A CATECHISM FOR YOUTH.

ABRIDGMENT OF SACRED HISTORY.

ARTICLE I.

SECT. 1.-Comprehending the period from the Creation to the Deluge.

THE world was created about four thousand

years before the birth of Jesus Christ. In six days God formed all the creatures. On the sixth day he created the first man Adam. He created him in his own image and gave him dominion over all the creatures. Adam was placed in Paradise-called the garden of Eden, with Eve his wife. In this abode they would have remained happy, had they observed the command of God and retained their innocence. But Adam and Eve transgressed the command of God, through the temptation of the devil, by eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and so fell from their state. of innocence and happiness, became subject to death, and were driven from Paradise. By this fall of Adam, sin and death entered the world, and no further prospect of happiness would have remained, had they not received the gracious promise from God, that the seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's head; by which was meant that man should be delivered from death and the power of the

devil by a Saviour-Jesus Christ; who was born of a virgin.

Moses in the book of Genesis gives an account of the descendants of Adam. We learn from this history that in the first period of the world the life of man was extended much beyond its present term. He then lived several hundred years. We observe that sin shewed itself in the first descendants of Adam; that Cain killed his brother, and that he was succeeded by a sinful posterity. Notwithstanding God was known and worshipped by the patriarchs, and particularly in the family of Seth, who was one of the sons of Adam. Among these patriarchs the scriptures mention Enoch, who was translated from the earth, without seeing death; by which God rewarded his piety, and taught man that there are rewards after this life for the righteous. After some time the posterity of Seth likewise became corrupted and mingled with the wicked. The world came to be filled with sin and the ge neral corruption advanced to such a height that God sent a deluge to destroy the race of man. Noah alone, who feared God, was preserved with his family, God having commanded him to build an ark in which he was saved from the deluge. The memory of this deluge is preserved not only in the holy scriptures, but by many nations in the world, as we find in their ancient histories. The deluge happened 1656 years after the creation.

SECT. 2. From the Deluge to the call of Abra

ham.

When Noah came out from the ark and was restored to his dwelling on the earth, God made a covenant with him and renewed the injunctions originally given to restrain men from wickedness and impiety. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, from whom the earth was repeopled. The descendants of Shem were established principally in Asia. Those of Ham for the most part spread in Africa, and those of Japheth in Europe. This is the origin of all the nations of the earth, as we find narrated in the 10th chapter of Genesis. Some time after the deluge, men undertook to build the tower of Babel. But God confounded their language which put a stop to it, as they could not understand each other, which was the cause of their dispersion into different countries. Idolatry commenced at this time, in consequence of which God selected a people, among whom true religion should be preserved. For this he called Abraham, who dwelt in the city of Ur in Chaldea. He commanded him to quit his native country. He moved him to his fear and service, and directed him to go into the land of Canaan. He promised him a numerous posterity, and this land as their possession, and that the Messiah should spring from him. The call of Abraham was 427 years after the deluge.

SECT. 8. From the call of Abraham to the coming out of the people of Israel from Egypt.

Abraham, after removing to the land of Canaan, dwelt some time with his nephew Lot. This country was then inhabited by an idolatrous and very corrupt people. The inhabitants of Sodom where Lot dwelt, were especially so. Their guilt arose to such a height that God destroyed the city after having warned Lot with his wife and daughters to escape from it. Sodom and Gomorrah with all their inhabitants were consumed by fire from hea

ven.

Abraham, at the age of an hundred years, had his son Isaac born to him.

Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob had twelve sons, who were the heads of the twelve tribes or families of Israel. The two most considerable tribes were, the tribe of Levy-out of which the priesthood was takenand the tribe of Judah, who were the most powerful, who for a long time possessed the royal authority, and of which Jesus Christ was born. Joseph one of the sons of Jacob, having been sold and carried into Egypt, in consequence of the jealousy and hatred of his brethren-God raised him to the first dignity of this kingdom, by means of the king of that country. Some years after, Jacob the father of Joseph was constrained by a famine in the land of Canaan, to go with all his family and take up his abode in Egypt. It appears to have been about this time that Job lived-that