Quarter January 12 else are these but God's children showing us his image, which the slum had no power to crush? If these be his children, how can I let them perish in their slum? Am I not their brother? How can I let the image of my Father and theirs be trodden in dirt and darkness if I can help it? Jacob A. Riis, in The Christian World Pulpit. III WHY WE ARE TEMPTED Thou shalt not eat of it. Why was there an exception to the statement, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat"? Why was was there a tree of the knowledge of good and evil the eating of whose fruit was forbidden Adam? Why was temptation put in the way of the first pair? Why did not God create all men good? Why is each one free to choose between good and evil? At some time in life such questions come to every one. Professor Huxley once said that if only he might be wound up like a clock always to do what is right, to the end of his life he would be well content to surrender the uncomfortable gift of freedom of choice. God did not make men automatic machines. Man can not be right as a machine is right. One who could do right simply because he was wound up to do right would no longer be right. If God created all men good they would not be good. Goodness, character, must be achieved. As Browning puts it— When the fight begins within himself, Man's worth something. God stoops o'er his head; He's left, himself, in the middle; the soul awakes The test of the presence of the tree of which one may not eat is the chance given man's soul to awake and grow, to achieve a character. Temptations are means of training in God's school. Character in the Making. The word translated character originally meant an instrument for cutting or engraving, and then the figure or letter or symbol engraved. In olden times writing was "carassed," scored, cut, into the substance written on by means of a piece of bone or ivory or an iron pen. We now use the word character to represent certain lasting results scored into the soul by the experiences and habits of life, by the temptations resisted and the temptations overcome. Character is the result of repeated choices between good and evil. The "Chicago Journal" gives this account of a character in the making. A passenger on a street car recently had an opportunity to study, unobserved, the struggle between conscience and cupidity in a little ten-year-old girl. The conductor failed to collect her fare immediately after she entered the car. She had the required nickel in her hand, and she watched him furtively for a time to note whether he would overlook her entirely. She was apparently in a quandary what to do, and then conscience commenced to perform its subtle functions. Several times she held out her hand in a hesitating manner. Meanwhile the nickel was carefully concealed between her fingers from the view of the conductor. After making this pretense of paying several times conscience was triumphant, and the next time the conductor passed she held out the fare boldly and there was no mistaking her intention. There was a satisfied look on her chubby face when the fare was registered, but it is doubtful if she realized how great a victory she had won and what an influence that simple incident might have in shaping her character. SENTENCE SERMONS Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Eccl. 12.1. God the Father creates and Christ the Son reveals. George A. Gordon. The man who looks at his brother's restless life with contempt, is a man who sees no God there. Phillips Brooks. Our Captain counts the Image of God cut in Ebony as if done in Ivory, and in the blackest Moors he sees the Representative of the King of Heaven. Thomas Fuller. Quarter January 12 I want to help you to grow as beautiful as God meant you to be when he thought of you first. George Macdonald. It would be hard to conceive of any creature greater than man at his highest, or more despicable than man at his lowest. Dr. W. J. Dawson. Existence a thing which never ceases, which having once begun, goes on for all eternity-is an extraordinary privilege, an extraordinary responsibility. Sir Oliver Lodge. How good is man's life, the mere living! How fit to employ All the heart and the soul and the senses for ever in joy! Browning. THE LESSON'S MEANINGS FOR US Created in the image of God: that is the thought which this lesson should leave in the minds of every one. Is the image dim or bright? Professor Drummond likens the soul to a curious chamber added on to being, and somehow involving being, a chamber which may be expanded, with God as its guest, illimitably; but which, without God, shrinks and shrinks until e ery vestige of the divine is gone and God's image is left without God's Spirit. You are in God's world: you are God's child; these things you cannot change, Phillips Brooks reminds us. The only peace and rest and happiness for you is to accept them and rejoice in them. SUBJECTS FOR BIBLE CLASS DISCUSSION 1. The antiquity of man. See Current Literature, Feb. '11, p. 161; Review of Reviews, Nov. 'II, p. 623. 2. The dominion of man. 3. Is the gift of life desirable? WORK TO BE ASSIGNED FOR THE NEXT LESSON Questions to look up. 1. What is the meaning of subtle? 2. Whom did Adam blame? 3. Whom did Eve blame? 4. What was the penalty given Adam? 5 What is the great promise in this lesson? When? 6. What does Ps. 139.7 say about the impossibility of fleeing from God's presence? 7. How does Rom. 5.12 refer to this chapter? 8. How did Paul refer to Eve and the serpent in his second letter to the Corinthians? (2 Cor. 11.3) 9. What does Prov. 4.15 say about how to treat evil? 10. How did Christ gain the victory over temptation? 11. Tell about the Babylonian picture of the Fall. (Clipping p. 53.) Tell how a little girl was tempted to take forbidden fruit. (Clipping, 6, page 55.) See note, page 41, for the meaning of "clipping." 12. ser Questions to think about. 1. Why was the serpent used as the symbol of the power of evil? (Clipping, p. 52.) 2. Why was the fruit of one tree forbidden? 3. What thoughts did the serpent's words arouse in Eve? (Clipping, 19, p. 51.) 4. What are the steps by which Eve yielded to the pent's wishes? 5. How does God talk to you? Do you talk to God? 6. What is one way in which God talks to you through which he could not talk to Adam? (Through the Bible.) 7. Is it a sin to be tempted? 8. Is every one temptable? 9. Why does God permit temptation? 10. Of what are the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolical? (Clipping, p. 43.) II. What is the difference between ignorant innocence and goodness? 12. When and how was Jesus tempted? 13. When is the best time to overcome a temptation? 14. Who can help us gain the victory over temptation? (Heb. 2.18.) 15. Dr. F. J. McConnell says that this lesson deals with current events: How can this be said? (His answer is: It is more recent than the last daily newspaper. It is as recent as the act of sin which was an instant ago committed.) 16. Compare this Genesis-story with Christ's parable of the Prodigal Son. Memory and Note-Book Work. Commit to memory Prov. 4.14 and 15. LESSON III-JANUARY 19 MAN'S FIRST SIN Golden Text Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin. Jn. 8.34 HOME DAILY BIBLE READINGS-M. Gen. 3.1-12, 22-24. Man's First Sin. T. Job 14.1-12. Man's Frailty. W. Ps. 90. Man's Transitoriness. T. Rom. 3.9-20. All Men Sinners. F. Rom. 7.14-25. Spiritual Conflict. S. Rom. 8.1-11. Carnal and Spiritual Mind. S. Rom. 5.12-21. Sin and Grace. STUDY Gen. 3 COMMIT vv 22, 23 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat: 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And Jehovah God called unto the man and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. II And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 22 And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever-23 therefore Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden the Cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED Lesson Outline: I. The Temptation, 1-5. II. The Fall, 6-7. III. The Investigation, 8-13. IV. The Sentence, 14-24. 1. The serpent. The power of evil personified: it is Milton, not Genesis, that teaches us that the serpent is Satan. The tempter is called by the Jews "the old serpent." See Rev. 12.9. The devil was the murderer of man from the beginning, Jn. 8.44. Subtle. Fittest imp of fraud (Milton)-Yea. Indeed, truly. The interrogative sentence is also exclamatory, and is designed to arouse dis Quarter January 19 trust of God. Dr. Skinner translates it, "Ay, and so God has said, etc!”—Any tree. Or, all the trees, RVm. "The range of the prohibition is purposely exaggerated in order to provoke inquiry and criticism" (Skinner). 2-3. Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. The order of words brings out the thought that Eve resents the serpent's subtle meaning. “That the tree was an appletree is an idea which we owe to the Romans. The Greeks understood it to be a fig tree. The rabbis identified it with the vine or olive tree, or fig tree." The tree which is in the midst of the garden. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 2.17. "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the opportunity to say, 'Not thy will, but mine be done'" (Winterbotham).-Lest ye die. The Talmud explains this by saying that with God one day is as a thousand years, and the threat was carried out when Adam finally died. 4-5. Ye shall not surely die. Eve seems to have expected death would immediately follow the eating of the forbidden fruit.-Your eyes shall be opened. Not to save you from death, but to prevent your being like him, has God forbidden you to partake of this fruit.-As God. Or, gods, RVm. The Hebrew word Elohim is plural in form. The serpent's wily words impute an unworthy motive to Jehovah, and arouse doubt as to his perfect goodness; they appeal to the woman's curiosity and desire for knowledge and power, and are almost a dare. 6-8. To be desired. Or, desirable to look upon, RVm.-She took of the fruit thereof. "The desire to become like God, a present advantage, overcame the fear of his displeasure, a future, and now at the most only a possible, disadvantage." "The story well illustrates the significance of the Hebrew word for sin, which means missing the mark. In missing the mark of implicit obedience set clearly before her the woman sinned" (Kent).—Aprons. Or, girdles, RVm. 9. Voice. Or, sound, RVm.-Cool. Or, wind, RVm. The wind springs up toward evening in the East.-Hid themselves. See Dr. Coyle's words, p. 52.Where art thou? See "and God said," p. 43. 14-15. In these verses are three thoughts: the relation between the human race and the serpent race; the continual warfare between mankind and the power of evil; a prophecy of the coming of the world's Redeemer. 22-23. The tree of life. Note the language of imagery in "the tree of life," "the tree of knowledge": does it not indicate that the rest of the story is the language of imagery clothing spiritual lessons?-Therefore Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden. God was constrained by their unconfessed sin to banish them. To till the ground. Hereafter man must labor for hic food. 24. The flame of a sword which turned every way. Literally, the flame of the whirling sword. It has usually been assumed that the sword was in the hand of one of the cherubim; but probably it was an independent symbol and a representation of the lightning. Some light may be thrown on it by an inscription of Tiglath-pileser, where the King says that when he destroyed the fortress of Hunusa he made 'a lightning of bronze.' The emblem appears to be otherwise unknown, but the allusion suggests a parallel to the 'flaming sword' of this passage" (Skinner). SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS FROM HELPFUL WRITERS 5. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof. The serpent has insinuated a doubt as to the motive of God, and goes on later to make full use of this advantage, openly insisting that God has forbidden the use of the tree through jealousy. Eve has a vaguely defined feeling that God has dealt unfairly with her. How much of human woe has begun with a misunderstanding of God! How much of a falling away from righteousness through a sort of feeling that God has dealt too severely with us! How much of secret rebellion and finally open transgression comes through misunderstanding of laws which God has given us for our own good! It may be instructive to note that Eve's first mistake was a theological mistake. She entertained a false thought of God. Her second mistake was in living up to the mistake and taking the advice of the serpent. False theology leads sooner or later to false conduct. Dr. Francis J. McConnell, in The Sunday School Journal. Quarter January 19 5. Ye shall be as gods. Tempted to an upward fall. Men drink that they may be happy. Men lie that they may succeed. Beware of temptations to upward falls. Joseph Parker. 8. They heard the voice of God walking in the garden. The first clear thought of God which is possible for a child presents him as the supreme Hero or King, a Man magnified and perfected and glorified. The details will differ greatly according to the child's surroundings, according to the materials which are provided by the daily life, but the human quality is essential. In the Garden of Eden God comes down and walks among the trees in the cool of the day, and shadows fall upon him, and the leaves rustle beneath his feet. Missing Adam, who has hid himself, he calls aloud, "Adam! Adam! Where art thou?" This is very different from the vision of Elijah to whom God comes not in the whirlwind nor in the fire but in the still small voice. It is very different from the pronouncement of the New Testament, "No man hath seen God at any time." But these revelations come later. The initial conception for the child, as for the race, perceives God as man. Dean Hodges, in The Training of Children in Religion. 8. The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God. I know that that is true, and so do you, because we know ourselves. It is not a question of trees and gardens, but of experience. Innocence stays in the light, guilt always flies to cover. Innocence never hides, guilt never courts the open; the very moment a man does wrong he begins to look around for the trees of the garden. Commit iniquity and your first impulse is that of concealment. Sin makes fools and cowards of us all, just as it did of Adam and Eve. This whole story of Eden is as true as the principles of geometry, if we pierce the shell of it to get to that which lies beneath. Dr. Robert F. Coyle, in The Church and The Times. 22. The man. When it is said that Adam represented us, our answer is that of a distinguished Presbyterian divine, "We did not vote for him." Nevertheless we believe in the solidarity of the race. We believe there is a profound sense in which the human race is one. But, if there is an inheritance of sin, there is also an inheritance of virtue; if we fell in Adam, we rose in Christ; if we sinned in the Garden, we conquered in the Wilderness. Dr. Lyman Abbott. LIGHT FROM ARCHEOLOGY OR FROM ORIENTAL LIFE 1. The serpent. The narrative tells us that man was tempted by some evil power, whose personality remains in the background. But this power must have made use of a medium, which could not have been another human being, seeing there were as yet only Adam and Eve. That it was an animal was therefore a natural assumption. On two grounds the writer was left to fix upon the serpent as the medium of the temptation. One was the natural habits of the creature, its stealthy movements, its deadly venom, and the instinctive feeling of repulsion which the very sight of it produces. These things are all suggestive of the insidious approach and fatal power of temptation. The other was the fact that already the serpent in older mythologies was associated with the powers of darkness. In Babylonian belief Tiamat, the power of darkness and chaos, and the opponent of the god of light, was represented as a gigantic dragon, also known as Rahab and Leviathan; while to the Persians the serpent was the emblem of Angra-Mainyu, the hostile god. In later times, when the power of evil was more definitely personified by the Israelites as Satan, the serpent remained as the symbol under which he was popularly conceived. See Rev. 12.9; 20.2. One Volume Commentary. 1. More subtle than any beast of the field. The wisdom of the serpent was proverbial in antiquity (Mt. 10.16), a belief probably founded less on observation of the creature's actual qualities than on the general idea of its divine or demonic nature. But the ascription of supernatural characters to the serpent presents little difficulty even to the modern mind. The marvellous agility of the snake, in spite of the absence of visible motor organs, its stealthy movements, its rapid deathdealing stroke, and its mysterious power of fascinating other animals and even men, suffice to account for the superstitious regard of which it has been the |