"1

mechanical origin." Very well, there is not the least objection to mechanical formula for what belongs to mechanics; but we look at the matter of the living plant and animal; this transparent, colourless, structureless, semifluid stuff, moves in any and every direction; but why it moves, grows, forms, divides, no man knoweth; if there is structure or mechanism, it is invisible. When God said"Let the earth bring forth," the earth brought forth by Godgiven power; and mechanical power, vital power, moral power, spiritual power, are all emanations of Divine energy. "The reason why the old fable speaks of the spontaneous life of men is, that in those days God Himself was their Shepherd, and ruled over them, just as man, who is by comparison a Divine being, still rules over the animals." 2

When God placed sun, moon, stars, in the firmament, to lighten many worlds, He endued them with seasonable and prolific influence. It may be audacious and startling, but not new to say "We are all children of the sun." "It is of little moment whether we express the phenomena of matter in terms of spirit, or the phenomena of spirit in terms of matter," "3 if we allow that matter is not a brutal and malignant thing, but that good servant of God by whom wonderful works are done, and with whom beautiful shapes are wrought. Moses declared it all when he wrote of 'precious fruits brought forth by the sun" (Deut. xxxiii. 14); and he warns us against ancient and modern sunworshippers by recording the fact that God makes these things according to His own will. In them He hath largely poured out of Himself.

The scientific hypothesis, that life began in simple primordial organisms, the Bible in no way contradicts; but builds up all life from the ground. The hypothetical monads, or bioplasts, of grass, herb, plant, tree, endowed with the power of reproduction, are as wonderful and complicate in their origination and development as would be the instantaneous appearance of trees already loaded with fruit. Worlds within worlds were those early organisms; parents of the beauty, power, and life of grass, herb, tree. Milton wrote:

1

'Vitality: " Prof. Tyndall.

2

"Plato's Dialogues-Statesmen," p. 271: Jowett's translation.

A Good Lesson.

"One first matter all,
Endued with various forms, various degrees
Of substance, and in things that live, of life;
But more refined, more spirituous and pure,
As nearer to Him placed or nearer tending;
Each in their several active spheres assigned;
Till body up to spirit work in bounds
Proportioned in each kind."

Paradise Lost.

189

Richter conveys a lesson good and true-"I picked up in the choir a faded rose leaf, that lay under the feet of the boys. Great God! what had I in my hand but a small leaf with a little dust upon it; and upon the small fugitive thing fancy built a whole paradise of joy, a whole summer dwelt upon this leaf. I thought of the beautiful day when the boy held this flower in his hand; and when, through the church window, he saw the heaven, and the clouds wandering over it; when every place in the cool vault was full of sunlight, and reminded him of the shadows on the grass from the overflying clouds. Great God! Thou scatterest satisfaction everywhere, and givest to every one joys to impart again. Not merely dost Thou invite us to rest and exciting pleasures, Thou givest to the smallest an exciting perfume."

No psychologist will deny that plant life affords glimpses of the transcendental. It combines many principles, brings into concert many powers; and the delicacy of parts, complexity of construction, special and elaborate adaptation of function to function, denote high art in form, in colour; and are, in some respects, an epitome of all being. In plants we have adaptation of the general properties and affinities of the inorganic world to the purposes of life. They oppose the outward rush of force from our system, arrest a part, fix it as potential energy; and, hindering the dissipation of matter and forces, accumulate subsistence and permanence that man may have time to acquire dominion over the visible universe, and be prepared for nobler part in that which is as yet unseen.

"If thou wilt take no less-His best shall be
Thy portion now and through eternity."

In the several members, organs, functions of plants, we possess the first lodgment of the spirit of life in Nature by the creative energy of the Eternal. They are endowed with

life, not self-living. Life is in them, but no soul; not even that brute-soul which is attributed to beasts. The psychological fact, for symbolic use, is—that in every human soul is first formed a tree of life, rooted in the heart, attaining summit or crown in the spirit. Thus, as by the tree of life, the kingdom of plants is represented in the soul. There are formed in it also, by strong spiritual operation, lifeless forms, more strongly or more weakly stamped as animal, which encamp around our heart; and these, even though they have no life of their own, are stirred at the heaving of the passions." 1

The thought, though it be visionary or poetical, is worth enlarging in another direction. Try to conceive of a spirit, in its initial period, secluded from contact with the material universe, acquainted only with mind. Such a spirit, awaking to consciousness of the properties of matter, would become, so to speak, new born; and take possession of another nature. He would find the various substances which are furnished by the soil, compounded into other specific substances. The mechanical adjustment of parts, root, stem, leaves; in absorbing, respiring, expiring; in secreting, accreting, excreting; contain the animal system-that harmony of a thousand elements. Taught by this material knowledge, that spirit would begin to reflect upon its own nature. Thus the genesis of matter, and the introduction of natural life, possibly enlarged the knowledge and power of the spirit-world. Consciousness of the natural world may impart to spirits an experience akin, yet diverse, to that which spirit imparts to the human soul. There would be the fact of solid extension, the mechanical properties of hardness, softness, roughness, weight; the chemical properties in their varieties of pungencies, flavours, perfumes; and the vibrations of sound in melody and harmony; so refined, numerous, complicated, as to double all former powers of enjoyment. The boundary is not yet attained of sensitive existence more light would break in, and the universe stand revealed in many beauties and glories. The great contriving Mind would be viewed, ever and ever starting from and to a higher point; not only effecting delicate and complicated mechanism; but so adapting the elements of the material and spiritual systems that eternity calls time to walk in

1.66 System of Biblical Psychology:" Prof. F. Delitzsch.

Nature's Wonderful Avenue.

191

Nature's wonderful avenue. More mysterious still, spirit enters flesh; then, wonder of wonders! in fulness of time, the Infinite and Eternal, who incomprehensibly manifests Himself in space and time by all phenomena, dwells in that holy human form, Jesus. "He made thee and thou art, He redeemed thee and thou wilt be."

Language fails in utterance of thought. Who can put into words the deep truths which underlie our consciousness of Nature, and of those vast substantial spiritual realities on which are based the glorious things of Revelation? The commonest facts which lie ready to our hand, in their essence, have relations with infinity. We cannot understand how moments of time are linked by consciousness into the chain of our life; but, though with darkling rather than glimmering knowledge as to possible instruction of angels by the creation of our own world, the symbols used may be fairly taken as indications that our knowledge and faculties of enjoyment will enlarge in the future according to the measure of Divine things attained in this life. The seeds of wisdom grow into flowers of thought and yield glorious fruit in some paradise of God. "Good is the wisdom of earth, know thyself; better the wisdom of heaven, acquaint thyself with God."

"Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace:
Thereby good shall come unto thee.""

JOB Xxii. 21

STUDY XII.

DAY IV. THE SUN.

"There are men who, seeing the great power this sun hath, are secretly enticed in their heart; and with their mouth have kissed their hand to him."-JOB xxxi. 26, 27, freely rendered.

Two dangers are to be guarded against in handling any science touching Holy Scripture: (1) an unwise adoption and adaptation of discoveries which seem to confirm the sacred statements; (2) an unworthy fear that any truly scientific result can be adverse.

These dangers may be turned into deliverances. It is not long since the sciences were mere aggregations of empirical knowledge. Astronomy could hardly be called a science in the days of Hipparchos, seeing that physics did not begin, as a science, till Galileo discovered the law of falling bodies. Chemistry began two hundred and seventy years later, when Lavoisier, discovering the true principles of combustion, overthrew the doctrine of phlogiston. At the end of the eighteenth century biology began, Bichat pointing out the relations between the functions of organs and the properties of tissues. Sociology is not yet a science. Scientific religion will not be completed until the whole physical and psychical nature of man, physics and metaphysics, history and revelation, the natural and preternatural, are regarded from the highest point attainable by human nature. Meanwhile, assured as we are by the co-ordination of all our faculties that the religious sentiment will find as great, or even greater satisfaction in the future than it has in the past; and because the recognition of a Power which is beyond humanity, yet upon which humanity rests, will become, by the advance of science, a scientific verity; it is well to remind the fearful that religion is not "a polity de novo," but built on the concrete facts of past ages.

It