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CHAPTER I.

Table of Contents

1. Religion means our duty to God, our duty to our fellow-beings and our duty to ourselves.

2. God is the Great and Good Being, who made the heavens and all the worlds that are in them, the earth and all that is in it. He loves us and desires us all to be perfect, that is, to act righteously.

3. We can be truly righteous only by doing what God wishes us to do.

4. We learn about religion, or what God wishes us to do, chiefly in a book called the Bible.

5. The Bible contains laws of conduct which God has lovingly given to us to guide us in all our duties, so that our lives may be happy and our conduct righteous.

6. The Bible also contains our history for fifteen hundred years, and God’s messages to all mankind.

*^[1]7. The Bible is divided into:

Nevi-im (the Prophets).

Ketuvim (Holy Writings).

8. The five books of Moses are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

9. Genesis means creation. This book contains the story of the creation of the world, also early events in human history, and the history of our patriarchs or first teachers of our religion, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

10. Exodus means departure. It contains the story of the departure from Egypt, also the revelation of the ten commandments, and describes the erection of the Tabernacle where people might seek the Lord in communion. (For Communion, what it means, see chapter xxxvi. 8, Part II).

11. Leviticus contains laws concerning the Levites, or priestly tribe; food-laws and health-laws for all, with Holydays and Festivals, land-laws, etc.

12. Numbers contains the census or numbering of the people, and the story of the Hebrews’ forty years sojourn in the wilderness before they entered Palestine, the Holy Land.

13. Deuteronomy means Repetition. It contains the last addresses of Moses to the people, in which he repeated the chief laws and reminded them of certain events in their history. This book also contains the witness-song of Moses and his blessing upon Israel.

14. In the Nevi-im, or Prophets, are ten books, six older and four later. The older books are Joshua, Judges, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings. The later books are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the books of the minor prophets, so called because their books are smaller. Being so small, they are all reckoned together as one book. Their names are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi.

15. In the Ketuvim, or Holy Writings, are nine books, as follows: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Five Rolls (Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Esther), Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1st and 2nd Books of Chronicles.

[1]	For explanation of the asterisk (*) see Preface, heading “To Teachers.”

BIBLE QUOTATIONS.^[2]

Table of Contents

Our Duty to God

1. And now, O Israel, what doth the Lord thy lord require of thee but to revere the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways and to love and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.—Deut. x, 12.

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy might.—Deut. vi, 5.

Fear (revere) God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.—Eccles. xii, 13.

Our Duty to Our Fellow-Beings

Be a blessing.—Gen. xii, 2.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.—Leviticus xix, 18.

One statute, one law, one judgment, shall be for you and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.—Numbers xv, 15, 16.

Ye shall love the stranger.—Deut. x, 19.

Our Duty to Ourselves.

Be perfect with the Lord thy God.—Deut. xviii, 13.

Sanctify yourselves and be holy.—Levit. xi, 44.

Be ye holy for Me, for I, the Lord, am holy, and I have separated you from the peoples to be for Me (to stand for He).—Levit. xx, 26.

Ye shall not mar yourselves, * * * thou shalt not eat any vile food.—Deut. xiv, 1-3.

2. Thou art the only Lord. Thou didst make the heaven the heaven of heavens and all their host, the earth and all that is thereon, the waters and all that is therein. Thou dost give life to them all, and the hosts of heaven worship Thee.—Nehem. ix, 6.

For the Lord thy God loveth thee.—Deut. xxiii, 6.

Walk before Me and be perfect.—Gen. xvii, 1.

3. And it shall be our righteousness, when we are careful to perform all this commandment before the Lord our God, as He hath commanded us.—Deut. vi, 25.

4. These are the statutes and the judgments and the laws which the Lord gave.—Levit. xxvi, 46.

I speak by the prophets.—Hosea xi, 11.

5. Observe most carefully the commands of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He hath commanded thee. And thou shalt do what is right and good in the eyes of the Lord in order that thou mayst be happy.—Deut. vi, 17, 18.

To make known Thy ways on earth, Thy salvation among the nations.—Psalm lxvii, 2.

[2]	The Bible quotations are numbered to correspond with the paragraphs in the preceding chapter. They should be read after the paragraph to which they thus refer and which they illustrate. See Preface, page viii.