Who Am I?

If anybody can figure this out, and I see you on a regular basis, I will bake you a batch of cookies. It was written by a woman in California in 1880, in response to a challenge by a gentleman in Philidelphia who said that he could figure out any poem. The challenge was, if there was a poem he could not figure out, he would pay the auther $1,000. An eight year old boy figured it out, so the gentleman obviously wasn't as smart as he thought.

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

My whole body God made complete,
Without arms or hands or feet.
My ways and acts did God control,
But in my body He placed no soul.

A living being I became,
And Adam gave to me a name.
Then from his presence I withdrew,
For this man Adam I never knew.

All my Maker's laws I do obey,
And from these laws I never stray.
Thousands of me go in fear,
but seldom in the earth appear.

Later, for a purpose God did see,
He placed a living soul in me.
But that soul of mine God had to claim,
And from me took it back again.

And when this soul from me had fled,
I was the same as when first made;
Without arms, legs, feet, or soul
I travel on from pole to pole.

My labors are from day to night,
And to men I once furnished light.
Thousands of people both young and old
Did by my death bright lights behold.

No right or wrong can I conceive:
The Bible and its teachings I can't believe.
The fear of death doesn't trouble me;
Pure happiness I will never see.

And up in Heaven I can never go,
Nor in the grave or Hell below.
So get your Bible and read with care.

Here is a clue, the answer is one word five letters long.