Biology in the Bible

A Little BIOLOGY in the Good Book:

1Ki 4.33 …he [Solomon] spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: 1Ki 10.27…the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones & cedars made he to be as the sycamore trees that are in the vale… 2Ki 19.30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, & bear fruit upward. Job 10.11Thou hast clothed me with skin & flesh, & hast fenced me with bones & sinews. Job 12.7…ask now the beasts, & they shall teach thee; & the fowls of the air, & they shall tell thee: Isa 17.10…therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, & shalt set it with strange slips: Isa 41.19…the cedar, the shittah tree…the myrtle…the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree…the pine…the box tree…7 trees – 1 vs Eze 31.5 …boughs were multiplied & his branches became long because of the multitude of waters Hos 1.8 Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, & bare a son.

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Bryan – converted to Jesus Christ

ON THIS DATE

Edgar A Bryan was converted to Jesus Christ, 4/26/1956, in the village of Bremen, OH.  It was at the old  Pilgrim Holiness Church, (in town) then pastored by the impressive J D (John Denver) Webb, Sr. (father of evangelist Orlow C Webb).  It was a Thursday night revival service.  The evangelist is not remembered but could have been Bro Howard Williams as the Williams were at Bremen more than once in those years.

Yours truly was raised (youngest of four) in the Christian home of Clyde D & Ruth E Bryan & knew better than to use “four letter” language around them, but had picked up a foul-mouth habit, which was practiced at school in Somerset.  The next day on lunch break four or five of us were returning to campus from eating “down town” when I, from habit used the word “h_ _ l.”  It was said without thinking but immediately I felt badly.  I told the rest of the guys to go on & as I walked slowly up the alley I asked God to forgive me – He did, restored the joy to my heart, & to God be the glory, I have never said that word “as a bad word” since.  I cannot testify that I never sinned after that Spring Thursday night but I can say it was THE major turning point.  Though at times I yielded to temptation the set of my soul was toward God & heaven.

That conversion kept me through the last weeks of the 7^th grade, all the 8^th grade, & propelled me toward God’s Bible School.  The decision to go there (some 140 miles of two-lane road away) was a mutual one between my God-loving parents & 14½ yours truly. All four years of high school were spent at God’s Bible School.  There I made many life-long friends.  There I participated in the famous Thanksgiving Dinners. There I held my first job (off campus) at Jewish Hospital.  There I attended my first IHC – never forgot the night I heard H Robb French. And, there I met my life-love, the former Martha M Scarbrough.

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Cromwell – born

ON THIS DATE

Oliver Cromwell was born 4/25/1599 at Huntingdon, England.  He received his education at the grammar school in Huntingdon (now Cromwell Museum) & at Cambridge.  He converted to being a Puritan at 28.

In August of 1620, Oliver Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourchier, born in 1598 the oldest of 12. Their marriage was a happy one.  While on a campaign in Scotland, Oliver wrote Elizabeth, ‘Thou art dearer to me than any creature; let that suffice’ & ‘My Dearest, I could not satisfy myself to omit this post, although I have not much to write; yet indeed I love to write to my dear, who is very much in my heart. It joys me to hear thy soul prospereth; the Lord increase His favours to thee more and more…The Lord bless all thy good counsel and example to all those about thee, and hear all thy prayers, and accept thee always’.  Only one letter to Oliver survived (December 1650) in which Elizabeth writes, ‘Truly my lif is but half a lif in your abseinse, deid not the Lord make it up in heimself, which I must ackoleg to the prase of heis grace’.

Cromwell was a notable military leader in England’s “civil war” & became “Lord Protector” (1653 to death). He, who’s been called “Chief of Men” & a “Brave Bad Man,” is said to have made the following contributions: 1) established a period of peace in England, Scotland & Ireland,  2) made England an “world power,”  3) established non-conformity i.e. living separate from the established church.  He died 9/3/1658.

Cromwell Quotes:

“No one rises so high as he who knows not whither he is going.”

“What is all our histories but God showing himself, shaking & trampling on everything that he has not planted.”

“I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”

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Samuel Zwemer – born “Apostle to Islam”

ON THIS DATE

Samuel Marinus Zwemer was born 4/12/1867, Vriesland, MI, 13^th child of a full-blooded Dutch couple.  His father pastored the local Dutch Reformed Church & mother dedicated Samuel to God “as she laid him in his cradle.”  He graduated from Hope Academy & College (BA) & New Brunswick Seminary (BD 1890). 

Still at Hope he offered himself for work among the Muslims.  He & his classmate, James Cantine, moved to Basra on the Persian Gulf & later moved the mission to Cairo.  Arabia & Egypt were home for him from 1890-1929, first doing evangelism then writing/publishing.  He became known as “The Apostle to Islam.” Though he personally saw few Moslems converted he showed the need to reach them & inspired others.

It was while Zwemer was a part of the Church Missionary Society in Arabia (1890-1913) that he met Amy Elizabeth Wilkes.  He & this fellow missionary were married 5/18/1896. 1929-1937.  He was professor of the history of religion & Christian missions at Princeton Theological Seminary & later taught at the Biblical Seminary of New York & at Nyack Missionary Training Institute.  He died 4/2/1952.

He called Islam the “Calvinism of the Orient,” & saw their grasp of Monotheism as a great strength AND also a great deficiency; for without an “understanding of the Trinity, God was unknowable and impersonal.”

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Wordsworth – born

ON THIS DATE

William Wordsworth was born 4/7/1770 at Cockermouth, Cumbria, England, the 2^nd of 5 children of John & Anne (Cookson) Wordsworth. William’s “mum” died in 1778: he was sent to Hawkshead Grammar School where he penned his first poems. While at Hawkshead his dad also died.  By 1787 he was at St John’s College, Cambridge.  During one summer vacation (1788) he trekked through Cumberland county & later Wales. Before graduation he did the “European Gentleman thing” – a walking tour of France, Switzerland & Germany.  While there he came to an understanding/sympathy with the French Revolution.

After returning to England he & his younger sister, Dorothy, were re-united.  Also he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge; they published Lyrical Ballads, containing his “Tintern Abbey” & Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”  By 1802 he felt he could financially afford to marry & did. He bride was Mary Hutchinson, friend from his childhood.  They were blessed with 5 children but sadly 2 of them died, Catherine & John. Following the death of Robert Southey (1843) Wordsworth became Poet Laureate.  He died 4/23/1850; his wife Mary published The Prelude, considered his most famous work 3 months later.

Wordsworth Quotes:

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”

“Come grow old with me. The best is yet to be.”

“The World Is Too Much With Us…”

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– AVAILABLE –

Jerusalem Paper (imaginary ad)    – AVAILABLE –

Ÿ 1 Cross

Ÿ Used less than half a day (in that time bore the “weight of the world”)

Ÿ Rough – has three nails embedded in its fiber

Ÿ Heavily blood stained – no bone fragments

Ÿ Comes with placard – words in Hebrew, Greek, Latin

– eab, 4/20/11

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Booker T Washington – born

ON THIS DATE

Booker T (Taliaferro) Washington was born 4/4/1856, a Black who did much for his people & poor whites of the south by teaching them trades & self-reliance. He was born to slave parents & learned early to work hard in secular employment.  He was so poor when he went looking for an education he had to sleep under a board sidewalk. He applied himself & at 16 enrolled at Hampton Institute & Industrial School, graduated at 19.

He taught school for three years, then attended Wayland Seminary, WDC. At 25 he opened a school for black youths at Tuskugee, AL with 50 students in two old buildings. At his death (age 59) there were 40 buildings, 1500 students, & a faculty of 200.  By then some 8,000 young African Americans had been trained had become useful citizens.  His secret to success?  Faith in God.  He died 11/14/1915. His biography is worth reading; it’s called

Up from Slavery.                                                                                       

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Albert Pike – died

ON THIS DATE – Warning – not a positive post – we need sometimes to know about evil around us.

4/2/1891 is the death date of Albert Pike. He was born 12/15/1809, Boston, son of Benjamin & Sarah Pike. He attended Harvard, married Mary Hamilton 1834(?), & became a lawyer. In 1840 he had joined the international Order of Odd Fellows & soon became a Mason; by 1859 he was Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rites Southern Jurisdiction. The same year Harvard gave him an honorary MA.

When the war came Pike chose the rebel side & became a Brigadier-General. Some evil was done & he hid in the hills of Arkansas. After the uncivil war he was found guilty of treason & incarcerated but was pardoned by another Mason, President Andrew Johnson. Johnson became a Mason 5/5/1851 but after pardoning Pike he was soon a 33^rd degree Mason. (Sadly some 15+ presidents have been Masons.)

Pike was a member of the KKK & is said to have had direct communication with satan. Pike belonged to another devious group – the Illuminati. It was started in 5/1/1776 (think “May Day”).  By 1834 it selected the rebel Giusseppe Mazzini, a 33^rd degree Mason, to head worldwide operations & Mazzini asked Pike to head the Illuminati’s American division.

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William R Newell – died

ON THIS DATE

William Reed Newell died 4/1/1956, at Deland, FL. He was born 5/22/1868, at Savannah, OH, a town northwest of Ashland. He attended Moody Bible Institute where his young, undisciplined life began to take shape.  He returned to OH, attended & graduated from Wooster College (southeast of Ashland) in 1891.  Neither parent’s name came to light & as no wife or children are mentioned he may (?) have not married.

Following studies at both Princeton & Oberlin he took a pastorate in Chicago (Bethesda Congregational Church).  In 1895 MBI invited Newell to be their assistant superintendent under R.A. Torrey.  While here he held Bible classes & from these came his works Romans Verse-by-Verse, Hebrews Verse-by-Verse, & The Book of Revelation.  It was also at Moody that he wrote his well-known song “At Calvary.” 

“Years I spent in vanity and pride, Caring not my Lord was crucified,

Knowing not it was for me He died on Calvary.

Refrain

Mercy there was great, and grace was free; Pardon there was multiplied to me;

There my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary.”

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Alaska bought from Russia

ON THIS DATE

USA bought Alaska from Russia 3/30/1867, being one of the greatest real estate deals – both in space & best price per square mile – of all time.  It was purchased for 7.2 million or about $0.02 (2 cents) per acre.

A move was afoot for this USA – Russian sale before the uncivil war.  Following it, Eduard Stekl, Russian’s envoy to Washington, negotiated the talks. Of the $7.2 million one source says $165,000 (a lot of money in that day) was used to bribe some U.S. senators & newspapermen.  It is said to have passed senate by one vote & was called “Seward’s Follie” “Seward’s Icebox” – a term you may have to explain to some.

The Russians had discovered the Alaska mainland in an expedition led by Vitus Bering (a Dane) in 1741.  The first Russian settlement was established 8/14/1784 & the first Russian Orthodox Church in the west was started 1795 (in Kodiak). It wasn’t until 2/22/1825, that Russia & Britain established the Alaska/Canada boundary. A quote heard in 1985 & one that has few exceptions is, “Every man that visits Alaska either returns or always wants to.”  The following was written while in AK some years ago:

Pointed  Trees

To humanly count the pointed trees,

Guarding just one cool, Alaskan stream,

Could take a life-time, if you please,

(And t’would be a nightmare – not a dream).

 

Trees are there whom no man has yet seen,

All awkwardly pointing to the sky,

An odd blend of black, gray, and green,

Silent, except for the wind’s sad cry.

 

From seedling to youth, to great old age,

They stand rooted in the northern sod,

Of wonders they’re just on more page,

Mute life, glorifying their high God.

– eab,  9/16/06

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