The Ten Camels

The Ten Camels

BEING

A GROUP OF BIBLE STORIES

ARRANGED TO TEACH

THE TEN GREAT TRUTHS OF THE BIBLE

TO SMALLER CHILDREN

By L.K.P

PREFACE

——-

This series of Bible Stories was first written to meet the constant demand of the Author’s own little daughter for "Just one more Story, Mummy, A Bible Story."

Wishing to give her a firm foundation of Truth and unable to find any stories dealing with this subject from a truth standpoint and written in language simple enough to be understood by a child of tender years, the Author undertook to supply stories that would present these doctrines in a manner both interesting and appealing to the child mind.

Whether this has been accomplished or not the reader must decide.

The stories are arranged in groups each dealing with one special doctrine or teaching, and the Title, "The Ten Camels" is chosen as one that would appeal to the child mind.

Hoping that other children may enjoy them as much as her own little daughter, the Author presents these for your perusal.

L.K.P.

We are glad for the opportunity of making this interesting and helpful book available again. This is being done by permission of the husband of the Author-the Author having passed to her reward. The former edition was published in Australia years ago. This is an exact reprint of the former edition; except that some punctuation marks were added for easier reading, several Scripture references were added for convenience, and in several places a word or two was changed to make the meaning more clear. In no case was the original thought changed. -Friends of the Author.

THE TEN CAMELS

THE FIRST CAMEL BRINGS ITS STORY

CHAPTER 1 THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS

"Mummy, please tell me a story," said a little girl as she snuggled down under the blankets one winter evening. "I cannot go to sleep tonight."

Mother looked down on a little pointed face that was very white. Two deep blue eyes looked up at her pleadingly. The little face was framed by soft locks of golden hair that fell over a very high white forehead. She was a very delicate child and from earliest childhood sleep had not come easily to her pillow.

"What kind of a story dearest?" Mother asked.

"I’d like a Bible story. They are the nicest of all and when you tell me one I can lie in the dark and think about it till I fall asleep. I’d like to learn all about the Bible, Mummy, for it is the Word of God."

"I know what I will do for you," said her mother. "I will tell you the stories that the ten camels carried when they came out of the east to find a Bride for Isaac. No one knew that they carried these treasures, for they were hidden and it was not for many many years that the stories were found among the King’s treasures."

"What king, Mummy? And where did he keep his treasures?"

"God is the Great King, Linnet, and the Bible is His storehouse. These treasure stories have been there for a long, long time, but they are hidden and few have found them."

"Did you find them, Mummy?"

"No, darling. The Great King gave them to His servants who were faithful and wise, to show them to a few special friends. In this way they reached me and because they are for those who love the Great King I may tell them to you.

"The First Camel carried the story of the beginning of all things. This camel has an unusual name. It is called ‘Creation.’"

"What is a camel, Mummy?"

"A camel, Linnet, is a strange animal. It is really not very nice looking, though it is very useful. It has long legs and big flat feet and its toes have a sort of cushion that makes the camel able to travel over the sand of the desert. Some camels have one big hump on their backs; others have two. The camels that brought the stories had two humps. Men made big seats that were usually covered, to protect them from the sun and fastened them on the top of the camel’s humps. In this way they could ride in comfort. Camels can go several days without water and this makes them very useful in dry, hot places. I will tell you later about how the camels were sent on the journey, but tonight I will tell you the story the first camel carried, because it is really the very first story there ever was since it is about the very beginning of all things.

"You know that there must be a beginning to everything. Everything, that is, but God. God was the beginning of everything and He was before all things. This world we live on was not always here. The trees and grass, the lakes and rivers, even the stars all had a beginning.

"You know the beginning of the flowers in your garden for you planted the tiny seeds yourself and watered them. By and by there was a tiny sprout and then two green leaves and soon there was a pretty little plant that grew for you. But the little seed you planted also had a beginning. Our story is about the first beginning of all. It is of the time when there was not anything at all but the Great God. He was all alone."

Linnet settled down among the pillows and only her big, eager eyes showed that she was awake and listening. Mother continued-"There were no stars, there was no silver moon, no world like this one we live on. There was no one for God to talk to. We are told that God is very powerful and we know this must be so, for how could He have made such great and beautiful things unless He had a power greater than that of any other being?

"Now if you were all alone, the very first thing you would

want would be a playmate-some one who could talk to you and with whom you could talk over the things you planned to do. The trees and flowers are very beautiful but they cannot move or run and play with you. So we can understand why God wanted a companion. The Bible tells us that the very first thing God made was a companion. A wonderful being like Himself who could love and help God. The very first verse in the Bible starts, ‘In the beginning God-’and in the first verse of the Book of John we read, ‘In the beginning was the LOGOS (that is the Word, or messenger, of God) and the Logos was with God and the Logos was a god.’ That means, ‘A great one.’

"God shared His power with this great companion and together they made things. The Logos is sometimes spoken of in the Bible as Michael and sometimes as wisdom, because He was very wise. In the Book of Pr 8:22-31, we read of the Logos, -’The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old.’ So we know He was the first thing God made. ‘I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, was I brought forth, while as yet He had not made the earth, or the fields, or the highest part of the dust of the earth. When He prepared the heavens I was there, when He set a compass upon the face of the deep.’ A compass you know is a thing to make circles with. This means that God made all the worlds travel in circles, so they could not bump into each other.

"Then, after telling of other works of God, this verse says, -’There was I as one brought up with Him (God) and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him and my delights were with the sons of men.’ That means that this great Logos took a special interest in the people of this world. In another place the Bible tells how God said of Him, ‘He grew up before Me as a tender branch,’ and in still another place we are told that "All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made.’ (Joh 1:3.)

"So we know that the Logos was the first thing God made. Now then it seems natural that the next thing they would make would be a home to live in. So the Bible tells us, ‘In the

beginning God made the Heavens.’ They also made many beautiful angels who live in Heaven with them. Some of these angels used to come down to the earth on errands for God, and some came without God’s consent, as we shall see.

"We do not know just what an angel is like. They are spirit beings and can come and go like the wind and we cannot see them and we know they are very powerful. No doubt they also helped in the creation of this world and also of the stars.

"When you look up into the sky on a dark night you can see thousands of tiny lights. Each of them is a world like the one we live on. Some are much bigger and all were made before our world. Some of them are like our sun; they are worlds that are on fire. Others are like our moon, dead worlds that are like mirrors reflecting the light from the suns. All these worlds were made by the Great God and His messenger, the Logos. Probably the angels also helped in the work. God made the plans and gave His power to the Logos and the angels. The Bible says that all things are by the Father and through the Son."

"How did they make the worlds, Mummy?" asked Linnet.

"Not as we would have to, dear one. God had all the power of nature to work with. He did not have to gather up soil and mud and shape it with His hands. You remember the last time there was a heavy snow and you and your playmates went out and gathered up handfuls of snow and then started rolling them along and the soft, wet snow stuck to them and they became larger and larger till you could hardly move them? You were using nature to make your snow balls. The Logos and the angels, with the power of God, could just order the atoms-which are tiny things like little bits of dust-to come together and make great big balls or worlds.

"These worlds God made spin around and travel in circles and He set them so no two of them could touch. We must not forget that, when we say God made them, it was God’s power and His plan, but Jesus, who was then called the ‘Logos,’ did much of the work. The Bible says that the Logos was ‘The image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature, for by Him were all things created, that are in Heaven and that are in the earth both visible and invisible.’

That means things we can see, like the trees and flowers, and things we cannot see, like the angels. (Col 1:7.)

"Many people think that this means that Jesus was God, but this is not so. Jesus was God’s son, the Great Logos or messenger of God, but it was by God’s power that He made these wonderful things.

"Suppose Mother told you that you could make a cake but you had no idea of how to do it. Suppose Mother got all the things ready and then stood by you and told you everything to do. You would do the work, but Mother would be the real cook, for you could not do it without her help and to show you. Jesus said, ‘Without Him (that is God), I can do nothing. The Father doeth the works.’

"We do not know just when this world was made, for the first thing the Bible tells us is that ‘The earth was, without form and void’ (empty). This means that the earth was already made and ready to be prepared for God’s purposes.

"It hung there in space like a big ball of mud, all dark and dirty and empty. Now God planned to have a new Creation. Up to this time there were no people on the worlds that God had made. The angels could travel to any world if they wished but their home was with God in Heaven. God planned to fill the worlds with happy, perfect beings, who belonged to the worlds they lived on. To start His great work, God chose this little world we live on, and He and the Logos began to work on it, to get it ready for men.

"Do you remember when you tried to make your first dress for your dolly? First you thought about it, then you hunted for a nice piece of cloth and then you came to Mother to get help in cutting it out and then you started to sew it.

"So God first planned this new family and how, by different means, He would make them all that He wished them to be. God was not in a hurry. He did not mind how many thousands of years it took, as long as the new race met His desire, when His work was all done.

"The world was dark and shapeless and empty and the first thing God did was to say, ‘Let there be light.’ The power of God worked on the mud and water and the earth whirled around faster and faster and the movement made it very hot and soon it was burning. Steam rose from the water which was very hot. The fires and the heat were getting the world

ready for men. It is thought that many many years passed before the world was ready for the next part of God’s plan. Then God caused a gas, which we call air, to form around the earth while it was cooling off. This air held up the steam like great clouds and separated the waters which were in the lakes and seas, from the clouds. This work also took many years, great periods of time which the Bible speaks of as days. They were not days like ours, but God’s days, which are very long.

"On the third of these long days, God caused the waters that were still mixed with the mud of the earth to drain off into hollows and make seas. Then, he made grass and trees and flowers and plants grow in the dry ground.

"These things were not like those we have now, for the earth was still too hot for plants like ours. They were great fernlike plants that grew very fast. The inside of the earth was still very hot and soft and when the plants got too heavy they would fall into the soft, hot earth, and there they turned into coal. God knew that some day people would need this coal to burn, to make their trains and boats go and to keep their homes warm, so He provided it for us while He was making the earth. These things did not happen by chance but God arranged everything He knew man would need. Coal, and tin and iron and gold, silver and clay and many wonderful jewels He had formed in the earth while it was still cooling.

"You know when Mother bakes a loaf of bread, it is very hot when she takes it out of the oven and it steams when it is cooling. The outside crust cools first and gets quite hard, but the inside is soft and warm. That was the way the earth was. The steam did not all rise up into the clouds, some gathered in puddles and when the clouds of steam got too heavy for the air to hold up, it would fall and this water would run into the puddles and make them bigger. The third of God’s days passed and saw a cooling earth all covered with green things.

"On the fourth day God caused enough of the water to fall from the clouds to make the seas and rivers bigger and to thin the clouds, so that the sun and moon could shine through to the earth and so divide the day from the night. The sky did not get clear and blue as it is now, but was more like it is on a cloudy day.

"On the fifth day God caused little living creatures to

grow in the warm water. These, by God’s power gradually grew bigger and bigger and took different shapes. Some developed into birds and some into fish. The Logos and the angels would watch over this part of the work which took thousands of years. As the earth grew much cooler many of the strange creatures died or changed until they became much like the fishes and birds we have now.

"On the sixth day, the world had grown much cooler and the trees and plants were changing and the Logos and the angels, by the power of God, caused new creatures to grow, that would live on the land and eat the grass and leaves. At first these creatures were mostly quite large and ugly, but as the earth grew cooler they changed, more and more. When they had reached the shapes and forms God wished, He stopped them changing. At last the great, ugly creatures were all gone and the earth was cool enough for men to live on it.

"The earth was still very warm and the sun shone dimly through the veil of clouds. The animals were very much like those we have now. There was no cold weather anywhere and the Bible says it never rained, but a mist went up from the water every night and watered the earth. That was what the earth was like, when God decided that it was ready for the next part of His great plan."

Mother looked at her girlie and say that the big blue eyes were drowsy and said, "That is the first part of the story the first camel carried. Tomorrow night we will have the next part." She kissed her little girl good-night and turned out the light.

Then-when she stooped to tuck the covers in around her little girl-Linnet’s arms stole around her neck and she said softly, "It was nice of God to make so many lovely things for us mummy, but I think the very nicest things He made were mummys and daddys."

"Tomorrow night, I will tell you of the first daddy and mummy God made," answered her mother.

"God was a daddy Himself, was He not, Mummy?"

"Yes, my darling; God was Jesus’ Father. No matter what any one may ever tell you Dearest, remember what the Bible says, -’In the beginning was the Logos (that was Jesus) and the Logos was with God.’"( Joh 1:1.)

"Why did they call Jesus the Logos, Mummy?"

"Long, long ago dear one, in a country far away, the kings were looked up to by their people as greater than men. Then the king was never seen by his people. When people came to see him he sat behind a curtain, and a man who was called the Logos, stood in front of the curtain and told the people what the king said. He stood in the king’s place and spoke only what the king told him. He was not allowed to say anything but just what the king said. The word Logos means the ‘voice of the king.’ It is a good name for Jesus, for God cannot be seen, but Jesus came and told us God’s words. He did the work for God and was His messenger when He wanted to speak to the people."

"Why did the king not want the people to see him, Mummy?"

"I do not know, Dear. Perhaps he wanted them to think him very great and was afraid if they saw him they would know that he was only a man like them."

"But why does not God want us to see Him?"

"The Bible says that ‘No man can look at God and live.’ Our God is so very great and so bright that our eyes could not stand the light. We are told that He is brighter than the sun at noon, and you know how that hurts your eyes. Paul had a glimpse of the glory of God and was blind for three days. But even he had not seen the great God. Now dear one that is questions enough for one night. Close those big eyes and go to sleep."

CHAPTER 2. THE FIRST PARENTS

"I’m all ready for bed, Mummy. Please tell me the story you promised me."

"Very well, dear. Have you said your prayers?"

"Yes Mummy, and I said good-night to Daddy too. You said you would tell me how God made the first Daddy and Mummy."

Mother tucked her little girl under the covers and sat beside her. She took up her Bible and said, "Let us look in the treasure box and see what it says about it." Then she read, -"Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." "You see dear, God wanted a place for the man He was going to make, to live. So the first thing He did was to prepare a fine garden. Here again the Logos and the angels did the work, but the Plan and Power was from God. They chose a lovely spot where a great river flowed, so that there would be lots of water.

"In this garden they caused every beautiful tree and plant they could think of to grow. What a wonderful garden it must have been. Fruit trees, that were laden with lovely fruits of every kind that could grow in such a warm place grew there and lovely flowers and vines. The grass was soft and green.

"God planned that garden and there were no ugly bugs and worms to eat the leaves or to bite and sting. The animals were all tame and beautiful deer wandered through the trees and ate the green grass. Bears and lions and tigers and horses and dogs and cats all lived together there; they never harmed each other. Beautiful birds made their nests in the trees and sang sweet songs. Only lovely things could have a place in the garden God made.

"At last the garden was all ready. The trees were big enough for shade and were loaded with fruit.

"Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the earth, and

over the fish in the sea and the birds and animals and the creeping things too.’ (Ge 1:26.)

"So they planned a wonderful man. How did they make him do you think? And what did they make him of? Why they used the dust of the earth; that is, they gathered their materials from the earth. God did not have to make each part separately. He just planned it all, then He caused the tiny atoms to take the shape He planned. He had all the forces of Nature at His command. Even the tiny bits of dust would do as He ordered. In this way God could make a man, something like Himself but of different material. Your dolly looks very much like you. It has a nose and eyes and mouth and ears; its hands are shaped like yours too, but it is not made of flesh and blood. Some dolls are made of rubber and some of China and so on, but they still look like children.

"God planned this man and made him of the right material to live on this earth. He gave him lungs to breathe this air and a stomach that could digest the fruit and other things that grew on the earth. Then God arranged that this man should be able to have, or to bring forth, other beings like himself. Just as He made the trees and plants to have seeds that would grow up into plants like themselves. God gave the man eyes, to see the lovely things He had made, ears, to hear the birds sing and a nose, to smell the perfume of the flowers and to breathe in the sweet air. He also gave him a fine set of muscles to move his arms and the other parts of his body, and a set of nerves, like little telephone wires, to carry messages from his wonderful brain to all parts of the body.

"David, thinking of this wonderful body God made, said, ‘I will praise Thee, Oh Lord, for I am beautifully and wonderfully made.’ Men cannot make anything that is half so wonderful as the body God gave to each of us.

"Now when the man was all made, he was just like a beautiful doll. He could not move or think. Out in the street there is a lovely, new automobile. It is perfect, the tires are full of air and the windows are shining and there is not a scratch on it. It has a fine engine but it cannot go. Why? There is no gas in the tank. The batteries and wires are there, all ready. Then a man comes along and fills the tank with gas, which runs down the pipes to the engine. Then he gets into the car and turns on the engine and the car comes to life. It

throbs and sings and is ready to go at a touch, wherever the man wishes. The man is like the brain in the body of ours. Even the man could not make the car go without gas; he could only push it along.

"Adam was just like that car. The engine was all there; the nerves and brain and muscles were there but there was no gas, (that is, no air) to make it go. God breathed air into the man’s nostrils and it went down into the lungs and started the engine. Man began to breathe and then the brain God had provided started to work and the body came to life."

"God who gave us the breath to make us live, can also take it away, and, like the car, we would not be able to go. Soon the lovely body would turn back into dust again. The Bible says, ‘Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled. Thou takest away their breath; They die and return to their dust.’ (Ps 104:29.)

"When a person is drowned, men work over him and try to get the water out of his lungs and get the air back again. Sometimes they succeed and the man comes to life again. Sometimes they are too late and the water has damaged the engine so it cannot go. So the man returns to dust again. God has a wonderful plan to bring every one who dies back to life again some day. We will learn about that by and by.

"Now the man was alive and God talked to him. That is, the Logos talked to him, and told Adam he was to take care of the garden and he might have all the different fruits to eat, and the berries and herbs were for his food too. There was one tree in the garden that God said the man must not touch. It was called the tree of knowledge. God said that if the man touched the fruit of that tree his body would soon stop working and he would die. ‘In the day that thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die.’ (See margin, Ge 2:17.) That meant that the man would not die at once but, like a slow poison, the fruit would destroy his body.

"Now we do not think that there was really anything the matter with that fruit. It was that God wanted to test the man and see if he would obey Him. God did not intend any disobedient person to live always. It was God’s plan to fill the earth with people whom He could trust to do as He told them. God knew that this man was perfect, so He tested him to see if perfect men would obey. If Adam would not obey, then

God would know that people could not be trusted. The fruit of all the other trees were for men and they were perfect food that would keep men alive always. These were called trees of life. God did not intend that people who would not obey Him should have this perfect food, for then they would live forever and could do a lot of harm. That was why God wished to try Adam and see if men could be trusted.

"Once there was a mother who was going out for awhile and she called her little girl and said, ‘Jennie dear, I have to go out for awhile and I have left a parcel in my room. You must not touch it no matter what happens. If you do it will bring you a great disappointment.’

"Jennie promised not to touch the parcel and as soon as her mother went away, she went out to play. The little girl was quite happy and content and thought no more of the forbidden package. After awhile her little friend, Susie, came over to play with her and Jennie went into the house to get her ball. She was hunting for it when she heard a strange noise that seemed to come from the parcel. She was a bit frightened and she ran out and told Susie all about it. Susie wanted to see the package, so they both went in. Again they heard the noise.

"Susie said, ‘Let’s open it and see what makes the noise.’ "‘Mother said I must not touch it,’ Jennie replied. ‘I’ll be disappointed if I do.’ ‘Oh your mother only said that to scare you. It would not hurt to have a little peep anyway. She’d never know,’ said Susie. ‘Come on, don’t be a scaredy cat.’

"At first Jennie refused but when Susie kept on coaxing, she weakened. ‘We could just tear the paper a bit and look in,’ she said.

"They tore the paper a little but there was a sudden movement in the box. ‘Oh, it’s alive!’ cried Susie and dropped the box. The string broke and the parcel flew open and, with a great fluttering of tiny wings, a lovely, little, yellow canary slipped past their fingers and was gone. Right out the open door it went and away into the trees.

"‘Oh, it was my birdie. Mother promised it to me for my birthday and now it’s gone. I wish I had not touched it. Go away you nasty old Susie. You made me do it.’

"Susie ran home and left Jennie to face Mother alone.

Poor Jennie cried and cried. Mother found her sobbing and soon heard the story.

"‘But Jennie, Mother told you not to touch it.’

"‘I know, Mother, but Susie coaxed me to just take a tiny peep and see what made the noise.’ Jennie wept. ‘Do you think we could catch it? It was so pretty and I wanted it so.’

"But the canary was gone. When Mother was sure that her little girl had learned her lesson, she purchased another bird for her.

"Adam was very happy for awhile. He tended the garden and carried water for the plants. He watched the birds and animals. They were all very gentle and kind. Perhaps Adam even transplanted the plants to see if they would grow in other places. He found names for all the birds and animals, but he was very lonely. God knew that he would be lonesome and would want a companion; had not God been alone once too? In the evenings the Logos would come into the garden and talk to Adam and tell him about God, but in the day time Adam was alone. The animals were nice to have around but he could not talk to them. They would do whatever he asked them to, just as your doggie does, but they were not people and they could not work as he did. God knew all about it.

"One day God said, ‘It is not good for man to be all alone. He is lonely and he needs a companion.’ So God caused Adam to go to sleep and while he was sleeping God took a bone from Adam’s side and by His great power He made it the beginning of another human being. It was a woman He made. She was very lovely. There is an old story that says that God took the bone from Adam’s side so the woman would be equal to Adam. That if He had used a bone from the man’s head, she would have been greater and if a bone from the foot had been used, she would be less. That was not the real reason. God has a plan for this man and woman and to make that plan work it was necessary that the woman should be a part of the man.

"What was the plan Mummy?" asked Linnet.

"We will learn of that plan later, Dearest. There is not time just now. One reason the Bible gives us, is that God wished the man to love the woman and He knew that he would love her better if she was a part of him. (Ge 2:24.)

"When Adam wakened, there was the beautiful woman beside him. When he realised she was a part of him, he loved her very much. Adam said she should be called a woman because she was a part of man and then he named her Eve.

"Now Adam was not lonely any more. Everything took on a new interest. Every flower was something to show Eve. He could tell her all that he had learned about the animals. It was fun to work when there was some one to help who was interested in every thing he did.

"God smiled down upon them, for God is very good and wise. He had made Adam wait for his wife, because He knew he would love her better, if he knew what it was like to be alone first. Often when we ask God for something He keeps us waiting so we will like it better when we get it. Jesus said, ‘The Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him.’

"Everything around us proves that this is so. He knew we would need food so He gave us fruit trees and everything we need to eat. He gives us rain and sunshine and He provides the material to make cloth for our clothes. He provides wood and coal to keep us warm.

"It was in the evening or close of the sixth period of time that God made Adam and Eve and the Bible tells us that ‘He rested on the seventh day.’

"Like the other days, this day was very long. One of God’s days. We believe that the Bible shows us that this day will be seven thousand years long and that the other days, while God was getting the earth ready for men to live on, were the same length.

"God is still resting. This does not mean that God is not doing anything, but that, having laid all His plans, He is just letting them all work out. He just started everything working. When you plant a little seed in the garden you do not go out every day and dig it up to see if it is growing. If you did, it would die. You just plant it and let the sun shine on it and the rain water it and soon it begins to grow.

"You know when Mother bakes a cake she gets all her things ready and then measures them carefully and mixes them and puts them in a pan. Then she puts the pan in the oven and lets it bake. She does not go back every few minutes and mix something else in. That would spoil it. She just

watches to see the oven does not get too hot or too cool and soon there is a fine cake all ready to eat.

"That is the way God did with the world. He made all His plans and got everything ready and then there was nothing to do but to watch, till His plan worked out. God knew just how long it would take, ‘So God rested the seventh day from all the works which He had made.’

"The animals did not change any more. God just watched and if anything was going wrong He fixed it. Mother’s cake may bubble and boil and steam but that is just part of the cooking process. So all the things that happen on this earth are part of the ‘Cooking process.’ In the end the cake will be well worth while.

"God knew that people would wonder what was happening in this world. He gave them brains so they could think and wonder. In order that we might know that every thing was all right and that His plan was working, He had wise men write all about His plan long ago, in the wonderful book we call the Bible. He did not have them write it out so that every one could understand, for that would have interfered with His plans, and, so to speak, have spoiled the cake.

"You know we have a patch of potatoes in our garden. The plants are very nice and have lovely green leaves and pretty flowers but you can look all over them and not find a potato. They are all hidden in the ground and if you want them you must dig down and hunt for them. If you are not very careful you will not find them all. That is the way it is with the Bible. The treasures are there, but you have to dig for them. Some people find one, some find more. We want to find them all.

"These little stories which the camels brought are some of the treasures. Now my girlie is getting sleepy and we must leave the rest of the story for another night.

"You know now where the first daddy and mother came from, dear one, and I will give you this verse to think about. It is God’s promise that His plan will work out and the ‘Cake will be a good one.’

"‘So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void (that means empty) but it shall accomplish that which I please.’"( Isa 55:11.)

CHAPTER 3 THE SECOND CAMEL BRINGS HIS TREASURE

"So you are all ready for bed and waiting for Mother tonight, Linnet," said Mother, laughing, the next night. She had come to tuck her girlie into bed only to find her already there waiting for the next story.

"Tell me what happened then, Mummy. Did the first Daddy and Mummy have any little girls and boys?"

Mummy laughed. "The first camel forgot to tell us that. He only brought the story of the very beginning. We must see what treasure the second Camel brought. This was a bigger package and may take several stories to tell it all.

"What was the Camel’s name, Mummy?"

"The Second Camel had another odd name. It was called ‘Justice." Now we shall see what the treasure was that it carried. All ready for the story now?"

Linnet smiledand nodded and Mother began.

"Like the first Camel, Justice had two humps. Part of its story was carried in the New Testament-that was one hump: and part in the Old Testament, which was the other hump."

"Why did they call the camel Justice, Mummy? What does that name mean?"

"Well, that is rather hard to explain dearest. Suppose Mother sent you to the store and said, ‘I will give you an apple when you come back, for going for me.’ Suppose you went and when you came back I gave you an apple, that would be Justice. But if I gave you two apples it would not be justice but kindness. Justice is to give just what you promised and no more. Justice works other ways too. If Mother says, ‘Linnet, if you do that again you must go to your room for an hour.’ Then you do it again, and Mother makes you stay an hour and a half, that is not justice. But if she makes you stay half an hour, it’s not justice either. To be just you must give exactly what you promise, either good or bad. Our Great God is Just. He always keeps His word.

"God is just and He wants all His children to be just too. But God is more than just. God is loving and kind too. He

has promised that if we trust Him, ‘Our bread and water will be sure.’ But He gives us fruit and cake and meat and other things in addition. Justice means you must give what you promise. You may give other good things and still be just, if you have first kept the promise.

"Once when I was very young, a woman came to me and said, ‘My husband is going away for a month and I do not like to stay in the house alone at nights. Would you come to my house and sleep with me for company for a month? I will give you some money for it.’ I had slept with another lady for a time and she paid me one dollar every month. So I said, ‘Mrs. Jones gave me a dollar for staying with her. I will stay with you for a month at nights for a dollar, too.’

"I hated being away from home at night, but money was very scarce and it was near Christmas and I kept thinking, ‘A dollar will buy presents for Mother and my brothers and sisters. I can give them all something for a whole dollar.’ So I went every night. It was a cold winter and it meant a long walk in the dark alone but I thought of that dollar and I never missed one night. The month was over at last and I could hardly wait for that dollar. My Christmas list was all made out. The last night I waited and waited but she never mentioned the money. Next morning I waited around for awhile. I hated to ask her for the money for she was a rather cross old woman and I was a bit afraid of her.

"Then, when I could not stay any longer, I said, timidly, ‘Please could I have my dollar?’

"That old woman looked at me and said, ‘I do not think it was worth a dollar, I don’t believe in giving children money. You can have this little book, but I cannot afford to pay you.’

"I did not want any book. I could hardly keep from crying; I was so disappointed. I never trusted that woman again and I never went to her house."

"I think she was a nasty, mean, old woman, Mummy," said Linnet, with a child’s hatred of unfairness.

"She was considered a very good woman, dear. She was not just, though. Now God is just and this second Camel’s story shows us how very just He is and yet how kind and good.

"Among the beautiful angels which God and the Logos

had made, before they made the earth, there was one very beautiful one, who was so bright that he was called ‘Lucifer’ which means ‘Light bearer.’ He was also called ‘The son of the morning,’ probably because he was one of the first angels made. One of the prophets speaks of him and calls him ‘King of Tyrus.’ He says of this angel, that he was ‘Full of Wisdom and perfect in beauty’ and that he was dressed in many beautiful jewels. He tells us also that Lucifer was very proud of his beauty and this pride made him sin against God.

"The story of the second Camel tells of how Lucifer watched the happy pair in the garden of Eden and thought how nice it would be if he could have the earth for his very own. He thought of how God ruled over Heaven and all the angels obeyed Him and He thought he would be happy if only the people on the earth would obey him and worship him. Isaiah says that he ‘Said in his heart, I will be like the Most High, I will exalt my throne even above the stars of God.’

"That means that he would become greater than the other angels, for he would have a world to rule too, just as God had.

"God knew all about Lucifer’s wish and decided to test the angels in Heaven and see if there were others also, who wanted to have their own way and did not like to do as they were told. Lucifer thought that if he could just get Adam and Eve to disobey God and obey him, God would let him have this little world and rule it. Perhaps he thought that he could get them to eat the fruit God had told them not to touch and then save them from death and get them to agree to obey him, instead of God. We do not know just why he did such a wicked thing, except that it was ambition and pride that led him to do it. We know that God could have stopped it but He wanted to test man and see if he would obey Him and He wished to test the angels too. If Satan could make men do what God had forbidden, then they would have to learn what the result of their sin would be.

"One day Eve was walking through the garden and she heard a noise. Like Jennie in the last story, she stopped and listened and wondered what it was. The noise seemed to come from the tree they had been told not to touch. God had not told Eve about the tree but Adam had warned her that she must never touch it. Now she went nearer to see what the noise was and in the tree she saw a lovely serpent. A serpent 20

is what we call a snake and some of them were, and still are, very pretty. In those days they could climb trees and some of them still can, and as nothing was allowed to hurt anything in God’s Garden, they would not kill birds and frogs, but would eat the fruit. Eve was not afraid of snakes. She was not afraid of anything God made for they all obeyed her. We do not know if Eve could understand the other creatures, when they tried to talk to her, or if it was because this snake could talk, that she went nearer. The Bible tells us the snake said, -’So God said you could not eat this fruit, did He? You may not eat all the fruit of the garden?’ Perhaps the snake took some of the fruit himself to let her see how good it was. God had not forbidden the animals or the angels to eat the fruit of this tree. Eve did not know that this was not just a snake but that Lucifer was taking this shape, to coax her to disobey.

"She said, ‘We can eat the fruit of all the other trees but God says if we eat that fruit we will die.’

"Then Satan said, just like Susie did, ‘He only said that to scare you. This fruit is just as good as any other fruit. God knows that if you eat this fruit you will be wise like He is and will know good and evil. You know how wise I am. It is this fruit that makes me wise.’

"Eve thought, like Jennie did, ‘It won’t hurt to take a peep anyway,’ so she picked some of the fruit. It did look nice. It made her hungry to look at it and it smelled so tempting. She thought, ‘I will just taste it, God will never know.’ So she took a little bite and it was delicious. It seemed nicer than all the other fruit. That is the way with things that are forbidden. They always seem nicer than the things we know we can have.

"Well, Eve ate all of the fruit she had picked, then she thought, ‘I’m sure Adam doesn’t know how good this fruit tastes. He ought to try it. I will take him some.’ So Eve did just what Susie did. She coaxed Adam to disobey God too. Eve forgot how good God had been to them and how He had given them everything they had. Adam was afraid when he saw what Eve had done. He remembered what God had said, that if they ate that fruit they would die. He thought how lonely he had been before Eve was made and he loved her so much he could not bear the thought of living all alone again.

"He did not know God well enough to realise that He

could trust Him to find a way out. He never stopped to think that God had not told Eve not to touch the fruit. He was sure that Eve was going to die, and he felt he would rather die than be alone again. So Adam ate the fruit too.

"There was an excuse for Eve, perhaps, but there was none for Adam. He ate the fruit and began to think afterwards, when it was too late. People often do that still. We are all much like Jennie. When the bird has gone we think what we should have done, but we cannot get it back.

"Sometimes, it seems fun to do what is wrong, until we have done it and then we are sorry. The right time to be sorry is before we do wrong. Eve saw how badly Adam felt, then she began to be sorry too. How the day dragged. Adam wondered if he could protect Eve. They did not enjoy the songs of the birds or the beauty of the flowers. They did not know what to do. When evening came they hid themselves. They could not bear to face the Logos who always came in the evening to see them. Then they began to think how they had no clothes. They saw that the birds had feathers and the animals were covered with fur or wool, while their own skin was white and soft. It seemed like a good excuse for not wanting to meet God. They talked about it and then gathered leaves and spent the time making aprons of them, probably fastening them together with twigs and laughing at the effect but their laughter did not cover the pain in their hearts.

"Evening came and they heard the Logos calling them. Always before they had run to meet Him. Now shame and the feeling that they had done what was wrong made them want to hide. That is how a person always feels when they know they have done wrong. Now they might have been able to hide from men, but God had seen everything that had happened and the Logos too, knew just where they were.

"It did not take Him long to find them. They stood there together and felt so ashamed, even though they tried to cover it.

"The Logos said, ‘Why did you hide?’

"They answered, ‘We had nothing to cover us. The birds have feathers and the animals have fur, but we are all bare.’

"The Logos said, ‘Who told you that you are bare?’ He knew that they were just trying to make an excuse, to hide

their sin, so He asked, ‘Have you been eating the fruit I told you not to touch?’

"Adam knew that it was useless to deny it, so he answered, ‘Eve gave me some of it and I ate it.’

"‘Why did you do that Eve?’ asked the Logos.

"‘The snake was in the tree and he told me that you were just fooling us. He said we would be as wise as he as, if we ate it.’

"Then the Logos called Lucifer and he came, still in the shape of the serpent. He was quite pleased with the way things were going. He felt sure that when God realised that the man and woman would rather obey him than God, He would just turn the world over to him and let him rule it. Perhaps he had a good story all ready, but he did not get a chance to tell it, for the Logos looked at him and said, ‘Because of what you have done you are cursed above all creatures. You must always crawl through the dust and eat dust as long as you live. The woman and her ‘Seed’ will always hate you. The ‘Seed of the Woman’ will kill you and you will bring pain and sorrow to Him.’

"Those were not the exact words, as given in our Bible, but that was what the Logos meant. He said, ‘Her seed shall bruise your head and you will bruise his heel.’ To bruise a snake’s head kills it, but to bruise a man’s heel only hurts. This condemnation of the serpent meant that Lucifer would never be allowed to return to Heaven as a bright angel again but must stay on the earth in the dust and heat until he died. From that time Lucifer was called Satan. He was no longer an angel of light but, by his sin, he had become the enemy of God and the name Satan means God’s enemy.

"Then God turned to the woman and said, ‘Eve, you too must be punished. You will have much sorrow and trouble. When you have little children they will bring you sorrow and pain. Your husband will rule over you and you will be under his orders because you have led him into trouble.’

"Now you will notice that God did not condemn the woman to death. She had been fooled by Satan and God had not told her she would die if she ate the fruit. If Adam had obeyed God they might have been saved, but God had foreseen what would happen and He knew that people would 23

never understand how very wrong it is to disobey God unless they saw for themselves what trouble would result.

"Now God turned to Adam and said, ‘You listened to your wife instead of to me. I told you that if you touched the fruit of that tree it would be like a poison and that it would slowly bring you death. Now I will curse the earth for your sake. You shall know pain and sorrow. Thorns and thistles and weeds will grow instead of fruit. You will have to work very hard to get enough to eat and your chief food will be vegetables, for fruit will be hard to get. You were made from the dust and in time you will become dust again.’

"Then the Logos showed them how they could kill the animals and take their skins and fix them so they would stay soft, and make coats of them to keep them warm.

"Then God said, ‘Now that the man and woman have disobeyed and have learned what it is to sin, it will not do to let them have the fruit of the perfect trees in the garden, for as long as they have the perfect food, they will live.’

"So the Logos made Adam and Eve go out of the beautiful garden, into the world outside, and God sent an angel or a messenger to keep them from returning. Perhaps this messenger was simply a great fiery volcano that blocked the pathway to the garden. We cannot tell, for any thing that does God’s will can be an angel or messenger. The Bible tells us that there was a flaming sword that turned every way to keep them from returning.

"The trees of the garden were ‘Trees of Life.’ That means that as long as men could get their fruit, they would live. Now Adam and Eve could not get the fruit any longer and they would slowly die.

"There is an old story of a place in eastern Canada where many years ago there were a great many oak trees. Men built a bridge of the oak, which is a very hard wood and lasts many years. Fearing that some day parts of this bridge would wear out, these men made pieces to replace every part of the bridge. They stored these oak boards carefully away, so that when a piece of the bridge broke they could just put in another piece of oak. The bridge lasted many years; one after another, different parts wore out, and were replaced. The land around was soon all taken for farms, and the oak trees were all used for building houses and the time came when there was

no more oak to be had. Then parts of the bridge began to wear out and the people put in fir planks instead. As time went on and one part after another was replaced with fir, a time came when the bridge was all fir. Fir is not nearly so strong as oak and by and by the fir planks rotted. It was not an oak bridge any more. That was what happened to Adam and Eve.

"Their bodies were perfect and lovely at first, and God gave them the perfect food to eat. When the parts of their bodies began to wear, the perfect food replaced them. Our bodies are made of what we eat and drink. Perfect food makes perfect bodies, just as oak makes stronger bridges. After they had sinned and must leave the garden, they could not get the perfect food and, after many years, their bodies began to wear out.

"Since they had chosen to obey Satan, God left them under his rule till they should have had a chance to see what the result of sin would be. He knew that sickness and pain, trouble and death would be the result of sin, and that it would grow, like a bad weed, till it choked out the good. Then, when men were sick and tired of sin, He intended to give them a chance to try His way instead.

"You remember God wanted a world full of people who would be good because they wanted to, and because they knew it did not pay to disobey God. God was not hard or cruel to Adam and Eve. They had been warned that death would be the result of their sin. God could have taken their lives at once, but God was kind and let them live many years. They had a lot of joy and a lot of sorrow also, and they saw for themselves that it is always best to obey God.

"Some people think it was hard on them to put them out of the garden, but God knew that they must not be left where life was easy or they would be led to do many wicked things. He knew that if they had to work hard to get food and clothes, they would not have much time for sin.

"If God had let Adam and Eve live in the garden always and keep on living, it would not have been just, and they would have felt that God would not keep His promise. He said they would die and He kept His promise, for after many years of experience with evil they did die. God kept His promise and so we can be sure He will keep all His promises.