This is the second of a series of topical studies of the Bible, which will prove, it is hoped, a pleasing and profitable feature of the Improved Uniform Lessons. The aim is to induce the pupils to range through the entire Bible, and become acquainted with all the leading passages relating to each theme introduced, thus growing familiar with all parts of the Bible, and discovering the unity of the Book. To this end it is sought to select for each subject passages that comprehend a great variety of truths, avoiding duplications of thought except as these are involved in famous passages that should be known by all. Many of these are included in the sections of " Additional Material for Teachers" and "Additional Material for Intermediate, Senior and Adult," and the pupils will be interested in searching for still further Bible light on each topic. It is hoped that the lesson will be understood as including, for the older classes, all of the "Additional Material." For the benefit of the younger classes story material is usually pointed out, with different topics and with memory verses. The general titles, which unify the series, are comprehensive. The primary topics are more picturesque, and the topics for the older classes are analytical.

I. God.
2. Christ.

3. [Easter.]

SUMMARY OF THE COURSE.

4. The Holy Spirit.

5. Man.

6. Sin.

7. Grace.

8. Repentance.
9. Faith.

10. Obedience.

II. Prayer.

12. Love.

13. [Review.]

14. The Church.

15. Baptism.

16. The Lord's Supper.

17. Fellowship.

18. Worship.

19. Evangelism.

20. Missions.

21. Social Responsibility.

22. Temperance.

23. The Kingdom of God.

24. The Future Life.

25. The Bible.

26. [Review.]

PLAN OF THE LESSON SUBJECT: God Our Heavenly Father. I. GOD, THE ALL-WISE CREATOR, Gen. I: I, 27.

1. The wonders of creation, Job 38.

2. Strong and strengthening, Isa. 40: 27-31.
3. Shown to us in Christ, John 14:6-21.
II. GOD, THE MERCIFUL PRESERVER,
Ps. 103: 1-14.

1. The kindly Ruler of all men, Ps. 33.
2. Justice in mercy, Ex. 34: 4-7.

3. Holy and requiring holiness, Isa. 6:1-3. III. GOD, THE LOVING FATHER, Matt. 6: 24-34.

1. God is love, 1 John 4:7-16; 1 Pet. 5:7.
2. The Father's love from the beginning,
Eph. 11-14..

3. Reverence due him, Matt. 6:9.
4. Praise due him, Ps. 145: 1–21.

5. Worship due him (John 4: 24).

6. Love due him (Deut. 6:4, 5; Matt. 22: 35-38).

THE TEACHER'S LIBRARY

Barton's The Psalms and Their Story. Peloubet's Teacher's Commentary on Matthew. Admirable commentaries on the lesson passages in The New Century Bible on Genesis (Bennett), Perowne's Book of Psalms, and books on the Sermon on the Mount by Carpenter, Genung, Gore, Boardman, Wright, Miller, Tait, Dale, Matthews, Trench, etc. The article on God in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia is by Principal Rees; in Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible by Professor Sanday.

I. GOD, THE ALL-WISE CREATOR, Gen. I : 1, 27. The first chapter of Genesis, which these two verses summarize, is one of the most marvellous of all writings. Rightly understood, it agrees perfectly with what the twin sciences of geology and astronomy have shown us regarding the origin of the solar system and of the earth as a part of it, the gradual and orderly introduction of plant and animal life, ever ascending in the scale of being until creation reached its climax in the human race. It is impossible to see how an uninspired writer, in those unscientific ages, could have composed so accurate an account of what science through recent decades has worked out with arduous toil.

In the beginning God. No grander words could stand at the beginning of the Bible. Science has never been able to show that matter, not acted upon from without, has fashioned itself into worlds and originated and developed life. Even if some day it should be proved that matter possessed these potentialities, we should be compelled to how ask matter was created, charged with all these infinite possibilities; and once more we should be thrown back upon God, upon a personal, omniscient, omnipotent Creator. "In the beginning - yes, and all through - God! "And yet, O strange and wondrous thought! Thou art a God who hearest prayer, And every heart with sorrow fraught To seek thy present aid may dare." Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

"No human eyes thy face may see;

No human thought thy form may know;
But all creation dwells in thee,

And thy great life through all doth flow!

Illustration. "God in the beginning of life, so as to produce Samuel and John the Baptist. God in the beginning of national life, and we have Christian America. No God in the business, and Peter and his partners fished all night and caught nothing. Then with God the Son as a volunteer partner in the business, though the best time had passed, they tried again and success was marvellous." Thomas K. Roberts.

I. THE WONDERS of Creation (Job 38). The marvellous philosophical drama of Job is full of descriptions of the Creator's triumphs. It is the favorite book of the devout naturalist. My old professor of geology always read from it when it was his turn to conduct college chapel exercises. Astronomy, geology, physical geography, botany and zoology all contribute to this specimen chapter; and in them all the writer sees God. If there were no other reason why every one should study natural history this would suffice, that a knowledge of the wonders of creation fills the mind instinctively with adoration of the Creator. Illustration. "The treasures of the snow "" (v. 22) suggests one of countless examples of natural wonders. “Upwards of a thousand differing forms of snowflakes have been observed. Here are simple prisms, three-sided or six-sided. Here are some tiny pyramids one-thirtieth of an inch in height, yet as mathematically perfect in their lines as the Great Pyramid of Egypt. Here lies a star within a star, and that within another star, and all within a fourth!" - W. C. Gannett's "A Year of Miracle."

Illustration. A French skeptic, noticing that his Arab guide over the Sahara Desert never failed to kneel down and pray at regular times, asked him contemptu

ously," How do you know there is a God?" The guide answered solemnly, "How do I know that a man, and not a camel, passed my hut last night in the darkness? Was it not by the print of his feet in the sand? Even so," and he pointed to the sun, whose last rays were flashing over the lonely desert, "that footprint is not of man.'

2. STRONG AND STRENGTHENING (Isa. 40: 27-31). No one can study nature without coming to see that God is infinitely wise," there is no searching of his understanding"; very soon also we perceive with Isaiah that he is infinitely strong, "the Creator fainteth not, neither is weary (v. 28). The everlasting arms are underneath all creation; if they should relax for an instant - if, for instance, gravity should fail for a single minute - the

entire universe would meet disaster. But the strong arms never falter.

From God's strength comes ours. We are a part of it, if we are willing to be, if we wait upon the Lord" (v. 31). Thus God has given man power over nature, so that he can tunnel mountains, chain the lightning, travel over the stormy sea, and even fly through the air. Thus God communicates to us also his spiritual strength, enabling us to overcome all temptations, smile in the face of all sorrows, and live the victorious life.

"How often do we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource ! We go to him because we have nowhere else And then we learn that the

to go.

Forms of Snowflakes.

storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but unto the desired haven.". George Macdonald.

Illustration. A poor old woman living alone in a city attic had a strawberry plant growing in her window. When the city missionary congratulated her on the fruit she would have, she answered, "I don't care for the fruit, but the plant is a great comfort I know it can't grow except by the power of God, and so when I see it grow I know that God is near." Every living thing in all God's creation has the same message for us.

to me.

3. THE CREATOR SHOWN US IN CHRIST (John 14:6-21). If any one is overawed by the wisdom and power of the Creator, he has only to think of Christ. John tells us (John 1: 2, 3) that Christ was in the beginning with God," and that "without him was not anything made that was made." Christ himself said (John 14: 9) that whosoever had seen him had seen the Creator. Look at Christ, and you will see that the Omniscient and Omnipotent One must also be loving and lowly, a kind friend and brother to all the beings he has created. The vision of God in nature needs thus to be supplemented with the vision of God in Christ, or it will give us an incomplete and unsatisfactory idea of God.

Illustration. "What farmer would send his clumsy farm cart across the field where the tender corn is springing? The farmer's purpose is not to crush, but to create. And in all processes of divine providence the purpose of our God is to create and not to destroy. Rev. J. H. Jowett, D. D.

II. GOD, THE MERCIFUL PRESERVER, Ps. 103: 1-14. From the thought of God as Creator, as all-wise and all-powerful and everywhere present, a thought that fills the mind with fear and awe, David rose to the thought of God as the merciful Preserver of what he had created. Psalm 103 is a matchless expression of this thought of God. It pictures the Creator as forgiving iniquities, healing diseases, satisfying his creatures with good things. He is merciful and gracious. He pities us. He remembers our weakness. He crowns us with tender mercies. No wonder the psalmist cries, at the beginning and end of the psalm, " Bless the Lord, O my soul." "There is no passage of equal length in the entire Bible that contains so exalted and comprehensive an analysis of the character of God as this." William E. Barton, D.D.

1. THE KINDLY RULER OF ALL MEN (Ps. 33). In the noble Thirty-third Psalm we have a picture of God as the Creator (v. 6, etc.), and also as the kindly Ruler of all men. The earth is full of his goodness (v. 5). His counsel stands firm forever (v. 11). Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord (v. 12). This is the central

24. No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

thought of God in the Old Testament, that he rules his people well. The Hebrews thought of themselves as God's chosen people, and yet they held that Jehovah was the King of the whole earth. We, with our hearts enlarged by the New Testament, believe that all nations are God's chosen people. This belief will yet result in bringing all mankind into one great brotherhood.

2. JUSTICE AND MERCY (Ex. 34:4-7). This kind Ruler of all men rules with justice and yet with mercy. How his mercy tempers his justice is shown in scores of Old Testament incidents. At the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai God himself declared to Moses his character (vs. 6, 7). It is the divine self-portraiture, and is worthy of profound study. It sets forth God's stern justice he will not clear the guilty; he visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children even to the fourth generation. But it sets forth also God's mercy he forgives iniquity; he blesses the good even to thousands of generations (Ex. 20: 6); he is gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth. All history proves the exactness of this description of the divine Ruler.

Illustration. A Jewish legend says that when God was about to create man the Angel of Justice sought to dissuade him, because man would do all kinds of wickedness; also the Angel of Truth, because man would be false to his brethren and to his God; also the Angel of Holiness, because man would be impure and would dishonor God. But the Angel of Mercy, God's best beloved, said, "Create him, O heavenly Father, for when he sins and turns from the path of right and truth and holiness I will take him tenderly by the hand and lead him back to thee."

3. HOLY, AND REQUIRING HOLINESS (Isa. 6:1-3). The Old Testament emphasizes still one more characteristic of God in addition to his wisdom and power in creating and maintaining the universe, and his kindness, justice, and mercy in ruling the human race. It emphasizes his holiness. The prophets especially lived in the thought of a holy God, and nowhere is this thought more majestically set forth than in Isaiah's wonderful vision of Jehovah, " sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up," while the attending seraphim cried to one another, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." Such a vision of God is sure to have upon any noble nature the effect it had upon Isaiah (vs. 5–7), a sense of sinfulness. Knowing that God is perfectly holy, we know also that he requires holiness of his children, for he certainly wants us to be like himself.

Illustration. The more we know of God, the less respect we shall have for man, including ourselves. A Chinese convert was asked what change he had experienced since believing on Christ. He answered that since accepting Christ he had become a worse sinner all the time. What he meant was that Christ was revealing his sinfulness to him.

III. GOD, THE LOVING FATHER, Matt. 6: 24-34. All the disclosures of God made in the Old Testament are taken up, combined, and glorified in the revelation of Jesus Christ set forth in the New Testament. Our Lord interprets God the Creator, illustrates God the Preserver, makes vivid the conception of God the Ruler of all men. The Son of God manifests the wisdom and power of God, his kindness, justice, mercy, and holiness. There is no aspect of the divine nature that may not be seen perfectly in the portrait of Jesus Christ. But of all these aspects the Saviour chose to emphasize the Fatherhood of God. The thought is not foreign to the Old Testament; we have found it beautifully expressed in one of the passages we have just studied: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him" (Ps. 103: 13). But this is not the aspect of God on which the Old Testament dwells, while in the New Testament it is the foundation of all knowledge of God. Indeed, the Trinity, which is the New Testament formula for the divine nature, is only an enlargement of this one idea: God the Father, God the Son (disclosing the Father), God the Holy Spirit (continuing this manifestation of the Father in the lives of all God's children). Our extract from the sermon on the Mount is only one of many passages in Christ's teachings which illustrate the Father's loving care of his children.

24. No man can serve two masters who are implies. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

opposed to each other, as the Greek Mammon is a Syriac word meaning