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Page 75
We do not know that any new and higher forces have been added to
matter since man's acquaintance with it. But it would be easy to
add any number of them, or change any lower into higher. That is the
[Page 263] meaning of the falling granite that becomes soil, of the
pulverized lava that decks the volcano's trembling sides with
flowers; that is the meaning of the grass becoming flesh, and of all
high forces constitutionally arranged for mastery over lower. Take
the ore from the mountain. It is loose, friable, worthless in
itself. Raise it in capacity to cast-iron, wrought-iron, steel, it
becomes a highway for the commerce of nations, over the mountains
and under them. It becomes bones, muscles, body for the inspiring
soul of steam. It holds up the airy bridge over the deep chasm. It
is obedient in your hand as blade, hammer, bar, or spring. It is
inspirable by electricity, and bears human hopes, fears, and loves
in its own bosom. It has been raised from valueless ore. Change it
again to something as far above steel as that is above ore. Change
all earthly ores to highest possibility; string them to finest
tissues, and the new result may fit God's hand as tools, and thrill
with his wisdom and creative processes, a body fitted for God's
spirit as well as the steel is fitted to your hand. From this world
take opacity, gravity, darkness, bring in more mind, love, and God,
and then we will have heaven. An immanent God makes a plastic world.
When man shall have mastered the forces that now exist, the original
Creator and Sustainer will say, "Behold, I create all things new."
Nature shall be called nearer to God, be more full of his power.
To the long-wandering �neas, his divine mother sometimes came to
cheer his heart and to direct his steps. But the goddess only showed
herself divine by her departure; only when he stood in desolation
did the hero know he had [Page 264] stood face to face with divine
power, beauty, and love. Not so the Christian scholars, the
wanderers in Nature's bowers to-day. In the first dawn of discovery,
we see her full of beauty and strength; in closer communion, we find
her full of wisdom; to our perfect knowledge, she reveals an
indwelling God in her; to our ardent love, she reveals an indwelling
God in us.
But the evidence of the progressive refinements of habitation is no
more clear than that of progressive refinement of the inhabitant:
there must be some one to use these finer things. An empty house is
not God's ideal nor man's. The child may handle a toy, but a man
must mount a locomotive; and before there can be New Jerusalems
with golden streets, there must be men more avaricious of knowledge
than of gold, or they would dig them up; more zealous for love
than jewels, or they would unhang the pearly gates. The uplifting
refinement of the material world has been kept back until there
should appear masterful spirits able to handle the higher forces.
Doors have opened on every side to new realms of power, when men
have been able to wield them. If men lose that ability they close
again, and shut out the knowledge and light. Then ages, dark and
feeble, follow.
Some explore prophecy for the date of the grand transformation
of matter by the coming of the Son of Man, for a new creation. A
little study of nature would show that the date cannot be fixed.
A little study of Peter would show the same thing. He says, "What
manner of persons ought ye to be, in all holy conversation and
godliness, looking for and hastening the coming [Page 265] of the
day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved,
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we,
according to his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth."
The idea is, that the grand transformation of matter waits the
readiness of man. The kingdom waits the king. The scattered cantons
of Italy were only prostrate provinces till Victor Emanuel came,
then they were developed into united Italy. The prostrate provinces
of matter are not developed until the man is victor, able to rule
there a realm equal to ten cities here. Every good man hastens the
coming of the day of God and nature's renovation. Not only does
inference teach that there must be finer men, but fact affirms
that transformation has already taken place. Life is meant to have
power over chemical forces. It separates carbon from its compounds
and builds a tree, separates the elements and builds the body,
holds them separate until life withdraws. More life means higher
being. Certainly men can be refined and recapacitated as well as
ore. In Ovid's "Metamorphoses" he represents the lion in process of
formation from earth, hind quarters still clay, but fore quarters,
head, erect mane, and blazing eye--live lion--and pawing to get
free. We have seen winged spirits yet linked to forms of clay,
but beating the celestial air, endeavoring to be free; and we have
seen them, dowered with new sight, filled with new love, break
loose and rise to higher being.
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