The Harp of God | Page 7

ten strings of David's harp? ? 26.
Name the ten fundamental truths represented by the strings on the harp. ? 26.
How can one learn to use the harp of God? ? 27.
What effect is produced upon one who skillfully uses the harp? ? 27.

OMNIPOTENT GOD
Harps of eternity! begin the song, Redeemed, and angel harps! begin to God, Begin the anthem ever sweet and new, While I extol Him holy, just, and good. Life, beauty, light, intelligence, and love! Eternal, uncreated, infinite! Unsearchable Jehovah! God of truth! Maker, upholder, governor of all: Thyself unmade, ungoverned, unupheld. Omnipotent, unchangeable, Great God! Exhaustless fullness! giving unimpaired! Bounding immensity, unspread, unbound! Highest and best! beginning, middle, end. All-seeing Eye! all-seeing, and unseen! Hearing, unheard! all knowing, and unknown! Above all praise! above all height of thought! Proprietor of immortality! Glory ineffable! Bliss underived! Of old Thou build'st Thy throne on righteousness, Before the morning Stars their song began, Or silence heard the voice of praise. Thou laid'st Eternity's foundation stone, and saw'st Life and existence out of Thee begin.
--Pollok
[Illustration]
CHAPTER II
String 1: Creation
The subject of creation here treated relates particularly to the earth and the creatures of the earth, the chief one of which is man. We will not attempt to discuss at length the creation of other planets, nor of the other creatures. Attention is merely called to the Scriptural statement that the beginning of God's creation was the Logos, which term is translated in our Bibles "the Word". The record reads: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with [the] God and the Word was [a] god". (John 1:1) God is a name applied to Jehovah, the Almighty One. It is sometimes applied to other mighty ones also; whereas the name Jehovah applies exclusively to the great eternal God. The Logos, the Word, was a god, a mighty one. "The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." He was Jehovah's great active agent in the creation of all things created.
[29]Since the Bible was written for man's benefit, the Genesis account of creation has to do with man and his place of habitation. There we read: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". He created the sun, for light by day; and the moon, for light by night, upon the earth. God then created the birds and fowls that fly through the air, and the fish of the sea. He created the cattle and the creeping things, and all the beasts of the earth. All this was before the creation of man. He had formed the earth many centuries before man's creation, and he created it that man might have a place to live. He caused his prophet to write: "I have made the earth and created man upon it. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited."--Isaiah 45:12,18.
[30]God created the first man and woman out of the elements and gave them power to produce and bring forth children, and all the human race sprang from the first pair. God was the Father and the earth the mother of Adam. The first man was named Adam; the first woman, Eve. "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 fill the earth, and subdue 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."--Genesis 1: 27,28.
[31]We are all interested in knowing how Jehovah created the first man, Adam. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7) God did not give man a soul separate and distinct from the man. The word soul means being; living, breathing creature. Every man is a soul. No man has a soul. Every living creature is a soul. God called all moving creatures that have life souls. (See Genesis 1:20, margin) He designates various animals as souls.--Numbers 31:28.
[32]Jehovah then made a beautiful home for man, which is designated in the Bible as Eden--a garden, a beautiful park. Everything in Eden was perfect, because all the works of Jehovah are perfect. (Deuteronomy 32:4) "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant