Year: 1866




Or How They illustrate the Truth Of Re-
ligion.


ONI little fact often furnishes a text
| for large discourse. A trifiing Incl
dent may suggest reflections on which a
wise man shall ponder long, and which
may lead him to great results The ap-
pie that fell on Newton's head set him
to thinking, and led him to discover the
law of gravitation which holds the plan
cts in their orbits. Perhaps, if Newton
were living now, he would be led into .
similar train of reflection by an item
noted in our scientific" column, namely:
that a message had been telegraphed
across the Atlantic by . battery fired in
lady's thimble! The statement is so
extraordinary, that We should be slow to
believe it, If we only saw it floating about
in the papers. But the fact is confirmed
by private letter, which we have been
permitted to see, from the eminent cleo
trician who made the experiment.. He
writes that he has been down at Valen
tia for a week repeating all the tests of
the two cables at his leisure. He finds
them both marvelously perfect. The
old one is even little better than the
new one, but this is doubtless owing to
its having been longer submerged, time
improving the quality of gutta percha.
But the new one has improved very much
since it was submerged in July, and he
does not know which, will finally prove
the better 1t is as one of his expert
ments that he relates the following -
''With single galvanic cell, composed
of few drops of acid tn a silver .uiai
BILE and a fragment of inc weighing a
grain or two, conversati n may readily.
though slowly, be carried On either thro'
one of the cables or thr ,roh the two
joined together at Newfoundland SO as
to form a loop; and although in the lat
ter case the spark, twice traversing the
breadth of the Atlantic, has To pass
trough 3,700 nautical miles of cable, or
4 300 to 4 400 statute miles, its effects at
the distant end are visible on the gal
vanome eter in a little more than q second
after contact is made with the battery.
Tie defiections are of a dubious charac
ter, but full and strong, the spot Of light
traversing freely throu sh space of
twelve or eighteen inch IS on the scale,~
and it is manifest that battery very
many times smaller would suffice TO pro
ducc similar effects"


This little fact might be used with much
effect by one giving a lecture on Elcc-
tricity. as the latest proof of its incredi-
beautiful analogy to 1 spifituar rrutiI-
the communication of the human soul
with God. Thought is swifter than the
lightning and if in a second of time a
spark may fly from continent to CONT
nent, why should it be thought thing
Incredible that the desires of human
heart should thus be waited to the throne
of God


The existence in nature Of an agent
SO subtitle and Mysterious tnseen- yet
dwelling in every object, developed by
the slightest causes, and often liashing
out upon US with terrific power-is per
haps the best illustration of the univer-
sal presence Of that Uns cen Power which
we come in contact every instant. Thus
God is not far from every one ofus. Like
the air, which floats all over the round
world, which stirs the leaves of the for
est and the waves of the sea. SO is the
presence of God-it is all around us by
night as well as day, and in Him we live
and move and all have our being.


How easy then for man to commune
with his Maker. He is not God afar
off, but very nigh, even to the lowliest of
his creatures. And how slight thing
arrests his ear, 1t needeth not he voices
of great congregation, filling the arch
es Of a cathedral, and rising up to heaven
like the sound of many waters. Man
may pray alone, in solitude aad in weak
ness, and yet God can hear.


Again the scientific fact helps US to
understand the spiritual truth. A few
years ago, when men first talked of tele-
graphing across the Atlantic, they thot'
at least they had need to muster out all
the forces in the armory Of nature; they
must send out current OF electricity
that should be almost like fash of light
ring from the thunder cloud. And so
the electricians Of that day ranged on
the nights of valeltia a battery of five
hundred cells, with which they fred off
into the bosom Of the ocean. Needless
pomp and preparation! When now only a
spark from a iady's thimble may traverse
the whole breadth Of the Atlantic.


So is it with prayer. 1t matters not
how weak the voice which utters it, how
lowly the source from VIII CT, it comes If
it be true spirit of devotion, it will
reach its object As the spark from tha.
tiniest of gafvanic cells flies across the
sea, SO the feeblest desire tba at trembles
in human breast may make its fiutter-
ing felt even in the infinite bosom ofGol.
He beareth the young ravens when they
cry. Nor is He unmoyed by the suppl
cations Of the weakest and Iowiiese of
his human creatures. The sailor boy
swinging in his hammock, child lost in
the forest, or even roc'a King in its cradle,
may lisp a prayer that viii reach the
ear of God.


Signals through the Atlantic Cable are not made
BY marks or by sound, but BY light. The telegra Oh
house is kept dark. and it is the flashes Of light which
issue from the end of the cable, VIII ch tell the mes
sages which are coming up out of the sea.


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