unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth-a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth,

And Cain said, My punish.nent is greater than I can bear. Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and every one that findeth me shall kill me. Then the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest anyone, finding him, should kill him.

And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod.

So by one act of disobedience, sin and death first came into the world which God had made so beautiful and happy. God gave but one command to Adam and Eve, and that one command they broke. But as, when a little child falls down, his father will run and take him up again, so was God good and kind to His children when they fell into sin. He gave them a promise of His Son, our Saviour, who should come one day, and suffer the punishment of sin for them, that they, and we also, might be saved from eternal death, and be forgiven by God. But still Adam and Eve knew now that their bodies must die, and they very soon saw death for the first time, when Cain killed his brother Abel. Do you ever feel angry if a brother or a sister is preferred to you? If you think your father or mother loves them best? Dear children, this is envy. This is what Cain felt. Try to put such feelings out of your heart, that God may love you as He loved Abel; who was gentle, like one of his

own lambs. Cain tried to hide his sin from God. Like his father and mother, in the Garden of Eden, after their first sin, he thought he could hide his wickedness from God. He forgot, as they had done, that God sees everything, even the most secret thoughts of our hearts. What a double pang must have pierced the hearts of Adam and Eve when they knew what Cain had done. The death of their dear son Abel, in such a dreadful form, must have been very hard to bear, to see death for the first time in one son, at the hands of the other. But when they knew also that this evil had been brought about by their own fault, how bitterly they must have sorrowed.

How many days was God in creating this world?
Why was the seventh day called holy?
What command did God give to Adam and to Eve?
How were they punished for their disobedience?
What promise was given to them when they fell?
Who was the first to suffer death?

What bad passion led Cain to kill his brother?

The Beluge.

AVE you seen the rainbow, bright and gay,
When it rains and thunders loud?

Do you know what the rainbow comes to say As it lights up the darkest cloud?

It comes to promise that sea and rain
Shall flood the earth no more;

It comes to tell us that ne'er again
Need we fear the deluge of yore.

When in days of old the world was drowned
For the sins of wicked men,

And only Noah was righteous found,
God made the rainbow then.

The ocean swelled, and the sky grew dark,
And the rain came pouring down;
But Noah was safe in the saving Ark,

Whilst all the world did drown.

With his wife and his sons, and with every kind

Of insect, and bird, and beast,

Noah floated safely, with trusting mind,

Till the fearful Deluge ceased.

Then he left the Ark, and the earth was dry,

And he knelt in praise and prayer ;

And looking up to the cloudy sky,

Noah saw the first rainbow there.