Chapter 6—The Book of Nature
An Unfailing Source of Instruction—Next to the Bible, nature
is to be our great lesson book
To the little child, not yet capable of learning from the printed
page or of being introduced to the routine of the schoolroom, nature
presents an unfailing source of instruction and delight. The heart not
yet hardened by contact with evil is quick to recognize the Presence
that pervades all created things. The ear as yet undulled by the world’s
clamor is attentive to the Voice that speaks through nature’s utterances.
And for those of older years, needing continually its silent reminders
of the spiritual and eternal, nature’s teaching will be no less a source
of pleasure and of instruction
Used as a Textbook in Eden—The whole natural world is de-
signed to be an interpreter of the things of God. To Adam and Eve in
their Eden home, nature was full of the knowledge of God, teeming
with divine instruction. To their attentive ears it was vocal with the
voice of wisdom. Wisdom spoke to the eye and was received into the
heart, for they communed with God in His created works
The book of nature, which spread its living lessons before them,
afforded an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. On every
leaf of the forest and stone of the mountains, in every shining star, in
earth and sea and sky, God’s name was written. With both the animate
and the inanimate creation—with leaf and flower and tree, and with
every living creature, from the leviathan of the waters to the mote
in the sunbeam—the dwellers in Eden held converse, gathering from
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each the secrets of its life. God’s glory in the heavens, the innumerable
worlds in their orderly revolutions, “the balancings of the clouds” (
Job
37:16
), the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night—all were
objects of study by the pupils of earth’s first school
1
Testimonies For The Church 6:185
.
2
Education, 100
.
3
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 186
.
4
Education, 21
.
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