Atlanta Daily World

ATLANTA DAILY WORLD ATLANTA GA

THERE ARE SERMONS IN STONES. BOOKS IN RUNNING BROOKS

By REV. WILLIAM LYSLES

Somebody said something about sermons in stones and books in brooks. I do not recall the exact words nor attendant facts but have a vague idea of what it was about. I believe the author meant that stones, brooks and the inanimate things of creation speak and write in language by far transcending the vocabulary of humans. It is not my desire to humanize rocks nor personify rivulets but I have sat more than once by an unearthed stratum of the "Bones of the earth" and listened to them as they spoke to me in no uncertain terms of a by-gone past. They enfolded a romance of prehistoric revelers who ante-dated the coming of man on this planet. In a forensic surpassing that of the apostles, these rocks told of a tragedy that gripped the denizens of prehistoric times. These messages are there, written by the moving finger of time.

Sit by a brook as it babbles in lisping rhythm a message in the lisping rhythm a message in the language of the Gods. A poet once listened to a brook and heard it say, "Men may come and men may go but I go on forever." In the language of the brook, one may learn many secrets beginning with the rain drop, ending in the sea. What of its trying experiences when it zeal against everating winds, to overcome obstacles that would block its path as it winds a devious route to find repose in the briny deep. The soil that is moistened, the cattle and animals that are watered, the creatures that are fed by food carried on the breast of the brook are but a few lines in the lyric of its life.

There are sermons in stones and books in brooks but few there are who can hear or read. Thousands of motorists pass Stone Mountain in quest of sights of interest. They only saw a huge rock of granite - the largest solid rock in the world. One day a sculptor stood and looked at that same rock and saw General Lee and an army marching out from its hard surface.