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Page 73
It is well known that water does not fill the space it occupies.
We can put eight or ten similar bulks of different substances into
a glass of water without greatly increasing its bulk, some actually
diminishing it. A philosopher has said that the atoms of oxygen
and hydrogen are probably not nearer to each other in water than
one hundred and fifty men would be if scattered over the surface
of England, one man to four hundred square miles.
The atoms of the luminiferous ether are infinitely more diffused,
and yet its interactive atoms can give four hundred millions of
light-waves a second. And now, more preposterous than all, each
atom has an attractive power for every other atom of the universe.
The little mote, visible only in a sunbeam streaming through a
dark room, and the atom, infinitely smaller, has a grasp upon the
whole world, the far-off sun, and the stars that people infinite
space. The Sage of Concord advises you to hitch your wagon to a
star. But this is hitching all stars to an infinitesimal part of
a wagon. Such an atom, so dowered, so infinite, so conscious, is
an impossible conception.
But if matter could be so dowered as to produce such results by
mechanism, could it be dowered to produce the results of intelligence?
Could it be dowered with power of choice without becoming mind?
If oxygen and hydrogen could be made able to combine into water,
could the same unformed matter produce in one case a plant, in
another a bird, in a third a man; and in each of these put bone,
brain, blood, and nerve in [Page 258] proper relations? Matter must
be mind, or subject to a present working mind, to do this. There
must be a present intelligence directing the process, laying the
dead bricks, marble, and wood in an intelligent order for a living
temple. If we do put God behind a single veil in dead matter, in all
living things he must be apparent and at work. If, then, such a
thing as an infinite atom is impossible, shall we not best
understand matter by saying it is a visible representation of God's
personal will and power, of his personal force, and perhaps
knowledge, set aside a little from himself, still possessed somewhat
of his personal attributes, still responsive to his will. What we
call matter may be best understood as God's force, will, knowledge,
rendered apparent, static, and unweariably operative. Unless matter
is eternal, which is unthinkable, there was nothing out of which the
world could be made, but God himself; and, reverently be it said,
matter seems to retain fit capabilities for such source. Is not this
the teaching of the Bible? I come to the old Book. I come to that
man who was taken up into the arcana of the third heaven, the holy
of holies, and heard things impossible to word. I find he makes a
clear, unequivocal statement of this truth as God's revelation to
him. "By faith," says the author of Hebrews, "we understand the
worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen
were not made of things which do appear." In Corinthians, Paul
says--But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom [as a
source] are all things; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom [as a
creative worker] are all things. So in Romans he says--"For out of
him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory
forever. Amen."
[Page 259]
God's intimate relation to matter is explained. No wonder the forces
respond to his will; no wonder pantheism--the idea that matter is
God--has had such a hold upon the minds of men. Matter, derived
from him, bears marks of its parentage, is sustained by him, and
when the Divine will shall draw it nearer to himself the new power
and capabilities of a new creation shall appear. Let us pay a higher
respect to the attractions and affinities; to the plan and power
of growth; to the wisdom of the ant; the geometry of the bee; the
migrating instinct that rises and stretches its wings toward a
provided South--for it is all God's present wisdom and power. Let
us come to that true insight of the old prophets, who are fittingly
called seers; whose eyes pierced the veil of matter, and saw God
clothing the grass of the field, feeding the sparrows, giving snow
like wool and scattering hoar-frost like ashes, and ever standing on
the bow of our wide-sailing world, and ever saying to all tumultuous
forces, "Peace, be still." Let us, with more reverent step, walk
the leafy solitudes, and say:
"Father, thy hand
Hath reared these venerable columns: Thou
Did'st weave this verdant roof. Thou did'st look down
Upon the naked earth, and forthwise rose
All these fair ranks of trees. They in Thy sun
Budded, and shook their green leaves in Thy breeze.
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