The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser., 1910-04-15

e. Church, the rector, the Rev. E. M.
McGuffey, preached Sunday morning
on the END of Things" He took his
text from st. Luke ri: For the
powers of heaven shall be shaken"
Mr.. McGuffey said:
Joy is always more joyous when
underneath it is a foundation of
thoughtfulness. Thoughtful people
have everywhere and always the ad-
vantage over thoughtless people.
With the latter class JOY is too often
like the cracking of thorns under a
pot Here joy is likely to be like
the pleasure children; light hearted,
temporary, evanescent and meaning
less; mere animal spontaneity, unre-
Elective.
On the other hand, also, half di-
gested considerations of the solem-
nifty and seriousness of life, considera
tions of it not thought thoroughly to
a conclusion, are too apt to alarm
and sober us unduly, and produce
that timid and melancholy frame of
mind that refrains as far as possible
from thinking at all on the great and
serious problems of human life. Lord
Bacon once said: "a little philos-
ophy inclineth men to atheism" He
might have said also that large sur
vey of the laws governing the world
and the human mind establish be-
lief in the absolute and benevolent
sovereignty of God over human life.
l shall be pleased, therefore, to
have you do two things:
First, to make all the joyous days
of the Christian year and all the joy
Gus occasions of your personal life
more intelligently joyful by careful
consideration of the truths and facts
which underlie them. If few months
ago we reflected on the true thought
of Christmas Day, the incarnation,
the gift to the world from the skies
of Divine Saviour, assuring us of
| the care and love of the great Heaven
| ly Father, I am sure we experienced
| happiness that was contagious, be-
cause it was deep rooted. If we ex-
| planned Iucidly to the dear children
| in our homes why and how Christmas
| became Christmas, I am sure we
sowed precious seed in the rich soil
| of their young hearts.
With these considerations I pass
| to our second thought, viz:
The ending of this planet as the
| theatre and home of human life.
Dramatic and terrible as is this
| thought in contemplation, let US seek
| to entertain it that it may be reas-
suring rather than demoralizing. II
| the ending of the career of this world
as a planet is to me a tremendous
| physical catastrophe, a probable re-
absorption into the sun by an impact
| of collision which will instantly va
porize it by the enormous heat gen.
| Grated by collision, this apparently
! tragic and utter ending of the earth is
an ending ordained by God, along the
lines of infinite wisdom and love. 1t
will be no more remarkable, when
viewed in this light, than the drop
ping Of an autumn leaf, that, having
| served it's function, is hidden to SUBJ
serve other uses.
1t is worthy of remark that the
statement of our Saviour that this
planet would come finally 20 fiery ex-
tinction, anticipated by near 1000
years the deductions and conclusions
of astronomical science. For a gen.
Grafton at least, astronomers have
known that the earth was slowly
drawing nearer to the sun. AS this
approach is by very easy stages, al
though positive and actual, it will be
many hundreds of thousands of years
| before the final catastrophe occurs.
And so, just now, we need be under
no immediate apprehension, in spite
of the periodic alarms of our friends.
the Second Adventists.
Before this happens, the education
of the human race will have been
finished. Before this happens, all
terrestrial heat will probably have
left the body of this planet. With
the cooling of the earth, all water
on the surface of the globe, and all
atmosphere will have been drawn in
to the core of the earth. and the earth
will have become a dead planet like
the moon With the cooling of the
earth, and the disappearance of water
and air, all organic life, vegetable
and animal, will have ceased, and the
earth become dead planet. Gradu-
ally the centrifugal motion which
keeps the earth away from the sun,
as it whirls around it, will be over
come by the centripetal attraction
which is drawing the earth toward
the sun. Let me explain by simple
illustrations: A boy ties stone on
the end of a string, after the manner
of a sling. He swings it round. and
round. Should he let go the string,
the stone would fly off into space.
But holding tightly to the string, he
gradually shortens it, and in the
meantime keeps the stone whirling,
the stone will presently strike his
hand when the string is short enough.
And the stone will strike hard. AS
tronomy tells us that the earth is the
stone, and the sun is the boy. The
string is the invisible cord which we
call gravity. The sun is gradually
shortening this cord. When it is
short enough, this power of gravity
will pull the earth into the sun. The
earth will stike the sun so hard that
its entire mass will be vaporized in
an instant and all it's constituent ele,
dition. So vast is the sun that any
one of it's great chasms, which we cal
spots, is large enough to swallow the
earth without touching it's sides. Sc
vast is the sun that the addition to II
of this whole planet would be as Il
we threw a single lump of coal into
a great furnace.
Although all life will have ceased
before this cataclysm, when we refec
upon the destruction of the triumph:
of art, science and civilization, the
numberless marvellous things which
men have made and built and deemed
of priceless value, all to go in one
fiery holocaust, some consideration
present themselves to thoughtful
minds. And first, perhaps, to th'
pious thinker, comes the though
that, however God may have assigned
to man the duty to subdue nature ant
develop civilization, it was only tha
natures forces might be harnesset
in the service of man, and that civil
cation, blossomire into morality and
culture, might be fore taste of and
preparation for our life as it will be
ived in higher spheres.
Entirely apart from considerations
If the coarseness and crassness o1
oarbarous and semi-barbarous peo
oles, and the lowest classes of civili
zation, several hundreds of thousands
If years will be necessary before the
moral. spiritual and social training