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth

*"Bdellium" is supposed to mean "pearl."

the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

...

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. . . .

Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims,* and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.-Genesis II. 4-17; III. 1-13, 23, 24.

THE FLOOD.

WE have learned that when people were good the earth was like a beautiful garden. But they began to do wrong and then they were unhappy. And when we begin to do wrong it is easy to keep on doing worse. It was so in those days long ago, till "God saw that the wickedness of man

*Living forms, here probably angel forms, as guards.

was great in the earth." It seemed to the few people who still tried to obey the Lord as if the whole beautiful world was being destroyed. They had seen great floods, perhaps upon the banks of the Euphrates, when torrents of rain had made the waters overflow all the country, and the houses had been washed away, and the people and the cattle had been drowned. Such dreadful floods seemed to picture to them the way the whole beautiful, happy world was now being destroyed. And when the Lord caused the story of these sad days to be written, it was written as the story of a terrible flood which came over all the earth.

Harvesting in Egypt, fifteen hundred years before Abraham, tomb of Tih, Sakkarah.

But the Lord took care of the few people who still tried to obey Him. They are called Noah and his family. The Lord's protection was around these people like an ark or house, with tight walls and roof, that floated on the waters and kept them safe. As we read about the ark we must think of it as a picture of the Lord's care preserving and protecting, in those wicked days, all that could be preserved of the happy life of Eden.

At last the storm was done, and the waters began to go