Nature in the Bible by Rev. George Rogers

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 30, 1879

Nature in the Bible.

By Rev. George Rogers

Is nature in your Bible? Are the works of nature there? Are the beauties of creation there?

What! in a book that is inspired to reveal to us the things which are not seen and are eternal, and to lift the veil that hides God himself and all futurity from our view?

Yes, nature is there.

Is the sun there? Yes, it shines upon us in the word of God about 130 times. Is the moon there? Yes, it breaks from behind the clouds about 50 times. Are the stars there? Yes, in distinct constellations, in single stars, or in their united host, about 500 times. Are clouds there? Yes, more than 100 times. Are mountains there, and hills? Yes, the mountains rise to view about 200, and the hills 130 times. Is the sea there? Yes, it may be seen from different points of view 250 times. Are rivers there? Yes, 120 times. Are trees there? Yes, the palm-tree and the sycamore, the cedar and the oak, the olive and the vine, the fig-tree and the myrtle, the fir-tree and the box-tree together. Are flowers there? Yes, the rose and the lily are there; but flowers are not so abundant there, as the flowery preaching of some might lead us to suppose. Are springs and lakes there, dewdrops and floods, the winds and whirlwinds? Yes, and in all the changes of the seasons. There are minerals and precious stones in all their variety. There are animals, too, in their different tribes: “All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.” These are not always there as emblems, but still they are there; and, though in some cases historically only, they are frequently introduced for illustration of Bible truths and are inseparably connected with them.

We know that the Son of God has come in the flesh, by the print of his footsteps in the fields, in the wilderness, and on the mountain side. Going forth with his disciples one morning at sunrise, he said, “I am the light of the world.” After feeding the multitude in the wilderness, he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Sitting by the well of Samaria he said, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Passing by a vine-tree he said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” Observing a shepherd folding his flock at eventide, he said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”

There is no need to visit Palestine to see the image which our Lord has left of himself in the natural world; to look upon the veritable well by which he sat, and the lake by which he taught, and the garden in which he agonized, and the spot on which he was crucified, and the mount from which he ascended to where he was before. He put himself in every rising sun, in all bread, in all rivers and fountains, in all gardens and cornfields, in all sheepfolds, and, in fact, in all nature; and there he is still, and there we may see him and converse with him still. —Rev. George Rogers.