The Creation
We are told in the beginning
God created heaven and earth;
When all was without form and void
And worlds sprang into being,
At His Almighty word,
And order came out of chaos
At the sound of the voice of the Lord.
He moved on the face of the waters,
For darkness was over the deep;
He gathered the waters together,
And made them into a heap.
Let there be light He commanded
And straightway there was light;
He divided the light from the darkness
And He called them day and night.
And He said let there be a firmament
In the midst, that the waters below
Be divided from those above it;
He spake and it was so;
And God said, let dry land appear,
Where the grass and the herb may grow
And the fruitful tree may yield its fruit;
And it was even so;
For nothing His command withstood
And God saw that the land was good;
And lights were set in the firmament,
To divide the day and the night,
And for days and years and seasons
And for signs, and to give earth light;
And two great lights he created
And he made the greater light,
To rule by day and the lesser
He made to rule by night
And the stars as numberless as sands
That strew the shores of the sea;
And all the work of His mighty hands
Who inhabits eternity;
And He filled the waters abundantly
And also filled the earth
With living creatures after their kind,
Which the earth and the sea brought forth
Of fowl and cattle and creeping things,
He made them as he would
And he looked on his creation;
Each creature was formed as God saw fit
And nothing was made in vain
In wisdom he created it
For the use he should ordain;
But these were the beasts that perish
The creatures of a day,
They were not formed to continue
But to serve and pass away;
Leaving other forms to follow
Fashioned for later needs,
For among these change follows change
As age to age succeeds;
But after His own image
The Lord created man;
Made for a higher density
He was formed on divinest plan
And he of all the creatures
Among creatures whole
When the Lord ad breathed upon him
Became a living soul;
In the image of God created
To reign on the earth and be
A sharer with Him in the glory
Of immortality!
Endowed with deathless spirit
And fore-ordained of God,
The righteous to inherit
A share in in His blessed abode
Where all is glory and all is light,
And Joy in the presence of God;
And the wicked to be banished
From his presence evermore;
To be banished from His presence
And the glory of His power,
And to dwell in outer darkness
Where the unclean spirits be
Throughout all the endless ages
Of eternity, ETERNITY!
And God when he created man
Gave him freedom of will
That he might continue in innocence
And in His favor still;
Or choosing disobedience
Fall from that high estate
Of blest communion with his God
In which he was created;
And He gave to him dominion
Over all the beasts of the field,
And the fowl of the air and all thing
By God’s appointment yields
Obedience unto man, and he
By the same appointment should
Yield willingly and heartily
Obedience unto God.
And the seventh day God rested
His labors were complete,
And the fair and new earth lay smiling
In beauty at His feet;
And the mountains grand uplifted
Their summits His heaven toward;
And the waves and billows of ocean
Swelled with praise of the Lord.
And the sun came forth as a strong man
Rejoicing to run a race
Or as a bridegroom from his chamber
With the glow of youth on his face;
And begun the course that continues
Throughout ages and ages of years;
And heaven and earth resounded
With the music of the spheres
And the morning stars sang together
And all the sons of God
Shouted for joy
Shouted for joy and praised Him;
And all the multitude
Of the isles were glad because of him
And all earth did rejoice,
And every living creature
Was glad at the sound of His voice.
And the man that was new created
Worshipped also adorned,
And the seventh day was thenceforth called
The Sabbath of the Lord
Who also sanctified it
And ordained it a day of rest,
And uninterrupted worship
A holy time and blest;
On that first most holy Sabbath
After creatures birth
All things were pure and there was no sin
In the new created earth;
For only man the Lord had made
Was innocent and blessed
Had no commandment disobeyed
Against no law transgressed;
And the new made man was Adam
And to him God also gave
A helpmeet to be with him
And He called the woman Eve;
And He put them in a garden
Filled with fruits that were fair and sweet,
And he said to them, of all of these
You may freely take and eat;
Save only the tree that is in the midst
I charge you, please pass it by,
For in the day that you eat thereof,
He said, ye shall surely die.
But the serpent tempted the woman
To take of the tree and eat
And the fruit was fair and shapely
And the tasted thereof was sweet;
And she also gave it to her husband
And Adam took from her hand
And ate of the fruit, so both transgressed
Against the Lord’s command;
And a sense of guilt came upon them
A consciousness of sin,
For the knowledge of good and evil
Was hidden that fruit within;
And they feared the God who had made them
And when His voice was heard,
Hid from the presence of the Lord
And God called, Adam where art thou
And Adam trembling said
When I heard Thy voice, I hid myself
Because I was afraid.
And when the Lord accused them
Ye have eaten of the tree,
Each sought excuse and Adam said
The woman tempted me;
And Eve made answer faltering
And trembling at His feet
The serpent Lord, beguiled me
And therefore I did eat.
And the Lord their God with them was wroth
And He cursed the man and the woman both,
And He cursed the serpent that tempted Eve
Above all cattle and things that live
And he drove them out from before his face,
And angels were set to guard the place
From Adam the man and Eve his wife
Lest they should eat of the tree of life,
And live forever in guilt and sin
They were no more suffered to enter in.
And the tree was kept by a flaming sword,
And thus unto Adam spake the Lord
Because thou has eaten of the tree
Where of thou knowest I commanded thee
That thou should’st not eat, I will therefore make
The ground accursed for they sake
Of its fruits in sorrow thou shalt eat
And shalt earn thy bread in toil and sweat.
I shall bring forth also the thistle and thorn
And until thou unto earth return
Thy disobedience thou shalt mourn;
And as from the earth thou was taken forth
So thou shall return again to earth.
Through disobedience thus came sin
And through sin death was ushered in
For sin proveth our God to wrath
And ever the wages of sin is death;
And Adam learned to till the soil
And all his days were day so toil,
He lived nine hundred and thirty years,
Had many sorrows, shed many tears
For Cain, his first born son became
A murderer to his grief and shame;
And slew his brother; whose innocent blood
Cried from the ground to offended God
Ah woeful day! Oh bitter crime!
Men in all ages since that time,
Have lifted impious hands to spill
The blood of their fellowmen until
The earth cries out again and again
For vengeance, as in the days of Cain;
And Cain became a fugitive
And a vagabond, afraid to live,
And tenfold more afraid to die;
For his blood cried constantly
For vengeance on him and he said
From the face of the Lord I shall be hid;
And who so findeth me will slay;
And He said in his shame and guilt and fear
My punishment’s greatedr than
My punishment’s greater than I can bear
And he went away from his father’s face
Bearing the mask of his deep disgrace
And thus were Adam and Eve bereft
Of their two sons, but a third son Seth
Was given to them in Abel’s stead
And in him their hearts were comforted;
And nothing more was of Adam said,
It is only recorded that he died;
And nothing more of many more beside
Save only that they lived and died,
Until Enoch came, who saw no death
For he walked with God, the record sayeth;
And so God took him oh how blessed
Was Enoch, thus to enter rest,
To enter the divine abode
Forevermore to walk with God;
And as men began to multiply
On the face of the earth, they drew not nigh
Unto God, but continually went astray;
And their thoughts were evil continually.
God saw that their wickedness was great
That they ever fell into worse estate;
And the Lord repented Him again
That ever He had created man
For the earth was filled with violence,
Man was corrupt and the evidence
Of sin abounded everywhere,
On the earth that the Lord had made so fair.
And the Lord God said, I will destroy
The work of my hands, I will employ,
The floods of waters upon the land
Save only Noah and they that are his
Shall live because of his righteousness;
For Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord
A just man and perfect, He abhorred
The sin and evil that were abroad,
And he continued to walk to God
And God commanded him to make
An ark for safety, and to take
Of all the living things a pair
Into the ark to preserve them there,
Till the flood of waters should abate
And provide thou food, for the small and great
That they may live, and may not die
And as God commanded, so did he
He built the ark and provisioned it
And took all creatures both small and great,
Into the ark as the Lord had said
All God commanded he obeyed
And the Lord God said unto Noah, Thou
And all thine house shall enter now
For I will cause the rain to fall
For forty days on the earth, til all
That is flesh shall perish of the flood
And thou shalt know that I am God;
And they entered in the door of the Ark
Was closed, and the heavens above grew dark
With awful cloud, and they without
Began to fear and to cast about
For a place of refuge, they had been warned
Of the coming deluge, but had scorned
The exhortation to repent,
And had not believed what the Lord God meant
To destroy the world, trusted not His word
And neither honored nor feared the Lord,
But now when darkness covered the earth
And the deluge began to issue forth
From the clouds that hung over all the land
Fear overcame them on every hand;
And in their awful fear and dread
Of the doom that was come upon them, prayed
That the wrath offended God be stayed
But the windows of heaven were opened wide
No living creature could abide
The awful downpour, nor may hide
From the rushing waters everywhere,
They turned it was only to meet despair.
No safety for them, not any hope
If they sought to gain the mountain top.
Rivers of water were in their track
And the horrible tempest beat them back;
They could not escape their terrible fate
Fear and repentance were come too late;
For what is man? Can he contend
Against Almighty God, whose hand
Holds all the mighty forces hid
In all the elements, and did
Create them all? And can employ
Either to bless, or to destroy;
And the waters rose by day and by night
The loftiest mountains were hid from sight;
Also the fountains of the great deep
Were broken up, there was no escape
On the earth for any living thing
Birds could not continue upon the wing
There there was no spot where they could alight
For rest, so after a weary flight
Through rain and darkness they also fell
And were swallowed up! But the great ark rode
Above the waters and Noah’s God
In perfect peace and safety kept
Its inmates whether they waked or slept
Because had trusted in His word
And obeyed, also feared the Lord;
But the waters prevailed and were increased
Greatly upon the earth! Nor ceased.
The rain ‘til every mount and hill
Covered deeply and until
All living creatures that had breath
Were engulfed and swallowed up in death,
Save only Noah remained alive
And they that were with him did survive
To people the earth afresh, and they
Remained in the ark for many a day.