The great full moon, like a ball of molten iron, was rising in the east.
It plowed a silver path across the river. Fireflies glimmered and
sparkled in the dusky shadows of the meadow and in and out of the garden
shrubs. The merry chirping of the crickets and the low hum of insect
voices filled the air. Down by the creek the whip-poor-will told his one
story over and over.
"A story from the Big Book!" repeated Uncle Robert. "There are so many
and they are all so wonderful. Ever since man was created he has read
stories in the earth, water, and sky, and in all living things.
Everything he has found in Nature helps him to live and grow wiser and
better. We could never understand printed books unless we studied the
Big Book. The more we read what God has written the more we shall want
to read what other people have found out and put into printed books.
The true desire to read these books springs from our love and study of
Nature.
"It was written for many years that the sun moved around the earth. But
Copernicus studied the sun, earth, and stars anew, and he showed that
the printed books were wrong by proving that the earth moved around the
sun. Galileo read the same story through the telescope that he made.
"Steam had always been a very common thing. Hot vapor had risen from
heated water ever since fire was discovered, but the real story of steam
had not been read until Watt sat long hours by a boiling teakettle. Then
came the locomotive, the railroad, and mighty engines driving wheels
that work for man."
"Wasn't that a good story to read from the Big Book!" said Frank.
"Lightning had flashed and thunder rolled throughout the ages. Men
feared, wondered, and worshiped that mighty hidden power. Franklin
looked straight at the forked lightning and asked, 'What are you?' The
answer came in the telegraph that is fast making the nations of the
earth one great family. Bell listened long and carefully to sounds, and
now I can talk from New York to my friends in Chicago.
"Are not these stories from the Big Book as wonderful as miracles? These
are only a few of the many stories that have been read. Countless more
will be read when children really open their eyes to the 'law of the
Lord that converteth the soul.' Great men and great minds have road
Nature's revelation in the past, but the time is coming when you and I
and all children will read every day and hour the hidden things that
surround us like light and press upon us like air. The Creator is
writing the Big Book all the time for us--His children. Should we not
read what He says there?"
The children did not understand all that Uncle Robert said, yet they
loved to listen.
"We have found that our farm is a very interesting page of the Book,"
said Mrs. Leonard.
"Yes, that is the precious thing about it all.
"Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur or see it glisten."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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