In the Beginning God

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 31, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 21.

“In the Beginning God”

With these simple yet sublime words the Book of books opens. It does not begin with an apology. It offers no introduction as an excuse for the revelation. It presents no preface as an argument that the book is given to meet a “long-felt want.”

The Bible does not stop to argue about the beginning. Man can not comprehend it; it is beyond human comprehension. All the theories, fancies, dreams, hypotheses, present no solution of the subject. They may hark back to imagined unknown eons of oblivion, but before that was the beginning. With sublime simplicity and clear directness the Bible goes to the beginning and reveals its Author—“In the beginning God.”

The universe is not a meaningless chaos or a cosmos which evolved from chaos to drift back again to the same condition. God is in its beginning; God is in its upholding; God has charge all the way.

But not for a disquisition on science or theology did we use the text. It has a deeper, better meaning than that. It is a suggestion, nay, more, an invitation, to bring God into the life, into the beginning of every day, every plan, every purpose, every scheme, every bargain, every deal, every enterprise, every transaction. Let Him be first. Make room for Him on the council board. Many a legal entanglement would have been saved if God had been first. Many a good reputation would not have been ruined if God had been consulted. Many a sad ending would not have resulted if God had been in its beginning.

Then plead we with our busy business men to make God first. It is wisdom, it is economy, it is safety; but more than these, it is righteousness, it is character, it is life forevermore. “In the beginning God.”