The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-01-05
The International
Sunday-School Lesson
First Quarter. Lesson I. Genesis l. 1-25
January 6, 1907.
God, the Creator.

| When Michael Angelo overlaid the CELL
ling OF the Sistine Chapel with frescoes
! that make It's common plaster more pre-
cious than gold, he dipped his pencils
] into the first chapter of Genesis. E;ich
successive panel matches its respective
| paragraph-the Separation OF Light ana
| Darkness. the Creation of the Sun and
| Moon: of Trees and Plants; OF Adam; OF
| Eve: and SO on The frescoes are lnde-
| scribably majestic, but they fan short
| of the narrative which inspired them.
| That is unapproachable in literature or
art. 1t Is Divine.
! Ii the immortal Florentine had drawn
| his inspiration from any other cosmogony
| than that OF Moses. the Vatican ceiling
would have been marred with the IN
| congruous shapes of mans wild fancy
| and wilder fear Dualism would have
been there--a devil as powerful as .iou'
| or Polythesm-gods many and all In
wrangle. one pulling down what the other
set up; Or Pantheism-an eternal matter.
| insensatc, yet evolving itself in various
stages, the thing fashioned greater than
| that which made IT. or such grotesque
| ideals of the universe MS. for example.
| that OF the Hindu with its pyramid or
| snake, turtle, and elephant, and triple
| disk.
| Instead of all this we on that lus-
| trous roof the ineHable Jehovah IN the
! form of a man. as the Bible itself must
needs present Him to us eternity upon His
| hoary brow. omniscience beaming In His
| eve. omnipotence in His outstretched
| arms. and infinite love in His whole MEN,
| This majestic Father OF the world Is pic
| tured as proceeding with the compla-
| cency of Infnity to hang His lanterns In
| the sky, to separate air, water and land.
Then He peoples each with creatures suit
| able to their respective spheres-their
| bodies cunningly adapted to either. fluid
and terra firma. respectively.
| For a seventh time the Almighty
''Former OF the Skies spreads His hands
In benedction over all His works, and
In the seventh epoch there Is cessation
| from creative activity.
This mosaic account of creation is a
| miracle in words. Not to this present
| highly cultured age, but back three thou
sand years, to the beginning OF literature,
must we look for the mos satisfactory
statement of the origin of things. There,
through he mists of human speculations,
through rising and falling systems nj
philosophy, Genesis shines like star ever
ascendent 1t Is not attached to any sys-
tenn of geology, astronomy or biology.
So as number of these have sunk in their
turn. Genesis has never been submerged
The book may clash with an hypothesis;
1t never does with a fact. The narrative
is elastic enough to take in all the mod
ern discoveries OF physical science, bu
| presents a rim OF steel to the vagares OF
false science.
Whence came this phenomenal writing
From the genius of man? Then. why
is not it's equal found in the ancien
literature of other nations apparently bet
ter situated to produce such a book tina,
/ the petty and oft-captive Israel? Inspira
ton is the only adequate explanation
of Genesis. The blessed intent of tn
book is seen by the most casual reader
/ It Is mirror to reflect the person an
attributes of God: 1t answers, too. tn
g question of the heart as to the origi
of nature and of man. It deserves tn