that there has been a creation, that things now existing have not just
grown of themselves, but have been called into being by a presiding
intelligence and an originating will. No attempt to account for the
existence of the world in any other way has been successful. A great deal
has in this generation been added to our knowledge of the efficiency of
material causes to produce what we see around us; but when we ask what
gives harmony to these material causes, and what guides them to the
production of certain ends, and what originally produced them, the answer
must still be, not matter but intelligence and purpose.—_The Expositor’s
Bible_, _Genesis_, _Marcus Dods_.
The record is not a geological treatise, but a hymn of praise to God,
magnifying his mighty works, indicating man’s high relation to him, and
hallowing the weekly Sabbath, which is man’s day of rest.—_The Handy
Commentator_, _A. R. Payne Smith, Dean of Canterbury_.
The cosmogony of Genesis shows, in opposition to the conceptions widely
prevalent in antiquity, that the world was not self-originated; that it
was called into existence, and brought gradually into its present state,
at the will of a spiritual Being, prior to it, independent of it, and
deliberately planning every stage of its progress. The spirituality, not
less than the dignity, of the entire representation is indeed in marked
contrast to the self-contradictory, grotesque speculations of which the
ancient cosmogonies usually consist. “It sets God above the great complex
world process, and yet closely linked with it, as a personal intelligence
and will that rules, victoriously and without a rival.”—_The Book of
Genesis_, _S. R. Driver_.
If anyone is in search of accurate information regarding the age of this
earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, or stars, or regarding the exact
order in which plants and animals have appeared upon it, he should go to
recent textbooks in astronomy, geology, and paleontology. It is not the
purpose of the writers of Scripture to impart physical instruction, or
to enlarge the bounds of scientific knowledge. So far as the scientific
or historical information imparted in these chapters is concerned, it
is of little more value than the similar stories of other nations. And
yet the student of these chapters can see a striking contrast between
them and extrabiblical stories describing the same unknown ages handed
down from prescientific centuries. Here comes to view the uniqueness
of the Bible. The other traditions are of interest only as relics of
a bygone past. Not so the biblical statements; they are and ever will
be of inestimable value, not because of their scientific teaching, but
because of the presence of sublime religious truth in the crude forms of
primitive science. If anyone wishes to know what connection the world
has with God, if he seeks to trace back all that now is to the very
fountain-head of life, if he desires to discover some unifying principle,
some illuminating purpose in the history of the earth, he may turn to
these chapters as his safest and, indeed, only guide to the information
he seeks.—_The Christian View of the Old Testament_, _Frederick Carl
Eiselen_.
AIM
=To present the thought of God as the Creator of all things, the rightful
ruler of the universe, and to establish in the child an attitude of
reverence toward God as Creator, and toward nature as his work.=
LESSON PREPARATION
The best possible preparation for the teaching of this lesson and
the accomplishment of its aim is to saturate one’s mind with the
God-permeated story of the creation in the lesson passage, and other
Bible passages given, in which God stands preeminent as the almighty
Creator of the universe.
In the Intermediate period, the four years that follow the Junior, it
would be highly interesting, and instructive as well, to discuss with
the class the various creation stories that are found in the writings of
antiquity, and to compare them with the story as given in Genesis; but
these children have not the historical background that would be necessary
to enable them to appreciate such discussions. What they are most
intensely interested in is the deeds of people. Not what people think or
what they are, but what they do, attracts the Junior child; and in like
manner it is not the attributes of the Deity, but his power manifested
in the universe, creating, ruling, and overruling, that will hold the
attention and minister to the spiritual needs of those we teach.
LESSON PRESENTATION
Point of Contact
(Show a picture representing a person or persons in the act of prayer.
The well-known Angelus is perhaps one of the best for this purpose.
Question on it, and get from the children, if possible, the story of the
call to prayer.)
The sweet sound of the bell borne on the evening breeze from the steeple
of the village church comes to the field where the workers are busy with
their tasks. What do they do as they hear it? To whom are they speaking
when they bow their heads?
Let us think for a moment of another scene. It is in another country far
away from this, and the people look very different from those in our
picture, but they too are bowing, not simply the head but the whole body,
for they are kneeling and their heads are bowed to the earth. What do
you think they are doing? Yes, they are praying, but to what? As we look
toward the east we see that the sun is just rising above the horizon,
and it is the sun that those people are worshiping. In that country and
in others we could find people who worship the moon in the same way, and
the reason why these things are done is that all people everywhere have
a desire in their hearts to worship, and these people have taken the
things that they see which seem to them to be the most wonderful and have
made gods out of them. They know nothing about this greatest Book in all
the world, which you and I know and love, and so they do not know of the
great and good God to whom you and I pray, and whom we call our Father.
If we could see those people and talk with them what would we wish to
tell them? It seems to me that for these people, the first story to tell
from God’s Word would be the first story in that Book, one that we have
heard, perhaps, many times, but which we never tire of hearing, and which
we are to hear once more to-day.
The Lesson Story
It seems strange, does it not? to think of a time when there was no
earth; but there was such a time and there our story for to-day begins.
All was black darkness where this world now is, but God was in his
heaven, for in his Word we read, “Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from
everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” So in the eternity of long,
long ago God lived and ruled, and he was thinking of a people whom he
would make in his own image to be his children, and of the home that
he would make for them. Then it was that from the great black space of
the universe darkness fell away, for God said, “Let there be light:
and there was light. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he
called Night.” Under the almighty hand of the Creator, at his command,
this planet that we call the earth began to swing in its orbit, but it
was wrapped in vapors until God spoke again saying, “Let there be a
firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from
the waters.” At his words the clouds gathered together above, separating
themselves from the waters upon the earth, “and God called the firmament
Heaven.” (From this point try reading the story from the Bible, but have
it so thoroughly in mind that if you find the attention of the pupils
wavering in any degree you can return to the other method. Whether you
read or tell the story of the six days, have the pupils open their Bibles
and read with you the first three verses of the second chapter.)
“In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in
them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the
sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:11).
What a beautiful story it is, and how glad we are to know that all the
wonders of the earth and sky and sea are the handiwork of our Father!
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his
handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).
The unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator’s power display,
And publishes to every land
The work of an almighty hand.
Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly, to the listening earth,
Repeats the story of her birth;
While all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
This is what the poet has said about the moon, sun, and stars in the
heavens, and then he says that though there is no voice or sound that we
can hear, still they truly sing and always of God their Creator. This is
the way that the poet has told the story to us:
What though in solemn silence all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid the radiant orbs be found?
In reason’s ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice;
Forever singing as they shine,
“The hand that made us is divine.”
—_Joseph Addison._
The most wonderful thing of it all is that though our God is so great
he tells us in his Word that we may speak to him in prayer. That is the
meaning of the Angelus bell calling to prayer every day, and it is the
meaning of other bells which on one day in the week ring sweet and clear,
not as a call to prayer in the midst of work or play, but as a call to
worship on the day that is holy, set apart from the duties of the week,
and made a day of loving service and praise to our God.
THE PUPIL’S BOOK FOR WORK AND STUDY
If you have not already done so, read carefully the comments and
suggestions on page 22, concerning the necessity for helping the children
to start the work in their books correctly. Read what is said on page 26
about promotion requirements and let your pupils know at the beginning of
their work how important it is for them to do regularly what is asked of
them in the Work Book if they wish to earn an honorable promotion at the
end of the year.
LESSON 2
THE CORRELATED LESSON
(Holding your Bible, review something in this way:)
What is this book called? What does the word Bible mean? Into how many
parts is the book divided? What are they called? Why is the first called
the Old Testament and the second the New? How many books are there in the
Old and how many in the New? How many in the Bible? What is the name of
the first book in the Bible? Who can spell that word? What does it mean?
What is the first verse in the first book?
(Open your Book for Work and Study that the pupils may see your first
lesson neatly written and the pictures pasted. Even though you have had
the children together during the week as suggested on page 22, in order
that you might help them work out this first lesson in their books, it
will be an encouragement to them if you examine each book and commend
the work heartily when it is possible to do so. If any have not yet done
the work it is of the utmost importance that you have them stay after
Sunday school or see them either at their homes or your house before
next Sunday. To allow the first week’s work to be neglected will leave
the child to conclude that it is not very important after all and that
you do not really care whether it is done or not. As soon as possible
the children must learn to do the work without assistance, but at the
beginning they will need both help and stimulation. Speak of the fact
that if they do all the work in the Junior Course and keep their books,
they will have a little library of twenty-three books illustrated with
many beautiful pictures. Tell them of the exhibit of Work Books when
the work of all the Juniors will be shown to other people in the Sunday
school and to the parents and friends of the children. Whatever you can
do to make the child see the value in his book and arouse his pride in
his work will be a great help to him in establishing habits that make
for strength of character. To allow a pupil to fail to do his work is to
encourage a neglect of duty and indifference to just obligations, which
will inevitably weaken his moral fiber.)
LESSON 2
The Garden of Eden
=Teaching Material.=—Genesis 2:4-25.
=Pupil’s Reading.=—Genesis 2:9, 15-25.
=Memory Text.=—And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden
of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Genesis 2:15.
LIGHT FROM OTHER BIBLE PASSAGES
Proverbs 14:23; 18:9; 22:29. Ecclesiastes 9:10; 11:6; Romans 12:11; 1
Thessalonians 4:11, 12.
FROM THE COMMENTATORS
Man is not made simply to enjoy life; he is to labor and work. Even such
a garden as the one described in verse 9 gives scope for man’s activity;
he is to till it, to develop its capacities, and adapt it to his own
ends, and to keep (Isaiah 27:3) or guard it, against the natural tendency
of a neglected garden to run wild, and against damage from wild animals
or other possible harm.—_The Book of Genesis_, _S. R. Driver_.
But man is not designed solely to till and keep the garden. There are
dormant in him capacities of moral and religious attainment, which must
be exercised, developed, and tested. A command is therefore laid upon
him, adapted to draw out his character, and to form a standard by which
it may be tested. It is a short and simple command, unaccompanied even
by a reason; but it is sufficient for the purpose: man’s full knowledge
of what he must do or not do can be attained only as the result of a
long moral and spiritual development, it cannot exist at the beginning.
And the command relates to something to be avoided: the acknowledgment
and observance of a limitation, imposed upon his creaturely freedom by
his Creator and Lord, must be for man the starting point of everything
else.—_Die Genesis Erklärt_, _August Dillmann_.
It is not enough to place man in the garden: further provision is yet
required for the proper development of his nature, and satisfaction of
its needs, a helper who may in various ways assist him, and who may at
the same time prove a companion, able to interchange thought with him,
and be in other respects his intellectual equal, is still needed.—_The
Book of Genesis_, _S. R. Driver_.
In order to complete man’s happiness three primal laws were given. The
first was work; this was embittered later in consequence of man’s sin,
but is still his greatest blessing, whether he recognizes it as such or
not. We find this to be true, for whenever man evades work, and seeks
pleasure only, his whole nature becomes impoverished, and deprived of the
stability of earnest purpose and responsibility which ought to be his
birthright. The gift of law, even in its rudimentary stages “thou shalt
not,” is the second great blessing to man. The moral law, putting man
into the right relationship between good and evil, is as necessary as the
great laws of the physical world are to the universe. Further, with the
revelation of that law was given also the penalty of transgression. “In
the day that thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die.” “The wages of
sin is death.”—_Bible Lessons for Schools_, _Genesis_, _E. M. Knox_.
AIM
=To help the pupils to realize that work is a part of the infinite plan
for the development of character; to make it evident that it is noble to
be a worker, and to lift the everyday duties of home and school from the
plane of drudgery to that of joyous cooperation in God’s purposes.=
LESSON PREPARATION
The gospel of the dignity of labor has never been adequately preached,
therefore the preparation for this lesson may include the entire reversal
of what has been ground into the teacher’s consciousness from the
beginning until now, concerning the place of work in the world. For many
years people have read the Lord’s words to Adam after the fall, which
consigned him to the task of wresting his sustenance from the unwilling
earth, as if that were the introduction of work into the world, and as if
it were, therefore, brought in simply as a punishment for disobedience.
This was evidently the thought in the mind of the poet who sang,
Dear work! art thou the curse of God?
What must his blessing be!
Throwing aside all such misconceptions, read the material for this lesson
with the thought of finding in it how, under the ideal conditions of
Eden, work was given to man which would require the use, and therefore
minister to the development of his physical powers in tilling the ground;
how his mind was given exercise in plans for guarding or “keeping” the
garden and in naming the animals; and how the higher spiritual powers
were called into service when he was given a companion in association
with whom the emotions of love and tenderness would find expression. It
is implied also in Genesis 3:8, that God was wont to meet with Adam and
Eve in the garden and talk with them there.
The picture that we get as we study this passage in this way has in it
the elements of congenial employment, companionship, obedience to the
highest law, and communion with God, and these are exactly the elements
that will bring the nearest approach to the ideal in any life to-day.
LESSON PRESENTATION
Introduction
I wonder if you can remember the time when you first began to ask such
questions as these: Who made the world? Who made the moon and stars that
shine in the night, and the sun that lights and warms the day? Who made
the trees and taught them how to grow? Who made all the animals? Who made
the fish that swim in the water and the birds that fly in the air? Have
you ever asked such questions? They are the questions that children have
been asking always, ever since there were any children in the world, and
the story that answers all these questions for us is one that mothers
have told to their children for thousands of years. Do you know what
story I mean? Who can answer the question, “Who made the world?” by using
just one verse from the Bible?
The Lesson Story
Our story to-day is about a garden. It was a beautiful garden, more
beautiful than anything you and I have ever seen. In it were all kinds
of trees and plants, grasses, flowers, and herbs. A river watered the
garden. Animals lived in the garden; birds made their nests in the trees
and flew across the blue of the sky, filling the air with their sweet
songs. Everyone who has heard or read the story of the Garden of Eden
thinks of it as a beautiful place in which there was nothing to distress
or make one afraid.
The story tells us that God made this garden as a home for the man whom
he had created in his own image. “The Lord God took the man and put him
into the Garden of Eden”—to do what do you suppose? Just to amuse himself
all day long? No, God did not put Adam into the garden that he might
have a pleasant place in which to do nothing. He was put into the garden
“to dress it and to keep it.” He was to find the greatest joy working in
the garden, picking the fruits, caring for the growing things, and in
guarding them from anything that might not be good for them. Even in the
garden there was studying to be done; for Adam studied the animals and
the birds, watched them at their play, saw how they lived, and gave to
each a name that was suited to it. This kind of work was pleasant, but
Adam could not make companions of the animals, and though he had work to
do Adam was lonely. God saw that this was so, and he said, “It is not
good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.”
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and
when he awoke he found a woman at his side whom God had given him to be
his companion and friend. Now he was no longer lonely, for he had some
one with him who had a mind and spirit like his own, who could talk with
him and help him in his work as none of the animals could possibly do.
So Adam and Eve were happy in obeying the heavenly Father. They found
pleasure in doing what he told them he would like to have them do, and in
keeping from doing what God had said they must not do. Let us read from
God’s Word just what this was. (Verses 16 and 17.)
When the sun had gone behind the western hills, and the refreshing
breezes of the early evening were making the air sweet and cool, and the
birds were singing their good-night songs, then it was that the sweetest
of all the joys of the day came to the pair in the garden, for we are
told that God walked with them in the cool of the day.
Have you ever thought you would be glad if there were no such thing as
study? Have you ever wished that you could play all day and never do any
work? I suppose all of us have felt that way sometimes, but would it be
best for us? Would we be happy very long if we had nothing to do but
play? Not very long. I have often heard boys and girls say at the end of
the long summer vacation that they were glad to go back to school. And
this story, which pictures for us a garden of beauty and happiness, tells
of study and work as well as play, of loving companionship and through it
all a spirit of cheerful obedience to God. (Memory Text.)
THE PUPIL’S BOOK FOR WORK AND STUDY
Show the picture for this lesson and go over the work for the coming week
as carefully as you think necessary, but not so elaborately as to rob it
of all freshness for the child when he comes to take it up by himself.
LESSON 3
THE CORRELATED LESSON
What was the name of our story last Sunday? In what book is that story
found? In what chapter were your readings for the week? Tell me what
you found in the picture for the lesson. If you were asked to write a
title under the picture what would you choose? (Tell the children they
may write a title in their books.) What work was given to Adam that he
did with his hands? What did he have to think and plan for? What was the
memory text of the lesson? Suppose the heavenly Father had not cared to
have his children do any work, how do you think that verse would have
ended then? “The Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of
Eden”—to do what? (To have a good time, may be suggested.) Do you think
he would have had a really happy time without anything to do? No: God
himself is not idle, and his children, because made in his image, cannot
be really happy unless they do something worth while with the powers that
he has given them. I suppose there are some kinds of work and study that
you have to do that you do not enjoy doing, but you can do anything if
you remember that it will please the heavenly Father, your own father and
mother, and others who love you. Your play afterward will give you much
more pleasure, and the best of it is that, after a while, you will learn
to like the work. What command did God give to Adam about one of the
trees in the garden?
(Show your book and find out what the pupils have done in theirs.
Discourage emphatically any attempt to do this work ahead of the
lesson-teaching in the school. The tendency in the beginning will
probably be on the part of many to rush ahead with the work while it is
novel, but when the novelty has worn off there will be a reaction and it
will be difficult to get the work done at all. Keep in mind constantly
that one great purpose to be accomplished through the work book this year
is to teach the children to follow instructions implicitly.)
LESSON 3
Hiding from God
=Teaching Material.=—Genesis 3:1-24.
=Pupil’s Reading.=—Genesis 3:1-15.
=Memory Text.=—Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not
see him? saith Jehovah. Jeremiah 23:24a.
LIGHT FROM OTHER BIBLE PASSAGES
Psalm 139:7-12; Proverbs 28:1, 13; Jeremiah 2:17, 19; Romans 5:12-19;
6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22.
FROM THE COMMENTATORS
As of the tree of life which stands in the paradise of the future it is
said, “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have
right to the tree of life”; so in Eden man’s immortality was suspended
on the condition of obedience. And the trial of man’s obedience is
imaged in the other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
From the childlike innocence in which man originally was, he was to pass
forward into the condition of moral manhood, which consists not in mere
innocence, but in innocence maintained in presence of temptation.... Only
by choosing the good in presence of the evil are true manhood and real
maturity gained.—_The Expositor’s Bible_, _Genesis_, _Marcus Dods_.