The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-02-15

OoSh OtuCl al tu0 Sdlu6 blLlo WlbuOut
material interference, through the
atmosphere. And did you ever think
what a wonderful instrument the
phonograph is? If the ancients had
possessed it, and the rolls had been
preserved, we might today have heard
the thunder of Demosthenes' elo-
quence, and the honeyed music as it
fell from the lips of Cicero. We
might have heard the voice of Moses
proclaiming the law, or that of him
who spake as never man spake, when
he delivered the Sermon on the
Mount.
But wonderful as is the atmo-
sphere, and its capacity for vibration,
causing sound, it is as nothing COM
pared with the ether and it's capacity
for complex and multifarious vibrat-
ing action. Sound dies out in the
air after going few yards, or per-
haps miles, but the distance to which
light may travel seems to be unlim-
tied. One sound may interfere with
and drown another, but the seven
colors of the spectrum, accompanied
by heat and chemical energy, travel
together in a single ray from the sun
to the earth, without the least inter
ference with each other, and may be
separated and appear in all their per-
fection under the prism. And the
light of a million stars is traversing
the same medium at the same time,
without the least interference with
the rays of the sun. Now, is it not a
reasonable inference, that such a
medium as this is capable of vortex
vibrations, which manifest themsel-
YES to our senses as matter in all its
forms? So scientific men have rea-
soned, and answered in the afirma-
tive, and adopted the conclusion as
reasonable hypothesis; which seems
to account for the existence of matter
better than any other, and tends to
simplify and unitize the universe.
This is the tendency of all scientific
discovery. A million separate, distinct,
and apparently independent and an
tagonistic facts in nature were re-
duced by the discovery of Newton to
single law-the law of gravitation.
That single force, perhaps identical
with the other forces of nature, was
found to produce countless millions
of apparently incongruous results.
So it has been lately demonstrated
by means of spectro-color analysis,
that the elements which compose the
sun and stars, are identical with those
which compose the earth. And this
process of unifcation will undoubt-
edly go on in the same lines, until
we can demonstrate that all effects
are the results of a single cause, or
law, and that the direct action of the
will of God.
All the laws of nature, SO much in
sisted upon by sceptics, will be seen
to be but the mode in which that
will acts. And this conclusion ac-
cords with the intuitions of every nor
NAL mind. Since the world stood
all the wisest and best thinkers in
every age and nation have regarded
the universe as the work of divine
power. Only small men have
doubted. 1t is the same today.
Compare Mr.. Gladstone with Col.
Ingersoll, or with the writer's and
readers of the Investigator: Mrs.
Wards Robert Elsmere, with intelli-
gent clergymen.
Well, concerning the hypothesis I
have mentioned, it is not yet demon
strated, but it may be, and very like
ly is true. Suppose it is. Then the
creation of the matter of all worlds
would be simply setting of the ether
in motion, causing vortex vibrations.
The most unimaginative mind can
easily see how an almighty God could
do this, even by a word, as we put the
air in motion when we vocalize a
sound. And this would exactly cor
respond with the way Moses describes
it. He said ''let there be light" ETC.,
and it was so. So in this case the
writer referred to above could easily
answer his own question, whether
there was any more nothing" left
OF which to make future worlds!
This may be considered answering
"fool according to his folly" but if
it could in any way help to lead an
undeyeloped mind out of it's thick
darkness, it would not be without its
use. We must creep before we can
walk, and walk before we can run.
Development is the law of nature,
and therefore of God.
FIT. SCOTT, KAN.