Among the many religious teachings with which this marvelous story abounds may be noted: (1) Innocence does not become virtue until it is tested and proved by temptation. (2) If the testing is to be effective, the temptation must be of a character to appeal to the individual tested. (3) Sin is not God’s but man’s creation. (4) To sin is to act in accord with the baser and more selfish rather than the nobler and diviner motives. (5) An act of sin destroys a man’s peace of mind and purity of thought. (6) Sin unconfessed is a sin constantly committed, and it absolutely prevents even God himself from forgiving the unrepentant sinner. (7) In keeping with the law of cause and effect, sin brings its own inevitable punishment. (8) The worst effect of sin is the severing of the normal, harmonious relations between God and the individual. (9) Most of the pains and ills of life are the result of some one’s sin. (10) Man must learn in the school of pain and toil the lesson of obedience. (11) Even though guilty and unrepentant, man is still the object of God’s unceasing love and care—_Ibid._ AIM =To show through the story of the first disobedience the character and consequences of all sin, and to point out the only way to escape from it.= LESSON PREPARATION The story that we have in this lesson must make an appeal to every child because there is no child in our Junior Department who has not had the experience of being disobedient, and also, doubtless, of trying to hide both the sin and himself from the one disobeyed. Probably there can be no more effectual way of beginning the preparation of this lesson than for the teacher to think back to his own experience as a child, and recall in what manner he made his way back through repentance and forgiveness to a complete restoration of the feeling of loving freedom that should exist between parent and child. The attitude of the one in authority is always a very important factor, but even with the most wise and loving of parents or guardians, the natural tendency of the one who transgresses is to concealment. With the facts of the story clearly in mind and the memory of one’s own experience as a guide, it should be easy to make the children realize that disobedience always brings unhappiness in the end, and a sense of separation from those who love us; that the worst thing anyone can do is to try to hide a disobedient act, because the only way to get back to the right road again is through the opposite course—brave confession instead of cowardly hiding or denying, repentance and the determination to forsake instead of clinging to the wrong.