The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1910-05-19
NATURE AND PROVIDENCE.

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ties Of nature against the special activities
of Providence. 1t is claimed that "science
is continually narrowing the range of our
prayers, and will in time shut them out
altogether, by showing that all things are
governed by fixed laws. The savage would
pray to have the eclipse averted, but we all
know now that its coming was fixed when
the morning stars sang together. We still
pray that the storm may be stayed, but the
Signal Service has seen it coming three
days before our prayer went up"
But the discoveries of science are not all
one way. While the domain of law is found
to be universal, the margin of possible vari-
alton is found to be wider and wider.
Climate is being reduced to science. Its
changes are not freaks of nature, but the
result of definite causes. More and more
its changes are being accounted for, and
more can they be predicted.
But while this is so, we are also learning
more and more how to influence climate.
The rainfall of the prairies is being in
creased by the planting of trees, while that
of other regions is being lessened by the
removal of forests. Great fires bring wind ;
the firing of guns is said to bring rain; a
great battle is often followed by storm.
Climate is affected by the erection of build
ings, the cultivation of fields, the changing
of water courses. 1t is claimed that the
building of the Pacific Railway has ma
terially affected the climate of the plains.
1t seems hardly credible that two bands
of iron can modify the climate of nation.
But we do know that little rod of iron will
turn aside thunderbolt, and a number of
them will dissipate thunderstorm. Storms
and winds and rains are dependent on
delicate electric currents which are easily
disturbed.
AS we are learning the laws of nature we
are learning to use them. We are finding
points where we can touch their secret
springs. We turn away the pestilence by
sanitary regulations; we Danish the mala-
ria by draining our lands; we divert the
lightning by rod. We make lightning
carry our messages, light our gas, ring our
bells, and do all manner of work. Franklin
pricked the clouds with piece of Irvine,
and brought the lightning down to his feet,
and made a servant of it. 1t seems peril
nent to ask, if man can thus influence
nature and violate no law and produce no
shock, why may not God do at least as
much? Why may not He as we'll as we
touch the secret springs, and produce re-
suits without breaking up the order of ma
ture or disturbing the pillars of the world
There is no measuring the possibilities
in this direction. Nature is full of the most
delicate agencies, which can be swayed by
a touch or stirred by breath. God need
but touch, as we often do, these delicate
forces which Intervene themselves with
the whole fabric of nature, to accomplish
almost any conceivable result. The finest
forces of nature are her mightiest forces.
Her invisible, imponderable forces will at
any time rend and lift her solid substances,
as giant might scatter the playthings of
a child. 1t was once cumbrous thing to
light the lamps of a great city. But now
little child may touch the keys, and thou
sand burners flash at once for miles away.
Air and earth and seas are full of forces
which respond to the gentlest touch. To
control these is to control the universe to
which they furnish the energy and the
impulse.
All these are the servants of God. He
dwells among them as living presence,
penetrating all nature through and through.
Among these mighty forces, on whose bor-
ders we dwell, and whose faint impulse we
feel, God reigns Sovereign and King.
We touch them here and there, and easily
attain our ends. He holds them in His
hands in complete supremacy. With what
infinite ease He may touch these springs of
living force and attain His ends, and there
be no suspension of law, no breaking up
of systems, no shock to order.
God is not prisoner in His own creation.
He is not barred out from the works of His
own hands. He says He hears the cry of
the needy, and nothing science has dis
covered forbids His helping them. He
says He hears the prayers of His people,
and the exactness of nature is no hindrance
to His answering those prayers. We may
give science all she claims, and yet there
is room for the divine sympathy and space
for the divine help.
Was Thoreau forecasting the journalism