March 1926
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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impossible; order would give place to disorder, and the cosmos finally return to chaos.. Even such men as Humboldt have been misled into the prediction of a universal catastrophe. In his Cosmos he predicts the end of all things as surely coming, however remote from our day. The balance would be destroyed, wheels become dislodged, and the whole grand mechanism grind itself to atoms by its own collisions. Even astrono mers and philosophers stood aghast at the prospect of such a final wreck and ruin. But the eyes of science continued to watch and search. And lo, it was found by Lagrange that these changes are like the movements of a pendulum which swings to the end of its arc and then swings back again, never once passing its proper and prescribed limits. How grand this conception! Think of a clockwork so magnifi cently vast and complicated that every tick of this pen dulum represents millions of years! Yet what confidence it inspires in the Maker, when we find that, for every disturb ing force, though, for periods too vast to be measured by time, it may seem to be driving the universe toward ruin, God has placed there another force or law to restore equilib rium and keep harmony! So in the spiritual world we shall find no lack unsupplied. As surely as there is a need for miracles, the need will be met. Can we foresee that there would be need? Remem ber that a miracle is an occurrence so marked in its depart ure from the usual order of things as to be to men a sign of God’s special power. Let us suppose that we are all now living in the very year when Jesus Christ first appeared among men as a public teacher. The old Jewish church is corrupt and virtually dead. Even its beautiful forms of faith and worship afe like the radiant skin of the serpent, when the living animal has cast it off and gone elsewhere; or like the. “ dead leaf retaining the form of its former self but performing none of its functions,” a mere skeleton without the currents or even colors of life. Men grope in darkness and groan for light. The wise men of the East are waiting and watching for a star which may guide to the day dawn. Let us suppose that God is purposing to give to men some clear and complete knowledge of His will. He might do It by a human teacher, like Plato; but how would mankind know that it .is God who speaks? There have been many men who claimed to speak for God, and among them all we find it not easy to choose. All of them say something worth hearing, and perhaps something which is not unwor thy to be a word from God; but even in the best of these, teachers so much is at best uncertain, that it cannot be the utterance of Him who never makes a guess at truth or duty. Now if God does speak to man, as to the grandest themes to which man can give heed, it is all Important to hear and recognize God’s voice, and know that it is God. Man has no right to be satisfied without proof that God has spoken; for he may be imposed upon and so misled into error and wrong doing. If any thing is plain it is that I have a right reverently to ask for unmistakable evidence that the God of the universe is addressing me. How shall He satisfy such honest doubt? By any method which shows that It Is He who is actually revealing himself. If He shall choose to come down, as on Mount Sinai, and in a voice of thunder speak, till in terror we cry out, “ Let not God speak to us lest we die!” we shall be satisfied that it is He. If He shall choose to appear, as to Moses, in a flame that burns a bush without consuming it, His whisper will be as.convincing as the thunder was before; for we shall know that something more than a flame must be making that bush radiant and glorious. It is the fact of marked (Continued on page 169)
“ WHEN JESUS WALKED BY GALILEE!” 'William Floyd Howard When Jesus walked by Galilee, Where, through the night. His Servants tolled In vain; When Heavenly guerdon Peter longed to gain, Our Lord, In tender accents, touched w ith pain. To Peter said, "If truly thou lov’st me. Then feed My lambs; this cha rge.I give to thee.” When Jesus walked by Galilee, Thrice did our Lord to Peter plainly speak,— “ Go, feed My sheep, my flock, so mild and meek; My wandering sheep on mountainside g o seek; If, more than bread and flsh thou lov ’st Me, Then serve them, feed them, guide them constantly." When Jesus walked by Galilee, Concern fo r youth and Innocence came first. Lest little ones, the Saviour’s lambs, should thirst For sinful pleasures— blindly choose the w orst! So, Christian, who dost long thy Lord to see, Serve Him who said to Peter, “ F ollow me!” say that, when God reverses the hands on the great dial of nature, He has made no provision for such reversal? II. If we may concede the possibility, may we not also, the probability of miracles? These two questions are by no means the same, even in substance. Many things are possible that are not probable. God has power to do things, without number, which He never did and never will do. He never acts without a reason. He does not waste power by useless expenditure of omnipotence. If, however, there is such a use to he made of miracles as amply justifies the putting forth of such power we are prepared to find them actually used. In the natural world we find wonderful marks of design. Wherever there is a socket there is a ball to fit it and make the joint complete. If you discover any apparent lack, something wanting to render nature's arrangement and adjustment perfect, further search will always reveal some thing else exactly adapted to supply the want. Years ago, in the astronomical world, it was found that certain changes are taking place which threaten the very existence of the order of the universe. For example: the orbits of the planets are inclined to each other by an angle which does not remain uniform. From the earliest ages the inclination of the earth’s equator to the ecliptic has been decreasing, say about half a second a year. Should this decrease continue, in about 85,000 years the equator and ecliptic would coincide,— the order of nature would be entirely changed, and the succession of seasons would give place to one unchanging spring. But in fact, by and by this decrease will reach its limit, and the angle bf inclina tion will then increase, and so the seasons will keep revolv ing, and seed time and harvest time shall not fail. God has provided a compensation for what at first seemed a disturb ing cause, and as by the chronometer balance in a model time-piece, regularity of movement is insured, in the end. The action of this compensating law may consume two hun dred millenniums, but this shows nothing more than the vast scale on which this machine is constructed. So as to the changes in the angles under which the plane tary orbits are Inclined toward each other. Should these inclinations increase, the stability of the system would be —Germantown, Pennsylvania.
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