A riddle

My MIL and her husband do monthly contests. It's been fun seeing the competitiveness come out. Grandma (MIL's mom) thought she'd get in on the action. I enjoyed watching my husband search to find the answer to this riddle so I thought I'd share it with you. This is exactly what we received:


Can you guess this?

Many years ago a prominent merchant promised an eccentric old woman named Lucy King, living in a neighboring town, a prize, if, taking her subject from the Bible, she would compose a riddle which he could not guess. She won with the following:

Adam God made out of dust,
But thought it best to make me first;
So I was made before the man,
To answer God's most holy plan.

My body God did make complete,
But without arms, or legs, or feet;
My ways and acts He did control,
But to my body gave no soul.

A living being I became,
And Adam gave to me my name;
I from his presence then withdrew,
And more of Adam never knew.

I did my Maker's law obey,
Nor from it ever went astray;
Thousands of miles I go in fear,
But seldom on the earth appear.

For purpose wise, which God did see,
He put a living soul in me,
A soul from me my God did claim,
And took from me that soul again.

For when 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 and 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 Scriptures 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 ne'er shall see;
To Heaven I shall never go,
Or to the grave, or hell below.
Now when these lines you slowly read,
Go search the Bible with all speed;
For that my name's recorded there,
I honestly to you declare.