The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-08-24
THE ASPECTS OF A CHA NCE
WORLD.

tainments-who believe that our solar
system organised itself-that the compli-
Gated machinery of the heavens and of
the world of nature "just came so =
emerging by intellectually slow degrees
from " fre-mist or vortex of eternal
atoms, without any designing mind, or
forming hand, behind it.
During one of our hot spells this sum-
mer, when it seemed almost .unbearable.
we got to thinking one day, Suppose it
should be just little hotter-l0 more
degrees, for fortnight-what would be-
come of us? There seems to be power
behind the scenes that checks the fiery
exhalations of the sun just at the critical
point, and season after season the heated
air is held in some mysterious way within
those limits. There have been many
thousands of summers since animal and
plant were introduced to the potencies of
these environing atoms, and yet the re-
markable spectacle has been witnessed
that this line has never been crossed, and
that the sun has never yet over-warmed
the earth beyond the point demanded for
the continuance of life.
Is there no danger that the heat-point
may yet be raised little too high
Is there no danger that the drought
point may be carried little too far ?
What guarantee have we that next sum-
mer the limit Gin this world of chance)
may not be passed We feel quite sure
that the frontier of safety is somehow
guarded; but why? Why do we trust
anything? What right have we to lean
on any expectation? If we were tied on
an engine III motion on railway track,
and the engineer and everybody else
should be dead, after running along for
a number of hours, we should feel some
anxiety as to the future; we should be
alarmed lest some catastrophe should be
developed.
Why have we no such apprehensions
as the earth flies in its orbit, or on its
axis? You may say, we rely on the uni
formity of nature; but who has endorsed
that note ? and a begging of the question
lies in the trust reposed.
We are on one of the biggest trains
that ever moved out from its station house:
does no firm hand grasp the brakes, and
no calm eye range over the track ahead
of US?
Why have we, we ask again, an abid-
ing faith in the equilibrium of the cosmos,
which carries the assurance that no bolt
or shaft shall slip or break?
Man has an mistaken confidence in
the conservatism of this " fire-mist that
scientists adore; he implicitly believes
that in all the cycles of the ages no actor
on this mysterious stage shall e'er err
step the modesty of nature" We fear
neither too much rain, nor too much
heat-an excess of darkness or of light.
The winds may blow, the waves may
climb the shingled beaches, and run far
in upon the land, but our confidence
(save that of the timorous and excitable)
remains unmoved that no food shall
sweep the earth; that beast, we are as
sured, however he may rage, IS chained.
On earth, or in heaven, we mark the
reign of universal order.
And yet there are brilliant physicists
who tell us in our day that there is no
God that some curious, subtle, inimita-
BILE principle in our fre-atoms or in the
shiny ooze Of the ocean depths, has pro-
jected from its womb all the wonderful
harmony and activity which fill the con-
cave commanded by our telescopes.
We have said that if the sun were a
little hotter, it would end in a disaster
but suppose it were little colder some
one Of our winters? All the northern
parts Of Europe and America hare had
a glacial period why not again Sup
pose the "uniform" law Of nature had
been followed when water becomes solid,
and that ice had been heavier than wa
ter? 1t would have destroyed life on the
globe