“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Gen. 1:1.

Do you like stories? Yes, we are sure you do. We like stories too, and the best ones that we ever saw are in the Holy Bible that God sent us.

The Bible is the most wonderful story book in the whole world. There are stories in it for everyone: for gray-haired grandfathers and grandmothers, for fathers and mothers, and for little ones like you. There are stories in it for those who are ill and for those who are well; for those who are poor, and for those who are rich; for the deaf and dumb, and the lame and blind; for those who hate God and for those who love God.

There are stories about Jesus; about the beautiful place and beings where God lives; about the sun, moon, and stars; about men and women, and little boys and girls; about mountains, valleys, and seas, lakes, wells, and springs; about battles, fires, and floods, cities, gardens, and houses; about the wonderful things that live in the water, and the animals that live on dry land; about birds and insects, and trees and flowers, and really we can scarcely think of anything but the Bible tells something about it.

You see God knows everybody and everything, and is perfect and good. No wonder, then, that God’s stories are so much better than men’s. Oh that everyone knew about the good things that are in the Bible for him! Cannot you tell someone about them? We will love these stories because our kind Father in heaven sent them to us, because every word of them is true, and because if we search carefully we can find something precious in every story that will show us how to be good and happy. Shall we not search, as Jesus says, and see what we can find in this precious book?

The first story in the Bible is called “The story of Creation,” because it tells about the creation of something, or how it was made out of nothing. The beautiful heavens above us and the great round earth upon which we live, were not always here. A long, long time ago there was nothing at all here where the heavens and earth now are. But at the beginning of the first day, someone commanded that they be created (that is, made out of nothing), and they were! He just spake and said, Let there be heavens and earth, and there was!

We have seen that no man did it, for men do not know how to make even the smallest thing out of nothing. They can call but it will not come. He who created the heavens and the earth must be much wiser and greater than man. Who is it? If you will open your Bible at the first verse of the Story of Creation you can read for yourself who it is. Please learn it so well that you can say it without looking at it. Listen, this is what it says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Ah, it is the God of heaven, He who knows everything, the Friend who sent us this precious Bible, and who gives us all that we have. What a great, and wise, and good Friend we have! Surely it is safe for us to love and to trust Him with our whole hearts.

1. Do you like stories?
2. Have you any story books?
3. Of all the story books in the world, which is the best?
4. For whom did God have these beautiful stories written?
5. Did He not forget anyone?
6. How wonderful and how good! Do you think man ever could have written such a book? Why not?
7. Can you think of any reasons why we should love these stories better than other stories?
>Do you know what any of these stories are about?
8. Do all people know about the good things in the Bible for them?
9. Cannot you help to tell them? How? By telling those near you, and by giving money to send the preacher and papers and books to those who are far away.
10. What is the first story in the Bible called?
11. Why?
12. What does that mean?
13. And what was it that was made out of nothing? The Bible says that it was the heavens and the earth.
14. What are the heavens?
15. What is the earth?
16. Did your father and mother create them?
17. Did your grandfather do it?
18. Did any man create them?
19. What makes you think that man did not do it?
20. Then what kind of Being must have done it? One who is much wiser and greater than any man.
21. Please repeat the first verse in your Bible.
22. Who, then, does it say created them?
23. By whom did He create them? Jesus Christ, His Son. Eph. 3:9; John 1:1-3; Col. 1:12-19.
24. What was it He created?
25. And what does created mean?
26. How did He make them out of nothing? Ps. 33:6, 9; 148:5.
27. Say the verse once more. When does it say He created them?

The Present Truth – August 10, 1893
E. J. Waggoner

Story in pdf The Story of Creation