(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

ANCIENT CONCEPTIONS OF GOD.

SPECIAL TEXT: "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him; male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created." (Gen. v:12.)

NOTES.

1. Sources of Information: The sources of information in this lesson are so completely within the reach of all that notes upon the various subdivisions are not considered necessary.

2. Lecture II On Faith: Too much cannot be said of the value of the Second Lecture on Faith in the Doctrine and Covenants. Nowhere else is the manner in which faith in God was brought into the world and preserved among men, so well worked out as in that lecture. It is a very instructive bit of literature, and should be highly prized by the ministry of the Church.

3. Parallel Between Adam and Noah: Each of these great patriarchs occupies a singular relationship to the question of faith in God. Each stood at the head of a great dispensation of the Gospel. Each received the commandment—"Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth," (Gen. I:28, and Gen. IX:1); and as Adam brought with him the knowledge of God for men from beyond the "Fall"—from Eden to this side Eden, so Noah brought the knowledge of God for men from beyond the flood to this side the flood, and is a great witness for God to men. Adam is Michael. (Doc. & Cov. Sec. cvii:54.) Noah is Gabriel. (Hist. of the Church, Vol. III, p. 386); and each was the "Father of all living" in his day.

4. Importance of the Period Covered in this Lesson: To be well versed in the history of the period covered by this lesson, is important. Especially in relation to the knowledge of God that then existed among men; for the knowledge then revealed became the foundation of that belief in God found in subsequent generations of men in the nations of antiquity. Also in this period will be found the roots of those myths and fables in relation to gods, with which some nations and races of men were pleased to amuse, and at last deceive themselves. Believe me, it is not a waste of time to study the historic period from Adam to Noah; and from Noah to Abraham.

5. Testimony of Moriancumer: Let the student also give more than a passing thought to Moriancumer, the Brother of Jared, of the Book of Mormon. He brought the knowledge of God to the Western hemisphere; and the revelation of God to him (Ether: III), was most important, since it was the source of the knowledge of God to that great Jaredite empire which endured for sixteen hundred years in the Western hemisphere, and which was one of the greatest nations of antiquity. (Ether i:42, 43, and xv:2).