So with the bow shining against the cloud mothers and fathers told this story to their children. To them the rainbow was the sign of God’s covenant—his promise to bless the earth and all who live upon it. They remembered something else when they saw it and that is that they had a part in the covenant. God’s part was to bless; theirs to obey. The rainbow will remind us, too, of God’s promise. When we see it stretching across the heavens, in our hearts we will praise the heavenly Father for his loving kindness, and ask him to help us to be his obedient children. How glad we are that he has said, “for endless generations,” because that means that his blessing will be for always and always. THE PUPIL’S BOOK FOR WORK AND STUDY Show the picture for this lesson and have the children repeat the memory text as they see the rainbow in the picture. NOTE.—If you have not already done so, read about the Rainbow Bookmark, on page 24. You will need one to use in teaching next Sunday’s Correlated Lesson. II. STORIES OF THREE PATRIARCHS LESSON 8 We enter now upon the second period of our course, and for the next thirteen lessons will follow the fortunes of the three great patriarchs of Jewish history. The same lesson of simple and unquestioning obedience is found in these stories, with an occasional negative lesson, showing the consequences of disobedience. As the promise to Abram points to the coming of the Messiah, in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, the Christmas Lesson chosen for this year is upon the Song of Mary, which ends with a reference to the promise given to her as the fulfillment of the promise given to Abram. THE CORRELATED LESSON I wonder what you will think about the next time you see a rainbow in the sky. Tell me what God said about the rainbow to Noah. God’s promise to Noah is only one of hundreds of promises that are in this book, and the best of it is, those promises are for you and me as well as for the people who lived in the days when the Bible was written. Do you see the bookmark I have in my Bible to-day?[3] It has in it the colors of the rainbow, which people have called the “bow of promise,” and that is one reason why we like to have a rainbow bookmark for the Bible. It reminds us of such beautiful promises as this: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.” “I am with thee and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest.” This bookmark is useful in another way. The Bible has how many books? Now those sixty-six books are not all of one kind. Some are poetry, some are sermons, some are history and some are law. These ribbons mark the different kinds of books and so help us to handle the Bible more easily. Some day you will know all the kinds of books that the ribbons mark, but just now you need only remember one. The red ribbon marks the first five books which are called books of Law. (Have the children repeat this.) LESSON 8 The Call of Abram