The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-09-07

| that the lowest third.
One does not escape from mystery,
however, by accepting this theory. for
IT does not explain the origin of life.
When the follower of Darwin has
traced the germ of life back to the
lowest form in which IL appears--and
/ to follow him one must exercise more
4 faith than religion calls for-he finds
that scientists differ. Those who re-
| ject the idea of creation are divided
into two schools. some believing that
the first germ of life came from
another planet and others holding
that it was the result of spontaneous
generation. Each school answers the
arguments advanced by the other.
and as they cannot agree with each
other, I am not compelled to agree
with either.
! But, while DO not accept the Oar
winian theory, / shall not quarrel
with you about It; I only refer to
It TO remind you that II does not solve
the mystery of life OF explain human
progress. I fear that some have ac-
cepted It in the hope OF escaping from
the miracle. but why should the mira
Gle Brighten us7 And yet 7 am in
ciined to think that It Is one of the
test questions with the Christian.
! Christ cannot be separated from
| the miraculous; his birth, his minis
/ trations and his resurrection. all in
volve the miraculous. and the change
which his religion works in the hui
man heart is continuing miracle,
| Eliminate the miracles and Christ
becomes merely human being and
! his gospel Is stripped OF divine au-
! thority.
| The miracle raises two questions:
| Can God perform niracle2" and,
| Would he want to-" The first is
easy to answer a God who can
wants to do with II. The power to
! perform miracles is necessarily i'm
/ piled in the power 10 create But
would God want To perform a mira
! Gle this Is the question which has
given most of the trouble. The more
( I have considered II the less inclined
{ I am to answer in tho negative. To
I say that God would not perform
miracle Is to assume a more intimate
! knowledge OF Gods plans and pur-
poses than can claim to have.
will not deny that God does perform
a miracle or may perform one mere
I ~ because / do not know how or why
/ he does IT. I find It so difficult TO
decide each day what God wants
done now that ! am not presumptu~
Gus enough tn attempt to declare
what God might have wanted 70 do
4 thousands Of years ago. Tt is some
/ times said that God could not sus-
pend one Of his laws without stop
ping the universe. but do we not sus-
pend or overcome the law of graSi
tatton every day? Every time we
move a foot or lift weight we tenn
porarlly overcome one OF the most
universal Of natural laws and yet the
/ world IS not disturbed.
| Science has taught us SO many
! things that we are tempted TO con-
r 4 l-t.t
there is really q great unknown which
/ ia sttll uneNpiorcd and that which we
4 have learned ought 10 increase oar
! reverence rather than our eRotisrn,
I Science has disclosed some Of the
machinery Of the universe. but sci
ence has NOT yet revealed to US the
great gecret-the secret Of life, II
/ il 10 be found IN every blade Of grass,
! in every insect. IN every bird and In
I every animal. "a we'll as IN man.
Six thousand years Of recorded his
tory. and yet we know no more about
! the secret Of life than they knew IN
/ the beginning We live We plan. we
/ have our hopes, our fears: and yet In
a moment a change may come over
1 any ono of us and this body viii be
come mass Of hfeless clay What
/ }s II that having, we live. and hay-
/ ing not we are rs the clod9 The
/ progress Of the rare and the civlliza-
tion which We now behold arc tho
work Of men ard women who have
not vet solved the mystery OF their
! own lives
And our food. must we understand
Il before wc sat Ii I? II WE refused to
| cat ANYTHING until we could under
saF - "a
| would die Of starvation. But mystery
does not bother us in the dining room;
/ II is only In the Church that 1t is
a stumbling block.
/ was eating a piece Of watermelon
some months ago ana was struck with
| its beauty. 7 took some Of the seeds
4 and dried the mand weighed them,
I and found that II would require some
! Eve thousand seeds to weigh pound,
ann then I applied mathematics 10
that forty-pound melon. One or these
seeds, nut into the ground, when
warmed by the sun and moistened
by the rain. takes off It's coat and
goes TO work II gathers from SHINE
/ where two hundred thousand times It's
| own weight. and forcing this raw ma
terial through a tiny stem. constructs
a watermelon. II ornaments the out
| side with covering OF green: inside
the green II puts n layer OF white,
and within the white q core Of red
| and all through the red X scatters
seeds, each one capable Of continuing
the work of reproduction. Who drew
the plan bv which that Httle seed
| works. Where does II get its tre-
1 meYidous strength? Where does II
find its coloring matter? How does
1t collect it's flavoring extract? How
does 1t develop watermelon? I'm
til you can explain a watermelon, do
1 not be too sure that you can set Inn
its to the power - tho Almighty ana
say lust what he would do or how he
would do 1t.
Water has been used from the
birth of man; we learned after II had
been used for ages that II is merely n
/ mixture Of gases. but 1t Is far moro
i'm portant that we have water to
drink than that we know that It Is
4 NOT water. r.
Everything that grows tells like
story Of infinite power. Why should
/ deny that a divine hand fed null
titude with a few loaves and fishes
when see hundreds of millions fed
every year by hand which converts
the seeds scattered over the field into
an abundant harvest We know that
food can be multiplied In few