MEDITATIONS AND MEMORIES

I had this riddle for years. I gave it to my son when he was a young man and it did not take him long to figure it out. Some of you have probably seen it. If not, it is a challenge. Try it! This riddle was written by a lady in California in response to an offer from a gentleman in Philadelphia, that he would pay anyone $1,000 who could write a puzzle he could not solve. He failed to solve it and paid the money. Adam, God made out of dust, But thought it best to make me first, So I was made before now, To answer God's most holy plan, A living being I became, And Adam gave to me my name, I from his presence then withdrew, And more of Adam I never knew. I did my Maker's law obey, Nor never went from it astray, Thousands of miles I go in fear, But seldom on earth appear, For purpose wise which God did see, He put a living soul in me, A soul from me God did claim, And took from me the soul had fled, I was the same as when first made, And without hands or feet or soul, I travel on from pole to pole, I labor hard by day, by night, To fallen man I give great light, Thousands of people, young and old, Will by my death great light behold, No right or wrong can I conceive, The Scripture I cannot believe Although my name therein is found, They are to me an empty sound, No fear of death doth trouble me, Real happiness I'll never see, To Heaven I shall never go, or to Hell below. Now when these lines you slowly read Go search your Bible with all speed, For that my name is written there, I do honestly to you declare, "The answer is ONE word."