A Riddle: Who Am I?
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. The answer is one word and appears only four times in the Bible.
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 pale to pale,
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."