The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-01-14
"A GREAT TEMPLE WITHOUT GOD.
An Allegory That Fits Now.

All AlleSOTy IEdC fllS NOW.
1t was already drawing toward tn
year 1000 of the Christian era. Mel
were already disputing whether tina
would be the last year of the third Of
the first year of the fourth millennium
All were agreed that the millennium
now almost closed had been the creates
and most wonderful in human history
Physical discovery and mechanical in
vention had practically created a new
universe. The very structure of matter
had been exposed to view. Every
schoolboy was familiar with the quiv.
ering molecule or atom, and could sec
with his eyes how all the infinitely va
ried material of what had once been so
unscientifically divided into the organ
&c and the inorganic worlds Is but
made up and diversified by different
packing of the constituent particles.
And science had obtained control of
this packing, so that now any substance
could be converted into any other; and
the old problem Of transmitting iron
into gold was childs play now. In the
rush Of discovery, this transmutation
had, indeed, been so largely practised
dear; and now all the chemists were
busy turning the gold back to the more
precious-because more useful-metal
Electricity had been long discarded as
the great motive power by land and sea
in favor of subtler and yet mightier
forces. The miracles of the ether had
begun to reveal themselves. The ships
Of the air had almost superseded ocean
traffic, and not a few adventurous voy-
ayers had pierced their way far beyond
the limits of our atmosphere, till it
seemed as though the planets them
selves would soon lie within the range
of human travel.
But there was still one thing that
checked and perturbed the scientific
men-now the acknowledged leaders of
civillzation--in their quest of universal
knowledge and universal control over
the physical world Ever at the heart
Of matter, in the very penetralia of
physical being, they came upon mys-
terious, unanalyzable, elusive force
which baffled their efforts at complete
control. There seemed to be another
control than theirs deeper control
than that of the physical laws them
SCiNC6, q SoiIlGlIIiHS dhlll " q ilNliiS
power, from which the physical laws
themselves appeared to arise. The po-
cts and the preachers-for there were
still poets and preachers in the uand-
called this inscrutabe power by the
ancient name Of God"
And the supreme desire and purpose
of the foremost leaders of science now j
was to get rid Of God, that they, and
not he, might henceforth guide the I'M
iverse upon it's wheels.
And there was other reason which |
gave this purpose and desire still great
er force and poignancy. For there were |
those who, in the name of this mysteri- |
GUS God, strove to stay and hinder |
some of the Investigations of the scen-
tlf1c explorer, speaking of moral law as
well as physical proceeding from the
eternal God, and alleging that such law
forbade many practices which science
held serviceable to her ends So there
was much stir among scientific men as
TO how, by further ingenuity of inven-
tion they might at last get rid of God
For" said they, 1.-The perfect kingdom
IF man, in Which he shall wholly con-
.rol the physical elements around him,
I'LL IeNeI COlIle 81 lOllS etS ILLS dHClGIll |
kingdom of God still casts it's blighting
,hadow on the earth"
Then there arose young man among
hem, full of ambition and of genius.
After profound study and experiment,
le announced that he had at last dis
covered a way to eliminate what men
allied God from at least limited area
f earth; and he proposed that they
hould expunge God from certain {
pace of land, and there build a vast
emple which should be wholly without
Tod, and in which they could pursue |
heir cult in all it's branches unchecked ]
nd unhindered by any power beyond
ne power of man. S
And God, who pervaded even the '
lace where these men conferred, heard '
heir counsels; and in the silence of his I
wn being he said, "They conceive S
ain folly; yet by own power will I v
holly withdraw myself from this space a
here they are about to erect their a
,mple." For God desired that man G
Mould learn the truth. f
So God withdrew himself utterly T
ON that place, save that he left to the b
en their mechanical powers, and still a
fused his physical laws to PREVAIL
I'D great was the triumph of the men fl
no had conceived that thing. For n
ley thought that by their own wisdom h