Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1907-11-09


Then the great Matching plants are
built and the small fish are developed
in the same way as the farmers wife
hatches out her chickens In the barn
yard Man says to the fields. "Ye must
support mel" Then the plows go forth
to turn over the soil, and the harrOws
with their steel teeth crush the big
clods into pieces, and the sower scat
ters his seed, and the reapers cut down
the heavy grain, and the mills grind
the wheat into white -four, and the
ovens are heated, and the bread comes
forth crisp and brown for the table.
Man says: II must have the treasures
of other regions brought to me. l
must sell my goods In foreign lands"
So he gathers together his iron ore
and melts Il and molds it and tenn
pers It, and the iron rails are laid. and
the steel steamships are launched, and
the Atlantic ocean becomes a ferry,
and San Francisco and New York are
/ made next door neighbors. Wherever
mans magic wand is lifted the beasts
of the field, the bir,ls Of the air, the
fish of the sea, are compelled to do his
bidding Wherever we turn we see
man intellectually supreme over the
animal, vegetable and mineral worlds.
Mans Perfect Hands.
"What do you consider the most con-
spicuous sign Of mans intellectual en-
inenceY | once asked the most bril-
liant physicist ever knew. THAT he
can do this" he replied, touching each
one of his fingers with the end of his
thumb. "Do you know that man is
the only animal in the world that has a
perfect hand? At the base of mans
thumb God has placed little hypothe-
mar bone about the size Of the half OF
a small pea. This little round ball Of
bone allows man to fashion and to do.
All other animals have paws simply
for motive power. But mans suprem-
acy is revealed in his perfect hand"
Thus whenever you look upon mans
moving thumb you can see sign by
which God is saying to him: you can
now mold iron, tunnel mountains, con-
auer the wild beasts of the woods, sail
across the seas, plow fields, build
cities, lift a throne which shall domi-
nate all the animal and vegetable and
mineral Kingdoms. BY the joint or
your moving thumb have given you
power to do all these things" Thus
whenever you see man, even In his
yiest and lowest form, you see an an
imal that by the power of brain and
hand can accomplish what no other
living creature upon the face Of the
earth can do. Therefore "honor all
men," Honor them on account of their
intellectual and physical supremacy.
Honor them wherever they may be
found.
But man has more than intellectual
and physical pre-eminence to distin-
guish him from the rest of the animal
creation. He is the only being alive
| today who, after he has been born, has
| immortality of existence. Man Is the
only. being to whom God has given tac
assurance that when he is born he
shall live on forever. The eagle is SUP
posed to be the longest lived bird. The
elephant is supposed to be the longest
| lived of the mammals. The deep sea
turtle has been known to live hundreds
Of years. In the Galapagos islands, off
| the western coast Of South America,
there have been found living deep
sea turtles at least 500 years old.
| But, though mans earthly life may
seem insignificant when compared to
the longevity of a turtle, an elephant
| or an eagle. yet his Immortality stretch
es on through centuries after the
| longest lived turtle has died of cid age.
Man is immortal; he never dies.
Mans Immortality.
But | am never more impressed with
mans immortality than when | study
his existence in the geological library
Of the rocks. When | tramp along a
country road through the dirt, as |
walk say: This soil may soon pass
away. The spring freshets may come
and wash it down into the valleys be-
low" When | watch the birds flying
overhead or the squirrels and the rab-
bits scurrying into their holes, say,
every few years the woods have a
new generation of inhabitants" When
| | look upon the great trees Of Gala
veras grove | say, Even these trees
must die" But when | look upon the
rocks, old and furrowed and with
many indentations from the storms and
the lightnings Of centuries, | seem to
see them forever standing there in all
their majestic grandeur. look upon
| them and say: "These rocks were just
the same thousands upon thousands Of
years ago. These rocks may be stand
ing there in all their grandeur thou
sands upon thousands Of years hence
Long after | have been laid In the
grave my descendants may be camp
| ing under their shadow as | am doing
now" But longer than even those
rocks will endure | shall live. Long
after the mighty heights OF the Hima-
layas are melted in the last confagra-
ton of a burning world the meanest
and the poorest and the most insigniti-
cant Of human beings who was ever
clasped in a mothers arms shall live.
We hopor the vases and the rings
and the stones which have been ex-
humed from the ruins of Memphis,
Babylon and Nineveh because they are
old, no matter how filthy and defaced
they may be. Shall we not honor hu-
man life wherever it is found when we
realize that man, once born, will nev-
er cease to exist. no matter how long
| time may be? Shall we not honor the
life which shall last throughout eter
nifty?
But there Is another fact for which
| we should honor the human race. Coo
has placed within every human hear
a conscience by which man, to a great
er or less extent, Is able to distinguish
| r;oht From, vvronO This conscience Is