Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-11-07

built and the small fish are developed
In the same way as the farmers wife
matches out her chickens in the barn
yard. Man says to the fields, "Ye must
support me-" 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
tiers his seed, and the reapers cut down
the heavy grain, and the mills grind
the wheat into white hour, and the
ovens are heated and the bread comes
forth crisp and brown for the table.
Man says: Il must have the treasures
OF other regions brought to me. I
must sell my goods in foreign lands"
So he gathers together his iron orc
and melts it and molds ii and tenn
pers 1t, and the iron rails are laid, and
the steel steamships are launched, and
the Atlantic ocean becomes ferry,
and San Francisco and New York are
made next door neighbors. Wherever
mans magic wand is lifted the beasts
Of the field. the birds 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-
inence?" l 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-
quer the wild beasts of the woods. sail
across the seas, plow fields, build
cities, lift throne which shall domi-
nate all the animal and vegetable and
mineral kingdoms. By the joint Of
your moving thumb | have given you
power to do all these things" Thus
whenever you see man, even IN his
vilest and lowest form, you see an an
final that by the power of brain and
hand can accomplish what nc other
living creature upon the face of tho
earth can do. Therefore "honor all
men" Honor them on account of their
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 the
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 turtlas at least 800 years old.
But, though mans earthly life may
seem insignificant when compared TO
the longevity of turtle an elephant
or an eagle, yet his Immortality stretch
es on through centuries after the
longest lived turtle has died OF old age.
Man is immortal; he never dies.
Mans Immortality.
But I am never more impressed with
mans immortality than when study
his existence in the geological library
OF the rocks. When | tramp along q
country road through the dirt, as
walk l say: "This soil may soon pass
AWAY. The spring freshets may come
md 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 q
new generation of Inhabitants" When
look upon the great trees of a Gala
veras grove ! say. Oven these trees
must die" But when / look upon the
rocks, old and fUrroNel and with
many indentations from the storms,and
the lightnings of centuries, I seem tc
see them forever standing there in al
their majestic grandeur. l look upon
them and say: These rocks were Just
the same thousands upon thousands OF
pears 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 I am doinl
now" But longer than even thos,
rocks will endure ! shall live. Lon;
after the mighty heights of the Hima
1ayas are melted in the last cOnhagra
ton Of burning world the meanes
and the poorest and the most insignifi
cant Of human beings who was eve
clasped in n mothers arms shall live
We honor the vases and the ring
and the stones which have been ex
humed from the ruins of Memphis
Babylon and Nineveh because they ar
old, no matter how filthy and dcface
they may be, Shall we not honor hu
man life wherever 1t Is found when w
realize that man, once born, will ney
er cease to exist. no matter how Ion
time may be? Shah We not honor tn
life which shall last throughout eter
1ity7