In the discussion of this question I think it proper to submit a few
axiomatic or common-sense truths which are universally admitted by the
unbiased mind.
_First._ "Every effect must have a cause."
_Secondly._ "Every series must have a unit lying at its base."
_Thirdly._ "In every beginning there must be that which began."
_Fourthly._ "Something is eternal."
_Fifthly._ "There can not be an endless succession of dependent things."
_Sixthly._ "There must be that upon which the first dependent link in
the chain of dependent things depended."
_Seventhly._ "That thing, whatever it may be, upon which the first
dependent thing depended, must be eternal."
Was it blind force or intelligence, which?
The existence of a supreme intelligence is the first great leading
thought made known in the Bible.
The first that is made known in unbelief, is the existence of "the
unknown."
When a man adopts the idea of the unknown, he lays down all his strength
to oppose the idea of a supreme intelligence, for what right has he to
dogmatize about the unknown? The use of the word force will not help us
to a better understanding of things. Force is simply the manifestation
of energy, and there must, necessarily, be something lying behind it to
which it, as an attribute or quality, belongs. That "something" the
Bible calls "spirit." It has never been christened with a name by the
unbeliever. Force is the bridge between it and matter, and the bridge
between it and all things upon which it operates. The unbeliever's
"unknown" lies behind force. Has he ever given it a name?
So far as science is concerned, it is paying her proper respect to say
she demands an intelligence in order to account for the wonderful things
with which she has to deal. Laycock, treating upon the questions of mind
and brain, says: "The phenomena of life present a vast series of
adjustments and modifications to fill certain purposes and bring about
ends."--_Mind and Brain, vol. 1, p. 222 to 224._
Systematic action in the use of means to accomplish certain ends or
purposes we regard as the evidence of intelligence. By what other means
do we distinguish between the rational and the insane? Winchel says, in
his "Religion and Science," p. 102, "Without God we can not account for
the correlation presented by the world of structural part to structural
part, of structural part to intelligible end, of structural part to
persistent plans or archetypes, of correlations which show that they
were anticipated."
Beal, on Protoplasm, p. 104 to 107, says, "Living matter overcomes
gravitation and resists and suspends chemical affinity." He adds, "It is
in direct opposition to chemical affinities that organized beings
exist."
What power is that which lies behind chemical affinities, and controls
them with direct reference to organic being? Will some bold unbeliever
answer?
Carpenter says, "The most universal and fundamental attribute of life is
the mode of vital activity manifesting itself in the development of the
germ into the complete organism and type OF ITS PARENT, and the after
maintenance of the organism in its integrity at the expense of materials
derived from external sources. The life in the germ is the controlling
agency, superintending the building, charged with the working out the
design of the architect." Who is the architect? Or, if you prefer it,
what is the architect? Whoever he or whatever it may be, the design and
decrees of nature are with that official. All the changes that can be
made in environments or food will not change the organism from the type
of its parent. Then the structure of the male and the female with
reference to future living organisms, or procreation, is in very poor
harmony with the idea that the architect is "blind force."
The same milk from one and the same animal, with the same heat and air,
will build up bodies of different types, one as well as another, making
human flesh in the human body, and dog's flesh in the dog's body, and
sheep's flesh in the sheep's body. If the living germinal organism has
its paternity in a dog, it will remain a dog in spite of food and
environments.
Carpenter says, "The vital force," in the germ, "is not the entire force
or means of growth; heat is a constructive stimulus, but amounts to
nothing where there is no life. Food is material for the building, but
like heat, it is of no consequence in the absence of life."
The constructing force in the germ manifests itself, in the plant, in
the conversion of the insoluble starch of the seed into sugar, and in an
additional change of a part of that sugar so as to set at liberty a
large amount of carbon, which, uniting with the oxygen of the air, forms
carbonic acid, and this process is attended with a liberation of heat
which supplies the germ with stimulus.
"It is different with the advanced plant. The organic compounds required
to extend the fabric, are formed by the plant, instead of being supplied
from without. The tissues of the green surface of the stem and leaves
have the peculiar power, when acted on by light, of generating, at the
expense of carbonic acid, water and ammonia, with various ternary and
quarternary organic compounds, such as chlorophyll, starch, oil and
albumen. A part goes to build new tissues, and a part is stored up in
the cavities of tissues for food for parts to be developed in the
future." Mr. Carpenter says, "Of the source of this peculiar power we
have no right to speak confidently." Is it a blind force that
anticipates growth in the plant, and lays away food, in the tissues,
for future use? Why should it be different with the young plant?
Sixteen simple substances are known to exist in vegetable organisms, and
many of them are more strongly inclined to unite with substances which
have no existence in vegetable cells; so they separate, in violation of
chemical laws, and unite in vegetable cells in utter disregard of the
affinities which are known to be their strongest. How do unbelievers
manage such objections to the hypothesis that chemical laws explain
everything in vegetable life? How is all this accounted for? We,
Christians, answer, "The course of nature is the art of God." This
answer is equivalent to the thought that vegetable life is the result of
the union existing between God and the vegetable kingdom. The force that
lies behind all chemical affinities and controls them, together with the
wisdom displayed in that kingdom, belongs to God.