Short Features

Poems and Prose

Ode from the19th Psalm

The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim.
The unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator’s power display;
And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And, nightly, to the listening earth,
Repeats the story of her birth;
While all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.

What though in solemn silence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball;
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid these radiant orbs be found;
In reason’s ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
Forever singing, as they shine,
"The Hand that made us is divine."

—From McGuffey’s Eclectic Third Reader

 

IN THE BEGINNING

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." In these few words is enshrined the story of countless ages. Long before man came into being, long before the infinite variety of animal and vegetable life which now inhabits this planet was brought forth, the work of God was going steadily forward. In the mighty crucible of nature he was molding and fashioning a fitting home for humanity, compelling the tremendous forces of the universe to work together in slow but ceaseless motion until, after the lapse of ages upon ages, the angels looked down upon the solar system of ours with the parent sun majestic in its family of circling worlds.

The earth was one of those worlds. Long epochs had yet to pass before even the humblest form of life could appear on its troubled surface. Great eruptions of nature from within, avalanches and floods from above, all combined to keep this new world in a state of perpetual unrest. But eventually there came a time when it was stilled, when the boiling seas subsided and the land had some measure of peace from warring elements. And in that eventful day life was born on earth. No man saw it come, no human history can go back to those first beginnings when lowly creatures of the seashores were lords of material creation. Long years afterward, the chronicler wrote: "And God said, let the waters bring the moving creature that hath life ... and it was so."

So passed the centuries, the millenniums, the epochs during which God worked silently in that orderly development which characterizes all his works, preparing a home for a new creation which he purposed. At length the watching angels saw a new wonder at which they shouted aloud for joy: beings—intelligent, perfect, capable of love and gratitude, worship and service, made to be the crowning glory of that creation which had taken solong a time to bring to this climax. "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). With what serene pleasure must the Father have gazed upon the first material beings and foreseen the wonders of a future age when the earth shall be fully perfected and when mankind shall have achieved the Divine ideal and attained to the image and likeness of God.

—Songs of the Nightingale, pp. 12,13

 

Nature’s Testimony

"By their numberless multitude, their orderly grouping in various constellations. Their continual yet never conflicting movements, their perfect harmony, their magnitude and their mutual benign influence, to the shining hosts of heaven declare the glory of God, by day and by night. He who meditates on these things will scarcely be ‘the fool’ who saith ‘in his heartm There is no God,’ for all nature testifies to the Creator’s glory and power."

Reprints, page 1391.

 

The Bible

The Bible is the torch of civilization and liberty. Its influence for good in society has been recognized by the greatest statesmen, even though they for the most part have looked at it through the various glasses of conflicting creeds, which, while upholding the Bible, grievously misrepresent its teachings. The grand old book is unintentionally but woefully misrepresented by its friends, many of whom would lay down life on its behalf; and yet they do it more vital injury than its foes, by claiming its support to their long-revered misconceptions of its truth, received through the traditions of their fathers. Would that such would awake, re-examine their oracle, and put to confusion its enemies by disarming them of their weapons! . . . The Bible is the oldest book in existence; it has outlived the storms of thirty centuries. Men have endeavored by every means possible to banish it from the face of the earth: they have hidden it, burned it, made it a crime punishable with death to have it in possession, and the most bitter and relentless persecutions have been waged against those who had faith in it; but still the book lives. Today, while many of its foes slumber in death, and hundreds of volumes written to discredit it and to overthrow its influence, are long since forgotten, the Bible has found its way into every nation and language of earth, over two hundred different translations of it having been made. The fact that this book has survived so many centuries, notwithstanding such unparalleled efforts to banish and destroy it, is at least strong circumstantial evidence that the great Being whom it claims as its Author hasalso been its Preserver.

—The Divine Plan of the Ages, pp. 37, 38

 

 

The Bible—The Sure Word of God

Why do we study the Bible—
Esteem it as no other book?
Why would we willingly die for its truths?
At some reasons let’s now take a look.

Forty or more penned its contents;
It features one theme: God’s great plan.
Written as sixteen long centuries passed,
It was authored by God, not by man.

First come the "days" of creation.
The Bible account stands the test:
Rational statements that science confirms
Help establish our faith in the rest.

Adam and Eve are created;
They soon break the law God decreed.
Sentenced to death, there’s a glimmer of hope
In God’s promise concerning the "seed."

Heroes of faith had their failings:
The Bible’s report tells it all.
Rich in details of God’s patience and love,
It’s a record of man since the "fall."

Can we believe what is written?
The evidence mounts: scrolls are found;
Tablets confirming the Bible accounts
Archeologists dig from the ground.

Biblical cities long buried,
When studied with care, now provide
Close correlations with dates and events
That the critics for years had denied.

Israel’s people are special:
Through blessings and woes, God is guide.
Scattered for thousands of years, yet today
In their land, as foretold, they reside.

No one but God knows the future
And He has declared from of old
Many events—some in greatest detail—
That reveal how His plan will unfold.

Jesus comes forth as Messiah.
The place of his birth had been named;
How he would die, and the work he would do,
Long ago had the prophets proclaimed.

Next is the grand culmination:
Mankind will come forth from the tomb.
Oh, what rejoicing when Jesus’ glad reign
Brings an end to earth’s sorrow and gloom.

Banished and burned through the ages,
The Bible endures! Still it lives!
Faith has much evidence firmly to trust
God’s sure Word and the message it gives!

—Elaine L. Redeker