Fr. Bettex 
 
 THE:::: 
 
 FIRST 
 PAGE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BIBLE 
 
 The German 
 Literary Board 
 
 Burlington, Iowa 
 

 
 
The First Page 
 of the Bible. 
 
 By FR. BETTEX. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND GERMAN EDITION, 
 WITH THE FORMER TRANSI,ATION COM- 
 PARED AND REVISED BY 
 
 The Rev. F. C. Longaker, A. M. 
 
 19 8 
 BURLINGTON, IOWA. 
 
o 
 
 Copyright, 1903, by 
 
 R. NEUMANN, 
 
 In Trust for 
 
 The German L,iterary Board, Burlington, Iowa. 
 
THE BEGINNING. 
 
 "In the Beginning God Cr'eated the Heaven and 
 the Earth." 
 
 AS the individual, so the human family is 
 confronted by the twofold question: 
 Whence do we come and whither do we 
 go? But God, who has created the human 
 heart and knows all its desires, has given us the 
 answer in his Word. The first book of Moses, 
 called Genesis, tells us whence we come; the last 
 book of the Bible, the Revelation of St. John, 
 shows us whither we go. It is true, men who 
 have considered themselves wise above that which 
 is written, have tried in every way to gainsay 
 this divine answer; and a false reasoning at the 
 present day proclaims from the house-tops that 
 science has done away with the former belief con- 
 cerning the origin of man, and that we are not 
 created by God, but descended from the monkey. 
 But these so-called "scientific conclusions" are 
 nothing but misty visions and unproved conjec- 
 tures of men who rely on their own thoughts and 
 of whom the saying is true: "Professing them- 
 selves to be wise, they became fools." 
 
 These self-styled scientists either openly ac- 
 knowledge their inability to account for man's 
 origin, or they frivolously say that he came by 
 mere chance, as if absolute emptiness had of a 
 
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 sudden concluded to become man. As to his des- 
 tiny they are likewise ignorant, affirming that 
 death is eternal night. Thus these worldly wise 
 men themselves pronounce upon themselves judg- 
 ment of "the outer darkness." 
 
 In this respect the traditions of the different 
 nations on the earth show a surprising harmony 
 with the biblical account. Neither in northern 
 Asia nor in Africa, do we find the belief — which 
 for the heathen would be entirely natural — that 
 man has gradually developed from the animal, but 
 on the contrary the belief prevails that man was 
 created good and happy in a beautiful land of 
 garden, that through his own fault or temptation 
 he fell, and that now he is found in a state of dis- 
 tress. Nor do scarcely any of the pagan religions 
 teach that the earth is gradually developing itself 
 into a blissful heaven, but, on the contrary, that 
 previous to this there will be a final fearful catas- 
 trophe, a triumph over evil and a general judg- 
 ment, which will be followed at last by a state of 
 happiness and bliss. There are also found in 
 those traditions of the nations remarkable ac- 
 counts in perfect harmony with the biblical view 
 of the creation. Thus, for instance, we read in 
 one of the oldest sacred books of the Hindoos: 
 "He who existed from the beginning, created first 
 the water by a movement of his spirit, on which 
 account he is called, 'the one who moves upon the 
 waters.'" (Genesis 1:2). "He whose power is 
 incomprehensible, when he had created the uni- 
 verse, exchanged activity for rest." (Gen. 2:3). 
 
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 "The visible world, heaven and earth, were made 
 in six periods. At first Ormazd (i. e., the god of 
 good) created the light between heaven and earth, 
 thereafter the water, which covered the whole 
 earth; then the earth and the land came into ex- 
 istence. Further, there were created trees of all 
 kinds ; then animals came into existence ; and last 
 of all, the human being was created, good and 
 with bright and uplifted countenance; but the 
 fallen Ahriman brought great darkness into the 
 kingdom of light and spoiled the whole creation." 
 
 Furthermore we find this harmony regarding 
 the deluge, in the traditions of nearly all nations. 
 It is remarkable how people, living in widely sep- 
 arated parts of the earth, relate exactly the same 
 things concerning a great flood which covered 
 every mountain, a great ship, in which four (or 
 eight) persons saved their lives, and many other 
 circumstances of minor import. In our own land 
 Europeans found an Indian tribe, who considered 
 the wild pigeon a sacred bird that should not be 
 killed. Being asked the reason, they answered 
 that this was the bird which had brought a willov/ 
 leaf into the ship to their fathers during the great 
 flood. A willow-leaf greatly resembles the olive- 
 leaf in form, size and color. Does this not point 
 clearly to a common tradition and descent from 
 Noah and his sons? 
 
 But considering the beginnings of the earth, 
 how grand in all its simplicity is not the first 
 verse in the Bible : "In the beginning God created 
 the heaven and the earth." Beyond this no hu- 
 
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 man thought has ventured and never will venture 
 in all eternity. True, hundreds of learned, unbe- 
 lieving men have made efforts to attack this sen- 
 tence, and to prove that there is no need of a God, 
 and that the "eternal matter" had generated all 
 being and life of itself. But is this reasonable? 
 If dead m.atter had created its own life, and if its 
 atom had found its own consciousness, the miracle 
 would certainly be greater than that related in 
 the Bible. The very things which the learned 
 have discovered with reference to the beginnings 
 of our earth tend to prove, that what we call 
 "life," as we find it in plants, in animals and in 
 men, as distinguished from stones and metals, has 
 not existed upon the earth from the beginning. 
 Whence now this sudden appearance of life? 
 How could life come forth from dead matter? 
 Not one of those gentlemen has been able to ex- 
 plain this. We, on the other hand, know because 
 God has revealed to us that He who is an al- 
 mighty, a living Being, out of the fullness of his 
 infinite life has caused life to come forth upon 
 this earth. . Of course we readily admit that God 
 is Himself an inexplicable wonder; nevertheless, 
 we rejoice in knowing that He is an incompre- 
 hensible God, because a God, whom we could un- 
 derstand, would be no longer a God to us. Life 
 from a living God, — this is a reasonable thought, 
 in this there is sense; but life from dead matter 
 is unreasonable and absurd: From the infinite, 
 accordingly, the finite; from the eternal, the tem- 
 poral; from the invisible, the visible; (cf. Hebr. 
 
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 11 :3) from the real and substantial, the transient 
 and changeable. Now we understand why there 
 exists in everything finite that mighty longing for 
 the infinite, the striving on the part of every crea- 
 ture for what is above us and beyond us. This 
 longing and striving is nothing else but what we 
 call "life." Everything longs for its source. Do 
 we not notice how everything in existence longs 
 for the infinite, and is not God infinite? Indeed, 
 he who is not spiritually blind will readily per- 
 ceive from this mighty longing in his heart for 
 light and fullness of life, for power and knowl- 
 edge, that he has not had his origin in dead mat- 
 ter ; else he would not long for life, but for death. 
 
 "In the beginning God created the heaven 
 and the earth." In this the very first line, the 
 Bible makes clear to us the position which we 
 should occupy; and as an able writer indicates in 
 the beginning the main ideas of the subject he 
 wishes to bring before his readers, so likewise 
 does God in his Word. 
 
 These introductory words tell us the subject 
 to be discussed throughout the Bible, the things 
 above us and the things beneath us, that which is 
 heavenly and that which is earthly. These two 
 ideas, "heaven and earth," form the center around 
 which, so to speak, the whole Bible revolves. We 
 .are shown how these two were at first in perfect 
 harmony and then estranged by sin; how God 
 subsequently, in the course of thousands of years, 
 made preparations for uniting them again; how 
 in Jesus Christ they were again brought together ; 
 
8 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 and how — as the last page of the Bible proves — 
 the whole earth will at last be at one with heaven, 
 when the new Jerusalem shall have descended 
 upon it, in order that God may be all and in all. 
 And not only do we find this difference between 
 the heavenly and the earthly in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, but also in nature itself. These are, as it 
 were, the two elements upon which all life upon 
 earth depends. Thus it is with man : his head, the 
 seat of his thoughts, points upwards, while the 
 other half of his body serves earthly, lower pur- 
 poses. And does not the difference between man 
 and beast likewise rest upon this "above and be- 
 low?" Does not the entire man in his erect form 
 point upwards, only touching the ground with his 
 feet, while as the beast descends in the scale of 
 creation, its head is carried nearer and nearer the 
 ground. Do not the plants and the trees with 
 their trunks and foliage point upwards, while the 
 roots sink deep into the ground? 
 
 "In the beginning God created the heaven 
 and the earth" — like a granite rock this majestic 
 sentence stands simple and great, in the beginning 
 of the Bible and of known history. Thus far the 
 triune God was alone, dwelling in unapproachable 
 light; but henceforth He becomes outwardly ac- 
 tive in the creation and preservation of the world. 
 
 And now this foundation having been laid, 
 the Scriptures speak more particularly of the 
 earth, leaving us to acquire a knowledge of the 
 heavenly glory after we possess it. In doing so, 
 because it has to deal with the inhabitants of this 
 
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 earth, it speaks to us in an earthly manner, hu- 
 manly. It says, as we do, that the sun rises and 
 sets, although, properly speaking, the sun does not 
 "move," but the earth. Did not God in His Word 
 descend in this way to earthly language and hu- 
 man way of looking at things, did He not speak 
 in a manner human, but yet absolutely true and 
 divine, his language would be so elevated that not 
 only the mind of the untutored, but also that of 
 the most learned, the most renowned astronomers, 
 would be unable to follow Him; and His Word 
 would be altogether unintelligible. 
 
THE EARTH. 
 
 "A.nd the Earth ivas Without Form, and Void; 
 and Darkness was Upon the Face of the Deep; 
 and the Spirit of God Moved Upon the Face of 
 the Waters." 
 
 THERE is a remarkable agreement between 
 these words of the Holy Scriptures and the 
 results of careful investigations of nature. 
 Leading astronomers and investigators consider it 
 an established fact that the earth formerly was a 
 red fiery ball, sailing about in space and enveloped 
 by dense vapors. These vapors in the course of 
 time in consequence of the earth's cooling off be- 
 came for the greater part water, but enough of 
 them remained spread over the earth to cause im- 
 penetrable darkness. This corresponds exactly 
 with the account of the second verse in the Bible. 
 Concerning the account of the Spirit of God mov- 
 ing upon the face of the waters, the learned men 
 have, of course, nothing to say. This Spirit of 
 God, to be sure, is not to be discovered by the in- 
 vestigations or the calculations of the scientists. 
 But what is this spirit doing? Just as a hen, sit- 
 ting upon an egg, containing dark and moist mat- 
 ter, hatching for a long time, while mysterious 
 forces within the egg are doing their work in the 
 smallest particles arranging themselves in a won- 
 derful manner until life comes forth from the in- 
 
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 closing shell; even so the Spirit of God moved 
 upon the waters and He infused into matter the 
 thousandfold powers in nature and the laws of 
 nature which now have their play upon the earth. 
 In Hebrew the verb "to move" has also the sense 
 of "to brood," and "waters" is equivalent to 
 "mighty, seething, rushing streams." In these 
 mysterious forces and laws, which the creative 
 spirit of God in the beginning infused into that 
 void and empty matter, are to be found all the 
 phenom.ena which we observe here on earth; and 
 even the human body is a wonderful workshop of 
 unfathomable transactions, v/hich take place in 
 accordance with these forces and laws. For just 
 as an artist or architect, who intends to produce 
 something great, walks up and down meditating 
 in his mind what shape and relation, size and 
 form he will give each part of his work, and as 
 the work now takes shape in his mind and stands 
 before him complete, even before anything is vis- 
 ible to the eye, so the Spirit of God moved upon 
 the waters and placed measure and weight, num- 
 bers and law into matter. 
 
 It is remarkable, however, how blind fallen 
 man is, not only to that which is divine, but also 
 to that which is natural and near to him. How 
 many millions there are living upon this earth: 
 she is the place of habitation, out of her they re- 
 ceive their sustenance, out of her they have been 
 formed and to her they shall again return, and 
 yet how little interest do most of them manifest 
 in this great creation of God ! They follow their 
 
12 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 business and their pleasure, and any sort of 
 meaningless pastime, any kind of useless talk and 
 worthless games is of more importance to them 
 than the acquirement of knowledge concerning 
 the great deeds and thoughts of God. They learn 
 in the common schools that the earth resembles a 
 great ball, that it revolves once in a year around 
 the sun, and that it is 25,000 miles in circumfer- 
 ence; but in how few do these facts arouse any 
 deeper or higher thoughts ! But a Christian ought 
 also in this to strive after perfection, in order 
 that as far as his calling gives him time and op- 
 portunity he may find enjoyment in meditating 
 upon God's creation, in which he has been placed, 
 "for God hath showed it unto them." "For the 
 invisible things of Him from the creation of the 
 world are clearly seen, being understood by tlie 
 things that are made, even His eternal power and 
 God-head." (Rom. 1:20). 
 
 And how enormously great is this dwelling 
 place for man ! Of a ball 25,000 miles in circum- 
 ference neither you nor I can have any proper 
 conception. But if one considers the great oceans 
 that cover the earth's surface, oceans upon which 
 ships may sail for weeks and m.onths, day and 
 night, without seeing anything else than the sky 
 above and the water beneath ; or the deserts with 
 burning sand much vaster than the whole of Ger- 
 many, where the camel, "the ship of the desert," 
 can likewise travel for weeks, without reaching 
 the end ; or the immense grassy plains upon which 
 millions of animals roam about; or these great 
 
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 stretches of country about the north and south 
 poles, as large as entire Europe, covered with 
 eternal snow and ice; and in addition to this 
 those large countries inhabited by men ; the moun- 
 tain ranges and the glaciers, the mighty rivers 
 which flow onward like broad lakes, I say, if you 
 think about all this, and if you think further how 
 this entire world soars through space having no 
 foundation to rest on, you can not resist the im- 
 pression that this earth is a wonderful work, sus- 
 tained by a master-hand. 
 
 But this earth not only soars, but it untir- 
 ingly whirls in a prescribed orbit through space. 
 You are aware that an express-train goes very 
 fast; you are aware also that a cannon-ball goes 
 much faster, so fast that it cannot be observed by 
 the eye. But this ball upon which you live and in 
 whose interior a mighty fire glows, from which 
 we are separated by a thin solid crust ; this earth 
 with all its seas and countries, rivers and moun- 
 tains, plains, glaciers and icebergs, flies through 
 immeasurable space fifty times faster than a can- 
 non ball, and carries you and all men by day and 
 by night, whether they work or whether they rest, 
 and so gentle and so regular is its flight that you 
 do not notice it. And just imagine that it would 
 be possible for you to take a position somewhere 
 outside of this earth and see it pass by. What a 
 sight that would be! At first you would see the 
 earth in the distance appearing like a little star, 
 but coming nearer it would grow larger and 
 larger ; soon it would resemble the moon ; not long 
 
14 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 after it would cover half the sky, and would be- 
 fore your astonished gaze, whirl by with the 
 greatest velocity; you would see in turn sunshine 
 and dark clouds, the storm-tossed ocean and the 
 level plains, high mountains covered with snow 
 and dark forests, great cities and dreary deserts, 
 — all this would in a fev/ minutes pass by you in 
 furious flight, and before you would recover from 
 your surprise everything would be gone; you 
 would see only a gigantic shining silvery ball in 
 the sky, fast disappearing and soon looking again 
 like a little star in the far depths of space, whirled 
 onward by the breath of God. Then you would 
 have seen only a small part of the glory of the 
 Creator, the earth, which God made in the begin- 
 ning ; for thus hundreds of other earths and plan- 
 ets, many much larger than ours, fly incessantly 
 through space, some surrounded by moons and 
 some by immense rings which consist of solid or 
 liquid matter. Is it not then better for man, in 
 view of all this, to rejoice in such gorious works 
 of God, and by meditating upon them to admire 
 and worship Him with the feeling: what is man 
 that thou are mindful of him? — than again and 
 again to have his mind centered on man and his 
 small achievements, in the contemplation of which 
 there is only unrest and self-conceit, while in be- 
 holding the works of God the soul finds peace and 
 exaltation. 
 
 Thus many, many years ago the earth flew 
 through space. Although yet without form and 
 void, enveloped in darkness, it was even then for 
 
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 the "sons of God" a grand sight, as it is written : 
 ''Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of 
 earth ? when the morning stars sang together, and 
 all the sons of God sang for joy? Or who shut up 
 the sea with doors when I made the cloud the gar- 
 ment thereof and thick darkness a swaddling 
 band for it?" (Job 38-4, 7, 8, 9). And now this 
 earth, having changed its surface, hastens onward 
 in its orbit with a population of 1,300 millions, 
 with innumerable animals, countless birds which 
 fly through the air, and millions and millions of 
 fish that swim through the depths of the sea. This 
 thought likewise ought to exalt our soul and make 
 God great before our eyes, who watches over all 
 these creatures. At this very moment, when you 
 read this, God sees into your heart and knows ali 
 your thoughts, likewise the thoughts of those, 
 who, on the opposite side of the earth, lie in their 
 sleep, likewise those of the wild bush-mian in 
 South Africa, who now with his poisoned arrow 
 chases the antilope, or the Eskimo, who in his 
 light skiff upon the stormy sea pursues the wal- 
 rus. At this very moment, when He tries your 
 heart and reins. He knows at the same time what 
 everyone of those four hundred millions of Chi- 
 nese thinks, and He knows the history of their 
 lives better than they do themselves. At this mo- 
 ment, when you read this, he sees upon this fast- 
 moving earth all the sick and the distressed, the 
 beggars in their poverty and the kings in their 
 splendor and power, the great number of those 
 who perish in battle, the criminal who prowls 
 
16 The First Page of the Bib le. 
 
 about in the darkness of night; He hears every 
 word, song, prayer, curse, laugh, cry, every bitter 
 complaint, every sigh which is directed to Him 
 and every useless word spoken; He writes them 
 all in His book for the day of judgment. Fur- 
 ther : He sees the lion in the desert, the raven in 
 the air, every little bird in its nest, every insect 
 in the grass ; there is not a little fish in the deep 
 ocean whose path is hidden from Him, not a leaf 
 on a tree upon the whole earth whose shape and 
 size He does not know, not a leaf that would fall 
 to the ground without His will. Yes, while He 
 governs, cares for, feeds and rules this entire 
 world. He beholds in every drop of water those 
 thousands of invisible little creatures, scarcely 
 visible through a microscope, and gives every one 
 of them life and food ; for in Him lives, moves and 
 exists everything. Indeed, if you look at things 
 in this way, then He becomes mighty and great 
 and you will acknowledge the power hidden in the 
 word : "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of 
 the waters." 
 
THE LIGHT. 
 
 "And God Said, Let There Be Light; and There 
 Was Light:' 
 
 HAVE you never considered how great and 
 magnificent, how wonderful is light, that 
 garment of God (Ps. 104-21) who calls 
 himself "the Father of lights," and whose dwell- 
 ing is in unapproachable light? What would the 
 world be without light? How inconceivable, un- 
 known, incomprehensible and joyless. How dark, 
 aimless and powerless also all our thought. 
 
 But what is light? We can not fully explain 
 it and are less able to comprehend it here upon 
 earth than the rest of nature; for it is the first 
 and highest work of God's creation. But so much 
 the human mind may know: light is a living 
 power proceeding from God, which, while it sur- 
 rounds the entire universe, keeps the smallest 
 particles of bodies and matter constantly and 
 powerfully in motion; the faster the motion, the 
 clearer the light. A body altogether motionless 
 would be altogether dark, and thus one can say 
 truthfully: light is life, motion; and darkness is 
 death. There is no complete darkness in the uni- 
 verse, and even a thousand feet deep in the earth, 
 where our eye, blinded by daylight, thinks we see 
 only darkest night, grows the crystal and many 
 plants of inferior nature; and in the deepest val- 
 
18 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 leys of the sea, where to our eye not the least ray 
 of light penetrates, living creatures move, seizing 
 their prey by their own feeble light. And when 
 on a dark night man thinks the world lies in 
 darkness, it is true only of a small portion of the 
 earth, while the whole universe all around is filled 
 by waves of light, v/hich fly from star to star, 
 from sun to sun. Whether the outer darkness of 
 which Christ speaks will be absolute, or illumined 
 by the red lightnings of the wrath of God, we 
 know not. But the rays of light do not only give 
 the bodies form and shape, color and visibleness, 
 but they possess still other characteristics; and 
 since they are a creation of our Father in heaven, 
 and since it is becoming for the children of the 
 house to investigate and admire the works of their 
 father, we will speak about them a little further. 
 
 Let the smallest ray of light pass through the 
 eye of a needle, so small that you can scarcely see 
 it with the naked eye, and you will have a world 
 of wonders before you. Let, for instance, this 
 small ray of light fall upon a drop of water 
 through a good microscope, which strengthens the 
 ray of light, what do you see in it? A whole 
 world! There it moves and lives and stirs, pow- 
 erful animals, almost frightful to look at, which 
 move about quickly sv/allowing up the smaller 
 creatures to right and left. Slowly, as in a dream, 
 others move backward and forward in neatly 
 striped little houses of mountain crystal, and still 
 others constantly change their form, become sud- 
 denly oblong and round, stretch out their arms 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 19 
 
 and draw them back again, never resting, and 
 all live and move in God, know nothing of you and 
 fulfill missions unknown to us. But the whole 
 picture, sharply and accurately, tenderly and deli- 
 cately drawn, with all its lines and forms, is 
 painted by that one ray of light upon your eye, 
 which, created for the light, is itself a wonderful 
 work of God. 
 
 But now take up, with a great telescope, the 
 light which comes from the moon, and what a 
 difference! Formerly the moon appeared to you 
 to be a small disk, and now? Upon a vast plain 
 you see yonder great mountains, many thousand 
 feet high, m.ighty rocks stretching upward tower- 
 like, bold, steep, broken, another world than the 
 earth. Yonder in the moon there reigns eternal 
 silence; there is neither air nor water. Never 
 does the wind whistle through the trees, never a 
 brook ripples, never a wave splashes, never do 
 clouds m.ove along the dark sky. All these things 
 are shown to us by the ray of light coming down 
 from the moon. 
 
 The ray of light also produces the colors ; not 
 only the seven primary colors of the rainbow, but 
 also the thousandfold shadings which we discern. 
 Moreover each of these different colors has its 
 peculiar warmth, its different influence over 
 earthly bodies. Under the influence of one ray a 
 plant grows more rapidly, under an other, more 
 slowly; again under another light pictures are 
 produced, such as you see in photography. Some 
 have a quieting influence over man, as has been 
 
20 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 demonstrated in the case of the insane, others 
 produce excitement, as one may see even in the 
 case of stupid animals, like the alligator, which 
 becomes furious at red light. By a recent discov- 
 ery it has become possible, by examining a ray of 
 light to determine from what body it proceeds. 
 If, for instance, one holds against the smallest 
 ray of light a prism he will see a long, beautiful 
 colored stripe, and in it there are drawn hundreds 
 of small black and glittering colors and lines. 
 These lines explain of what matter the body is 
 composed from which the light proceeds, whether 
 it be a candle, a petroleum-lamp, the sun or a dis- 
 tant fixed star. And thus the astronomer at the 
 present day is enabled by letting the smallest ray 
 of light from a star which you can scarcely see 
 twinkling in the heavens, successively pass 
 through a series of prisms, to read in it whether 
 upon this star there is to be found water, iron, 
 gold, salt, etc. ; further, whether the star is solid, 
 liquid or gaseous, whether surrounded by a great 
 stratum of air, or whether this star which pur- 
 sues its course through the universe faster than 
 the wind, approaches the earth or recedes from it, 
 and with what velocity. And how much may yet 
 lie hidden in the writings of the light, some of 
 which perhaps we may be enabled to discover, 
 but most of which must be reserved for the life 
 to come, in which it will be our employment to 
 contemplate the wonders of God with clearer eyes 
 than is possible here upon this earth. 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 21 
 
 How wonderful, too, is the effect of this light. 
 The light of the sun travels a distance of over 
 ninety millions of miles from the sun to !his 
 earth, and yet is strong enough to make vegeta- 
 tion upon this earth grow and blossom and give 
 man and animal strength, while creatures born in 
 darkness, even where there is sufficient warmth, 
 remain pale and weak. 
 
 But one thing more: Fifty years have not 
 yet elapsed since a man in France by the name of 
 Daguerre, at the instigation of his own family, 
 was forbidden by the courts to make known his 
 ideas, because he was determined not to rest until 
 he had succeeded in taking the pictures which are 
 found in the ray of light and making them visible 
 upon a plate of glass. To people in those days 
 this idea appeared absurd. To-day every child 
 knows that from every lighted object photo- 
 graphs, i. e., light-pictures, may be produced ; that 
 is, the light picture which proceeds from the ob- 
 ject may be made visible. This proves that light- 
 pictures from all objects, invisible to us, fly 
 through space. Of course, the ray of light, though 
 fast moving, needs yet a certain amount of time 
 in order to go from one place to another ; for in- 
 stance, eight minutes from the sun to the earth, 
 thirty years from the polar star to us. Let us 
 consider the latter example. The light which pro- 
 ceeds from this star, with the picture of the star 
 that is contained therein started from that star 
 thirty years ago and tells us, therefore, how the 
 star did shine thirty years ago, but not how it 
 
22 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 shines at present. Just as if you had received a 
 letter from an acquaintance in China who lefc 
 there six months ago. You can see from the let- 
 ter that at that time he was well and hearty, and 
 that he was engaged in a certain line of business, 
 but how he is at the present moment and v/hat he 
 does, you do not know; he may have taken sick 
 since, or even died. Thus it is with the polar star. 
 We do not really see the star itself, but only its 
 picture as it started from the star thirty years 
 ago. And if the star had been extinguished ten 
 years ago, we would still see it shine, and would 
 continue to see it for twenty years ; and not until 
 the expiration of this tim^e would it disappear from 
 viev/. Another star in the constellation of Pleia- 
 des (Job 9:9; Amos 5:8) is so far distant from. 
 us that its light needs five hundred years to reach 
 us. Had it disappeared at the time of Luther's 
 birth, we would still see it. From this we may 
 judge that we do not see the stars as they are, but 
 as they were; the sky does not show us the pres- 
 ent, but the past. 
 
 But now imagine the case reversed and some 
 one at present looking down from that distant 
 star upon the earth. If the light of that star con- 
 sumes five hundred years in reaching our earth, 
 the light from the earth to that star would need 
 exactly the same amount of time; the inhabitant 
 of that star would see the earth exactly as it was 
 five hundred years ago ; and if he had an accurate 
 telescope or a very sharp eye, he could to-day ob- 
 serve very carefully what happened upon our 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 23 
 
 earth during the month of January, 1408. Con- 
 sidering this matter further you will see that the 
 universe is filled with pictures of all events which 
 continually take place, that it is a ''book of light," 
 containing "light-writings" or photographs of 
 everything that takes place. Of course man can- 
 not read these writings ; whether there are beings 
 upon many of these mighty luminaries which we 
 see twinkling in the sky, who perhaps are able to 
 read them with immortal eyes, we do not know. 
 But it is certain that God does it himself, for He 
 who made the eye should He not see? And this 
 may assist us in our understanding of how in God 
 the past and the present are one and the same. 
 
 And all these wonders, and who knows how 
 many others, are yet hidden to us in the ray of 
 light, have been brought about by the one word of 
 creation, "Let there be light!" Indeed, a great, a 
 wonderful God ! And what an immense m.eaning 
 that pure light has, of which our light is only a 
 small part and a weak reflection, is witnessed on 
 every page of the Word of God, which says : "God 
 is light and lives in an unapproachable light and 
 in Him there is no darkness." And us, His chil- 
 dren, He calls to light, for in the light there is all 
 knowledge, in darkness all ignorance; and, as the 
 transient sun-light shows us every day in nature, 
 in the light there is life, in darkness only death. 
 But to us the promise is given that one day we 
 shall dwell in the light where there is no darkness ; 
 yes, that we shall shine in our risen bodies like the 
 sun in our Father's kingdom. What miracles of 
 
24 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 light will there float around us and rise within 
 us ! What an incentive it should be for us here in 
 this world, often so dark, to walk as the children 
 of light ! 
 
 Should it be asked: "How is this? Light al- 
 ready in the beginning, and the sun not created 
 until the fourth day?" And, pray, why not? 
 Light and the sun are not one and the same. Who 
 has not read of the magnificent Auroraborealis ? 
 So also Comets shine by their own light; and as- 
 tronomers know of gigantic stretches of light- 
 giving nebulous matter in the heavens, hundreds 
 of millions larger in size than our own earth, as, 
 for example, the stars of Orion. There are now 
 many extinct suns, and many others which are in- 
 visible to us, so that light without our own sun is 
 clearly possible. And should God will, it is pos- 
 sible for Him to fill the whole universe with an 
 atm.osphere or "ether" of the brightest light. 
 
 When now we read further, "And God called 
 the light day, and the darkness He called night," 
 God clearly indicates what He wants us to under- 
 stand by day and night, and what in the account 
 of the creation "day" and "night" especially 
 mean, not days and nights according to our reck- 
 oning of twelve hours' time — in the first days of 
 creation there was as yet no sun — but alternating 
 periods of light and darkness, without anything 
 being said as to the duration of the same, as as- 
 tronomers now note such periods in the change- 
 able stars. We are here also reminded of the say- 
 ing: "One day with the Lord is as a thousand 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 25 
 
 years, and a thousand years as one day;" like- 
 wise, the expression "day of the Lord," used to de- 
 scribe the periods of the final judgment, suggest 
 that in biblical language the word "day" has a far 
 wider meaning than that given to it in just ordi- 
 nary human speech. Speaking, therefore, of the 
 days of creation, we have to understand, accord- 
 ing to the wording and sense of the Scripture, 
 epochs of light, as to the duration of which the 
 Bible 'is silent, but which might have been thou- 
 sands of years in extent. They were great epochs 
 and mighty developments of light, followed again 
 by seasons of darkness and cessation. 
 
THE SKY. 
 
 "And God Said, 'Let There Be a Firmament in the 
 Midst of the Waters, and Let it Divide the Wa- 
 ters.' And God Made the Firmament, and Di- 
 vided the Walters which ivere Under the Firma- 
 ment from the Waters which were Above the 
 Firmament, and it was So. And God Called the 
 Fir^nament Heaven. And the Evening and the 
 Moryiing ivere the Second Day." 
 
 HAT kind of heaven is this, the creation 
 of which is here related? Evidently 
 not the one which is inhabited by 
 God and the angels, and of which is is said: 
 "Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens 
 cannot contain thee." (The Hebrew word is 
 "rakiah" — that which is stretched out, firma- 
 ment. In French "etendue.") But rather we 
 have here an account of the creation of the 
 atmosphere above the earth, which God also 
 called heaven, and which, therefore, is called by 
 this name in all the different languages of the 
 earth, because it is to be a constant sign before 
 the eyes of man, not only of the earth beneath 
 him, but also of a clear, immeasurable world 
 above him. In view of this, many a one is per- 
 haps inclined to think that it is self-evident that 
 something must be above us; or he may think, 
 perhaps, that this so-called heaven is nothing else 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 27 
 
 but a little air, which does not deserve to be 
 called a new creation of God. But the facts are 
 different. Upon the moon, for instance, this "air 
 heaven" is not found ; and if we were there, we 
 would not, even on a clear day, see above us a 
 blue, airy sky, but only endless emptiness and pro- 
 found darkness, out of which the sun and the 
 stars would shine at the same time with unbear- 
 able, glaring light. That we have a blue sky above 
 us, therefore, is not a matter of chance. Science, 
 too, is in harmony with the Bible when it says: 
 It is to be positively accepted, that after the earth 
 had been for a long time surrounded by an extra- 
 ordinarily high layer of thick smoke, through 
 which no ray of light could penetrate, so that the 
 surface was covered by complete darkness, finally, 
 in consequence of the continued cooling off of 
 these vapors, much heavy matter, which hitherto 
 had filled the upper space, now fell to the earth; 
 so that the air gradually became clearer, almost 
 similar to ours; watery vapor could arise out of 
 this and form into clouds. This atmosphere had 
 to be there before animials and plants could exist, 
 for the constituent parts of the atmosphere at 
 that time became very favorable to the origin of 
 the vegetable kingdom. 
 
 But what now is the use of this atmosphere 
 or "firmament," as the Bible calls it, we may ask? 
 In the first place it is to separate the waters above 
 the clouds, from, the waters below. Were it not 
 there the mass of water which floats above us 
 would, as a dense impenetrable fog, hover over the 
 
28 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 face of the earth and the sea, and groping about 
 in it we would gain a knowledge neither of the 
 starry heavens nor of the earth's surface. In- 
 deed our whole intellectual life would be de- 
 stroyed. In this connection it would be ever moist 
 and cold, the ripening of the grain and the fruit 
 would be impossible. But you may think those 
 few clouds above hardly worthy of being called 
 "waters above," com.pared to the immense oceans. 
 But in this you are mistaken ; and were you to live 
 in such countries, where during the greater part 
 of the year incessant streams fall from above, you 
 would get a different conception of the immense 
 mass of water that is stored up in the sky. We 
 can illustrate this in another way. From the rain 
 and the snow which fall upon the earth come, as 
 you know, the little brooks which, when united, 
 form the streams and rivers. Have you ever seen 
 the Rhine near the city of Cologne? No doubt 
 you thought it a mighty river. Still there are 
 many streams upon the earth compared with 
 which the Rhine is only a small brook. The Ama- 
 zon river in South America, sixty miles above its 
 mouth is so broad that one cannot see from one 
 shore to the other, and it appears as if it were the 
 sea, while at places its depth is 600 feet. This 
 gigantic mass of water, broad and deep as Lake 
 Geneva, Switzerland, rolls incessantly toward the 
 ocean and enters it with such force that two hun- 
 dred miles from the shore the mariner finds to his 
 astonishment the sea containing an abundance of 
 fresh water. Other streams in America, Asia and 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 29 
 
 Africa are almost as large. Now imagine, if you 
 can, all these rivers united into one, and you will 
 stand astonished before this immense mass of wa- 
 ter, which has emptied itself into the sea for thou- 
 sands of years. Consider, too, that all this water 
 had to come from the clouds, and that it would not 
 be where it is had it not been sent down "from the 
 waters which were above the firmament." And 
 again, these waters would not have descended 
 from heaven if they had not previously ascended ; 
 masses of water like those contained in the 
 mighty Mississippi and Amazon rivers ascend im- 
 perceptibly, day and night, to the sky. How is 
 this done? Simply this way: Under the infiu- 
 ence of the rays of the sun there are formed on 
 the surface of the water little bubbles, like soap- 
 bubbles filled with air, but so small that they can- 
 not be seen. This air, warmed by the sun, ex- 
 pands and becomes lighter than the air surround- 
 ing it, and the little bubble, like a balloon, rises 
 upward and forms the cloud, a single one of which 
 contains a hundred thousand buckets of water. 
 Thus God works great things by the simplest 
 means. He might have placed at the "four cor- 
 ners of the earth" towering steam engines, which 
 with a deafening noise and roar might have 
 pumped the water out of the sea and sprinkled it 
 over the earth ; men would certainly have admired 
 such a contrivance; but he accomplishes it noise- 
 lessly and in a much more perfect way by means 
 of the air, so that every minute millions of buckets 
 of water rise into the air, and the winds, also be- 
 
30 The First Page of the Bible, 
 
 longing to the air, sprinkle it over the earth; we, 
 therefore, hardly take notice of it, and do not 
 think much about it. A renowned astronomer 
 has calculated that if the entire population of the 
 earth, men, v/omen and children, were to stand at 
 the sea shore dipping with buckets, it would re- 
 quire 70,000 years of diligent work to take out as 
 much water as the sun draws up in a single year 
 without trouble. So little and insignificant is the 
 power of man compared to the quiet workings of 
 God. 
 
 And these waters from above, these clouds, 
 are a peculiar world in themselves. Of course, 
 one v/ho lives in an inland town scarcely ever 
 learns to know them in their grandeur and diver- 
 sity; upon the great ocean, on the other hand, 
 where they have their special birth-place, they 
 form themselves voluntarily and rise towerlike in 
 great masses. There the mariner can easily ob- 
 serve their different formations, of which there 
 are four leading types : the cumulus-cloud, which 
 you may often see during the summer or before a 
 thunder storm as it rises upon a dark back- 
 ground like a powerful snow-white dome; the 
 stratus cloud, which covers the entire sky in long 
 streaks at sun-down; the cirrus-cloud, which can 
 be seen like torn up pieces of wool in innumerable 
 shapes. It is found very high in the air ; and bal- 
 loonists who were 25,000 feet high, have seen 
 these clouds far above them. Finally the nimbus- 
 cloud with its irregular outlines. But he who 
 wishes to learn the grandeur of the cloud-world 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 31 
 
 must go up in a balloon. Thus an English army 
 officer, who undertook such a balloon ascension 
 alone, relates how, while it was dark and rainy, he 
 left the earth; soon while passing through the 
 rain-couds he was enveloped by vapor and fog, but 
 in a short time he was above them; and now he 
 describes enthusiastically how he passed through 
 an ocean of snow-white flakes, and how also this 
 was soon below him and all around him, like a 
 Mont Blanc and a Himalaya, gigantic masses of 
 clouds formiing themselves in the deep, blue sky, 
 quickly changing their shape, illumined by the 
 sunlight. And in this new and grand world, he 
 goes on to say, he scarcely dared to breathe or to 
 m.ove, for there was a peculiar, solemn and per- 
 fect stillness, and he felt as though he were alone 
 with his God. And how will it be when He, whose 
 coming we are awaiting, will appear with His an- 
 gels and all the saints upon the clouds oi heaven ! 
 But this firmament created by God does not 
 only separate the waters, above and below, but 
 also serves other purposes. That we need the air 
 for the purpose of breathing, we know; but still 
 more : by it we are enabled to see. Did not the air 
 reflect the rays of the sun, so that objects were 
 illumJned from all sides, we would, as is the case 
 on the moon, see of all objects only that part upon 
 which the light falls, while the opposite side 
 would be enveloped in profound darkness. It is 
 the air which causes these endless variations of 
 light and shade, and instead of producing a glar- 
 ing light, which would blind our eyes with a cor- 
 
32 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 responding darkness, it produces a mild, harmoni- 
 ous picture of the objects on the earth's surface. 
 Still another great and important service is ren- 
 dered by this air-firmament or atmosphere: it is 
 a warm cover, which protects the earth and all 
 the creatures upon it from freezing to death. It 
 is true, the rays of the sun are warm, even hot; 
 but if there were no air they could only warm 
 that side of an object upon which they fall, the 
 opposite side, in the shade, being exposed to all 
 the cold in the world, which is estimated to be a 
 hundred degrees below zero. Thus it is upon the 
 moon ; and it would be so likewise upon the earth 
 if it was not for the air; on one side we should 
 roast, while on the other we should freeze, and 
 there would be no life possible. But the air mod- 
 erates and checks these fiery rays of light, di- 
 vides them, and while the atmosphere itself is 
 warmed, it embraces us with its even warm layer 
 of air. 
 
 These are some of the wonders of this great 
 creation of God on the second day, and as the 
 light, so also does the air praise His greatness and 
 power. But we who believe in this Almighty Cea- 
 ator as in a dear father in Christ Jesus, say con- 
 fidently : 
 
 Who 'points the clouds their course, 
 
 Whom winds and seas obey; 
 He shall direct thy wandering feet; 
 
 He shall prepare thy way. 
 
THE SOLID LAND AND THE SEA. 
 
 "And Said, 'Let the Waters Under the Heaven be 
 Gathered Together Unto One Place, and Let the 
 Dry Land Appear: and It Was So. And God 
 Called the Dry Land Earth; and the Gathering 
 Together of the Waters Called He Seas; and 
 God Saiv that it was Good. 
 
 WHAT do we learn from these verses ? We 
 learn that the surface of the earth was, 
 at one time, level, and that it was 
 evenly covered by water, and that at a later 
 time the mountains arose and the bottom of 
 the sea lowered itself. And what does natural 
 science teach? It agrees with the teaching of 
 the Bible by maintaining that the mountains 
 were formed and the main-land arose from the 
 depths after the earth had formerly been en- 
 tirely covered by water. How did this happen? 
 Natural scientists say : the earth was at one time 
 a great, glowing ball consisting of fiery, liquid 
 metal ; one may see even to-day that the rocks and 
 stones on the surface of the earth are nothing but 
 corroded metals. Even the clay out of which we 
 make our brick contains an enormous amount of a 
 certain metal, which looks almost like silver, 
 though much lighter. In the course of time when 
 the earth gradually cooled off, there naturally ap- 
 
34 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 peared upon its surface a crust. Gradually be- 
 coming thicker, it contracted and formed wrin- 
 kles, just like a scum on warm milk, when it be- 
 comes cold; and these wrinkles, corresponding in 
 size to the earth, formed the first hills and moun- 
 tains. Therefore the Bible does not say, "and God 
 created the dry land," but "let the dry land ap- 
 pear" (according to the Hebrew.) The natural 
 consequence of this was that the waters gath- 
 ered themselves together at the deep places, 
 whereupon on the one hand the sea and on the 
 other the dry land appeared. Here also we have, 
 with reference to an imiportant point in the his- 
 tory of the creation of the earth, perfect agree- 
 ment between the Bible and science. But all these 
 things did not comie to pass, as the atheists think, 
 by themselves alone, but through God's creative 
 word; and had He not spoken the words of that 
 third day, the earth would stand yet without form 
 and void and the mountains would not have ap- 
 peared. The Word of God was the command that 
 all powers which His Spirit, as it moved upon the 
 waters, had placed into matter, should go on 
 working according to His preconceived plan; and 
 that the earth was thus to take a step further in 
 its development. To be sure the angels and the 
 sons of God in heaven heard these creative 
 words; but had we, at that time, as sinful men 
 stood upon the earth, we would have heard just 
 as little as when at the present day at the word 
 and command of God a thunder-storm arises or an 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 35 
 
 earthquake carries thousands away. The carnally- 
 blind mind would also in those days have seen 
 nothing in those creative movements but natural 
 developments and workings of nature's powers, 
 just as is the case at the present day with the 
 learned and unlearned who know not God. 
 
 And indeed, they are a great work of God, 
 these "mountains of the Lord," as the Scriptures 
 call them, because they make known in a special 
 sense His might and glory. We can scarcely form 
 a correct idea as to the greatness of a single hill 
 or mountain, to say nothing of a mountain chain 
 with its connections of millions and millions of 
 cubic feet of earth, rock and stone. He who knows 
 the Alps and, after great exertions for many 
 hours in climbing one of the giant mountain 
 peaks, stands on the top beholding the earth be- 
 neath his feet, great forests appearing like little 
 dark spots, rivers resembling silvery threads — he 
 may in some measure get an idea of what a moun- 
 tain is. A well known English writer, Kingsley, 
 said at one time, that the greatness and power of 
 God first took possession of his mind when he re- 
 solved to have a little hill removed on his estate. 
 For after workmen had been engaged carting 
 away load after load of earth, and the little mole- 
 hill would not disappear, he began to think how 
 many mountain-ranges tower up to the sky, how 
 the Alps, or the Himalayas, or the Andes stretch 
 a thousand miles along the seacoast, and to see 
 how little man is and how great the works of God 
 are. 
 
36 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 But what a spectacle it must have been when 
 the mountains first appeared! For not only did 
 the earth's surface rise and fall like a sea, but it 
 also burst and tore asunder, and out of the cracks 
 thousands of volcanoes poured forth an im- 
 mense mass of lava, that is, melted metal. Even 
 at the present time many a mountain gives evi- 
 dence of these activities. Undoubtedly, they have 
 been formed out of melted stone, as well as those 
 five hundred volcanoes still active and thousands 
 of others that have become extinct. Think, for 
 instance, of the long chain of the Andes with its 
 numerous volcanoes. This mountain chain is 
 nothing but the scar, so to speak, of a great rent, 
 which at one time took place in the crust of the 
 earth, out of which then, like the juice from the 
 ripe fruit, the lava streamed forth, forming itself 
 into mountains. It is therefore not merely a poet- 
 ical way of speaking when we read, "The hills 
 melted like wax at the presence of the Lord." 
 (Ps. 97:5). This formation of mountains has, 
 even at the present time, by no means reached its 
 end, though in less majestic manner, mountains 
 still rise and valleys sink down, unto the place 
 which He has formed for them. (Ps. 104:8). 
 Thus in the year 1707, in consequence of a sub- 
 terranean fire in the Mediterranean sea, in close 
 proximity to the island of Santorin, another isl- 
 and was formed, forty miles in length and rising 
 forty feet above the sea. Thus numerous islands 
 in the Pacific ocean are nothing but craters of old 
 volcanoes that have slowly and gradually risen 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 37 
 
 out of the ocean. In Mexico, on the 29th of Sep- 
 tember, 1743, at the time of a great earthquake, 
 while the surface of the earth moved to and fro 
 like the waving sea, one might have seen how, in 
 one day, with a fearful noise a mountain arose, 
 which covered four square miles and reached a 
 height of 1,600 feet, while round about flames 
 came out of the earth. This mountain, named 
 Jorullo, stands to this day, and from its summit 
 burning lava still flows. But on the other hand 
 you could have read in the newspapers of several 
 years ago how mountains disappear. At that time 
 an island near Java with a high mountain sank 
 with a fearful roar, like an earthquake into the 
 sea, while a rain of ashes darkened the sun for 
 three days. Now if the appearance or disappear- 
 ance of a relatively small mountain is accompa- 
 nied with such grand and fearful phenomena, if 
 it is possible for a single small volcano like Ve- 
 suvius to send its ashes over into Africa; and if 
 another volcano, which we know, shakes the earth 
 a hundred miles around and envelopes the country 
 in darkness — what an indescribable and grand 
 phenomenon must it have been, when on the third 
 day upon the word of God and His command the 
 entire solid land, with thousands of volcanoes, 
 arose out of the depths, and when whole moun- 
 tains and mountain ranges "skipped like rams!" 
 In consequence of this gigantic struggle between 
 fire and water how the earth must have been en- 
 veloped in thick smoke and flames, a type of that 
 day on which it, with everything upon it, shall be 
 
38 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 consumed by fire. Yes, a beautiful and grand 
 creation are the mountains of God, and therefore 
 the Psalmist never tires in praising their beauty 
 and grandeur. And even God himself has sancti- 
 fied their summits, v/hich, covered with a mantle 
 of eternal snow, rise boldly and loftily into the 
 clear sky above the little and meaningless doings 
 of human life. Upon a mountain Abraham was 
 to sacrifice his son; upon a m.ountain, the majestic 
 granite summit of Sinai, God descended as He 
 gave to the people His laws; upon a mountain 
 Moses was privileged to die and to be buried by 
 God himself; upon a mountain Elias called to- 
 gether Israel and caused fire to fall down from 
 heaven; upon a mountain Christ preached His 
 first sermon, prayed when He was alone, was 
 transfigured before His disciples and also ascend- 
 ed into heaven; and at His final coming His feet 
 will stand upon Mount Olivet (Zech. 14:4). And 
 what shall be the mountains of eternity in Para- 
 dise and upon the new earth — those hills to which 
 David lifted up his eyes and from which he ob- 
 tained help ! 
 
 In sharp contrast to the hills, those luminous 
 heights of the earth, are those dark mysterious 
 depths of the waters which once covered the 
 whole earth. That three-fourths of the earth's 
 surface, which has been appointed as man's 
 dwelling place, should be covered with vast wil- 
 dernesses of water, is already a great miystery; 
 for it is certain that God could in many other 
 ways provide a sufficiency of water. Quite enig- 
 
The First P age of the Bible. 39 
 
 matical too is that world of living things in the 
 great seas. "Yonder is the sea, great and wide, 
 wherein are things creeping innumerable, both 
 small and great beasts. There go the ships ; there 
 is leviathan, whom Thou hast formed to play 
 therein." (Ps. 104:25, 16.) And deeper still, in 
 icy silence — for thither no noises reach; in eter- 
 nal night — for thither no light penetrates, live for 
 thousands of years myriad forms of beings, of 
 which we know not and whose purpose we cannot 
 even conjecture, and which know nothing of us 
 nor of any part of earthly life. A great devour- 
 ing dominion is the sea, flowing from pole to pole 
 around the continents in ceaseless currents like 
 immeasurable rivers. In the days of the flood it 
 swallowed all the race, together with all vegetable 
 and animal life, as completely as the Red Sea 
 swallowed Pharaoh and his host, and as annually 
 scores of ships and their crews go down to come 
 up no more. What wonders of destruction, what 
 treasures and riches, what skeletons of life may 
 not be found in its store house of everlasting 
 darkness. 
 
 As the hills symbolize the lifting up of the 
 soul into joy and light, so is the sea a type of the 
 heart in the depths of bitterness and strife, as 
 Jonah says : "The waters compassed me about, 
 even to the soul; the deep was round about me; 
 the weeds were wrapped about my head." (Jonah 
 2:5.) And thus must Christ, after He has been 
 transfigured on Tabor, descend, on account of our 
 
40 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 sins, into the depths of death and hell. "For as 
 Jonah was three days and three nights in the 
 belly of the whale; so shall the Son of Man be 
 three days and three nights in the heart of the 
 earth." (Matth. 12:40). 
 
 But in that day, when all things shall be re- 
 vealed before the Great White Throne, then the 
 sea will also "give up its dead." Then they will 
 come forth, those millions drowned in the flood, 
 Pharaoh and his host, as well as that innumerable 
 multitude which since his day sank in its depths; 
 they will come to the light with their bodies and 
 with their sins, to be judged. 
 
 But on that unspeakable blessed earth, made 
 new by our Lord's revelation and power, "there 
 will be no more sea." (Rev. 21:1). Everywhere 
 the blessed will reign in bliss. 
 
VEGETATION. 
 
 "And God Said: 'Let the Earth Bring Foy^th 
 Grass, the Herb Yielding Seed, and the Fruit 
 Tree Yielding Fruit After His Kind, Whose 
 Seed is in Itself, Upon the Earth:' and It Was 
 So. And the Earth Brought Forth Grass and 
 Herb Yielding Seed After His Kind, and the 
 Tree Yielding Fruit, Whose Seed was in Itself, 
 After His Kind: and God Saiv that it was 
 Good. And the Evening and the Morning 
 were the Third Day." 
 
 HOWEVER great the miracle in creating 
 the light, the air and the earth were, here 
 we have still something greater, namely, 
 the appearance of life, the miracle of all miracles. 
 Or did you ever think of what a wonderful thing 
 a plant really is ? that millions of lifeless particles 
 of matter, taken from the earth, are forced by an 
 unseen power to unite and form something that 
 has life, that eats, drinks and breathes — for all 
 this is characteristic of the plant — it grows, be- 
 comes old, weak and finally dies. 
 
 Great and wonderful are these numerous 
 creations of God. We are acquainted with about 
 100,000 different kinds of plants, each one of 
 which has numerous varieties ; but we are not, by 
 far, acquainted with all the vegetable life, neither 
 
42 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 of the desert nor the tops of the mountains, and 
 still less do we know what grows at the bottom of 
 the sea; neither do we know of the thousands of 
 smaller plants, which move about in the muddy, 
 slimy drops of water. What a contrast between 
 the great and the small ! There are thousands of 
 little plants which you swallow unnoticed as you 
 drink from a mossy mountain brook. On the 
 other hand, there are those giants in the vegetable 
 world which are hundreds of years old: the tall, 
 slender palm., as it is found in the Cordilleries in 
 South America, often 200 feet high, higher than 
 most of our church towers; the enormous bread- 
 tree in Western Africa, with a trunk 30 feet in 
 diameter, on which a French traveler (Adanson) 
 counted nearly 2,000 annual rings. This tree, 
 therefore, must have begun to grow in the days 
 of Christ. Then the gigantic Mammuth tree 
 (Wellingtonia), of which there can be found in 
 California from 300 to 400 specimens, with a 
 round, smooth trunk as high as the tower of the 
 cathedral in Stuttgart, and having the same diam- 
 eter. But the longest or tallest plant is the giant- 
 sea-tang, which has its roots in the bottom of the 
 Atlantic ocean and grows a thousand feet high, 
 until it reaches the surface of the water and the 
 light of the sun, and while its limbs rock upon the 
 waves of the ocean, down deep in the sea it forms 
 mighty forests, in which the greedy shark, the 
 dolphin and a legion of other sea-animals make 
 their home. Not less astonishing is the great dif- 
 ference in the soil and the climate, in which the 
 
The First Page of the Bi ble. 43 
 
 plants flourish. In the hot sands of the Sahara, 
 in a heat that will kill a man if he is not protected, 
 the date-palm flourishes, watered by subterranean 
 springs, for, as the Arab says, it must have its 
 foot in the water, and its top in the fire. But near 
 the north pole, where there is a prolonged night, 
 lasting for months and where the cold reaches 50 
 degrees below zero, where wine and even whisky, 
 which was brought thither, had to be chopped in 
 pieces with an axe, where the ice gets as hard as 
 steel, and steel becomes like glass, tiny little 
 plants bid defiance to the long polar night and the 
 fearful cold. And if, after a long night, the pale 
 sun again makes its appearance, there grov/ and 
 blossom modestly the tender moss and pretty little 
 flowers in the cracks of the rocks in a soil only a 
 few inches deep, and watered by melted snow. 
 And here also we find the smallest tree on the 
 earth, the polar-willow, only hand-high, the stem 
 as thick as a lead-pencil. And the weather beaten 
 seam.en, whose calling has driven them to this 
 lonely spot, like to tell how they enjoy the sight 
 of this little plant which even am.idst eternal snow 
 and ice tells of the love of God. 
 
 But the greatest miracle of the plant is its 
 seed: "Whose seed is in itself upon the earth." 
 Indeed, a great miracle! The smallest seed, 
 which you can hold between the points of your 
 fingers, has the power in it to produce a perfect 
 plant with roots, stems, leaves and blossoms "af- 
 ter its kind." This plant again brings forth the 
 
44 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 same seed as long as the earth stands. What this 
 means, let us show by a few examples. From one 
 single grain of the poppy a plant may grow which 
 produces 30,000 seeds. Let each grain again pro- 
 duce the same and you will have in the second 
 generation 900,000,000 poppy plants. Yes, it has 
 been calculated that if every grain would grow, 
 within five years the earth would be covered with 
 poppy plants. Professor Gaussen, of Geneva, has 
 figured out that if a grain of wheat as it is found 
 in Syria, Palestine and Sicily, would each time 
 produce a hundred grains that the grains coming 
 forth from this single grain in the course of eight 
 years would suffice to feed the entire inhabitants 
 of the earth a whole year. Such is the power of 
 growth and increase which God on the third day 
 put into the seeds of plants. If one thinks whal 
 a moving power it requires to make these millions 
 of the largest and smallest plants rise from the 
 earth, what is all the moving power of our ma- 
 chines, whose accomplishments are so much ad- 
 mired, in comparison to this? Therefore, if per- 
 chance a summer breeze blows a little winged 
 seed on your sleeve, look upon it reverently : there 
 is hidden in it a power of God, before which every 
 power of man dwindles to nothing. And if you 
 divide a grain of wheat into parts, you find noth- 
 ing in it but a little flour locked up in small trans- 
 parent bags, which are called cells. The natural- 
 ists know exactly the materials of which a grain 
 is com.posed, but can they themselves make a sin- 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 45 
 
 gle grain? No. Even if they could obtain the 
 exact material which is found in the grain and 
 could mix it in exactly the same proportion as it 
 is in the grain, and would stir and shake the 
 whole ever so much, it would not become a grain 
 of wheat, nor even flour. And should they con- 
 tinue to expose this mixture ever so long to the 
 heat and light of the sun, nothing would grow 
 from it and it would not become a plant. Notice 
 here the wonderful secret power of God, which is 
 found in a little grain, and which leaves all human 
 knowledge and capability far behind. 
 
 And this secret, tender little soul in a grain 
 of wheat, which you cannot discover with a mi- 
 croscope, has apparently a remarkably tenacious 
 life. For many months, even as long as fifty 
 years, grains of wheat have lain as dead. During 
 the same period of time millions of human beings 
 were born into the world and died. In a shorter 
 period the empires of Napoleon and Alexander 
 were founded and passed away. But in tTie little 
 grain of wheat the tender life was completely pre- 
 served ; for when it was planted, there grew from 
 it a new and strong plant, showing no signs of old 
 age, but producing large and full ears. Yes, it is 
 said that in certain graves of Celts, many hun- 
 dreds years old, wheat was found. These people 
 believed so firmly in the immortality of the soul, 
 that they lent without hesitation to one another 
 on the written promise to repay principal and in- 
 terest in the life beyond, (by the way a little hu- 
 
46 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 miliating to Christians of to-day). Among these 
 buried promises were found grains of wheat 
 which when planted, produced as good wheat as 
 seed of to-day. 
 
 And the purpose of vegetation? Why did 
 God create the plant-world? Really every one 
 knows why, but passes it by without thought or 
 thanksgiving. Vegetation, in its myriad forms, is 
 here to nourish the countless living beings upon 
 the earth, as though God had said: Thou shalt, 
 quickened by the sun, prepare from rock and 
 earth and water bread for my household. And be- 
 hold, unobserved and silently, by sun ad by storm, 
 plant and tree produce corn, oil and wine, delect- 
 able fruits, herbs and medicines, and all such 
 things as are needed to sustain life. Even the 
 many million yards of cotton, hemp and flax 
 which are used in clothing are the product of the 
 plant- world. Food and clothing for the hundreds 
 of millions of living beings upon earth, this is the 
 purpose of all this silent plant-life. 
 
 That primitive vegetable kingdom which God 
 created on the third day, has been preserved to 
 us, though in a different form, up to the present 
 tim.e, and to it we owe our warm rooms during the 
 winter. In the lowest and oldest strata of the 
 earth there are found immense quantities of trees, 
 which through some physical process have been 
 turned into coal; often there may still be seen 
 the trunks, limbs, leaves and fruit ; yea, by means 
 of a microscope even the smallest wooden cells can 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 47 
 
 be detected. This immense mass of vegetation, 
 among which there is not to be found a single 
 bone of a quadruped or of a man (a proof that 
 these, as the Bible relates, were not yet created), 
 is our coal. It is well known that coal is found 
 heaped up in different parts of the earth, often in 
 layers forty feet in thickness. We may know how 
 enormous these quantities are from the fact that 
 in England alone sixty million tons are dug annu- 
 ally. It has been calculated that England alone 
 would have enough coal for five hundred years to 
 come. In North America, in China and in Aus- 
 tralia, where coal has been burned already for 
 two thousand years, there are yet stored up enor- 
 mous quantities. And this immense amount of 
 fuel which lies buried beneath mud, sand and lay- 
 ers of rock, is but the remains of that vegetation 
 which God created on the third day, and which 
 by means of internal heat in the earth has been 
 slowly converted into coal. 
 
 The wind roared and whistled through these 
 immense forests of gigantic trees, which at that 
 time covered those portions of the earth that had 
 scarcely arisen out of the water. But no animal 
 roam.ed through these forests, no birds sang in the 
 trees, and not even an ant or a catapiller crawled 
 upon the limbs; everything was quiet upon the 
 earth. Not even the sun shone upon them. Ig- 
 norant scoffers — for ignorance and mockery gen- 
 erally go together — have frequently laughed at 
 the idea that vegetation, according to Bible ac- 
 
48 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 counts, should have preceded the appearance of 
 the sun, because it says that vegetation was crea- 
 ted on the third and the sun on the fourth day, 
 and every child knew that without sun-light no 
 plant could grow. A cheap way of scoffing! As 
 if Moses had not known this. And how? Is it 
 not possible that the earth may have had in those 
 primitive times a different light from the light of 
 the sun? Indeed, certain facts clearly indicate 
 this. For instance, we discover in coal, whether 
 it is dug in hot or cold regions of the earth, ex- 
 actly the same plants, the gigantic fern as high as 
 a tree and the palm-tree, which at the present day 
 only grows in hot and moist countries. From this 
 it is clear that at that time light and heat were 
 distributed over the earth in an even measure, or, 
 in other words, as is more definitely affirmed by 
 the great botanist Descandolles, the vegetation 
 which now has become fossilized, at that time had 
 different light from our sun-light. We must 
 therefore imagine the earth to have been envel- 
 oped in a mild light and at the same time heated 
 from within. 
 
 Moreover the discovery of a manifold animal 
 life in the ice-cold depths of the sea, whither no 
 ray of light penetrates, proves that organized life 
 can exist for thousands of years without sun- 
 light and warmth. Thus, here also the latest dis- 
 coveries of science confirm the Bible, and show 
 how the Omnipotence of God far transcends fhe 
 vain imagination of man. 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 49 
 
 If you hold a piece of coal in your hand, re- 
 member that you have a piece of a tree, which at 
 one time grew upon the earth, when neither sun 
 nor moon shone, when there were neither earthly 
 days, seasons nor years, when no animal lived 
 upon the earth and the soul of Adam rested yet 
 uncreated in the depths of the divinity. And 
 when you have thus looked backward upon the 
 thousands of years that are gone, take also a look 
 forward. True, the earth and everything upon it 
 will pass away ; but there is promised to us a new 
 earth, upon which vegetation will gloriously grow 
 and blossom, far beyond our expectation; where 
 the trees of life will bear their fruit in their sea- 
 son and when their leaves will serve for the heal- 
 ing of the nations. (Rev. 22 :3) . 
 
SUN, MOON AND STARS. 
 
 "And God Said, 'Let There Be Lights in the Firm- 
 ament of the Heaven to Divide the Day From 
 the Night; and Let Them be for Signs, and for 
 Seasons, and for Days and Years; and Let 
 Them be for Lights in the Firmament of the 
 Heaven to Give Light Upon the Earth;' and It 
 Was So. And God Made Two Great Lights; 
 the Greater Light to Rule the Day, and the 
 Lesser Light to Rule the Night; He Made the 
 Stars Also. And God Set Them in the Firma- 
 ment of the Heaven to Give Light Upon the 
 Earth. And to Ride Over the Day and Over 
 the Night, and to Divide the Light From the 
 Darkness; and God Said That It Was Good. 
 And the Evening and the Morning were the 
 Fourth Day." 
 
 WE just spoke of the vegetable kingdom 
 and what remains of it in the form of 
 coal, and as it existed before the sun 
 shone upon the earth, and how there must have 
 been at that time a different light from the one at 
 the present day, which enveloped the earth with 
 an even temperature. Whence this light came, 
 can not now be explained, and in this case, too, 
 like in hundreds of others, the best wisdom must 
 find expression in the humble confession: "We 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 51 
 
 know not." But so much we do know, that, after 
 a definite period of time, on the fourth day of 
 creation, for the first time, two great lights ap- 
 peared in the heavens, one of these ruled the day 
 and the other the night, and these were to serve 
 as regulators of time. 
 
 It is to be noted here that in the narrative 
 of the creation of the sun and moon on the fourth 
 day, the word "barah" (created) is not used, but 
 "asah" (set in order) . The native material of the 
 sun was long before at hand, but not arranged, 
 made into the sun, until the fourth day. Thus the 
 German Astronomer Moldenhauer writes: "The 
 earth required less time to form a globe than the 
 sun, and long after the formation of the earth was 
 the great mass of nebulous light formied into the 
 sun-ball, small in the beginning, but dazzling in 
 light." With this opinion, viz.: that the forma- 
 tion of the earth preceded that of the sun by mil- 
 lions of years, the most renowned scientists and 
 astronomers fully agree, e. g., Prof. Dr. Quenstedt, 
 Astronomer Flammarion, Prof. Faye, and Lord 
 Kelvin, the latter probably the most renowned 
 physicist of the present time. Here also, then, 
 scientific research confirms the Biblical narrative, 
 and not, as scoffers assert, contradict it. 
 
 This is a very important mission, for our best 
 clocks and other time-regulators would not be suf- 
 ficiently accurate and reliable as to show minutely 
 the exact time for any given period; only the 
 heavenly bodies are reliable time-regulators, 
 
52 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 which never gain nor lose, not even a minute or 
 second. Without them there would soon be a 
 fearful confusion in the regulation of time, yes, 
 without them and without the established division 
 of day and night, month and years, man would 
 never have entertained the idea of making divi- 
 sions of time at all. But were we not to have di- 
 visions of time, an orderly human existence would 
 be inconceivable. We see how the Scriptures 
 from the very beginning during the tim.e of the 
 law and the prophets to the Revelation pay much 
 attention to time, even more than we notice. We 
 refer only to the passages : "But when the fulness 
 of time was come"; "My hour is not yet come." 
 Also Rev. 12:14; 10:6, and many others. 
 
 Therefore, in order that we should have light 
 and a division of the time, we have the sun and 
 the moon. But if one should conclude this to be 
 their only purpose, it would remind one of a beg- 
 gar, to whom a king was daily giving alms, be- 
 cause the beggar might conclude that the king ex- 
 isted only for that purpose, and that this were his 
 only mission. No, these are mighty creations of 
 God, which do not merely exist for our sakes, but 
 also for His glory and honor, and to fulfill other 
 missions, unknown to us. Thus the sun gives 
 light not only to our little earth, but also to two 
 hundred other planets, of which the majestic 
 "Jupiter" with its four moons is 1,400 times 
 greater, and the cloudy "Saturn," with eight 
 moons, 700 times greater than our earth. And 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 53 
 
 not only does the sun give light to these bodies, 
 but it also forces them, by means of its mighty 
 power of attraction, as their center, to revolve 
 around it drawing them irresistibly along in its 
 flight through the immense starry heavens. More- 
 over, the fact that the Holy Scriptures speak from 
 a human standpoint when they refer to the sun 
 and moon as being the two main lights in the 
 heavens, while the stars are mentioned only inci- 
 dentally, is natural and proper. We know very 
 well from reliable observations and calculations 
 that the moon is a thousand time smaller than the 
 fixed stars, which we see shining in the heavens, 
 and that the moon, compared to the sun, being a 
 million times larger, occupies a very subordinate 
 and insignificant position in the solar system. 
 But God has given His Word to the entire human 
 race, which does not only consist of a few thou- 
 sands of learned and educated men, but of the 
 toiling millions, who eat their bread in the sweat 
 of their brow, who understand nothing about as- 
 tronomy and the natural sciences, but who are as 
 near to the paternal heart of God, if not nearer, 
 than many a great philosopher. And if God 
 wishes to speak to all these His children. He 
 speaks to them in a very simple language, so that 
 they may understand it. Consequently the accu- 
 sation so often brought against the Bible of not 
 speaking a scientific language, is exceedingly ab- 
 surd. If the Bible were to speak "scientifically," 
 what would it profit these millions? 
 
54 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 Planets, suns and moons, are the three main 
 kinds of heavenly bodies in the universe. There 
 is not one sun merely, but there are millions of 
 them, which may be seen through great tele- 
 scopes. These suns are called fixed stars, and are 
 just as large, some even larger than our sun and 
 just as bright and even brighter. Why do they 
 appear to us so small? Answer: because they are 
 so far away from us. Our earth is not the only 
 planet that revolves around the sun, but there are 
 over two hundred other "earths," some greater, 
 others smaller than our place of habitation, but 
 like our earth having air and water, day and night 
 and seasons, clouds and winds, dry land and 
 oceans, mountains and valleys, some also ice and 
 snow. Whether there are living beings, plants, 
 animals and perhaps creatures of a higher order, 
 we know not, and will very likely never find out 
 while upon this earth. Our moon likewise is not 
 the only moon in the heavens; those other earths 
 and planets have their moons also, the one two, 
 the other four, still others six and eight, so that 
 the nights there must be wonderfully bright. And 
 all these moons are, like ours, much smaller than 
 the earths around which they revolve. Thus 
 earths, moons, and suns are in reality the three 
 main species of heavenly bodies created by God. 
 
 How it looks upon an earth, you know from 
 experience. But let us see how it looks upon a 
 moon. The surface of the moon is rigid, desolate 
 and rocky, strewn over with high steep moun- 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 55 
 
 tains, not interrupted by any ocean or sea, neither 
 covered by forests. The height of these mountains 
 has been measured with the instruments of as- 
 tronomers; many are over 20,000 feet high, con- 
 sequently higher than the highest mountains of 
 Europe. Over this broken, stony country, with 
 grand bold outlines, the sun, when it shines, pours 
 out a glaring light. Inasmuch as the moon has 
 no air or atmosphere, just as God created it on the 
 second day, the sky there does not appear to be 
 blue, but perfectly black, and in this pitch black 
 sky the sun shines unbearably bright, not only 
 twelve hours, as with us, but incessantly fourteen 
 long days, and pours over those naked rocks a 
 glowing heat, in which metals would melt. Be- 
 sides this the stars shine at noonday even brighter 
 than upon our earth at night, because no layer 
 of air cools and obstructs their rays. At the set- 
 ting of the sun after this long "day," suddenly, 
 without twilight, because of want of air, black 
 night spreads over the valleys, whilst the sum- 
 mits, for some hours, are yet brightly beaming 
 with light. Just then, if we were there, we would 
 see in the east, instead of the setting sun, the 
 earth rise most beautifully, appearing as bright as 
 silver. From the moon the earth appears fifteen 
 times larger than the moon appears to us from the 
 earth. The continents, oceans, clouds, even the 
 masses of ice at the pole, appear as bright and 
 dark spots, as we observe such also upon the 
 moon. There are no changes of the weather or 
 
56 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 of the seasons upon the moon. During all these 
 centuries it wanders through space unchanged, 
 rigid and lifeless. Whether it was inhabited at 
 any time, covered with vegetation, or whether it 
 ever will be, we know not. According to all ap- 
 pearances, the precise conditions exist upon the 
 other moons; for instance, upon those of the 
 planet Jupiter. The sun is altogether different. 
 As the moon is the kingdom of death, the sun on 
 the other hand is the kingdom of life; a life, a 
 power, far beyond our comprehension. The sun 
 is over a million times larger than our earth, and 
 when it appears to us not larger than the moon it 
 is because its distance is four hundred times 
 greater. This gigantic world is a veritable ocean 
 of fire, of glowing melted metal, surrounded by 
 flaming air, thousands of miles high. The heat 
 which exists there is incomprehensibly great and 
 does not only measure thousands but hundreds of 
 thousands of degrees, or how could, otherwise, the 
 sun, at such a distance, give life to the entire sur- 
 face of the earth and all its inhabitants? And if 
 God were to throw our little earth into that fire, 
 there would be only a small blaze, and the earth 
 would disappear with everything upon it, just as 
 if a little ball of wax would fall into our kitchen 
 fire. By means of strong telescopes it can be no- 
 ticed from our earth how mighty columns of fire 
 burst forth from the interior of this immense ball. 
 After some time these streams fall back again 
 into that ocean of fire, and there, in the interior, 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 57 
 
 form mighty whirlpools which appear like dark 
 spots. These are the so-called "sun spots." 
 
 The stars, too, which you see so quietly shin- 
 ing in the heavens, are such suns, immense worlds 
 of fire, many of them much greater, hotter and 
 brighter than our sun. Thus, for instance, Sirius, 
 the dog-star, the brightest in the heavens among 
 the well known constellation Canis Major, is con- 
 sidered to possess a force of light equal to 5,000 
 suns like ours. Just imagine such an abundance 
 of light in our sky ! Others again are less bright ; 
 still others are blue, green, or purple. How won- 
 derful must such an illumination appear upon 
 those earths, that revolve around these colored 
 suns! Then there are the so-called changeable 
 stars; these are suns whose light regularly de- 
 creases for weeks and months and then increases 
 again and becomes brighter. Perhaps the reason 
 for this is, that one side of these stars is covered 
 with dross, so whenever at their regular revolu- 
 tion that side is turned toward us, it appears 
 dark. Som.e times there are two, three or four 
 suns grouped together constituting a "family of 
 suns," and thus blue, green and golden suns fly 
 around each other in a wonderful ever changing 
 course. Upon those earths or planets the blue and 
 golden days take turns about with the green and 
 the purple, and nights, too, are illuminated by 
 such colored m.oons. Still more : sometimes there 
 are several "families of suns" united into groups, 
 and the astronomer beholds with astonishment 
 such a colored group of suns in the heavens, guid- 
 
58 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 ed by a great white sun, which serves, so to speak, 
 as a shepherd and leader. Who may fathom the 
 wonder which God has created upon and in these 
 worlds ? 
 
 But also in this wonderful kingdom of light, 
 the earnest of Him is manifest, who is a consum- 
 ing fire. The astronomers have observed thirteen 
 times already such exceptionally bright stars 
 which having suddenly appeared, have after a few 
 months or years gradually entirely vanished. 
 Certainly no one, not even the most pronounced 
 infidel, can resist the impression : here I have been 
 an eye-witness from a great distance how a world 
 has perished in fire. There will come a time when 
 the inhabitants of other heavenly bodies, if we 
 dare speak of such, will see how a little star, or 
 sun with our earth, will blaze up, and after a 
 short time be lost in darkness. (2 Peter, 3:10). 
 Moreover, astronomers have noticed seven times 
 already how in dark places in the heavens sud- 
 denly new light-spots, new stars, have appeared — 
 no doubt new creations of God. 
 
 And thus we, too, look for a new earth after 
 this earth, now shone upon by sun and moon, has 
 disappeared. The sun shall be no more thy light 
 by day; neither for brightness shall the moon 
 give light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto 
 thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. 
 (Is. 60:19; Rev. 21:23). 
 
FISH AND BIRDS. 
 
 "And God Said, Let the Waters Bring Forth 
 Ahimdantly the Moving Creature That Hath 
 Life, and Fowl That May Fly Above the Earth 
 in the Open Firmament of Heaven. And God 
 Created Great Whales, and Every Living 
 Creature That Moveth, Which the Waters 
 Brought Forth Abundantly, After Their Kind, 
 and Every Winged Fowl After His Kind; and 
 God Satv That It Was Good. And God Blessed 
 Them, Saying, Be Fruitful and Multiply, and 
 Fill the Waters in the Seas, and Let Fowl 
 Midtiply in the Earth. And the Evening and 
 the Morning Were the Fifth Day." 
 
 AND God said." Thus the divine work of 
 creation goes on. Hitherto the air and 
 the sea and the land covered with un- 
 bounded forests had been desolate and quiet. 
 And again there came another night of creation, 
 and again there was darkness upon the earth and 
 the sun lost its brightness. Again new mountain 
 ranges came forth out of the earth amidst fearful 
 crashes and noise, accompanied by thick columns 
 of smoke, and those mighty forests which had 
 been created on the fourth day were buried be- 
 neath sand, mud and rock, so that, according to 
 God's will, they should be preserved deep under the 
 earth in order that men in the twentieth century 
 might bring them forth as fuel for the purpose of 
 
60 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 warming their houses and feed their machines, 
 engines and steamers. But when the volcanoes 
 ceased their roaring and the new mountains that 
 had been formed of melted rock, had cooled off, 
 when the smoke disappeared and the sun again 
 shone forth brightly and lovely on the fifth day of 
 creation — then there came forth out of the ground 
 an enormous abundance of vegetation. For the 
 Word of God spoken once on the fourth day con- 
 tinued to retain its power in bringing forth vege- 
 tation and will continue the same as long as the 
 earth remains. But not only this. In consequence 
 of the Divine Word there began now to move for 
 the first time in the air and in the seas a great 
 variety of animal life, there came forth fishes and 
 birds. 
 
 It has been a matter of surprise that two spe- 
 cies of animals, apparently so different, are here 
 in a manner grouped together and created both on 
 the same day. But in looking at the matter more 
 closely, it will be seen that the fish and birds 
 really go together and that both differ materially 
 from the four-footed anim.als. Both have an ^^g 
 shaped gradually tapering body, this being best 
 adapted for their movement in the air and in the 
 water. They do not walk, but move by means of 
 fins and wings. In addition to this both have a 
 fan-like tail which serves the purpose of a rudder, 
 something not found with land animals. Further, 
 both are covered with shingle-like scales or feath- 
 ers lying one upon another. These give forth an 
 oily liquid to protect them against wet and cold. 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 61 
 
 Both have hollow bones, very light and yet strong, 
 filled with air instead of marrow, and both are 
 oviparous, or egglaying. Neither are the so-called 
 little blood corpuscles of these animals round, as 
 is the case with the four-footed animals and man, 
 but oval and much larger. Finally both species of 
 animals have the same mysterious, regularly re- 
 turning migration instinct. Like the migrating 
 birds in the fall, too, the herring, the cod-fish 
 and others in the depths of the sea, undertake 
 their annual migration to regions unknown. In 
 view of what has been said, one may justly affirm : 
 the birds are the fish of the air in which they 
 swim, and the fish on the other hand are the 
 birds of the water in which they fly. Besides it is 
 known to everybody that there are numerous spe- 
 cies of birds, the so-called divers, which can swim 
 better upon and in the water than they can fly in 
 the air ; and again, that there are the so-called fly- 
 ing fish, which can sustain themselves for a time 
 in the air. God has assigned to these His crea- 
 tures a beautiful free life. It has become prover- 
 bial in many languages how pleasant the little fish 
 finds it in the water and how free the bird is in 
 the air. The eagle soars majestically for hours 
 around the mountain summit, looking down upon 
 the earth beneath him., as he sails with pleasure 
 in the blue sky. At the south pole, where the 
 oceans cover an area many times larger than Eu- 
 rope, the real king of the air is the strong man- 
 of-war-bird (Ornith). With much larger wings 
 than the eagle, it is to him life and pleasure to 
 
62 The First Page of the Bible, 
 
 spend weeks day and night upon the ocean, hun- 
 dreds of miles distant from the shore; to fight 
 with the storm, which tosses the mastless ships 
 to and fro, ever and anon crying to God in a 
 hoarse voice, that He might send him his prey and 
 food in time. And in those same waters the much 
 feared cachalot is king of the ocean. As large, 
 yea, even larger than the whale, with a gigantic 
 angular head and frightful teeth, he rises at times 
 to the surface, plays with ships and knocks 
 against them, so that the strongest rafters come 
 apart and the ship with everything in it sinks into 
 the depths of the sea. Then again he dives down 
 into the ocean and traverses with great force his 
 watery kingdom, a ruler before whom the inhab- 
 itants of the deep fly frightened in all directions, 
 and even the voracious shark, this tiger of the sea, 
 takes timidly to flight. Here we have also a "king 
 by divine right!" 
 
 If now we ask ourselves the question as to 
 whether there are yet found in the interior of the 
 earth remains of those creatures, which God crea- 
 ted on the fifth day, we find again that the result 
 harmonizes completely with the Bible account. 
 The layers of the earth relate to us very clearly 
 that after the immense creation of vegetation, 
 whose remains we yet find in the coal, there fol- 
 lowed great commotions of the earth and that all 
 at once an enormous multitude of water animals 
 of all kinds appeared upon the earth, or more 
 properly speaking, in the seas, whose remains by 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 63 
 
 the millions constitute certain layers of the earth's 
 crust; for instance, the slate, whereof we have 
 numerous examples. And if one sees how in a 
 single piece of slate animals of all kinds, some- 
 times hundreds and thousands, are crushed to- 
 gether, one understands the word: "So is this 
 great wide sea, wherein are things creeping in- 
 numerable, both small and great beasts." (Ps. 
 104:25). Also the "sea-monsters," of which the 
 Bible speaks in the original, we recognize very 
 distinctly. Their remains are yet found in muse- 
 um^s, although mostly in small specimens. They 
 are called "Sauria," or lizards on account of their 
 shape, but you must imagine giant animals from 
 20 to 70 feet in length. There were the mighty 
 "fish-sauria," with their four enormous fins and 
 sharp teeth, found in their large pointed snouts, 
 and with which they could crush the ink-fish and 
 other sea animals, whose remains we find in their 
 stomachs to-day. The eyes of this sea-monster 
 are especially interesting, for these, as one may 
 yet see from the skeleton at the present day, were 
 enclosed by many movable bone-plates, which 
 made it possible for the eyes either to be pressed 
 together to a small size or to be enlarged to the 
 size of a plate. This, no doubt, served a twofold 
 purpose; on the one hand it prevented the eyes 
 of the animal from being blinded on coming to the 
 surface of the water, and on the other hand to 
 give it sight in the depths of the dark ocean in or- 
 der to seize its prey. But there were also other 
 sea-animals in great number, for instance, the 
 
64 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 sea-anemones, which, while grown fast to the bot- 
 tom, carry their beautiful heads like a flower upon 
 a long slender stem from 10 to 12 feet long. Then 
 the well known ammonites, which are found in 
 many places, the smallest ones like a dime-piece, 
 the largest of a hundred pounds weight, as large 
 as a wagon-wheel. Finally the ink-fish, which, on 
 account of its horn-like snout, the country people 
 call "thunder-wedge" or "devilsfinger." 
 
 But also the inhabitants of the air, the birds, 
 are found, for the first time in these layers of 
 earth. When the birds are not found in such 
 abundance as the sea-animals, we can see how this 
 harmonizes with the Bible, which uses the expres- 
 sion "creeping" with reference to the sea-animals, 
 but not with reference to the birds. Besides this, 
 the relative scarcity of bird-fossils is explained 
 when we consider, that the sea-animals, when 
 they perished, remained in the mud by the thou- 
 sands and were preserved by being petrified, while 
 the birds remained upon the earth and being ex- 
 posed to the air would decay, so that their trace 
 was lost. Yet there are also traces of birds as 
 created on the fifth day, similar to our birds at 
 the present day, and also some which belonged to 
 other species that have disappeared. 
 
 iNow let us hear something with reference to 
 the increase of the sea-animals, in comparison 
 with the inhabitants of the air, a point on which 
 the Bible lays special emphasis in the 22nd verse 
 of the creation account. It is surprising how this 
 blessing of God is yet manifest in regard to the 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 65 
 
 water-animals. While the birds show a relatively 
 slow increase and lay only from one to six eggs, 
 we find in the case of fishes a productive power 
 which surpasses even the productiveness of the 
 vegetable kingdoms already referred to. There 
 have been found in a single herring up to 68,000 
 eggs, in carps from 200,000 to 342,000, in a huso 
 (a fish in the river Wolga) above three millions, 
 and in a cod from four to nine millions. Of 
 course of these eggs millions and millions perish 
 from various causes: storms, water-birds, etc. 
 But one who lives near the ocean may convince 
 himself of the immense number of sea-animals, 
 which are in the water. Thus, for instance, at the 
 sea-port of Havre, thirty to forty fish-boats 
 launch out into the ocean every day of the year 
 and catch within a relatively small area an im- 
 mense quantity of prawn, and small lobsters, 
 which are eaten along the entire sea-coast, also 
 in Rouen and Paris. And yet they do not de- 
 crease. Again, hundreds of large ships with a 
 fishing-crew from fifteen to twenty thousand sail 
 annually to the banks of Newfoundland and catch 
 on an average thirty millions of cod, and still this 
 fish is always found there in the same quantity. 
 The Norwegians alone, when the herring-migra- 
 tion, coming from the north pole, takes place 
 along their coasts, catch in a few weeks three hun- 
 dred millions and often a great deal more, so that 
 they make use of them as manure for their fields. 
 Hordes of sharks and whales follow these columns 
 
66 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 and eat thousands of them, so that they become 
 big and fat, and yet in spite of all this, one can not 
 notice the least decrease. An immense quantity 
 of them find their way every year to the depths of 
 the Atlantic ocean, where, no doubt, they serve as 
 food for the larger fish. And again there comes 
 from the north pole, year by year, this inexhaust- 
 ible stream of a mighty life. It has been asserted, 
 that, if the means for catching and transporting 
 them would be at hand, the entire human family 
 could live on fish, without noticing a decrease. 
 Thus the Word of God, spoken on the fifth day of 
 creation, is still being fulfilled : "Let the waters 
 bring forth abundantly the moving creature that 
 hath life," and : "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill 
 the waters in the seas." 
 
ANIMALS ON THE DRY LAND. 
 
 "And the Evening and the Morning Were the 
 Fifth Day. And God Said, Let the Earth 
 Bring Forth the Living Creature After His 
 Kind, Cattle and Creeping Thing, and Beast of 
 the Earth After His Kind, and it Was So. And 
 God Made the Beast of the Earth After His 
 Kind, and Cattle After Their Kind, and Every- 
 thing That Creepeth Upon the Earth After 
 His Kind; and God Saiv That H Was Good." 
 
 ONCE more the earth was covered with 
 darkness and a mighty destructive com- 
 motion passed over it, and for a time, the 
 creative power of God rested. But when on the 
 m.orning of the sixth day the light again poured 
 over the earth, when innumerable new kinds of 
 plants came forth; when all sorts of water-ani- 
 mals began to move in the oceans and innumer- 
 able birds to fly about in the air — then a new 
 wonder was performed : neiv, higher kinds of ani- 
 mals began to inhabit the earth. To us, of course, 
 the many kinds of animals, which we daily see, 
 are no longer a wonder, as is the case with many 
 other wonders of God ! A horse is to us a horse, 
 and a dog a dog, and nothing else. But should 
 there appear for the first time some strange think- 
 ing being upon the earth, a being created by God, 
 
68 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 to him, to be sure, man would appear the most 
 wonderful. Man, the divine image, the fallen 
 king, so small and yet so great, so changeable 
 and yet eternal, so insignificant and yet so im- 
 portant. But next to man, the greatest wonder to 
 him would be the animal world, which God crea- 
 ted on the sixth day. Such a visitor would ask: 
 who are these beings that move about with such 
 a variety of form and shape? Like you, they are 
 born in pain; like you, they eat and drink, feel 
 joy and sorrow. They seem to think and to be 
 possessed of will-power. Like you, they have feel- 
 ing and memory; they love and hate. They look 
 up to you in silence and yet they seem to speak. 
 They willingly follow you; fear death, like you, 
 and die, like you, in anguish and pain. Indeed, 
 there is something mysterious about these ani- 
 mals. We find them in the garden of Eden, where 
 everything was pure and happy. God will re- 
 quire the blood of man at the hand of every beast, 
 and the blood of beasts at the hand of man (Gen. 
 9:5). They have the capacity to see angels, where 
 the eyes of men are holden (Numbers 22:23), 
 They are even mentioned in connection with the 
 invisible, heavenly world (IL Kings 6:17; 2:11; 
 Rev. 19:11, 14). They are a part of the "crea- 
 ture" to which the Apostle refers when he speaks 
 of the earnest expectation of the creature and its 
 final delivery from the bondage of corruption into 
 the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 
 8:19, etc.). And has God not made use of the an- 
 imal world in order that the people of the Old 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 69 
 
 Testament covenant should know the distinction 
 between clean and unclean, holy and unholy? 
 (Lev. 11). True, we learn in the New Testament 
 that every creature of God is good, but it is never- 
 theless remarkable, that even here Jesus is desig- 
 nated as the "Lamb of God" and that the Holy 
 Ghost comes down in the form of a "dove," while 
 on the other hand we read: "For without are 
 dogs." (Rev. 22:15. Comp, Matth. 7:6). Thus 
 also in the New Testament the animal-world 
 serves as a divine picture-book, in which the con- 
 trast between the holy and the unholy, the clean 
 and the unclean is presented to our view. 
 
 "Everything after its kind" — thus God crea- 
 ted the animals on the sixth day. The Bible, 
 therefore, knows nothing about "Darwinism," so 
 called after its founder, Darwin. According to 
 his theory the higher animals and even man, in 
 the course of many millions of years, have devel- 
 oped from the lower animals, and these again in 
 the same way, by means of an inherent power 
 have come out of a "cell," i. e., a little bubble. No, 
 as the plants, so also the animals have been crea- 
 ted entirely distinct from each other and complete 
 as to their kind. True, since the day of creation 
 many kinds of animals and plants have become 
 extinct, but no one has been able to prove that 
 new kinds have come into existence since the cre- 
 ation of man. Man has been able to produce only 
 a number of varieties in the case of dogs, flowers 
 and some plants, but the species itself remains un- 
 
70 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 changeable. Since the world began no ox has 
 changed into a horse, and the old idea that has 
 again been brought forth in the last century, 
 though in different form, according to which man 
 is descended from a monkey-like animal which in- 
 habits the interior of Africa, (which, in an un- 
 conscious desire after perfection, has given up its 
 animal appearance and appropriated to itself a 
 language), is not only from a biblical but also 
 from a purely scientific standpoint considered an 
 unfounded fancy of would-be-wise men, which has 
 thousands of facts against it. 
 
 As from the plants, which came forth on the 
 third day, and from the fishes and birds, which 
 came forth on the fifth day, so the layers in the 
 interior of the earth contain from the four-footed 
 animals, created on the sixth day, numberless, and 
 in fact, well preserved remnants, and the reader 
 need only visit a museum, where he will find them 
 in abundance. And in order that the Bible also 
 here m.ay prove itself trustworthy, because it 
 states that these anim.als were created on the 
 sixth day, the remains of the same are not found 
 in the older layers of the earth, which would indi- 
 cate that they had been created at the same time 
 with the plants and water-animals, but for the 
 first time we find them in the later, the chalk- 
 layers, which cover the older layers, but here they 
 are found in great abundance. There are not 
 found petrified skeletons of transition-formations, 
 as if, according to the Darwinian theory the wa- 
 ter-animals had slowly and gradually changed 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 71 
 
 into four-footed animals, crocodiles into oxen, but 
 they appear all at once, hundreds and thousands 
 of them, the ancestors of our elephants, rhinoce- 
 roses and hippopotamuses, the giants of those 
 days, much greater and more powerful in their 
 youthful strength than they are at present, with 
 jaw-teeth as large as a fist, and front teeth as 
 thick as the trunks of small trees, and from ten to 
 twelve feet long, and a skeleton of bones put to- 
 gether like rafters, so that when looking at them 
 one is reminded of that wonderful description of 
 behemoth in the book of Job, ch. 40, 15-24. 
 
 There was, for instance, the "megatherium" 
 or "great animal," nearly twice as high and twice 
 as long as a steer, with enormous thick bones, 
 pilar-like legs and claws a foot long ; covered with 
 a hard skin, two inches thick and with powerful 
 chisel-like teeth, which enabled it to chew trunks 
 of trees like soft grass. This mighty creature of 
 God walked slowly through the forests and, 
 shielded like a fortress, feared no attack. Through 
 its skin neither claw nor tooth could penetrate, 
 and neither the dash of a lion or a tiger would 
 have caused it to tremble. With a single stroke of 
 its paw it could have crushed any of the animals 
 of prey at the present day. Also the "Dinothe- 
 rium" or "Fright-animial," of which you may see 
 a powerful skull with teeth in the museum at 
 Stuttgart, God created on the sixth day. It is 
 shaped like a hippopotamus, but much larger, hav- 
 ing a strong snout and great teeth, which are bent 
 downward, and with which it was enabled to hold 
 
72 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 itself in the current of a rushing stream. This 
 animal, too, as much as we know, lived on herbs 
 and water-plants. There were also at that time 
 many "mammoths," and "mastodonts," two spe- 
 cies of great elephants. The last named was cov- 
 ered with a thick, shaggy fur, having enormous 
 teeth and lived towards the north as far as Sibe- 
 ria, where, at the present time, numerous teeth of 
 this animal are found, which constitute a large 
 part of the ivory sold by merchants. There have 
 been found such animals frozen solid in the ice in 
 the polar regions, which have been driven there 
 perhaps at the time of the great flood. They are 
 so well preserved that the dogs could live on their 
 flesh, and even explorers did not despise eating 
 such meat which may have been thousands of 
 years old. Besides these animals just mentioned 
 there roamed about through the forests during 
 the time of the sixth day of creation enormous 
 lizards up to seventy feet long, and taller than a 
 steer ; also animals with scales from 14 to 24 feet 
 long, covered with six cornered or pointed scales 
 as hard as steel. Some of these species are found 
 yet in South America, of course, six times smaller. 
 In addition to these there were numerous smaller 
 species of animals, coming down even to the 
 dragon fly and the spider, which are found yet at 
 the present day nicely embalmed in amber, which 
 itself is nothing else but the gradually hardened 
 pitch of the pine tree of those days. 
 
 Thus the animals were created, which still at 
 the present time inhabit the earth in endless va- 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 73 
 
 riety. Whatever shall become of them upon the 
 new earth, we know not. But as they were al- 
 lowed to walk under the trees of the first para- 
 dise, so they will also be allowed to walk under the 
 trees of the second paradise, as the Scriptures 
 clearly indicate. (Comp. Is. 11). The conserva- 
 tive spirit of the Scriptures does not allow us on 
 the one hand to enter upon doubtful speculations 
 and fantastic paintings, yet on the other hand we 
 must not portray to ourselves the life to come so 
 poor, barren and meagre. The heaven of our God 
 is not a mere big hall, in which we are all to sit 
 together, but a glorious world, yea many worlds, 
 which are all filled with His brightness and glory. 
 Then it will be the entire universe, and the mil- 
 lions of starry worlds, which we now see shining 
 in the heavens, are only a small part of the great 
 divine creation — a dominion, in which there is 
 room for millions of creatures of all kinds, of 
 whom we have no conception and presentiment 
 here upon our little earth. 
 
THE HUMAN BODY. 
 
 ''And God Said, Let Us Make Man in Our Image, 
 After Our Likeness; and Let Them Have Do- 
 minion Over the Fish of the Sea, and Over the 
 Fowl of the Air, and Over the Cattle, and 
 Over All the Earth, and Over Every Creeping 
 Thing that Creepeth Upon the Earth. So God 
 Created Man in His Own Image, in the Image 
 of God Created He Him; Male and Female 
 Created He Them. And God Blessed Them, 
 and God Said Unto Them, Be Fruitful and 
 Multiply, and Replenish the Earth, and Sub- 
 due it; and Have Dominion Over the Fish of 
 the Sea, and Over the Fowl of the Air, and 
 Over Every Living Thing that Moveth Upon 
 the Earth. And God Said, Behold, I Have 
 Given You Every Herb Bearing Seed, Which 
 is Upon the Face of All the Earth, and Every 
 Tree Yielding Seed; to You it Shall be for 
 Meat. And to Every Beast of the Earth, and 
 to Every Fowl of the Air, and to Everything 
 that Creepeth Upon the Earth, Wherein There 
 is Life, I Have Given Every Green Herb for 
 Meat: And It Was So." (Gen. 1, 26-30). 
 
 THE earth was now completed and there was 
 glorious life everywhere, but yet the crea- 
 tures were looking for a visible ruler. 
 Then God did not speak merely a creative word, 
 but the Triune God held, so to speak, counsel with 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 75 
 
 himself, and this resulted in a great, eternal res- 
 olution. "Let us make man in our image, after 
 our likeness." How dignifying! A vice-regent 
 upon earth, God-like, his image, an absolute ruler 
 over all creatures, a mediator between God and 
 the creatures, man was to be! And now what 
 have Satan and sin made out of him? A poor 
 slave of his lusts and desires, his body languishing 
 under disease, bowed down to earth, perspiring 
 and shedding tears, no longer controlling the en- 
 tire creation, but living in constant fear. He 
 fears the heat of the sun and the cold air, he fears 
 the fire and the water and the animals of the field, 
 he fears life and fears death, and his entire power 
 and knowledge prove helpless against the grape- 
 bug and the potato disease or against the invisible 
 poisonous germ.s of the cholera, which give him 
 fearful pain and deadly disease. How is the king 
 of the earth fallen and his glory gone ! 
 
 And yet you may behold traces of his dignity 
 by looking at his bodily form. He does not walk 
 horizontally with his head toward the earth like 
 the animals, but erect with his head upward, only 
 touching the earth with his feet. And in his body 
 he unites a diversity of qualities. While in the 
 case of animals one is known by its swiftness, 
 another by its strength, a third one by its fine 
 hearing or keen sight, in no single one are these 
 qualities found in such beautiful harmony as is 
 the case of man. The properly developed human 
 body unites them all. History relates of exhibi- 
 tions of human strength, which, if one considers 
 
76 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 the weight of the human body, surpasses the 
 strength of the horse and the ox, yea even of the 
 lion. The swiftest animals have already been out- 
 run by man. The Arab of the desert distinguishes 
 on the clear sky of the Sahara desert, at a dis- 
 tance of nine miles, a horse or a camel, where a 
 European would see nothing but a dark spot. 
 The Tunguse of Siberia sees with the naked eye 
 the four moons of Jupiter. Furthermore, man is 
 not covered with scales, feathers or hair, for 
 these, though they protect the animal against cold, 
 dull the sensibilities and lessen the sense of touch, 
 but with a fine skin, which is very susceptible to 
 the least impression. And what animal would be 
 able, like man, to endure the 40 degrees of cold in 
 Siberia as well as the 42 degrees of heat in Af- 
 rica? What animal could live in the regions of 
 eternal snow and ice as well as in the glowing 
 sand, upon the summits of mountains as well as 
 three thousand feet deep in the earth, like the 
 miners at Falun in Sweden? 
 
 And what a wonder is this body of his ! The 
 eye, which, according to its need, widens and con- 
 tracts, adapts itself to the laws of the telescope 
 looking into the distance, as well as to the micro- 
 scope near by, is already in itself a wonderful 
 world of fine nerves and muscles, which receive 
 millions of rays of light and pictures and give the 
 soul reliable information concerning the things 
 in the outer world. Likewise the human ear, in 
 which there are found 43,000 wonderful small 
 little staffs, like the strings of a harp, which ver- 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 77 
 
 berate at every tune and sound and through 
 which the soul receives the wonders of the sound. 
 But above all the greatest of all wonders is speech. 
 In order that these noble senses may perform 
 their functions, it is necessary that there should 
 be nourishing organs. The mouth, throat and 
 stomach receive and convert within a few hours 
 suitable food into blood, so that the bread which 
 a few hours ago lay as dead matter upon your 
 table, has become now a part of yourself, has 
 changed into blood, on which you subsist, and into 
 brain, with which you think. And the blood, this 
 mysterious liquid, of which the Bible tells us that 
 it contains the life or the soul, is now taken up 
 by the heart, this wonderful center of life, and 
 the heart pumps this life juice incessantly by day 
 and night, whether you think about it or not, 
 through the finest arteries, up into the brain and 
 down into the stomach, into the tips of your fing- 
 ers and toes, and nourishes therewith the whole 
 body. If this heart were merely a mechanical 
 contrivance by man, made out of steel and dia- 
 mond, it would have been worn out and incapable 
 to perform its function long ago. For it beats 
 seventy times in a minute, in a day 100,800 times, 
 and in a year 36,792,000 times. If you are 50 
 years old and a healthy man, your heart has 
 beaten, without a pause, 1800 million times and 
 feels no weariness ! So likewise the lungs breathe 
 incessantly and untiringly the fresh air through 
 thousands of cells and suck it up like a sponge the 
 water and provide the blood with fresh air in or- 
 
78 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 der that it may be able to perform its function. 
 They also, by the process of breathing, remove the 
 impure air that has become useless, and all this is 
 done whether you think about it or not. 
 
 Besides these wonderful organs for nourish- 
 ment, circulation of the blood and breathing, the 
 body is interwoven by a fine net-work of white 
 threads, all of which unite in the spinal marrow 
 or brain. These are the nerves, the telegraph and 
 telephone wires, by means of which the soul is in- 
 formed of what is going on in the body, pain or 
 enjoyment, warmth or cold. And all these dif- 
 ferent activities work harmoniously together. 
 The one cannot do without the other. The nerves 
 and the brain need a constant supply of blood, and 
 if this ceases only for a malf minute, or a few 
 drops of it are spilled, it will result in a paraletic 
 stroke and man will fall to the ground. Likewise 
 the heart needs the assistance of the nerves for 
 its activity and must be nourished by the stomach. 
 The same is true of the lungs and their functions. 
 And all this is done, not in a manner like unto our 
 machinery with much noise and bustle, no, but so 
 easily and gently that you do not notice it your- 
 self. It is the breath of God within you that 
 moves all these wonderful forces and compels to 
 united action, what we call life. If you reflect 
 upon all these things, you must cry out with 
 David: ''I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully 
 and wonderfully made!" (Ps. 139:14). 
 
 Moreover, in another respect our body must 
 be considered a wonderful thing. We are accus- 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 79 
 
 tomed to look upon it as something solid and un- 
 changeable, but we are mistaken. Our body is 
 something in the hightest degree changeable, 
 something that is in a constant state of dissolu- 
 tion and reconstruction. That it constantly needs 
 food in order to sustain itself, you know; but 
 from the fact that this food amounts to several 
 pounds daily, while the body increases in weight 
 only a few grains, you will conclude that there is 
 a continual great waste of matter. For instance, 
 the v/ater evaporates and even solid substances, as 
 metal gradually though very slowly, dissolve when 
 coming in contact with the air. In this way our 
 body finds itself in a continual process of disinte- 
 gration and evaporation. This even affects the 
 bones, for it has been discovered that also these, 
 though in the center of the body, undergo a con- 
 stant change, continually wasting away, and by 
 this means of nourishment are formed into new 
 ones. Yea, that our entire body is made new 
 about every seven years, that not the least par- 
 ticle of the former remains. A man of forty-two 
 years, therefore, would have changed his body 
 completely six times, and yet how remarkable — 
 his form remains, his appearance in the main will 
 be the samie, and in the midst of the changeable, 
 there remains a mysterious unity and unchange- 
 ableness. Does this not point to a secret divine 
 power, which lies here at the bottom? Yes, be- 
 hold, the human soul, your soul, has received the 
 pov/er from God to draw, to itself by day and by 
 night, whether you sleep or wake, constantly in- 
 
80 The First Page of the B ible. 
 
 numerable little parts of matter in order that it 
 may build and maintain for itself a body, by 
 means of which it comes in constant contact with 
 the world outside. And not only this, but it has 
 also power to create for itself to a certain degree 
 a picture of its own making. Have you ever, af- 
 ter a certain interval of time, again seen a man, 
 who, during that time had given himself up to a 
 life of vice, fallen away from God and gone to 
 ruin? And have you not noticed in his body, in 
 his face, that he is on the down-grade, though he 
 should be dressed ever so handsomely, washed 
 and combed? And on the other hand have you 
 ever seen the face of a man expressing a benevo- 
 lent disposition, divine peace, though he did not 
 say a word ? Thus, as God created man after His 
 own image, the immortal soul shines always more 
 or less through this transient and mortal body. 
 This soul is yet a much greater wonder than the 
 body of man, and about it we will now speak. 
 
THE HUMAN SPIRIT. 
 
 God Created Man After His Image. 
 
 THE full meaning of this word we shall 
 doubtless not know, until we come into the 
 bodies of our resurrection, glorious like the 
 sun and strong with heavenly power. But what 
 dignity, what honor, that God himself — Jehovah 
 — should reveal himself in human form ; and also, 
 that He has made the angels in our likeness. 
 This we are not to understand as if we could 
 judge by the form of man how God looks, but we 
 are to understand here the essential powers and 
 attributes of the human soul, as well as the posi- 
 tion of man toward the rest of creation. As God 
 rules the entire universe, thus man is to rule, 
 through God, the earth and all creatures, and this 
 he does in a certain sense even after his fall. Of 
 course, whom he rules in the love of God for the 
 sake of their happiness, are no longer his subjects 
 in filial obedience, but it goes according to the 
 Word of God to Noah : "And the fear of you and 
 the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the 
 earth." (Gen. 9:2) ; and instead of being their 
 God, he is, alas ! too often their devil. He has yet 
 great power nevertheless. There is not a being on 
 earth, who could call him to account saying : why 
 are you doing this ? Plants and animals are given 
 
82 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 over into his hands. He can take up a plant at 
 one place and let it grow at another; and if this 
 appears to us a matter of little importance, be- 
 cause we are used to it, let us remember that no 
 animal can do it. Likewise, he cannot only kill 
 an animal, but he can bring it up tame and im- 
 prove it. And were he to take care of them, as it 
 becomes a king, instead of considering them his 
 slaves, which he may torment at his pleasure, he 
 could now already on his part satisfy many an 
 earnest expectation of the creature. Thus man is 
 the only creature of God upon the earth, who has 
 power over the fire, this element of the wrath of 
 God. Though many performances of animals, for 
 instance, the building of houses by the beaver, 
 seem to require more sense, than when man in the 
 primitive ages attempted to preserve the fire of a 
 tree when struck by lightning in adding more 
 wood, yet no animal, not even the monkey, would 
 have conceived such an idea. 
 
 But still more than in his control over nature, 
 we have to look for the essential powers of the 
 human mind, wherein his "God-likeness" appears. 
 What else is human art and science, the waging of 
 wars and founding of kingdoms, the building of 
 cities and making of laws, than a continual reve- 
 lation and manifestation of an immortal, divine 
 soul, which can find no peace, till it rests in the 
 eternal, infinite God himself? Why is it not sat- 
 isfied and content like the ox with a filled manger? 
 The reason is : it is God's image. 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 83 
 
 A part of this "God-likeness" is our con- 
 science. As nothing evil can stand before God, so 
 also nothing before the divine in man, which inex- 
 orably judges and punishes his deeds, words and 
 thoughts. How often has it happened that a mur- 
 derer after ten and twenty years has voluntarily 
 offered himself to the courts and asked for pun- 
 ishment, in order that at last that fearful, unbear- 
 able judge within him, may come to silence. Or 
 look at the rich man who by bad and dishonorable 
 trickeries, has acquired a great fortune. Well 
 may he possess a magnificent house and sit at a 
 sumptuous table; well may his friends call him a 
 rich, clever, honorable and esteemed man, which 
 he himself is almost inclined to believe. But 
 when his friends are gone and the lights are ex- 
 tinguished, then he rolls about on his magnificent 
 bed, restless and anxious, his mind occupied with 
 new speculations, only that he may not hear that 
 small, still voice, which in the stillness of the 
 night incessantly whispers: "You are a thief." 
 Think also of your memory. What a power over 
 time and space does it not possess, a part of God's 
 omnipresence! Things long past, which the soul 
 at one time has taken hold of, and now, after the 
 floods of pain or joy have passed, after it has 
 thought, spoken, done and experienced things in- 
 numerable, perhaps an entire life gone by, it has 
 yet the power to bring forth at its will, out of the 
 ocean of the past, this or that which has appar- 
 ently vanished long ago. And the man 70 or 80 
 
84 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 years of age sees yet the room in which he played 
 when a little child and hears yet the voice of the 
 mother, who died long ago. This is a mighty 
 power of the human soul. From observations, 
 which one may make of men high up in years, in 
 sickness, in insanity and at the dymg hour, this 
 power is much greater and more complete than 
 we commonly imagine. One must assume that the 
 human soul really does not forget anything, but 
 that this or that experience is only for a time, as 
 it were, covered up, and that there will be a time 
 when every experience, every deed and every 
 word, yea, every thought out of the depths will 
 come to life again, living, true and perfect, in or- 
 der that it (the soul) might be judged thereby. 
 
 And now the greatest wonder of man — 
 speech! The animals, too, have a kind of lan- 
 guage and are enabled by means of the voice to 
 express joy and pain in an impressive manner; 
 but they have not the power of speech and never 
 has the most intelligent dog invented a single 
 monosyllabic word in order to call his master. 
 And why not? Because he has not the mind, that 
 understands and grasps men and things as to 
 their real nature. But as we read about God at 
 the time of the creation : "God said," "he called" ; 
 Adam, too, "gave names to all cattle," as a be- 
 ginning of his work on earth. This means a great 
 deal. Have you never thought about this won- 
 derful capacity of the human soul to give expres- 
 sion by means of speech to its inward being, yea, 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 85 
 
 so to speak, to breathe itself forth? With your 
 lips and tongue you put a small portion of air 
 into vibration: the air — or sound — waves are 
 caught up by the ear of your neighbor, and im- 
 mediately he knows your deepest thoughts ! With 
 this apparently insignificant act, with this little 
 air put into motion you can accomplish that which 
 is good or bad; by means of spaech create anger, 
 give comfort, lead immortal souls either to God 
 or to the devil. By means of speech, kingdoms 
 are daily founded and destroyed, cities are built, 
 states and laws established, art and science fos- 
 tered. And how exceedingly simple are also here 
 the means, by which so great things are accom- 
 plished! Five vowels and about twenty conson- 
 ants have been sufficient for the last six thousand 
 years for the most civilized nations of the earth, 
 and will be sufficient for them as long as the earth 
 stands, to express everything what the human 
 heart thinks, feels, meditates and discovers. In 
 these twenty-five signs are hidden all the books 
 and writings that ever have been made, all lan- 
 guages and dialects, which mankind ever has 
 spoken or yet will speak. Man can invent many 
 things, but he cannot invent a new letter, no sixth 
 vowel to the five already existing, which God has 
 given him. Is this not wonderful? And have we 
 not in this a presentiment of the fact why the 
 eternal Son of God is called in the Scriptures 
 "Word of God"? But do you wish to understand 
 something of the power, which is contained in a 
 human word, remember only the sentence: "For 
 
86 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy 
 words thou shalt be condemned." (Matth. 12 :37) . 
 Or what said Noah: "Cursed be Canaan; a ser- 
 vant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." 
 (Gen. 9:25), and with this saying the prophetic 
 man of God sealed the destiny of an entire conti- 
 nent for thousands of years to come, for history 
 proves it: Africa always and is yet the land of 
 slavery. And when Israel had blessed Jacob, no 
 prayers and tears could alter what had been said. 
 The word was spoken and Jacob remained 
 blessed. How great is the power of the word 
 spoken in the name of God. Therefore it is a 
 lamentable sign of our times, that speech among 
 us has become so degenerate. The old Greeks and 
 Romans laid much stress on the proper use of lan- 
 guage. Socrates would say: "To speak incor- 
 rectly is damaging to the soul," or "Speak in order 
 that I may see you." Therefore it was considered 
 as the main object of an education to teach men 
 how to speak in a few words, precise and true. 
 And at the present day what a flood of meaning- 
 less, hollow and empty words are constantly 
 poured forth into the world, spoken and written, 
 so that it is said depreciatingly: "They are but 
 words!" This is much to be regretted! 
 
 Thanks be to God, that the Word of God has 
 more power, validity and permanency than such 
 empty human speech, and that even Satan is not 
 allowed to interfere. The Word of God is eternal 
 and cannot pass away. And having once said: 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 87 
 
 "Let us make man in our image, after our like- 
 ness : and let them have dominion over the whole 
 earth," the complete fulfillment cf this word may 
 be interrupted by sin, but not discontinued. Re- 
 deemed through Jesus Christ, man as renewed in 
 the image of God, will at one time rule over the 
 whole earth, yea even judge the angels, (I. Cor. 
 6:31), and his word will again have a creative 
 and judicial power. But its highest and noblest 
 aim the word of man, as completed in Christ, will 
 consist in this, that by means of the same, he will 
 give praise and honor and glory to God in all eter- 
 nity, for He has created all things, and for His 
 pleasure they are and were created. (Rev. 4:11). 
 "And I saw heaven new and earth new; for the 
 first heaven and the first earth are gone." Rev. 
 21:1). These words of creation, which we have 
 considered hitherto, are immortal; the light and 
 the air, the mountain, the plant and the animal, 
 these are eternal thoughts of a God who will never 
 give up His work as a failure. Upon the new 
 earth, we will be allowed to behold this new crea- 
 tion in still greater splendor and glory and inherit 
 all things. (Rev. 21:7). "Behold, I make all 
 things new." (Rev. 21:5). 
 
 It is indeed a great pity that even many 
 Christians are so slow to believe the promises of 
 God to create a new heaven and a new earth. 
 That birds and trees, hills and rivers are here, no 
 one but a fool would undertake to deny. But that 
 the sam.e God, who once created them, will make 
 
88 The First Page of the Bible. 
 
 a new earth on which there will be rivers of crys- 
 tal and hills of light, trees of life and a city of 
 wondrous glory, in which we shall live in our 
 risen, immortal, glorified and incorruptible bodies, 
 clothed in white, with hands to feel and feet to 
 walk, and a mouth to eat and drink, sing and 
 praise, — this many will not believe; and in spite 
 of the bodily resurrection of Christ and the prom- 
 ises of the Word, they regard heaven as a hazy, 
 indefinite and undefined existence somewhere, 
 without much idea as to where. That this present 
 world should have created itself is a piece of in- 
 comprehensible nonsense. But if God once crea- 
 ted it, why not re-create it? Is his hand short- 
 ened? Can the Creator no longer create? Or 
 shall the world of heavenly bliss, in which dwells 
 no evil thing at all, be less real and substantial 
 than this present world so full of sin? fools 
 and slow of heart to believe all that God has 
 promised in His Word. 
 
 There is also a wonderful correspondence be- 
 tween the last page of the Bible and the first. 
 Thus the Word proves itself to be one throughout, 
 a glorious revelation of the counsels of God with 
 respect to mankind. "In the beginning God crea- 
 ted heaven and earth." At the end he will create 
 a new heaven and a new earth. The first earth 
 He watered with four rivers ; on the new earth a 
 river of crystal will flow from the temple. In the 
 first Paradise there was a tree of life ; in the sec- 
 ond there will be such trees. On the first earth 
 
The First Page of the Bible. 89 
 
 there were mountains; on the second the Lord's 
 house shall rise on a mountain, great and exceed- 
 ing high. 
 
 But glorious also will be the differences be- 
 tween the first creation and the second. Sun and 
 moon light the first, and in Paradise itself day- 
 alternated with night. But on the new earth 
 there will be no night ; they will need neither light 
 of lamp nor light of sun ; for the Lord God shall 
 give them light. (Rev. 22:5). Adam and Eve 
 were naked, in token of their innocence; on the 
 new earth the saints will walk, clothed in white, 
 in token of their righteousness. In the first Par- 
 adise man dwelt in a garden; in the second his 
 home will be in the glorious palaces of God. In 
 the first he was forbidden to eat of the tree of the 
 knowledge of good and evil; in the second there 
 is no such prohibition. In the first there was pos- 
 sible a "No" ; in the second it will all be "YEA 
 and AMEN." "And death shall be no more; 
 neither shall there be murmuring, nor crying, nor 
 pain, any more ; the first things are passed away. 
 And he that sitteth on the throne said: Behold I 
 make all things new." 
 
 May God through the blood of Christ fit us 
 for the inheritance of the saints in light. Amen. 
 
BS651 .B56 
 
 The first page of the Bible ... 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00056 0864