BIBLE READINGS. INTRODUCTORY. ON THE CONNECTION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT WITH THE NEW. I. THE Bible is divided into two parts, called the Old Testament, and the New Testament. They are both the word of Godthat is, they are both written by men who wrote down the words God taught them, or put into their hearts to write. In the Old Testament, or first part of the Bible, we learn that God promised to give us a Saviour, who would save us while we lived, and save us when we died. In the New Testament we learn, how God kept that promise, and that He has given us this Saviour, who is Jesus Christ the Lord. In the first chapter of the first book of the Old Testament, at the very beginning of the Bible, we read that God made the world, and every thing that is in it ;-that when He had made it, He put the first man Adam,* and the first woman Eve, in a beautiful garden He had planted on purpose for them. They were perfectly happy, and perfectly good. They were the children of God, for they were like him-they were made in Gen. i. ii. 16 B his image. They could not suffer pain, they could not die, for they were made, like the angels of God, to live for ever; and God often came to them and talked with them, and they were perfectly happy, for He loved them, and they loved him; and while they loved him, nothing could prevent their happiness. God gave Adam and Eve only one command,* and their keeping this command was to be the sign of their love and of their obedience, in return for all the happiness He had given them. It was, that they should not eat nor even touch the fruit of a certain tree which grew in the middle of the garden. They might do as they pleased with all the other trees of the garden, but God warned them that in the day, at the very time, they took of the fruit of the forbidden tree, they would lose all their happiness-they would no longer be as the children of God, but they would surely die. It seems as if it would have been very easy to obey this command. Every thing but this tree was their's, and surely they need not wish for the only one thing their kind God and Father kept back from them. But the wicked Spirit who men call the Devil or Satan, hated God, and he hated Adam and Eve because God loved them. He envied their happiness and determined to destroy it. He knew that God delighted in making them happy, and that while they obeyed Him and were his children, they must be happy; so he determined that if he could he would destroy all this, by tempting them to sin, and so grieve God and make them miserable. He thought he had completely done this, for he soon persuaded first Eve, and then, by her help, Adam, to disobey God, and to take of the fruit of the only one tree He had forbidden them to touch. Then indeed in one moment every thing was changed. Instead of being happy, they were miserable; instead of loving God and delighting in him, they were afraid of Him; instead of living for ever always more and more happy, like the angels of God, they knew they must suffer *Gen. ii. 15; iii. 9. and die. They suffered already—and they were driven out of the beautiful garden that had been made only for the happy and obedient children of God, and could not be their's any more, for they were no more either happy or obedient. Were they no more the children of God? Did He who made them give them up into the cruel power of the Devil? We shall see. The Old and New Testament, that is, the whole Bible, tells of God's plan to bring to nothing this cruel wickedness of the Devil. It was written on purpose to shew us in what way we who are Adam and Eve's children, may be brought back to the happiness they lost, and may again be made the rejoicing children of God. Prayer. O God, who art still our Father, we thank thee that thou didst not give us up to the cruel power of the Devil. We thank thee that thou hast had pity on us, and that thou hast made a way by which we may be brought back to the same happiness our first parents, Adam and Eve, lost. We bless thee that we may again become thy happy children, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Amen. II. The love that Adam and Eve had felt for God was changed into fear, and when they heard His voice they hid themselves, but they were obliged to come forth. Then they heard how completely they had destroyed their happiness, and how changed every thing around them must, from this time, be; but they heard, at the same time, a promise which gave them hope. God, before them, told Satan, that though he had tempted them to sin, he should not in the end get the better; that the * Gen. iii. 8-24. |