PART V

THE STORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES

We are told that, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth; that the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; that the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, "Let there be light," and there was light, which God saw was good, and, dividing the light from the darkness, He called the light day and the darkness night;

That, in the second day, God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters;" that God made the firmament, dividing the waters which were under it from the waters which were above it, and called the firmament heaven;

That, in the third day, by speaking, God caused the waters under the heaven to be gathered together, unto one place, and the dry land to appear, calling the dry land earth and the waters seas; that, by speaking, God caused the earth to bring forth grass, herbs, and fruit trees, the herb yielding seed after its kind and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind and where the seed was in itself after its kind, and saw that it was all good;

That, in the fourth day, God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night and for signs, for seasons, for days and years, and for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth;" that God made two great lights, the greater to rule the day and the lesser to rule the night, and the stars also; that these lights God set in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, to divide the light from the darkness, and He saw that it was good;

That, in the fifth day, God said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven;" that God created great whales and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every fowl after his kind, and, seeing that they were good, He blessed them saying, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the earth;"

That, in the sixth day, God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creatures after his kind, the cattle and the creeping things and the beasts of the earth after his kind," and it was so; that God made the beast of the field after his kind, the cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and saw that it was good;

That God said, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the cattle, every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and over all the earth;" that God created man in His image; that in the image of God created He man, male and female created

He them; that God blessed them, and said unto them, "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat. To every beast of the earth, every fowl of the air, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat," and it was so; that God saw every thing He had made and it was very good.

It is stated, that thus, in six days, the heaven and the earth, and the hosts of heaven were finished; that God rested on the seventh day, and blessed and sanctified it because in it He had rested from all His work which He had created and made; that these were the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heaven, and every plant and herb of the field before it was in the earth or grew, for there was not a man to till the ground; that the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

It is stated, that the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and he became a living soul; that the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and the man he had formed He put there to dress and keep it;

That, out of the ground, the Lord God made to grow every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food; that, out of the midst of the garden, he caused to

grow the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil; that, to water the garden, a river went out of Eden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads-Pison, which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, Gihon, which compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia; Hiddekel, which goeth toward the east of Assyria, and Euphrates.

It is recorded, that 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 thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

The Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make an helpmeet for him;" that, out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them; that Adam named the cattle, the fowl, and the beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found an helpmeet for him, and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, took one of Adam's ribs, out of which He made a woman and brought her unto the man; that when the woman was brought unto Adam he said, "This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man, therefore; shall a man leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh;" that the man and the woman were both naked and were not ashamed.

It is stated that the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field; that the serpent said unto the woman, "yea, hath God said, 'Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'" That the woman said unto the ser