at
stories."
And the Hebrew story-teller began:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And these
are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were
created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
"And every plant of the field before it was in the earth and every
herb of the field before it grew; for the Lord God had not caused it
to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
"But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face
of the ground.
"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.
"And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the
midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
"And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to
dress it and to keep it.
"And out of the ground the Lord God made every beast of the field and
every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would
call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was
the name thereof."
There was silence when the story was finished. This God of whom the Hebrew
was telling was wise and mighty enough to make the world, yet he was
thoughtful and kind. He allowed man to be a helper. There was only one
God. They liked the story so well that they began to tell it also and soon
the beautiful story was known all through the land of Canaan. Little by
little it drove out the other stories and became the most loved one.
And when the old Hebrews saw the power of the story that told of the _one_
great God rather than the many false Gods, they just took many of the old
stories and made them good and wholesome for their own little children to
hear.
So great were the stories that the old Hebrews told that you will find
many of them living still. You can read them in your own Bible in the book
of Genesis.
Ever since that day years and years ago, men have been asking that same
old question, "Who made the world?" The greatest men of science and
history have tried to answer it, but none of them have found a more
beautiful answer to the question than this one which the old sheik told in
the days of the long ago and which you will find in the second chapter of
Genesis in your B
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