THE MOST VALUABLE AND MOST WONDERFUL TELESCOPE.
Suggestion:—The objects used are a field-glass or opera-glass, spy-glass and sun-glass.
MY DEAR LITTLE MILLIONAIRES: You know that when people are very wealthy, have hundreds of thousands of dollars, they are spoken of as millionaires. Oftentimes these rich people do not have any more actual money than poorer people, but they have property which is supposed to be worth a great deal of money. Now, I want to show you to-day that each one of you possesses that which is worth millions of dollars.
Field-glass, Spy-glass and Sun-glass.
I want to talk to you about your eyes, and I hope that you will be able to understand that they are worth hundreds and thousands, yes millions of dollars to each of you. In order that I may better illustrate a few of the many wonderful things about the human eye, I have brought this field-glass, and here is a small spy-glass, and also a magnifying lens, or sun-glass, as boys sometimes call them. Inside of this spy-glass and these field-glasses are lenses or magnifying glasses, similar to this sun-glass. They are, however, more perfect, and are so adjusted or related to each other, that when I place this smaller lens of the spy-glass to my eye I also look through the larger lens which is at the further end of the instrument. When properly adjusted, it enables me to see objects which are at a great distance, and to so magnify them as to cause them to seem much nearer to me than they really are.
Now, if you take this spy-glass and look at the stars, it will not make them appear any larger than they appear to the eye without the spy-glass. It will assist the eye when I look at the moon or the planets, but not at the stars which are so much further removed from the earth than the moon and the planets. Astronomers have desired something larger and more satisfactory, and so have made the great telescopes, which are simply large spy-glasses. The telescope and the spy-glass, and the field-glasses, are all imitations of the human eye; the same as many of our greatest inventions are only copies of that which God has already created, and which we have but feebly imitated. The eye is a more wonderful instrument than even the largest telescopes which have ever been made.
If you desired to look through a telescope at one of the stars or a planet, or the moon, you would have considerable difficulty in directing it so as to be able to see the desired object. Even with this small spy-glass it is very difficult so to direct it as to find a particular star in the heavens at night. It is not easy, even to find a distant object upon the earth. But with these wonderful eyes, with which God has endowed us, you and I can look almost instantly from one star to any other star, and find instantly upon the earth any object which is distinctly pointed out to us. It takes a very experienced person successfully to operate a telescope, but the smallest child can direct and control and use his own eyes successfully.
The large telescopes have to be turned and adjusted by machinery, and when it is desired to direct them from one star to another star on the opposite side of the heavens, they even have to turn around the entire roof or dome of the observatory. But you and I do not need any ponderous machinery to adjust our eyes, or to turn them about in order to look in a different direction. We can easily turn our heads by bending our necks, or, if necessary, we can turn our entire body around and look in an opposite direction. In looking from one object to another, our eyes change their direction so quickly that we are not conscious of any effort upon our own part.
Small Telescope.
If you were to look through a large telescope, or even one of these smaller spy-glasses, you would immediately discover that when you desire to look at objects at different distances, or in different degrees of light and shade, you would have to constantly adjust the telescope or spy-glass to these different conditions. If you would look at objects which are near, and then turn the spy-glass to look at those which are distant, you would not be able to see distinctly until you had adjusted the lenses to suit the distance. With our eyes the same adjustment has to be made, and yet it is done so quickly and without any conscious effort upon our part, that it seems as if it were not done at all. When we look at an object which is only a few inches from our face, and then turn and look at a distant object, instantly our eyes are adjusted to the difference of distance and varying degrees of light and shade.
But what makes this all still more wonderful is the fact that we have two telescopes, two eyes instead of one. Both of these little eye-telescopes instantly adjust themselves, and both adjust themselves to precisely the same necessity. If they adjusted themselves differently we would see two objects instead of one; the same as a drunken man who has lost the use of his muscles and faculties, whose eyes do not work in harmony, and therefore, instead of seeing only one object, he sees two objects and sees them in a confused way.
Did you ever think how wonderful it is that when you close your right eye, and look at something with your left eye, that you can see the object distinctly? Now, if you close the left eye, and look at the object with the right eye, you again see the same object distinctly. When you open both eyes and look at the same object, instead of seeing the object twice, or seeing two objects, you see only one object. That is because the eyes work in such perfect harmony, and that is what the Scripture means when it says that you and I should "see eye to eye" in everything that is good.
Now there is another thing to which I desire to call your attention, and that is the size of the eye. If you owned one of these very large telescopes which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, you would be regarded as a very wealthy person, but you could not carry that telescope with you from one place to another. It would be of no service to you in looking upon the beautiful scenes which surround you from day to day. If you wanted to use the telescope you would have to stay where the telescope was, instead of taking the telescope with you where you desired to go. But God has made these little eye-telescopes so perfect, and yet so compact and small, that wherever we go, on land or sea, we can take them with us, and they can be in constant use and give us the most perfect delight and satisfaction.
I am sure there is not a single boy or girl who would trade off one of these perfect little telescopes—yes, I will call it a telescope and an observatory also—for God has beautifully encased our eyes, and shielded and housed them more beautifully and satisfactorily than the most perfect observatory which was ever built for any man-made telescope. We would not trade away one of our eyes for one of the finest telescopes in the world, and we would not be willing to give both of our eyes for all the telescopes which have ever been made.
But one of these large telescopes and observatories would cost a great deal—even hundreds of thousands of dollars; yet God has given you and me these telescopes, our wonderful eyes. But because God has given them to us they are none the less valuable on that account, and I think therefore that I was correct when I addressed you to-day as little millionaires.
Now, God has given you, not simply one eye, but He has given you two eyes, two wonderful telescopes and observatories. He has given you two, so that if by any accident one should be destroyed, you would still have the other to depend upon. God has given you two eyes, and two hands, and two feet; but He has given you only one soul, and if by sin you lose that one soul, then you have lost everything, for the Scripture says, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
In Palestine, the country in which Jesus lived when He was upon the earth, the sun shines with wonderful brightness and clearness; the land also is very light in color, and consequently the eyes are oppressed by the glare, just the same as those of you who have ever been at the seashore have experienced the glare while walking along the beach; or, to some extent, like the bright sunlight shining upon the snow in winter. This light color of the soil and brightness of the sun in Palestine are the cause of blindness to many of the inhabitants. When Jesus was upon the earth, one of His greatest acts of mercy to suffering humanity was to open and heal the eyes of those who were either born blind, or who had become blind afterward.
Now, in this country of ours, and in all countries of the earth, there are hundreds and thousands and millions of people who are spiritually blind. Jesus Christ is to-day passing by, just the same as when the blind man sat by the roadside near Jericho, when Jesus was then passing by. As that blind man called upon Jesus and said, "Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me," so you and I should call upon God and upon His Son, Jesus Christ, that He would have mercy upon us and open our spiritual eyes. We should make the language of the Scriptures the petition of our hearts, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." I pray that God may give each of you to see and to understand spiritual things.
Questions.—Instead of money, in what does the wealth of millionaires often consist? Is the human eye worth more than money? Would you take a million of dollars for your two eyes? Are your eyes worth more than telescopes? Which is the more perfect, a telescope or the human eye? Are telescopes adjusted like the eye? Which can be adjusted more quickly? Where are telescopes kept? Are your eyes kept in a little observatory? Why has God given us two eyes instead of one? How many souls has He given us? If the soul is lost, what is the result? What causes so much blindness in the country in which Jesus lived? Did Jesus open the eyes of the blind and restore the sight of people in Palestine? Are many people spiritually blind? Does Jesus wish to give them spiritual sight or vision?
