THE FIRE-MIST OF LIFE.
The theory of the formation of worlds from Nebulae is not only endorsed
by Sir Robert Ball but he states his belief that the same theory is
carried out upon earth in the formation of life according to the plan
of Darwin. To quote his words, Darwin “has shown that the evolution
of the lifeless earth from nebulae is but the prelude of an organic
evolution of still greater interest and complexity.” And further: “Can
it be possible that the wondrous and complex phenomena known as life
are purely material? Can a particle of matter which consists only of
a definite number of atoms of definite chemical composition manifest
any of those characters which characterize life? Take as an extreme
instance the brain of an ant which is not larger than a quarter of
a good-sized pin’s head. It would require a volume to describe what
we know of the power of ants.” The following are among the wonderful
things mentioned of their faculties. They communicate information to
each other, build great edifices, make roads, tunnel under rivers and
make temporary bridges over them by clinging together, store seeds,
keep aphides as milch cows, go out to battle, and capture slaves;
showing thereby a wonderful amount of power when we remember that the
ant’s brain is said to be but a little globule one-thousandth of an
inch in diameter. From the above we learn that the ant with a brain
no larger than a quarter of a pin’s head is one of the most wondrous
things in the world of life.
Let us conceive of such an ant standing before St. Peter’s Cathedral
at Rome and asking of his species: “Who made that great building?” We
may anticipate the reply, “We do not know.” Hear him ask again the
question of all birds, insects, reptiles, and animals and receive
the same answer, “We do not know.” Let him ask it at last of man who
replies, “I well know who made it.” Encouraged he asks again, “Did you
make it,” but the answer comes quickly, “No.” Still persistent he asks,
“Could you make it?” and the answer is “No, it is not every man that
could make such a building and surmount it with so wondrous a dome.”
Once again he asks: “But if you did not, and could not make it, how
do you know the builder of it?” He receives the answer: “I know as
well as though I myself had done it. I have brain-power enough to know
who planned it but it required one with a greater brain, even Michael
Angelo, to conceive and build it.”
We have here seen the power of a brain smaller than a pin’s head; the
additional power of one a few inches in diameter that could _know_ the
constructor of the great building, and yet be unable to make it; and
the further increase of brain-power in the maker of that magnificent
Cathedral. Yet the brain of Michael Angelo, so many times larger than
the ants, is not enough for our purpose. We would find one large
enough to know how the ant’s brain was formed and who formed it.
Finding the brain knowing that, we would continue our queries until we
found one a foot in size, a mile, earth’s size if you will, and finding
that might learn what we would know of the creation of the nebulae of
worlds and life; for to that brain we owe all that we possess here and
may ever expect to possess.
We have been told of the wonderful instinct displayed by an ant, and
yet we may not suppose, were an ant possessed of the power of speech,
it could ever make observations like the above. We can conceive of a
creature that possessed many times the ant’s brain-power making the
inquiry, “How came this great structure?” and, asking it of a comrade
that possessed the same powers as he, receiving the reply, “I do not
know.” We may think of him as pushing the inquiry and receiving the
answer from some that it had no author, but must have grown like the
trees from nothingness; from others the conjecture that it was made
by some great animal of sea or land; or again that it was made by a
creature called man. We can believe that whatever their opinion might
be it would matter little to Michael Angelo the author. In the vastness
of the universe and the wonderful mysteries enveloping it; with the
telescopes, spectroscopes, and other powerful instruments; with all
the observations of centuries, and theories concerning earth’s first
cause; man is yet like the ant before St. Peter’s. There is truth in
the statement, “The Theory of Evolution may be true or it may be false
it is still but an attempt to guess at a process; it does not touch the
author of that process and never will.”[21]
To resolve, then, the mystery of the universe we believe that a great
stride would be made could we find a being with wisdom like to man’s,
but possessing power to create a fire-mist such as is conceived in the
Nebular Hypothesis. Finding such a being we should never for a moment
think, from what we know of dead matter, of its resolving itself into
the order and system displayed in the universe, but unhesitatingly
ascribe its formation to a being possessing such wisdom and power.
Starting then with the theory that a Being with the intellect of man,
but omnipotent power, could produce all that is now unintelligible to
us; let us contemplate the appearance of His works and what we do not
understand believe that He will unfold as our powers increase and as
science develops.
The Revealed Word, the Great Astronomy, tells us that this Being is
God and ascribes to Him the creation of the heavens, worlds, man, and
life in all its forms. We can appreciate the astounding facts described
in other works, and can we not _feel_ the truths revealed in this? We
meet people who believe this Revelation, perhaps doubtfully at first,
but after study of the Word, or from hearing it explained, the truth
becomes manifest to them; and what is remarkable and worthy of our
contemplation is the fact that not one of the many millions who heed
that Word, and live lives faithful to it, but will tell us ere they
die that they do not regret the choice they have made and only wish
that they had accepted its truths sooner.
The presumption is that if every human being would accept the fact
that he owes his being to an Almighty God not one would ever regret it
more than they who have already accepted the belief. Sooner or later
all men are cast into the great fire-mist of Eternity, but ere they
go hence accept or refuse a belief that _may_ affect them throughout
eternity. Many men are urging people to accept of the Salvation offered
in the Bible, and the spirit within man feels the wisdom of such an
acceptance. Men of thought see from their own anatomy that there
must be a Being greater than themselves to have formed so wondrous a
body, or even to have formed one of the smallest, as a grass-seed or
animalcule. Why then should men need urging to make God their choice?
Suppose we were suddenly cast upon a billowy sea but near us lay a
life-boat, which if we laid hold upon the chances were, in nine cases
out of ten, we should be saved. Would we hesitate a moment before
making our choice? Desire for life would compel us to grasp the boat.
Suppose, further, there was but _one_ chance out of ten that if we
entered the boat we should be saved, would we not instinctively make
sure of that one chance, knowing if it were worthless we could be no
worse off than floundering without it in the bottomless sea?
But can we look at creation, even without this Revealed Word, and
say there is no evidence of a _chance_ for a future life? It is few
years that man lives upon earth, and those years can be but a breath
to eternity; for we cannot suppose all the atoms in space will equal
the years of eternity. As dying men, then, shall we live again? It is
no more wonderful to believe in a new life than to believe that the
combinations of our bodies are never destroyed, but are resolved again
to atoms and molecules. It is no more mysterious than that the waters
rise from oceans to the clouds only to return again, and repeat the
process from year to year; no stranger than that earth wheels through
space at the rate of nearly two millions of miles daily, without losing
a drop of the waters that cover three-fourths of its surface; no more
wonderful than the air that is composed of four-fifths nitrogen, and
were the other fifth the same no life could exist; no more wonderful
than that the sun at its great distance, holds earth as firmly by the
invisible ether, as if it were an iron cord; and no more wonderful than
that in earth’s yearly voyage about the sun, and in the daily turning
upon its axis, we do not detect the slightest jar or movement. Neither
is it as mysterious as that time has no destructiveness upon earth,
water, light, air, and ether, which are seemingly eternal elements; and
though our spirits are imperceptible while living here, so are also
some of the known energies of nature. Magnetism, that day and night,
on sea or land, directs and holds the magnetic needle to the north,
reveals its certain existence to us, although invisible to any faculty
we possess; electricity and the gases, of which earth, air, and ocean
are mainly composed, are invisible as well as indestructible; ether,
filling the immensity of space, is impervious to time; and each atom
of it has energy to transmit light from every sun in space, whether
near or distant, without varying a second per day, thereby enabling
astronomers to predict future occurrences with perfect assurance for
hundreds of years.
It is no more wonderful to believe in a future life than to believe
there are millions of animalcule in a drop of water; nor as mysterious
as that our bodies are constantly changing their forms. The man of
years has possessed many bodies that he has unconsciously cast aside,
and in old age has no more the body of infancy, childhood, youth,
and manhood than he has the body of another person. Yet we see man
clinging to his toothless, hairless, blinded, deaf, and decrepit form
while leaning upon a staff for support, as though he could not live if
separated therefrom; and why not as well lay aside wholly the earthly
body for the heavenly? Nearly the whole universe is eternal, and our
invisible spirits should be no more incomprehensible to us than are the
universal elements and energies of nature.
It is our first living, our living now, that is wonderful and
mysterious; for we find of every invention of man, the first invented
one of its kind is the one most wondrous. Then with all this great
universe around us shall we not live again? Are we so blinded that we
see no chance of living without these bodies, when we possess faculties
fitted for the contemplation of an Eternal Universe, although not the
power of fully understanding its significance?
When we think of ourselves, our earth, and the sun more than a million
times larger, and the size that it assumes at a distance of ninety
millions of miles, while we receive but 1/2300 millionth of its light
and heat; when we think of the millions of suns equally great, but all,
taken together, no more than a leaf in a great forest compared with
the universe that embraces myriads of suns and systems; when we think
again of the great nebulae, and all that may be within their range,
and beyond them; we can but believe there is a God over all who may do
infinitely more for us, His creatures, than all others can do, and in
the eternity to come, prove our best and dearest friend.
It may be asked in this widespread universe, will He recognize earth
or us? Yet we must remember there is evidence of the same formative
Hand alike in each atom of air, the countless worlds, and man himself.
Then who but a mightier Power can do what man can not? We may securely
feel that if God made man in his own image,—which we are led to believe
without the Bible’s revelation—He can give to him protection, thought,
and love. Then the chance, or probability—if you do not regard the
possibility or certainty—of living in God’s presence for as many
millions of years as there are atoms in earth, which cannot comprehend
eternity, are evidenced by what we here behold. Should we not live,
then, in expectancy and hope, our faith grounded on what we behold in
our earth, sun, and the universe?
The works of man are multiple, but among them all, we do not find one
of _chance_ in its formation. We always recognize man’s hand and
expect no form without a maker; so of the universe. The mighty worlds
as well as the invisible atoms bear evidence of a Creator, and have
the same assurance stamped upon them as have the inventions of man. We
should thereby recognize the truth that God exists and regulates the
vast and countless worlds, the tiniest molecule, and man himself.
Surely, then, in accepting the faith of the Bible there can be no
loss, while by accepting of it we may stand approved by One who
created worlds, space, and all life, the existence of which is within
our vision, but the contemplation of which is infinitely beyond our
conception.
[Illustration: Decoration]
FOOTNOTES:
[21] Chambers, “Hand Book of Astronomy,” preface page 9.
Transcriber’s Notes
pg 1 Changed: BIRDGEPORT, CONN.:
to: BRIDGEPORT, CONN.:
pg 31 Changed: we can disern with a microscope
to: we can discern with a microscope
pg 33 Changed: oceans equaling the drops of water
to: oceans equalling the drops of water
pg 51 Changed: wasting through invisable steam
to: wasting through invisible steam
pg 63 Changed: flow of light througout
to: flow of light throughout
pg 65 Changed: spread out to one-hundreth of an inch
to: spread out to one-hundredth of an inch
pg 76 Changed: things mentioned of their faculities
to: things mentioned of their faculties
pg 81 Changed: electrcity and the gases
to: electricity and the gases