The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-03-21
THE MYSTERY OF 1T ALL

world, looking around and about it III
wonder and amazement, We can i'm
agine that it asks the questions:
What is it all for, and what does it
all mean?"
AS the babe grows into childhood
and passes the various mileposts lead
ing to old age and senility, We can i'm
agine that those questions ever and
anon pass through the channels OF
thought and knock for solution; but,
alas. the fullness Of time seems not
TO have yet arrived for mortal man
to peer behind the impenetrable veil
and know as he is known.
Most of us are familiar with Mr..
Bryans grain of wheat that grew
more than three thousand years ago
on the banks of the Nile-ten centu-
ries before the Babe Of Bethlehem
was carried down into Egypt, but not
so many OF them, perhaps. are so ia
miliar with the story Of his watermel-
on seed.
4 was eating" he says, "a piece
Of watermelon some months ago, and
was struck with it's beauty l took
some of the seeds and weighed them,
and found that it would require some
five thousand seeds to weigh a pound.
One of these seeds, put into the
ground. when warmed by the sun and
moistened by the rains. goes TO work.
il gathers from somewhere two hun
dred thousand times its own weight,
and, forcing this raw material through
a tiny stem, constructs a watermelon.
1t covers the outside with a coating
Of green; inside of the green it puts
a layer Of white and within the white
a core Of red, and all through the red
it scatters seeds. each one capable Of
continuing the work of reproduction
What does this great man say who
has given so much study to religious
subjects and so much profound
thought to the relation Of the soul to
its Creator?
He says: Il cannot explain the wa
termeIon but I eat and enjoy it,"
He says that everything that grows
tells a like story Of infinite power.
And so it does.
Writing just about this season Of
the year. when all nature is vernal
with beauty, Rev. Henry P Liddon,
canon Of st. Paul's, said:
Everywhere around you are evil
dences of the existence and move
ment of a mysterious power which
you can neither see, nor touch. nor de-
fine, nor measure, nor understand.
This power lives speechless. noise
less. unseen, yet energetic in every
bough above your head, in every blade
Of grass beneath your feet. It bursts
forth from the grain into the shoot,
from the branch into the bud; it
bursts into leaf, and flower, and fruit.
It creates bark and fibre it creates
height and bulk; it yields grace Of
form and lustre OF color It is inces-
SAINT in its labor; it is prodigal of its
beauty; it is uniformly generous and
bountiful in its gifts to man"
And yet he asks: What is it? You
give it a name, but after all, he says,
you have only labeled it"
The Duke OF SALISBURY said that
God is the soul OF the world"
Bryan intimates the same thing,
and all who have delved into these
profound mysteries give expression
to the thought that it is the spirit or
essence Of God that is running
through nature, and is giving energy
or what We call life to material and
immaterial things.
Are we told that it is impious to
imagine the Creator as a Great Mag
net, and when he formed man in his
own image and breathed into him the
breath of life that man became a part
of him the same as a piece of steel
charged with magnetism, becomes a
part OF the magnet?
See the potential strength and pow
er of this mechanism called eletcro-
magnets From five TO fifteen tons Of
pig iron adhere to one Of them when
maguetized, the same as iron filings
adhere to the little pocket magnet.
And SO when God breathed into the
rcstrils Of man he energized his soul
as a magnet is energized. but when
man grows away from this power by
acts Of negligence and disobedience
and aWakes to a realizing sense that
he is becoming out OF alignment. out
of adjustment, out of harmony with
his Creator, and in his inner con
seriousness communes with Him and
feels a REIMBURSEMENT taking place,
We believe his communing is as
magnet re-charged, and that he be-
comes as one with the Great Magnet.