(_b_) It is G.o.d alone who can tell us about this time.

(_c_) G.o.d, who made all that has a beginning, Himself had no beginning.

This means that there never was a time, no matter how long ago, when G.o.d was not. If you think back, back, even to the time when there was no sky, no earth, no great ocean, you can never come to a time when there was no G.o.d.

(_d_) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with G.o.d, and the Word was G.o.d. The same was in the beginning with G.o.d." The "Word" is one of the names of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to this world that He might show us how very much G.o.d His Father loves us, and who could say, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."

For He who was once born a little child in this world and laid in the manger at Bethlehem, and who grew up in the home of Joseph and Mary at Nazareth, is the Same who was "in the beginning with G.o.d," for He "was G.o.d."

This is what G.o.d has told us about His great Eternity, when Time, with its days and weeks and months and years, had not begun.

"TIME AND ETERNITY.

"How long sometimes a day appears!

And weeks, how long are they!

Months move as slow as if the years Would never pa.s.s away.

"It seems a long, long time ago That I was taught to read; And since I was a babe, I know 'Tis very long indeed.

"Days, months, and years are pa.s.sing by, And soon will all be gone; And day by day, as minutes fly, Eternity comes on.

"Days, months and years must have an end; Eternity has none.

'Twill always have as long to spend As when it first begun.

"Great G.o.d! no finite mind can tell How much a thing can be: I only pray that I may dwell That long, long time _with Thee_."

JANE TAYLOR.

RUIN AND DARKNESS.

"_Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of G.o.d, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear._"--HEBREWS xi. 3.

"_Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places._"--PSALM cx.x.xv. 6.

There are three words which G.o.d has used to tell us about His work which we call "The Creation."

We read, "In the beginning G.o.d created the heaven and the earth."

"And G.o.d made two great lights."

"And the Lord G.o.d formed man."

"Created," "made," "formed," these are the words; and it is of the first of them we shall speak a little to-day.

Before my children came, I had been thinking how I could make it plain to the little ones that there is a very great difference between being able to create and being able to make anything. It happened that when they came in they were all talking so fast, of something which had greatly delighted them, that it was some time before I could find out what it was all about.

At last Sharley told me that as they were racing along with their hoops a strange dog had followed them, and rubbed his nose against their hands, wanting to make friends with them.

"We are quite sure it is n.o.body's dog," she said; "or at any rate it is a dog that has lost its master, and has no home now. So after lessons we are going to call it, and get it to follow us home. It is waiting for us outside the door this minute."

"And I am going to make a kennel for it," said Ernest, who was very fond of sawing and hammering away in the shed behind, the house, and wished to be a carpenter, when he grew up; "at least, I am going to try, and I think I can."

I may as well tell you at once that this little stray dog soon got tired of waiting, outside the door. When lessons were over, and the children went to look, no doggie was to be found; and as they did not know his name it was not easy to call him. I have no doubt he found his own master and his own home again, and was much better off there than he would have been in the best kennel Ernest could have made, with seven boys and girls to take him for a walk every day.

However that may be, I tell you of this dog because it was while Ernest was talking about making a house for it that I was saying to myself, "I wonder whether this plan of Ernest's about making a kennel will help them to understand, what I so much want them to learn, about the difference which there is between the words make and create."

First of all I had to tell them not to talk any more just then, but to repeat their verses. Then we read--more than once--for Leslie and d.i.c.k would not have liked to miss their turn, and there were not enough verses for each to read one--what G.o.d has told us in the first five verses of His book.

"In the beginning G.o.d created the heaven and the earth.

"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of G.o.d moved upon the face of the waters.

"And G.o.d said, Let there be light: and there was light.

"And G.o.d saw the light, that it was good: and G.o.d divided the light from the darkness.

"And G.o.d called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."

When we had finished I asked Chrissie what it means when we read that "G.o.d created the heaven and the earth." Why is the word "created" used? Would any other word have done instead of that one?

Chrissie said no other word would do, because to create means to make out of nothing. He was right, was he not?

The next question was, "Why is create a word which can never be used except when we are speaking of G.o.d?"

I don't know who answered, but someone gave the right reason--"Because only G.o.d can make a thing be when there was nothing before it; nothing to make it out of."

This seems quite plain, does it not? But do you know there was once a boy, who did not believe that he could not create things until he had tried to make something out of nothing, and found that only nothing came. He was quite sure he could create anything if he only told it to come; so at last his teacher said, "You had better try."

He was only a very little boy, so he thought he would try, and up he got and stood as straight as he could on his chair, while he said with a loud voice, "Fishes, be!"

Perhaps it was a good thing that this boy should thus prove for himself that it is only G.o.d who can create anything; only G.o.d of whom it could be said, "He spake, and it was done."

I did not tell this little story to the children, but I said to Leslie, "You heard Ernest say just now that he was going to make a kennel for your stray doggie; do you think he could make one?" Leslie thought perhaps he might if he worked very hard; and then I asked them all whether, if he worked very hard, day and night, for a long, long time, Ernest could create a kennel?

"No, indeed he could not. He never could, no matter how hard he worked."

Everybody was sure of this; for even little d.i.c.k quite understood that if the cleverest and handiest boy in the world were told that he must make a box, he could not even begin to make the commonest box unless he had something given him to make it out of, and something too to make it with.

"He would need wood," they said, "and nails, and a hammer and saw; and if it were to be a nice box, to last long, he would want paint, and a lock and key, and hinges; and if he wished everyone to know that it was his own box, he must mark it with his name when it was finished."

Now I am sure you quite understand that this word "created," which you find in the very first verse of your Bible, is a word which you must not forget to notice whenever it is used, because it is a wonderful word, which can be used only in speaking of G.o.d, the Creator, and of the Son of G.o.d, by whom and for whom all the things that we can see, and all that we cannot see, were created; and in whose power they stand together.

Now I want you to read again very carefully the verses which we have read, and to notice that we have only one verse to tell us what G.o.d did at the beginning; this one verse explains that it was then that He created the heaven and the earth. This is all that G.o.d has told us, and it is just what we need to know; for how could we ever have found out by what means this earth of ours came into being, at the very first, if G.o.d had not been pleased to tell us that He created it?

But what a happy thing it is just to listen to the account which G.o.d Himself gives us, telling how the heaven and the earth came into being!

One who simply receives G.o.d's word into his heart will understand more than the cleverest man who ever lived, who tries by his own mind to search into the beginning of things, and to account for all that we now see around us by any other way. We read, "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of G.o.d." Faith does not wait till it sees, but believes what G.o.d says, because He says it. We may say that we cannot understand what creation is, but we can find rest for our restless thoughts by saying "Yes" to all that G.o.d has told us--and the very first line of His Book explains all that we need to know about, how the heaven and the earth came into being, when it tells us that G.o.d created them in the beginning.