The Making of a Nation | Page 4

and Assyrians. New York, $1.25. A comprehensive and attractive picture of the life of these ancient people.
Hadley, A. T., Standards of Public Morality. New York, $1.00. A suggestive study of the application of moral principles to the life of society.
Hastings, James, Dictionary of the Bible, Vols. 1-5. New York, $6.00 each. A summary of the historical, literary, geographical and archaeological facts which constitute the background of the life and thought of the Bible.
Kent, C. F., _The Beginnings of Hebrew History and Israel's Historical and Biographical Narratives_. (Vols. I and II of Student's Old Testament.) $2.75 each. Presents in a clear, modern translation the original sources incorporated in the historical books of the Old Testament, the origin and literary history of these books, and the important parallel Babylonian and Assyrian literature.
Kent, C. F., Biblical Geography and History. New York, $1.50. A clear portrayal of the physical characteristics of Palestine and of the potent influences which that land has exerted throughout the ages upon its inhabitants.
McFadyen, J. E., Messages of the Prophets and Priestly Historians. New York, $1,25. A fresh and effective interpretation of the historical and spiritual messages of the Old Testament historical books into the language and thought of to-day.
Smith, H. P., Old Testament History. New York, $2.50. A thorough, well-proportioned presentation of the unfolding of Israel's history.
Wilson, Woodrow, Constitutional Government in the United States. $1.50. A constructive judgment of the American constitution.
Seeley, J. R., Introduction to Political Science. $1.50. An effective example of the application of the historical methods to politics.

STUDY I
MAN'S PLACE IN THE WORLD.
THE STORY OF CREATION -- Gen. 1 and 2.
Parallel Readings.
Kent, Historical Bible, Vol. I, pp. 1-7, 231-3. Articles, "Evolution" and "Cosmogony," in _Ency. Brit_. or _Inter. Ency_., or any standard encyclopedia.
God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.--_Gen. 1:27, 28_.
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honor. Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thine hands, Thou hast put all things under his feet.--_Ps. 8: 8-6_.
God clothed men with strength like his own, And made them according to his own image. He put the fear of them upon all flesh, That they should have dominion over beasts and birds. Mouth and tongue, eyes and ears, And a mind with which to think he gave them; With insight and wisdom he filled their minds, Good and evil he taught them. Ben Sira. 17, 3-7 (_Hist. Bible_).
All things were made through him; and without him was not any thing made that hath been made.--John 1:3.
I.
DIFFERENT THEORIES OF CREATION.
Every early people naturally asked the questions, How were things made? How were men created? First of all, Who made the world? They necessarily answered them according to their own dawning knowledge.
The most primitive races believed that some great animal created the earth and man. In the Alaskan collection in the museum of the University of Pennsylvania there is a huge crow, sitting upon the mask of a man's face. This symbolizes the crude belief of the Alaskan Indians regarding the way man was created. The early Egyptians thought that the earth and man were hatched out of an egg. In one part of Egypt it was held that the artisan god Ptah broke the egg with his hammer. In another part of the land and probably at a later date the tradition was current that Thoth the moon god spoke the world into existence. The earliest Babylonian record states that:
The god Marduk laid a reed on the face of the waters, He formed dust and poured it out beside the reed; That he might cause the gods to dwell in the dwellings of their heart's desire, He formed mankind.
Later he formed the grass and the rush of the marsh and the forest. Then he created the animals and their young.
The Parsee teachers held that the rival gods, Ahriman and Ormuzd, evolved themselves out of primordial matter and then through the long ages created their attendant hierarchies of angels. The philosophers of India anticipated in some respects our modern evolutionary theory. Brahma is thought of as self-existent and eternal. He gradually condenses himself into material objects, such as ether, fire, water, earth and the elements. Last of all he manifests himself