“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” Ps. 139:6.

Did you ever go out-of-doors on a bright sunshiny day and look up at the clear blue sky? Isn’t it beautiful? The sun, how bright it is! And at night, there are the pretty twinkling stars and the great shining moon. This beautiful place above you that looks so blue, and where you see the sun, and moon, and stars, is called “the heavens.”

But the ground upon which you walk and upon which people build their houses, and plant their gardens, this is called “the earth.” It is not flat and level like the floor, but the earth is round like a ball or orange, only it is so large the trees can grow on it; so large that cattle can graze and wild beasts roam, upon it; so large that thousands of men and women can live on it, and many little children do. In some places it is soft and green; in some parts it is covered with tall and thick forests, then again it is steep and rough, covered with great hills, so high that when you look up you can scarcely see the tops of them; but in some parts there are no hills at all, but quiet little ponds of water where the white water lilies grow, and silvery fishes play among their long stems. On other parts of the earth there are no ponds, but there are great plains of sand; and still other parts it is covered with water stretching away farther than you can see on every side; and on other places as you go round the wonderful ball, can be seen drifts upon drifts of snow and mountains of blue ice, even in the summer time. You can see clear round your ball, and can hold it in one hand, but the earth is so large round that you can see only a small part of it at one time, and you can hold but a few grains of it in your hand. Men can go round the earth, and surely as a fly can go round your ball, only it takes a great many days. The earth has many other strange things upon it, which we have not time even to mention.

Did you ever see a man building a house? How many things he must have before he can build it! He must have stone and timber, and nails, and slates or tiles, and brick and mortar, and hinges, and knobs, and glass, and locks, and many, many other things. Before he can make a fence he must have wood, or wire, or stone, or iron. The shoemaker must have leather before he can make your boots. Your mother must have cloth before she can make your clothes, and flour before she can make up the bread. Look around the house and see if you can tell what men had to have before they could make the chairs, and tables, and stove, and grates, and dishes, and carpets. Men and women and even little children can make many fine things, but did you ever think that they always have to have something to make them out of? No man or woman or child knows how to make things out of nothing.

And yet we read in our Bible that this great earth upon which we live, and the beautiful heavens above us, were all created; and that means that they were made out of nothing! Who could have done it? Surely not man, for he does not know how to make even the smallest thing out of nothing. It must be someone who is much wiser and greater than man. Do you remember who it is?

1. What do we call the beautiful place above us where we see the sun, and moon, and stars?
2. Have you a ball? What kind?
3. Is it flat like a book, or of what shape is it?
4. What do we call the great round ball of ground upon which we live, and build our houses, and plant our gardens?
5. Which is larger, your ball, or the earth?
6. How large is the earth?
7. Name some of the things that we see on the earth.
8. What did the man need before he could make your ball?
9. What must a man have before he can build a house?
10. What did the shoemaker need to have before he could make your boots?
11. What must your mamma have before she can make up the bread?
12. Did you ever make anything?
13. What did you have to have before you could do it?
14. Did you ever create anything, that is, make it out of nothing?
15. Did your father?
16. Did your mother?
17. Why not?
18. Cannot some of your friends create things? Why not?
19. Of what does the Bible say the beautiful heavens and earth were made?
20. Then was it created by man?
21. Who did it?

The Present Truth – August 3, 1893
E. J. Waggoner

Story in pdf Man Cannot Create