The Making of the World

First Reading.

 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

       Today we are told how God made this earth that we live on. Sunday is the earth's birthday, for on the first day of the week the Creation began.
       The world was all one mass - dark, empty, and shapeless - till God made the light by His Word, and said that the light was good. Without light we could not live: even the very  trees and flowers would die. When we have been in the dark how glad we are to see light come back, even if it be only one grey line beginning in the sky ! This shows how blessed is this gift. It was good, too, that we should have quite a dark night for rest and stillness.
       The second great change enclosed the earth in an outer ball of air, which we call the sky or firmament. That is the deep blue into which we look up and up. The water risers up from the earth and makes the clouds that take such strange shapes, sometimes dark and full of rain to water the earth, sometimes shining white, or pink and golden with morning or evening light.
       The third great change was, that water filled the deep hollows of the earth, while the hills rose up dry above them, with rivers and streams running down their slopes into the deep seas below. God did not leave the land bare and stony: He clothed it with green fresh plants and herbs, with leaves and flowers, and trees to give us their fruit or their wood, and filled even the sea with plants formed to live under water.
        Next, God allowed the rays of the sun to gladden the earth, and let it see the moon lighted up by the sun, as well as the stars far beyond our firmament. We count the months by the changes in the moon; and our earth's journey round the sun marks our years and seasons. We all rejoice in a bright sunny day, though the sun is too bright and glorious for us to bear to gaze at him; and how lovely the moon looks, either as a young crescent, or a beautiful full moon!
       The waters began to be full of live things, that swam, or crept, or flew: fishes, and birds, and insects. By that time this world was nearly as we see it, and a beautiful home for us to live in. Then God made the four-footed beasts - sheep and cows, horses, dogs, cats, elephants, lions - all that we use or admire ; and, last of all, when He had made this earth a happy, healthy place. He planted the Garden of Eden, and put in it the first man and woman, the best of all that He had made; for though their bodies were of dust, like those of the beasts, yet their souls came from the Breath of God. They could think, speak, pray, and heed what is unseen as well as what is seen.
       There are many many lessons to be learnt from this wonderful story. Let us try to take home one of them. Let us ask our Father that the ground below, the light above, the sky and sea, the sun and moon, the trees and flowers, the birds and beasts, and His holy day of rest, may remind us that they came from Him, and that we may be very thankful to Him for having given us such good things. 

QUESTIONS.

1. Who made the world? 
2. Which Commandment tells you about God's making the world? 
3. What is there in the sky that God made? 
4. What is there on the earth? 
5. What do you see around you that He made? 
6. Can we make birds, or beasts, or flowers? 
7. Or could we make them live? 
8. Who makes them and us live? 
9. Where does all our food come from? 
10. Who gave us com? 
11. What must we ask God to do for us? 
12. What must we thank Him for? 
13. Do not you think it would be pleasant to whisper to yourself, when you see a pretty flower, or a beautiful sky, or when the sun shines bright and warm,
14. Thank God for being so good to me?

Second Reading.

''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.''  Genesis 2: 7

       In the Bible God tells us that He made the world, and everything in it: land and water, and grass, flowers and trees, insects, birds and beasts, and last of all He made the first man and woman. The man was made by God out of the dust of the ground, and then God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and gave him a living soul. And the woman was made by God out of the man's side. They were called Adam and Eve, and they were to be the first father and mother of everyone who was to be born into the world.

       The good God gave them a beautiful home. It was a garden, with a clear river of water flowing through it, and all kinds of delicious fruit-trees and beautiful flowers growing in it. Nothing could hurt or vex them there. They did not know what pain was, they were never tired, and all they had to do was to dress the garden and to keep it. They had no faults, and never did wrong; and God Himself came near totalk with them.

       That was the way they lived, always good and always happy, whilst they obeyed what God had told them. In the midst of the garden grew two trees: one was the Tree of Life, and the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. God told them that if they ate the fruit of this Tree of Knowledge they would die. We do not know what those trees were like, but sometime or other I hope we shall see the Tree of Life, for it is growing in heaven, close by the river that flows by the Throne of God ; and when we see it, and taste of it, we shall live for ever, and be happier even than Adam and Eve were. We shall never be as happy as they were while we are living in this world; but if we will try to obey God, and live holy lives. He will take us to heaven, and that will be still better than the Garden of Eden.

QUESTIONS.

1. What did God make? 
2. Whom did He make?
3. What was the man made of? 
4. What was the woman made of? 
5. What did God breathe into them? 
6. What did He give them? 
7. Why were they better than the beasts? 
8. What was the man's name? 
9. What was the woman's name? 
10. Of whom were they the father and mother? 
11. Where did they live? 
12. What had they to do there? 
13. What grew there? 14. 
14. What were the two chief trees that grew there?
15. Which were they not to touch? 
16. Where is the Tree of Life now?
17. When do we hope to see it? 
18. What is a still happier place than the Garden of Eden?

Third Reading

"Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." Job 38:11

       What glorious and wonderful things God has made! Did you ever see the sea ? There it is - a great vast space, all water, looking green near us, but blue further off - always heaving up and down. The waves rise, and then ripple along, and burst with a white edge of bubbles of foam. And, if you live near the sea, you know how, at certain times in the day, one wave after another begins to break a little higher on the beach; eight waves seem to run up the same distance, then the ninth comes much further, then eight more come like that, then another. A great space that had been left dry gets covered up with water again, and where you were walking just now is quite deep "water. What is this called? The tide. Well, what will the tide do in proper time. Will it come rolling in over the beach, sand, pebbles, and rocks, and wash us all away and drown us all, and cover up the land? No ; presently each will turn. Each wave will be a little less high than the last, till it will have gone back again and left the beach uncovered as before. Why does the tide do this ? It is because God so wonderfully contrived this earth and sea, that the waters should rise and go back. He made the sand the bound of the sea, and said, ''Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." So, you know, we sing in the Psalm every Sunday:

''The sea is His, and He made it :
And His hands prepared the dry land."

QUESTIONS.

1. Which day was the sea and land made? 
2. What curious thing does the sea do every day? 
3. What do you call the coming in and going back of the sea? 
4. Why does the tide always stop in its proper place?
5. What did God make the bounderies of the sea? 
6. What did He say to it ? 
7. What verse praises God for making the sea?

The text was written by Charlotte M. Yonge.