All the works of God connected with the world which we inhabit, and with all other worlds, are strictly governed by law. So accurate are the movements of the heavenly bodies that even with our limited knowledge we can compute, after the departure of most of these bodies, the time of their return to a minute. The sun rises and sets with great regularity, and we can tell to a moment, by calculating the revolution of the earth, at what time it will make its appearance in the morning and disappear in the evening; the same rule applies to the moon, the whole of the solar system, and to all bodies that can be reached by our instruments. There is perfect regularity, exactitude and order associated with all worlds; a departure from which would produce incalculable evil and irretrievable destruction and ruin. With regard to the matter of which the earth is composed, it is also governed by strict, unchangeable laws; matter possessing the same properties under the same conditions, in all parts of the world. The various grasses, herbs, plants, shrubs, flowers, minerals, metals, waters, fluids or gases, when under the same conditions, are subject to or governed by unchangeable laws; and by those laws chemists or scientists are enabled to apply tests to demonstrate the properties of the various elements in nature, which they find are always immutable, and the same degree of accuracy applies to the laws and various formations of crystallization, under the same circumstances. The animal and vegetable creations are governed by certain laws, and are composed of certain elements peculiar to themselves. This applies to man, to the beasts, fowls, fish and creeping things, to the insects and to all animated nature; each one possessing its own distinctive features, each requiring a specific sustenance, each having an organism and faculties governed by prescribed laws to perpetuate its own kind. So accurate is the formation of the various living creatures that an intelligent student of nature can tell by any particular bone of the skeleton of an animal to what class or order it belongs.
These principles do not change, as represented by evolutionists of the Darwinian school, but the primitive organisms of all living beings exist in the same form as when they first received their impress from their Maker. There are, indeed, some very slight exceptions, as for instance, the ass may mix with the mare and produce the mule; but there it ends, the violation of the laws of procreation receives a check, and its operations can go no further. Similar compounds may possibly be made by experimentalists in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, but the original elements remain the same. Yet this is not the normal, but an abnormal condition with them, as with animals, birds, etc.; and if we take man, he is said to have been made in the image of God, for the simple reason that he is a son of God; and being His son, he is, of course, His offspring, an emanation from God, in whose likeness, we are told, he is made. He did not originate from a chaotic mass of matter, moving or inert, but came forth possessing, in an embryotic state, all the faculties and powers of a God. And when he shall be perfected, and have progressed to maturity, he will be like his Father—a God; being indeed His offspring. As the horse, the ox, the sheep, and every living creature, including man, propagates its own species and perpetuates its own kind, so does God perpetuate His.
There are different organisms possessing different qualities, from which the same results are uniformly obtained. The body of a sheep produces wool, that of a goat produces hair, the flesh of certain kinds of fish produces scales, the flesh of birds produces feathers, and by the coverings of the various kinds of animals, birds and fishes, may their originals be known. It is true that some of these coverings may be slightly changed by a removal of the creature from the arctic to the torrid zone, or vice versa; wool may assume a nearer approach to hair in length and texture, or hair may become more woolly, but these modifications are slight, and this covering of the animal is predisposed to return to its original qualities when the creature is replaced in his natural habitat. Paul, in speaking on the resurrection, refers to the different qualities of flesh as follows:
"But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds."—1 Cor., xv, 38, 39.
These different qualities seem to be inherent in the several species, as much so as the properties of silver, gold, copper, iron and other minerals are inherent in the matter in which they are contained, whilst herbs, according to their kind, possess their specific properties, or as the leading properties of earth, air, and water, are distinct from one another; and hence, on physiological grounds, this principle being admitted, and it cannot be controverted, it would be impossible to take the tissues of the lower, or, indeed, of any order of fishes, and make of them an ox, a bird, or a man; as impossible as it would be to take iron and make it into gold, silver, or copper, or to produce other changes in the laws which govern any kind of matter. And when the resurrection and exaltation of man shall be consummated, although more pure, refined and glorious, yet will he still be in the same image, and have the same likeness, without variation or change in any of his parts or faculties, except the substitution of spirit for blood.
This principle of exactitude in all the works of God represents the principles that dwell in God Himself. He is called in Scripture the I AM, in other words, I AM THAT I AM, because of those inherent principles, which are also eternal and unchangeable; for where those principles exist, He exists; and when speaking of the worlds by which we are surrounded, it is said, "Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any, or the least of these, hath seen God moving in his majesty and power."—Doc. and Cov., sec. lxxxviii, 47, p. 310.
And again it is written:
"He comprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all things are round about him: and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things; and all things are by him, and of him, even God, for ever and ever. And again, verily I say unto you, he hath given a law unto all things, by which they move in their times and their seasons."—Ibid., 41, 42, p. 309.
And again, in the same revelation, we read:
"As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made. As also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made. As also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were made. And the earth also, and the power thereof; even the earth upon which you stand. And the light which now shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light, that quickeneth your understandings; which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space. The light which is in all things; which giveth life to all things: which is the law by which all things are governed: even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things."—Ibid., 7-13, p. 306.