God told Adam that he should dress the garden and keep it; for God wills that all his creatures should have work to do. Those who are idle cannot be happy.

And God brought all the beasts, and all the birds of the air, and the fishes, and all living things, to Adam, that he might give them names. So Adam gave them names. And Adam was to rule over them all.

Adam was now alone in the garden of Eden. And the Lord God said, "It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” Then the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and while he slept, God took one of his ribs out of his side. made a woman, and He brought the woman to Adam, and she became his wife.

And of this rib God

And Adam called his wife's name Eve. They lived together in the garden of Eden; and they were happy, for they were good.

In the midst of the garden of Eden there grew two trees, which were called the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God told Adam and Eve, that they might eat of the fruit of every tree which grew in the garden, except the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

God said, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat: for in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt surely die."

Chapter IV.

THE FIRST SIN.

ADAM and Eve were very happy, living in the beautiful garden of Eden, dressing it, and taking care of it. They loved one another, and loved God, who had made them, and had given them so many fair and pleasant things.

They were very happy while they did what God told them, and ate only of the trees of which God said they might eat.

But there was a wicked spirit, called the devil, and he made himself look like a serpent, and came to tempt Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree

of knowledge, which God had said they should

not eat.

The devil said to Eve, "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden ?"

He said this to make Eve think that God was not good to her, because He would not let her eat the pleasant fruit, which grew upon the tree of knowledge.

But Eve knew that God was good to her, and that He had said she might eat of the fruit of all the trees in the garden, except this one tree.

So Eve said, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."

Then, the devil told her, that they would not die; but that if they ate of this fruit, it would make them wise.

The devil said, "Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

Then Eve believed what the devil said, and

when she saw that the fruit of the tree looked pleasant, and was good for food, and thought that it would make her wise, she took of the fruit, and ate it.

Eve ought not to have listened to the serpent when he told her that what God had said was not true. When the serpent spoke against God, she ought to have known that he was wicked, and not have believed him, or thought of what he said. But Eve did listen to the devil, and so she was tempted to forget God, and do what He had said she must not do.

And when Eve had eaten of the fruit of which God had said she should not eat, she gave some to her husband Adam, and he ate it also.

Thus Adam and Eve disobeyed God; they did what God had told them not to do. Thus they sinned.

All disobedience is sin.

Whenever we do what

God has told us not to do, we sin.

The devil does not come to us now in the shape of a serpent to speak to us, as he did to Eve; but he puts bad thoughts in our hearts, and makes

us wish to do bad things. He tries to make us think, that it is pleasant to do what God says we must not do, and that God will not punish us if we disobey Him.

When we feel these thoughts in our hearts, we ought to try to turn from them at once, and not to think of them. We ought to pray to God to help us to drive away these bad thoughts, and to keep us from wrong. We may pray in these words, "Our Father, which art in Heaven, deliver us from evil."

A serpent is a kind of snake.

Disobedience, is doing what we have been told not to do.
To deliver, means to save.

Chapter V.

THE SINNER'S FEAR, AND HIS PUNISHMENT.

AFTER Adam and Eve had sinned, and eaten of the fruit of the tree of which God said they should not eat, they heard the voice of the Lord