The Chosen People | Page 2

softening is omitted for fear both of wearying and perplexing the young
reader.
The chronology, for the sake of the convenience of teachers and
scholars, is that of the margin of our Bibles.
The questions at the end are chiefly intended to direct the mind of the
learner to the point of each lesson. It will be perceived that the answers
must he prepared as well from the Bible as from the book; and in most
cases the teacher will in use have to multiply, and perhaps to simplify
them. One of their especial objects has been to show the ever
brightening stream of prophecy, and afterwards, its accomplishment
alike with regard to heathen nations, to the history of the Jews, of the
Church, and, above all, to the Life of our Blessed Lord; and it is hoped
that those who examine into them, cannot fail to be struck with the full
and perfect accordance of the beginning with the end; and if they learn
no other lesson, will have it impressed on them, how "the counsel of
the Lord endureth for ever."
Two tables have been added for the convenience of the scholar, one
giving the contemporary kings and prophets, the other the course of
historical chapters, with, as far as possible, the prophetical, didactic, or
poetical books, of the same date ranged in parallel lines. It is hoped that
these may be found useful in arranging lessons for upper classes or
pupil teachers.
_May 20th_, 1859.

TABLE OF THE BOOKS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE ACCORDING TO
DATE.
HISTORICAL BOOKS. PROPHETIC AND POETICAL BOOKS.
B.C.
4004 1689 Genesis 1529 Job Psalm lxxxviii. by Heman, the Ezrahite,
(See 1 Chron. ii. 6) 1491 Exodus 1491 Leviticus 1451 Numbers Psalm

xc. and (perhaps) xci 1450 Deuteronomy 1451 1427 Joshua 1312 Ruth
1120 Judges 1171 1056 1 Samuel Psalms, certainly vii, xi, xvi, xvii,
xxii, xxxi, xxxiv, lvi, liv, lii, cix, xxxv, lvii, lviii, cxliii, cxl, cxli, and
many more 1056 1 Chronicles Psalms, certainly ii, vi, ix, xx, 1023
Psalms iii, iv, lv, lxii, lxx, lxxi, cxliii, cxliv, all on occasion of the war
with Absalom 1017 2 Samuel 1015 from chap. ii xxi, xxiv, lxviii, xxxii,
xxxiii, xxxviii, xxxix, xl, li, xxxii, ci, ciii. 1017 Psalms xviii, xxx, many
more of David Psalm xxviii (other Psalms of the elder Asaph) Chron.
xvi. 5

THE CHOSEN PEOPLE.
LESSON I.
THE PROMISE.
"The creature was made subject unto vanity, not willingly, but by
reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope."--Rom. viii. 20.
When the earth first came from the hand of God, it was "very good,"
and man, the best of all the beings it contained, was subjected to a trial
of obedience. The fallen angel gained the ear of the woman, and led her
to disobey, and to persuade her husband to do the same; and that failure
gave Satan power over the world, and over all Adam's children,
bringing sin and death upon the earth, and upon all, whether man or
brute, who dwelt therein.
Yet the merciful God would not give up all the creatures whom He had
made, to eternal destruction without a ray of hope, and even while
sentencing them to the punishment they had drawn on themselves, He
held out the promise that the Seed of the woman should bruise the head
of the serpent, the Devil; and they were taught by the sight of sacrifices
of animals, that the death of the innocent might yet atone for the sin of
the guilty; though these creatures were not of worth enough really to
bear the punishment for man.
Abel's offering of the lamb proved his faith, and thus was more worthy

than Cain's gift of the fruits of the earth. When Cain in his envy slew
his brother, he and his children were cast off by God, and those of his
younger brother, Seth, were accepted, until they joined themselves to
the ungodly daughters of Cain; and such sin prevailed, that Enoch, the
seventh from Adam, prophesied of judgment at hand, before he was
taken up alive into Heaven. When eight hundred and nine hundred
years were the usual term of men's lives, and the race was in full
strength and freshness, there was time for mind and body to come to
great force; and we find that the chief inventions of man belong to these
sons of Cain--the dwelling in tents, workmanship in brass and iron, and
the use of musical instruments. On the other hand, the more holy of the
line of Seth handed on from one to the other the history of the blessed
days of Eden, and of God's promise, and lived upon hope and faith.
Noah, whose father had been alive in the latter years of Adam's life,
was