her neighbor. At the close of the ad dress she came to me so thrilled she could hardly speak. She said, “Dr. Wil son, you have solved a problem for me today that has puzzled a number of experts as well as myself. Last year I planted ten acres of green beans, ex pecting to furnish thenj to the Chicago market. I thought I had purchased a low variety and so had my gardeners place five-foot poles in the hills. The beans came up, climbed up these poles and continued to grow. Then I found that I had planted a tall variety and would need longer poles. I had my men pull up all the five-foot poles and re place them with ten-foot poles, wrap ping the vines around the new poles. By the end of the third day all of my vines were dead. I sent for soil experts and expert farm counselors from' four different states and paid their expenses to come up and tell me what was wrong with my beans. They all failed. Now, I know what the trouble was. My men were right-handed and they just wound those beans up the new poles from right to left instead of the natural way from left to right. Thank you so much for clearing up this mys tery.” Dr. Talbot, no atheist or evolu tionist can explain this peculiar habit of plant life. Why a vine climbs at all is a mystery no one can understand. There is another interesting mystery in plant life and that is the force that makes water enter the roots of a tree and then find its way up to the very topmost twig and leaf on that tree. Even though it be a redwood or a sequoia 300 feet high, the water trav els to the top. No one understands it— only God could do it. This miracle which overcomes gravitation and defies investigation is brought about by the power of the living Lord. There are other interesting pheno mena in regard to the numerics in na ture. I have already mentioned a few of these in regard to the periods of gestation and in regard to the even numbers found in seeds. Let me add to that by saying that one time I was in a watermelon patch (in the day time) and counted the stripes on a great many of the melons. The owner of the patch came out to see why I was in there and I told him I was counting the stripes on his watermelons. He laughed and suggested that perhaps I had escaped from some institution. I assured him that I had a perfectly sound mind and asked if he had count ed the stripes. He said he had not but would like to do so. After counting about thirty of them he came back to me greatly astonished and said, “I nev er knew before that there was a regu larity in these stripes.” Nearly all the melons showed ten stripes. Some had twelve and one very large one had sixteen stripes on it. Always, however,
high, the dandelion will come up elev en inches. It never gets down under the circumstances, so the Christian should always be on the top of everything around him in order that he may see the face of the Lord clearly.
there was an even number. Other melons are made the same way for God does nothing carelessly but always with accuracy.
N A T U R E 'S L E S S O N S
T R U E S C IE N C E
DR. TALBOT: Can you state some outstanding facts in nature from which we may draw moral lessons? DR. WILSON: Yes, Dr. Talbot, I will mention three that are unusual in character. The first is that all weeds are self-sustaining and self-propagat ing. The cocklebur will stick to a cow’s tail and will become planted when she knocks the fly from her back. No grain will do so. Nothing of value will do so. Beggar lice, thistles, sandburs, dog fennel, jimson-weed are all self-propa gating. No one needs to plant them. They need no cultivating, no spraying, no irrigation. This is not true, how ever, of any food products. Potatoes, corn, wheat, radishes, peas, lettuce, beans, barley, must all be carefully tended, properly protected and cared for constantly in order to obtain a crop. This same care of truth prevails in the moral sphere. All vices are self- propagating. All virtues must be culti vated. All sinful things grow in the human heart of their own accord but all saintly things must be propagated with care and protected by constant prayer and watchfulness. In the animal kingdom, we see the same sort of truth. No domestic ani mal can protect itself. All wild animals can protect themselves easily. God knew that men would protect domestic animals because of their value. Men want sheep, chickens, cows, horses, pigs and geese, so they do not need to pro tect themselves. No one, however, wants the snake, the lion, the wolf or the skunk so they must protect them selves and they certainly do it well. So in the things of God, the Christian who would like a godly life cannot do the things that the ungodly do. The men of the world will lie, cheat, steal, mur der, embezzle, oppress and deceive to gain their ends. The Christian, how ever, depends upon the kindness of a wonderful Father and the care of the Great Shepherd of the sheep to bring him through life safely. Christians are compared to sheep, not to tigers. It is also interesting to note, Dr. Talbot, that the dandelion has a pecu liarity from which the Christian may derive a delightful lesson. You cannot keep a good dandelion down. It will come up to the sunshine. If the grass is one inch high, the dandelion comes up two inches; if the grass is four inches high, the dandelion comes up five inches; if the grass is ten inches
DR. TALBOT: You certainly have given us some interesting thoughts, Dr. Wilson, enhancing our appreciation of the living Lord and the wonderful pro vision He has made for our blessing. Are there not some evolutionary proces ses to be observed in nature? If so, what do you know about this? DR. WILSON: Yes, there are a few such evidences, but fortunately for the truth of God they all confirm the Word of God. I refer particularly to that change which we know as metamor phosis. The caterpillar, by some un known process, is changed into a gor geous, beautiful, graceful butterfly. Ac cording to our evolution friends, this poor, miserable, crawling, upholstered worm has decided to climb upward in the sphere of life. It emerges certainly on a higher plane, is more delightful in every way and has made a great stride forward in trying to be better. Now we should expect that when the butterfly would lay eggs, they would hatch out humming-birds, but unfor tunately our friends of the evolutionary hypothesis are sadly disappointed as the eggs hatch out caterpillars and the poor thing is back where it started. The grub crawling around as a big bug in the mire and muck of the pond and hiding beneath the green scum is trans formed by metamorphosis into the beautiful, delightful, graceful dragon fly. It now has started on its upward way. It no longer lives in the slime. It now lives in the sunshine. It has made a marvelous stride upward, onward and forward. The evolutionist is delighted. Here is a proof of the betterment of the species but it is just too bad that I must have to tell you that when the dragonfly presents the world with its little babies the poor little things are back in the mud, the mire and the muck instead of going on to be beau tiful canary birds, parrots, and ostrich es. Then, of course, we might speak of the Missouri mule. It, too, presents a baffling problem to the evolutionist. Really, Dr. Talbot, the Missouri mule is quite like the evolutionist for it has neither pride of ancestry nor hope of posterity. DR. TALBOT: Dr. Wilson, we would be interested in hearing something from you concerning the accuracy of the Scripture in regard to its reference to
FEBRUARY, 1966
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