The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1904-04-09
Tho More
......Abundant Life

sters, ripping in the dashing current
of the mountain stream, murmuring
in the music of the wind stirred tree
tops; burgeoning in the crimson and
gold of the budding flowers, whisper
ing in the gently swayed grass blades,
and throbbing in every inartieulate
response of nature the message of the
risen Lord. It is the gospel, which
has been from the beginning, the
gospel whose living word was in thu
voice of the morning stars as they
sang together, the gospel at whose ma
je.tic utterance' the spirits of the Four
Abysms did lowly reverence, the Cos :
pei at whose declar atien the angels of
the Seven Spheres cried out in zap
turous applause, the gospel which
wherever human hearts are beating
and divine truth is known, forever
taught and unndyingly confessed, pro-
claims in the eterral Christ resurrec-
ton and new life.
~ am come that they might have
life. and that they might have it
more abundantly !" cried the Sa-
viour. To understand those words,
90 back, if you will, to the earliest
vestiges of creation, and read in the
fossil remnants of forgotten ages the
message of this everlasting life. Nor
pause upon the threshold of the uni
verse we know, but in imagination
ascend to the mysterious inner cham
Der where divinest secrets are shroud-
cd from human eye, and the procla-
nation remains forever the same.
Backward, beyond all ages, beyond
all evidence of human time. in
mighty depths Eof aeons unexplored,
in the .tumultuous, burning, Shrek
ing fury of nebulous Trevor DIS, in
the great orbits of universal chaos,
and the confusion of limitless up
heaval and change, we may gaze upon
the cosmic processes of the omnipo-
tent A rtist, and in the work growing
in his plastic hands behold the glory
of it's organic aim. What is science
but the demonstration of life, bcheld
in ali the stages IF its development ?
but the gospel of nature, which is rs
we'll the gospel OF the undying
Christ? No chaos can hold back the
spirit of this vital existence. The
great expanse of nebulous fire mist Is
driven by persistent force, and under
colossal law the obedient mass is
nodded into shape. Great spheres
are sent whirling upon their ETHEREAL
CAREERS and planets are flung off from
central suns. The sidereal system is
irradiate with the primeval light of
it's own glowing orbs; the hot exter-
ior of the planetary crust is cooled
and hardened; titanic oceans are
formed in the chasmic depths of vol
canic recesses. great ridges of rock
higher than the topmost peak of the
Himalayas, are lifted from
the depths of illimitab!e expanse.
The vital force of the first unbounded
impulse impregnates the deep with
it's predestined life. The huge bould-
ers are assaulted by wind and wave
and are washed down by the corrosive
Soil is formed from the
letritus of decayed rocks and out of
mother earth redundant life is horn. |
It is but the beginning of her birth
hroes in the JOYOUS labor which is
inally to produce man. Endless
growth is natures law. Species upon
pecies is produced; the lower grade
fields to the higher, until it likewise
$ displaced. From the marine life,
the great waters, reptiles
re found upon the earth's eonian
hores, basking in the early sun of
II undeveloped world. The birds of
be air are seen in winged flight,
nging the first Easter anthem of a
edeemer's love in the power of the
to people not yet born {
ut still the law continues. The
fe beginning so distinct and beauti-
ii must soar to yet higher reaches of ,
le divine comprehension. Spirit +
ust assert itself. Through mann
ais and quadrumena, the law of life
to operate, until its glad {
,urse is finally completed in man a
ade in Gods image. 1t is the tri-
nphant truth of the gospel of the :
sen Christ who cried, Il have come =
at they might have life, and that {