The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-06-29
The Adaptations of Creation.

God has not only created all things
beautiful and wonderful in themselves
but he has fitted them all to each other.
He has made them all by weight and
measure. He has formed them, as it
were, with balance in his hand, in such
a way that if even one of them had been
but a little greater or little less in pro.
portion to the others, this beautiful world
would soon have fallen into ruins, and
no living thing could have existed on
it.
Do you wish examples of this? They
are innumerable-the only difficulty is to
choose which to tell you. Let us take
the air as the first example. 1t has been
reckoned that the atmosphere surrounds
the world to the height of about fifty
miles above our heads. 1t might seem to
you very trifing matter, but if it were
few miles more or less in height-as,
for instance, at the top of Mount Blanc
the Barometer would stand at sixteen
inches, and men and animals would soon
be sufocated. If, on the contrary, it
were few miles more in height, the ba-
rometer would stand at more than forty
seven inches it would be insupportably
hot whenever the rays of the sun could
reach and your lungs could not
bear it long. You may Judge of it
by the Dead Sea, where the atmosphere
is only quarter of mile higher, and
where the barometer stands at twenty
nine and three-quarters, but where the
heat is excessive, and the air very irrita-
ting to the lungs, as we are told in the
account of Lieutenant Lynch's expedi-
ton. And if the atmosphere were high
er still, the winds would be irresistible
our houses and our trees would be thrown
down, we should take Inflammation in
the lungs, and the nature of all things
around us would be entirely changed.
Take another example. If the dry
land were little harder than it is, we
could not cultivate tive could neither
plough nor dig. The roots of the plants
could not pierce the hard soil, and they
would perish. If, on the contrary, the
earth were softer than it is, we should
sink in the soil, as we do in a ploughed
field after rain; and neither houses, trees,
nor plants could be kept firm in the
ground. If the water of the sea were
heavier, all the fishes would be borne up
to the surface, and would be unable to
swim in it; and they would die, as they
do in the dead Sea, whose water is only
quarter heavier than distilled water
And if the water of the sea we're lighter,
the fish would be too heavy to swim, and
would sink down and die at the bottom.
IF the water of the sea and of the lakes,
which always contracts and becomes.
heavier as it becomes colder, did not
cease to obey this law at about the fourth
degree above the freezing point, the bot
tom of most of the seas and of all the
lakes would be a mass of ice for the
greater part of the year; whilst, on the
other hand, by this admirable arrange
ment, their depths never freeze.
You may think, perhaps, that it would
be a matter of indifference to us whether
our globe were little larger or a little
smaller than it is since for SO many years
men lived upon it in total ignorance of its
size. But there is necessary proportion
between the size and the strength which
God has given to our limbs and muscles;
If, for example, we could be conveyed
to the moon, and if it were like the earth
in all respects except its size, we should
there weigh five times less than we do
upon the earth. We might bound up
like grasshoppers to great height in the
air, but we should be so unsteady on our
limbs that the hand of a child could
throw us over. And if our earth, on the
contrary, were as large as the planet Ju-
piter, all other things remaining the same,
each of us should> feel as if we were
forced to carry the weight of eleven peo.
pie as heavy as ourselves. The weight
Of man of ten stone would be one hun
dred and twenty stone, and none of us
could walk or stand upright-scarcely
even move.
All |! let us repeat what we said before,
'aThe work of the Lord is perfect. 1t is
always good-very good"