and are told how, at a given period, the darkness that brooded over the materials of the future earth, was bidden to give place to light, and day by day the process of creation advanced, until every thing was made, and all was very good.

Above all the creation of man is detailed: "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." A marvellous combination of matter and spirit, with a body framed from the dust, and a soul imparted from God himself! within the space of two chapters only, a minute account is thus given us of events, respecting which no other record exists among men, but which are of deepest interest to them, namely, the origin of the entire universe, the creation of this earth, and the formation of man.

2. The beginning of human society is recorded; when the Lord God called the human species into being, it is said, "Male and female created He them." It was not good that man should be alone, and woman therefore was given to him. The institution of marriage followed, the foundation, as it is, of all the blessings of domestic life and social intercourse. The principle was laid down, that a man should leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they should be one flesh;" a principle which not only provided for the perpetuating of the human family, but which also asserted the character of the state of matrimony as an institution of God, designed as well for the happiness of his creatures, as for the accomplishing of his own intentions concerning them. The preparation was thus made for all those duties, and for all those benefits which attach to us, whether in the smaller circles of our households, or in the wider range of those communities which are but households associated in large numbers. We read the origin of them all in the one statement "that the Lord God made a woman, and brought her unto the man."

3. The beginning of religious observances immediately follows, as indispensable to man's individual and social welfare. While he was yet a pure unfallen creature, God consulted for his spiritual and physical comfort, by the appointment of the Sabbath day."God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." Sanctified, (that is,) pronounced it to be holy; a day to be spent differently from other days. All days indeed were to be passed in the love of God, and in obedience to Him; but this day was to have special occupations, and to afford special opportunities for the purpose of advancing continually in intercourse with Him. It was therefore to be a day of rest, that is, of cessation from the pursuits of earth, in order that it might be devoted entirely to communion with God. Here then is the first instance of a religious observance enjoined; and as the institution ofthis holy day was the introduction of the principles of religious worship, so its right observance is still the great bond of all practical piety; and a most happy reflection it is, on the return of every hallowed seventh day, that this is one of the very few things which we possess, which date from the time of man's innocency, and which have come down to us as memorials of promised blessedness.

4. But now we come upon a painful contrast. We have the beginning of evil in this world explained to us, moral evil and physical evil,—that great | mystery to the mind of man, wherever unenlightened by the testimony of Divine truth. The third chapter gives us the melancholy narrative; it tells how God placed our first parents in a situation of perfect happiness, laying upon them one command only, to be a test of their continuance in his love. It was a very simple command, but quite sufficient for the end in view. A particular tree in the Garden of Eden was singled out, and they were forbidden to taste or even touch its fruit.

The enemy of God and man drew nigh, and disguising himself in a serpent's form insinuated the strangeness, the unreasonableness, the injustice of the Divine prohibition. The woman listened: then yielded to the tempter, and implicated her husband also in the crime, and then they fell. The Divine displeasure unavoidably ensued, and infirmity, and pain, and sorrow, and death, were the result. Worst of all, banishment from God was necessitated and expulsion from Eden betokened the dreadful changes. A disruption of the ties which had hitherto bound the creature and the Creator in blessed union had taken place, a disruption which, if not remedied, must be followed by an eternal separation. And that eternal separation from God would be the eternal death of man. And thus in one short page we have the explanation of all that misery which now defaces this once fair world. The question, how it has come to pass that man, endowed with gifts which tell so plainly the vastness of his Maker's benevolence, should yet be the victim of propensities, and the inheritor of sufferings, such as we daily witness; and again, how is it to be accounted for that this earth, stored as it is with sweets bespeaking the goodness of the great First Cause, should yet be marred and spoiled with things so noisome and noxious as meet us on every side;-questions which have ever perplexed and baffled the philosophy of the heathen mind, in all past and present time:-we have them solved at once by the simple and saddening history of this book. A few verses relate the origin of all the moral, the physical, the spiritual, and the eternal misery of man.

5. The beginning of a Divine Revelation, however, to a fallen race is next recorded. Immediately that man had sinned, God in his mercy began to meet his creatures wants by disclosures of truth and grace. Even e'er our sinning parents left the gates of the

garden where they had transgressed, the voice of mercy was heard foretelling a relief to come. In after times those first words of revelation uttered in Paradise, were more fully interpreted, but whatever the developements subsequently made, when we come to trace the stream to its first outbursting in a ruined world, we find it in those few accents of promise which withered the tempter's hope, and told of a seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head. Future years saw a great enlargement of the theme, but the beginning of the gracious developement, as it was granted by the Lord God himself, stands in the book of Genesis amongst the earliest of its contents. What David and Isaiah and Daniel more elaborately predict; and what the Baptist, and the Evangelists, and Apostles explicitly teach ;—it was all embodied in that one enigmatical prediction vouchsafed to Adam and Eve, though in words which were addressed to their foe immediately after their fall. Salvation from that fall by the intervention of an incarnate Redeemer, the glad message, as it is, of the whole revelation of God, was first proclaimed in Eden. The gospel which we preach and hear at this day is published in the very first pages of the Pentateuch.

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6. The next fact in the history follows very suitably it is the beginning of the exercise of faith. Abel's sacrifice stands as the first act of faith acknowledged in the Word of God. It was a sacrifice dictated, not like that of his brother Cain by the suggestion of human reasoning, but by the express direction of Almighty God. God had made known to his fallen creatures that the way in which they must approach Him was by the oblation of a burnt sacrifice. It is plain that there must have been some positive instruction given to this end, together with a promise of acceptance, or else there could have been no faith in the transaction. For faith lies in the following of the Divine Word. When that word has not spoken, there is no

room for faith.

Since therefore we by the apostles, He

are distinctly told brews xi. 4, that Abel's act was the act of faith, it is evident that Jehovah must have made known his will in the matter; He must have appointed sacrifice, and yet can we think that Abel, or any other devout and intelligent worshipper of God, would be left for a moment to suppose, that the blood of the firstlings of his flock possessed a meritorious power to make his peace with God? Would God himself suffer them, while obeying his direction, to fall into so grievous a misconception of its meaning? It is true that we may not take upon us now to say how far Able, and other Old Testament saints, perceived the import of the sacrifices which God demanded and accepted at their hands. But we know well what God Himself intended in those sacrifices, and we know much concerning the mind of his saints in offering them. We know that they could not, and did not rest on any supposed intrinsic worth in the oblation: we know that their trust was in the tender mercy of God— mercy to be shewn to them while they sought it in the way which He ordained. Without attempting therefore to define the exact amount of their knowledge, we can identify their principles of faith with our own. For the faith of Christians now is but the same in essence with that which Abel had grace to exercise; it looks for peace with God as God directs, relying on the merit of that Sacrifice of which every slaughtered lamb in ages past was but the symbol -that Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Of that faith, we say, as the great principle which God requires of man in order to acceptance with Him, Abel is the first example. He stands before us, while offering his burnt sacrifice---the leader of all who are now the faithful in Christ Jesus.

7. We have now to descend somewhat in this scale of topics, as we notice the next which comes before us in the

order of the history. The book of Genesis gives us the beginning of human occupations, the pursuit of different employments by different classes of men; and so the origin of trade and commerce, of science and the arts. We read for example, of Jabal the father of such as dwell in tents, and such as have cattle; and Jubal, the father of such as handle the harp and the organ; and of Tubal-cain as an instructor of every artifice in brass and iron. And thus, while we now look upon mankind, and see them engaged in every variety of calling, and observe how the union of men with men, and of nations with nations, is eminently promoted by the division of their occupations and pursuits, each being made dependent on the other, and each concerned in the other's welfare and success. If the question arises, when and how did this distribution of employment with its consequent advantages begin? we go to the fourth chapter of this book, and there we find the germ of the system already developed. The various classes of men in such a land as our own-some engaged in tending cattle and in the cultivation of the soil, others labouring in the use of the metals with which the earth is enriched; and others following the paths of science and the finer arts, with many besides devoting themselves to every imaginable study or vocation,— all of them are but following out what Jabal and Jubal and Tubal-cain begun. The book of Genesis it is, which thus gives us the account of the rise of all these commercial arrangements, according to which men give themselves to their chosen occupations, and then are led to interchange the fruits of their mental or bodily toil, one with another, for the general good. Whoever would write the history of trades, must take his first facts from the earliest pages of this book.

8. The beginning of human jurisprudence, and that at the express direction of Almighty God, is to be traced to the

ninth chapter of this book. That is to say, the warrant is there given for the interference of man with man, in order to enforce the observance of mutual rights, and to punish wrong doers. "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Man is here invested with authority, and is commanded to use it, for inflicting on every murderer the penalty of death. And by a parity of reasoning if he be empowered, for a given offence, to put a fellow creature to death; he is warranted to deal with lesser offences against society in a proportionate manner, and to maintain the security and good order of the community, by executing wrath upon him that doeth evil; the principle is afterwards expanded in its application. But here is the primary exercise of human jurisprudence; the foundation of that law by which men use the sword of civil justice in dealing with those, who are not otherwise to be restrained from doing injury to others.

9. The beginning of national distinctions by the subdividing of the whole race of man into different sec

tions; and their settlement by reason of the varieties of speech, in separate localities, is described in the eleventh chapter; it was the act of God himself, in order to mark his displeasure at the pride and waywardness of men, who when directed to disperse, after the flood, choose rather to centralize themselves, and to erect a city and a citadel for their own gratification, and as they deemed, for their own security, Jehovah caused their languages to become so varied that they could no longer understand each other, and were forced therefore to part asunder into as many companies as there were tongues. Thus the breaking up of the human family into different nations was rendered inevitable. This singular feature, in the condition of the world, the varieties of language, and the separation of people of the same blood into so many subdivisions as now constitute

the nations of the earth, and which is no where else accounted for, is here explained. The history of nations must be commenced from the book of Genesis.

10. Especially the beginning of Jewish history is here, a history which involves a greater series of wonders than any other, and possesses the grand attraction of embracing everything pertaining to the interests of the Church of God upon earth. The call of Abraham, related in the twelfth chapter, to become the founder of a race which should be dealt with as no other family of man; the birth of the twelve sons of his grandson Jacob; and the commencement of those twelve tribes which were hereafter destined to occupy so prominent a position in the annals of the world; this most important narrative is given by the pen of Moses with remarkable particularity of detail. We feel, as we draw near to the close of the book, that the facts of this history are forming an introduction to the grand subject matter of the whole Bible. Other nations are left comparatively out of sight. Our attention is concentrated on the Children of Israel, and other people only seem to have importance so far as they stand in connection with the sons of Abraham.

11. The beginning of an appointed ministry among men for things pertaining to God, we recognise in the 14th chapter. The mention of Melchisedek, much as there is of obscurity as it would seem intentionally cast around his name, yet leaves one fact distinctly ascertained, namely, that even then the office of a priest of the Most High God had been established by Divine authority. For the way in which Melchisedek is afterwards alluded to, both in the Old Testament and the New, makes it evident that this sacerdotal character was divinely recognised. God had not otherwise declared the priesthood of his Son to be "after the order of Melchisedek." Here is a sure seal to the heavenly origin of Mel

chisedek's functions. So that it is plain, although at the first every father of a family was invested with a priestly character towards his household, an additional arrangement was sanctioned, by which certain individuals were consecrated to perform priestly functions, and that towards others than the members of their own family. Abraham had no family connection with Melchisedek but yet received a blessing at his hands, and gave him the tithe of all his spoil. It is very interesting thus to trace the commencement of a ministerial order to these far distant times, and to see that what we believe essential to the maintenance of religion in the world, had so early an existence; and what is more, that it received the unquestionable imprimatur of Almighty God himself.

12. The beginning of a visible Church, in compliance with the direct injunction of Almighty God, is also related in the seventeenth chapter. A visible Church is a company of persons separated from the rest of the world by the maintainance among them of some outward sign, and declared thereby to be the worshippers of God, believers in his Word, and expectants of his promises. Such was the position in which Abraham and his family were placed when God gave to him the right of Circumcision, and ordained it to be retained among them as a badge of their covenant connection with himself. The whole family of Abraham, together with all who joined them with a view of serving their God, were bound together by that outward and visible token maintained in the midst of them; a token, as St. Paul teaches, of "the righteousness of faith;" or in other words a pledge to assure every believer among them of his acceptance with God, and therefore of his salvation. It was precisely to them what Baptism is to us. In truth, that visible Church of God which was with Abraham has never in any essential point been changed. The outward sign of Church

membership has indeed been altered. Baptism has been substituted for Circumcision; but the meaning of both ordinances is one and the same: they are the seals of the righteousness of faith. The Church of God is still the same as it was in Abraham's day, a company of persons professing their belief in the Word of God, and united together by an outward badge of covenant relationship with God, a sacrament to assure them that if they are believers indeed, then they are saved.

With this point however we shall close our Lecture. We think that enough has been adduced to shew the peculiar interest and value of the Book of Genesis, as, in a remarkable manner, the history of the beginnings of things. It is a Book of Genesis indeed a book which tells us not only of the generation of the heavens and the earth in the day that they were created, but which gives us also an account of the origination of various other matters, all, more or less important in their bearing on the history of our race, and on the wel fare of man for time and eternity.

We have taken our topics just as they rise on the sacred page; and yet, when we glance our eye over them again, it will perhaps strike the mind how capable they are of a certain classification, still retaining the order in which they have been named. For after we have read the narrative of the creation of the universe, and the formation of man, and the foundation of human society, what are the subjects on which the pen of inspiration proceeds to inform us? we may say they are these four things spiritual, things social, things national, and things ecclesiastical.

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Things spiritual :-the establishment of the worship of God, in the consecration of every seventh day; the entrance of sin into the world, and so the corruption and ruin of our race; the revelation of mercy to remedy the ruin which sin had wrought; and the exhi