"The course of Nature is the art of God."
The microscope reveals the fact that matter measuring only 1/120000 of an inch diameter may be endowed with vitality, and that countless numbers of animalcules often inhabit a single drop of stagnant water. These monads do not vary in form, whether in motion or at rest. The life of one, even, is an inexplicable mystery to the philosopher. Ehrenberg writes: "Not only in the polar regions is there an uninterrupted development of active microscopic life, where larger animals cannot exist, but we find that those minute beings collected in the Antarctic expedition of Captain James Ross exhibit a remarkable abundance of unknown, and often most beautiful forms."
Even the interior of animal bodies is inhabited by animalcules. They have been found in the blood of the frog and the salmon, and in the optic fluid of fishes. Organic beings are found in the interior of the earth, into which the industry of the miner has made extensive excavations, sunk deep shafts, and thus revealed their forms; likewise, the smallest fossil organisms form subterranean strata many fathoms deep. Not only do lakes and inland seas abound with life, but also, from unknown depths, in volcanic districts, arise thermal springs which contain living insects. Were we endowed with a microscopic eye, we might see myriads of ethereal voyagers wafted by on every breeze, as we now behold drifting clouds of aqueous vapor. While the continents of earth furnishes evidences of the universality of organic beings, recent observations prove that "animal life predominates amid the eternal night of the depths of the liquid ocean."
THE ORIGIN OF LIFE.
The ancients, rude in many of their ideas, referred the origin of life to divine determination. The thought was crudely expressed, but well represented, in the following verse:
"Then God smites his hands together,
And strikes out a soul as a spark,
Into the organized glory of things.
From the deeps of the dark."
According to a Greek myth, Prometheus formed a human image from the dust of the ground, and then, by fire stolen from heaven, animated it with a living soul. Spontaneous generation once held its sway, and now the idea of natural evolution is popular. Some believe that the inpenetrable mystery of life is evolved from the endowments of nature, and build their imperfect theory on observations of her concrete forms and their manifestations, to which all our investigations are restricted. But every function indicates purpose, every organism evinces intelligent design, and all proclaim a Divine Power. Something cannot come out of nothing. With reason and philosophy, chance is an impossibility. We, therefore, accept the display of wisdom in nature as indicative of the designs of God. Thus "has He written His claims for our profoundest admiration and homage all over every object that He has made." If you ask: Is there any advantage in considering the phenomena of nature as the result of DIVINE VOLITION? we answer, that this belief corresponds with the universally acknowledged ideas of accountability; for, with a wise, and efficient Cause, we infer there is an intelligent creation, and the desire to communicate, guide and bless, is responded to by man, who loves, obeys, and enjoys. Nothing is gained by attributing to nature vicegerent forces. Is it not preferable to say that she responds to intelligent, loving Omnipotence? Our finiteness is illustrated by our initiation into organized being. Emerging from a rayless atom, too diminutive for the sight, we gradually develop and advance to the maturity of those conscious powers, the exercise of which furnishes indubitable evidence of our immortality. We are pervaded with invisible influences, which, like the needle of the compass trembling on its pivot, point us to immortality as our ultimate goal, where in the sunny clime of Love, even in a spiritual realm of joy and happiness, we may eternally reign with Him who is all in all.