The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1875-03-30
Natural Laws, and their rela'
ton to the Farmer.
sr HON. r. D. DOUGLAS, OF WHITING.

nj HON, y. ID. peu1LAs, OF MhlTlNu
The most superficial observer of the
phenomena of Nature connot fail to
recognize the evidence of intelligent
design which pervades all its works.
Order reigns supreme. No chance
event, however trifing, unpreceded by
its appropriate cause, ever disturbs the
harmony of its operations. The rela-
ton between cause and effect is I'M
varying, and may be computed with
mathematical precision, when the first
is fully comprehended. A continuous
chain of relationship, of causes and
consequences, extends throughout all
Nature, uniting her works into one
harmonious whole.
"From Natures chain, whatever link you strike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike"
UNIVERSAL ORDER THE RESULT OF
UNIVERSAL LAW.
Universal order only results from the
operation of universal law. The most
minute natural phenomenon is just as
completely the result of its operations
as the revolution of the planets in their
orbits. The same law which impels a
drop of water to assume a globular
form, also moulded the earth into the
same form at the dawn of creation.
The same laws which governed the
growth of the plant life in primeval
ages, which developed the giant forests
whose remains are now found in our
coal formation, are now in force, con-
trolling the growth of our forests and
crops. Those laws which governed
the growth of extinct races of man.
moth animal life, whose fossil remains
are the only evidence left US of their
former existence, were the same by
which the farmer must now be guided
in the development of his domestic
animals.
NATURAL LAW ALL PERvADING.
This code is all pervading. It's infu
ence reaches not only all material
things, but it also influences through
these all industrial occupation. 1t ex-
tends its controlling power over our
lives and health, and gives us no alter
native but obedience, or sickness and
its accompanying dangers Of premature
death.
THEIR AUTHOR.
We should be impressed with the fact
that these are the laws of God, and that
He holds us alike responsible for the
observance of those which apply to
ourselves. AS for the observance Of his
moral laws, they are so intimately re-
lated that the violation of the former
often involves the direct and fragrant
violation of the latter.
The knowledge and observance OF
natural and moral law constitutes the
difference between an enlightened and
barbarous state. the elevating influence
of the former being scarcely less than
that of the latter, while all material
improvement. is dependent upon our
knowledge of those laws which govern
material things.
THEIR PERSONAL APPLICATION.
If violate that part of this great
code by which physical health is gov
erned, I expose my life, and I must
take the consequences and suffer fol
10y own sin against the law. And
what folly for us, of this enlightened
age, to charge the effects of such sin
upon our Creator.
POPULAR ERRORS.
If go from my warm dwelling into
the open air in mid winter, and stand
with my feet half clad upon the snow
while talking with a friend, l violate
natural laws, and If the result is lung
fever, pulmonary consumption. and
consequent death, alone am respons-
IDLE for the result. Yet mourning
friends would doubtless talk of the
event as one Of the mysterious provi.
dences of God and never think of it as
the result of violated law. and go on
themselves SHINING as before
If I allow decayed vegetables, garb
age, and filth, to accumulate in my
cellar, foul sewerage to affect the water
in my well, or to poison the air of my
dwelling, these violations of natura
law, will be very liable to eliminate in
some fearful scourge, like dysentery
typhoid fever, or kindred evils, and i
members of my household are thus re
moved by death, purely in consequence
Of my culpable Ignorance and neglect
what commentary upon our civiliza
ton, to hear from the sacred desk, the
statement that this is the result Of God,
inscrutable providence; that he fixes
the limit of our days, and that the oc
currencs was only the result of the fact
that the victims of my sin had reached
the limit assigned them, thus charging
the calamity upon God, and not i'm.
proving the lesson by even a sugges
ton that it might have been the result
of a violation of his laws.
What commentary upon our reli.
gion, to hear our spiritual teachers, en-.
deavor to impress. the lesson upon theil
hearers. by charging them to be more
faithful In the discharge of religious
duties, TO be more punctual in theiI
observance of the ordinances of the
church. as if the performance of these
duties alone would avert such evils
INDIVIDUAL DUTY.
That prayer for the health of our.
selves and households Is a sin, il no,
attended by appropriate works of puri.
fication, and the necessary observance
of hygienlc laws. The lesson Of such q