What sort of a being must he be who created such wonders? What does David say of this in Ps. viii. 3, 4? 17. Where did God set the sun, moon, and stars? Why did he set them there? 18. For what other purpose were they made? Was God satisfied with this work of his hand? 19. What day was it that the sun, moon, and stars were created? 20. What did God command the waters to bring forth? Were ere few or many created? Were there any living beings created before this? What is meant by the moving creature that hath life? 21. What fish are especially mentioned? What sort of fish are whales? What is the whale called in Ps. civ. 26? How did these appear in the sight of God? What is meant by the expression, "God saw that it was good?" 22. What blessing did God pronounce upon them? 23. On what day were the fish and fowl created? In what several ways are these creatures useful to man? 24. What creatures did God command the earth to bring forth ?* * Read work on Natural History, published by the Am. S. S Union. Was it done? What different kinds of things are meant here ? 25. Who made these animals? How did they appear in God's sight? What does God say of his right to these creatures in Ps. 1. 10, 11? Who gave these animals their different natures and properties? Are there many kinds of animals? Could all these animals, the fish and fowl, the sun. moon, and stars, the earth yielding trees, and grass, and herbs, the mighty waters, have formed themselves, or risen by chance? Have they continued in the same order, fruits and animals yielding after their kind, and the heavenly bodies moving in their courses to this time? How long have they continued since the creation? If they had come together by chance, would tnere liv have been many changes, and great confusion? What will become of all those who teach that there is no God, if they do not repent? 26. This earth being finished, and pronounced good, was there any human being to inhabit it? What did God then say that he would make? In whose image and likeness? Over what should man have dominion? Did the Creator give man a right to abuse the animals, and treat them cruelly? Repeat Deut. xxv. 4. Prov. xii. 10. As there is but one God, why did he say make man, in our image?" "Let us Who is said in John i. to have been with God in the beginning, and to have made all things. Who is said in this chapter to have moved upon the face of the waters at the creation? Do we read of any other persons being present? Must not these have been the same as God, since he said "Let us make man," &c. ? Are there then three Gods? What is written in Is. xlv. 5? Has God a bodily shape? What is meant then by the image and likeness of God in which man was made? Do mankind bear that image still? Rom. iii. 23. How can the image and likeness of God be regained in the soul? How did David pray for it in Ps. li. 10? How did the Lord Jesus speak of it to Nicodemus, in John iii. 3? 31. When God had finished the work of creation, and beheld it, how did it appear in his sight? Do mankind now appear very good in the sight of a holy God? What do you read about this in Ps. liii. 2, 3? How has each one of you spoiled that work of God which came from his hands very good? Who can make you a new creature in Christ Jesus? On what day was the creation completed? LESSON III. Genesis, Chap. ii. verses 1-3, 7-9, 15-17, 21-24. Institution of the Sabbath.-Formation of Man and Woman.-The Garden of Eden. 1. What is said in this verse? What is the meaning of the word host? Why are all parts of creation called a host? 2. On what day was the work of God in creation ended? What did God do on that day? Does this mean that God was weary, and therefore rested, or that he ceased creating? 3. How did God especially distinguish the seventh day? What is the meaning of sanctified? Why was the seventh day blessed and set apart? Should not every seventh day then be sanctified, or kept holy, by all the rational creatures of God? Was the seventh day kept holy by the Jews before the fourth commandment was given? Ex. xvi. 30. In what particular did God require his people to observe it, as you find in Ex. xvi. 22-29 ? Why, in the fourth commandment, are the words "Remember the Sabbath day," &c. used? If this day had not been appointed to be kept by God before this time, would the Lord have said "Remember," &c.? Do Christians generally keep the seventh day of the week? Why do they keep the first?-See Matt. xxviii. 1—6. What portion of time do they keep holy to the Lord? What is the first day of the week, or the Christian Sabbath, called in Rev. i. 10? Why is it binding on us, as well as on the Jews, to keep a seventh part of our time holy to the Lord? What promise did the Lord give to Israel, and to all his people in Is. lviii. 13, 14? How were the Israelites, as a nation, punished for breaking the Sabbath? If God ordained the Sabbath at the creation, is that law binding on all people, in all ages of the world? How should the Lord's Day be kept? Why is it wise and necessary to set apart a particular portion of our time more especially to worship God, rather than to do it as we can conveniently on any day? Why should we keep from work or amusements on that day? Is it a hardship for God's people to give him one day in seven? Of what is the rest of the Lord's day a type and a foretaste? Heb. iv. 9, 11. Are not all people bound to keep the day in rest, and to sanctify it? What is the meaning of the word Sabbath ?* VERSES 7-9. 7. Of what did the Lord God form man? How should we feel when we remember that we sprang from the dust? What is written in Job iv. 17-19 ? What sentence was passed on man after he sinned? Gen. iii. 19. After man's body was formed of the dust of the ground, how was life given to him? What did the man then become? When, at death, the body returns to the dust, what becomes of this spirit, or breath of life, which came from God? Eccl. xii. 7. What do you learn of the condition of the soul after it leaves the body, in 2 Cor. v. 10? 8. Where did the Lord plant a garden? From the names of the rivers afterwards mentioned, where is this garden supposed to have been? * See Bible Dictionary, by the Am. S. S. Union, on this subject. |