ANCIENT SCRIPTURAL HISTORY.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 9, 15 July 1861, Page 14

ANCIENT SCRIPTURAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I. BEFORE THE FLOOD. Had not God revealed it, neither the creation of the world, nor the origin of man, would have been known. Although many years elapsed between the creation and Moses, yet the discourses of Adam reached him entire, because men in those times did not die so quickly. But God shewed these things to Moses, the writer of Genesis. There were 4004 \ears between the Creation and Christ. Five Books were written by Moses, viz., Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These form the commencement of the Bible, which is divided into two parts, the Old and New Testament. The Old Testament contains thirty-nine Books. Those of Moses are at the beginning, and that of Malachi is at the end. There were i 500 years between Moses and Christ. It was from Moses that we heard of the creation of the world, and of man ; of the beginning of evil, and of God's doings to our ancestors, even as they are to this day. In the first place, the heaven and the earth were made ; after that the light; after which the earth was formed as a residence for man ; last of all, man himself was made as a finishing stroke, that he might carry out the intentions of God in the world. All things, and all animals, were given over to him. He was to be the rangatira, and they were to fear him. Adam, and his wife Eve, were settled in the garden of Eden. The exact situation of that garden is not known at the present time : the appearance of the earth has been

altered by Noah's flood, and it has nol been revealed by Scripture. It was by God's design that the mouth of ir-an was different, and possessed a voice; and He appointed Adam to give names to the beasts which he had made. Man was quite good when he was Qrst made, and su was the world : there was nothing evi! in it. And God determined to try man, to see whether his thoughts were steadfast, and whether he would obey God's word. He commanded Adam and bis companion, that of one of the trees in the garden they should not eat, lest they died. Enough, but Satan the evil Spirit is wishful for companions in misery, and so he deceived them, and they eat. And now they know that they have been false, and trodden under fool the word of God, and believed in that of the Devil. And now, alas ! ihey two are driven from the garden—separated off, lest they should approach God, the source of life-anil the earth is cursed. And here began both sin and death. And here commenced the disobedience of animals, and the overgrowth of weeds in the world. But, although God was angry, he had remembrance to his love; and when they became distressed on account of their punishment, he showed forth the Saviour, - who was afterwards born as the seed of the woman, to bruise the head of Satan; that is, to put hi in down, and to destroy his influence in the earth. And hence tne expression of live, "I have gotten a man from Jehovah." And hence also she called her son "Cain," that is, the "acquisition," supposing that that was the child who should destroy Satan. But man was found groping in the dark. As to that precious treasure of his-his son—it was not long before the evil sown by his father brought forth fruit. And when it was at length seen, there he was slaying his younger brother Abel. He killed *him from jealousy, because the offering of his brother was well-pleasing to God, whilst his own was rejected, as not springing from faith. He had brought of the fruits of the earth, but what God desired was an animal, a thing possessing blood, as a type of the bluod of his Son, which would shortly be shed in the world. According to Scripture, the likeness of j Adam's children was like himself. But God had already laid down a design of bringing forth a new system, whereby man should be brought nearer to what was good. And hence he began to select men. Selh, one of Adam's sobs, was the one appointed by

God lo supply lire place of Abe!. He was the origin of those who indulged in godly thoughts, and who were called the sons of God. Cain was the source of the people without God, and hence the word, "They bave gone in the way of Cain," But wisdom did not continue with the offspring of Seih. It was not long before the evil of that system was seen, viz., of the inter-marriage of the thoughtful with the thoughtless, Within a man's heart, evil is not conquered by good. And thus the descendants of Seth degenerated, and he was the only man who remained steadfast, and did not follow, with the multitude, to do evil..— Whakapapa Ara.