HERE was a time when there were no heavens and when there was no earth. When God thought fit He made them, and making them is called the Creation. God, Who made the heavens and the earth and all things, is very great, and glorious, and holy. There is only one God, but God is Three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. They are all three as great and glorious and holy the one as the other, and all three together created all things. God the Father and God the Holy Ghost made nothing without God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

When God made the earth it was at first an empty, shapeless thing, all hidden in water and clouds. God took six days to create the heavens and the earth. How long these days were we do not know. Perhaps they were

ages. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

God created all things in wonderful order, step by step. He was going to make a beautiful earth, and man to live upon the earth; therefore, step by step He made it ready for him.

When God had created a dark earth, the first thing He did was to give it light. The Spirit of God, Who is God the Holy Ghost, moved over the dark, deep waters, and God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

God saw the light that it was good; but He knew that it would not do for the earth to be always light and never dark, so He next divided the light from the darkness, and He called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. When God had done this He had finished the first day's work. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

On the second day, God made the firmament, or atmosphere; the air which we breathe; in which the clouds move, and through which the winds blow, and the rain, and

the snow, and the dews come down to do good to the earth.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

On the third day, God gathered away the waters from some parts of the earth, so as to make dry land. He said, Let the dry land appear and it was so.

And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called He seas: and God saw that it was good.

Then, when He had made dry land, God made grass, and flowers, and trees. He made everything in its proper time. Grass, Grass, and flowers, and trees would not have lived without light, and air, and dry land: so He made those things first.

When God made the grass, and trees, and flowers, He made them without any man to sow the seed or to dig the ground, and without any rain to water it. He could do very well without man: and instead of rain he called up a soft mist from the earth, which watered all the ground.

And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.

On the fourth day, God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven.

Now although the Bible speaks of the evening and the morning making the first, and the second, and the third day, we must not understand that it meant sunrise and sunset just as we have it now. It was not until the fourth day that

God divided the day from the night. The lights in the firmament of the heaven were to divide them: and they were also to be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years; and to give light upon the earth.

The sun God made to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night. He made the stars also.

All these lights in the firmament were to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness.

And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

On the fifth day, God made the first living things: birds and fishes, and all monsters of the seas. And God saw that it was good.

Then came the sixth and last day of creation.

There was now life in the earth: the birds flew about in the air, and nested among the trees: monsters and fishes of many kinds moved through the waters; but there was as yet no creature to walk on the earth itself.

On this sixth day, therefore, God made creatures which were to live on the earth: cattle, such as horses, and oxen, and sheep: creeping things, such as lizards, and serpents, and worms: and beasts of the earth, such as lions, and tigers, and bears, and all other animals.

When, however, God had made all these things, He had not even yet finished His work. He had not made man. He made man last of all, when the earth was quite ready for him to live in.