FIRST STEPS TO THE BIBLE. I. You have already read some account of the Creation, that is, of God's making the world and every thing in it; but now that you are old enough to read harder words, you shall have some more stories, which shall be written in part in the very same words that you will find in the Bible when you are able to read it. You may always know when I am telling you a story in the same words as it is written in the Bible, because you will see little marks like these " at each end of the sentence. But while you are reading these stories, you must remember that I wish you to learn from every one of them, something that will make you wish to be good, and please, and serve God. You know you are taught in your catechism, that the Bible will teach you to know and love God; and the way to shew that you love God, is, to obey him. Our Saviour Jesus Christ told his disciples so, when he said: "If ye love me, keep my commandments. Keeping God's commandments, is the same thing as obeying Him, and you know that to obey any one means to do as they desire you. If we strive to obey God, we shall feel happy within ourselves; but if we do not love Him nor wish to please Him, we can never be truly happy, even if we have all the the worldly blessings we could wish for. When God created the world, the last thing that he made was man. "And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living soul." Your soul is that part of you which you cannot see, and which will never die, but which makes you different from the birds and beasts. They can move about, and eat, and sleep, as you do, but they cannot think nor understand, nor serve God, nor worship Him, because they have no souls. The name of the first man was Adam, and the Bible says that " The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed." And God had made every tree that is good for food, and pleasant to the sight, to grow out of the ground; and in the middle of the garden grew the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. "And God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." At this time Adam was alone in the garden of Eden, and there was nobody with him. And we read that "the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone, I will make a help meet for him." And the Lord God made a woman, and brought her to Adam, and Adam called her name Eve. Now when God first made Adam and Eve, they were good, and therefore they were very happy, but they did not long remain |