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Show SERMONS IN SUGAR BEETS. A pamphlet on sugar-beet culture explains that all the sugar in the beet "comes from the T'ht and the warmth of the sunbeams." Did any one ever stop to contemplate how subtle is the chemistry that draws the sweetness from the air and the sunshine and infuses it into a common vegetable, growing in the ground? It seems that the unromantic beet is produced merely to become the tabernacle for a soul of sweetness borne earthward on the sunbeams. It is invisible; neither by touch nor smell nor taste nor sound nor sight can its coming be detected, but it comes and by a process more dainty and delicate than that adopted by the bee to convert the intangible something which it steals from the rose-leaf into honey; infuses the soul of sweetness sweet-ness into the plebean beet. Surely there are lessons for mortals everywhere, every-where, if they have but the genius to understand them. Nature is working her miracles all around us. She, at the beginning, deposited the soul of aluminum in the common clay. For uncounted ages it was ground under the heels and the chariot wheels of men and there was no thought that, concealed con-cealed in that clay was a substance as bright as silver, as imperishable as gold with tensile strength equal to tnat of either of many of the potent metals. " When the paths were hewed out through which the rivers were to find their way to the all-receiving ocean, in the same hour the paths were marked out through the viewless air for the currents of electricity to flow; but though those currents constantly con-stantly manifested their presence in the lightning's flash and the angry roll of the thunder, giving notice no-tice of immeasurable power and inconceivable swiftness, it required untold ages for mortals to discover that those manifestations were but the flashings and the voice of a genii that was but' waiting to be called to do the bidding of man, to carry his messages with the swiftness of light, to bear, his burdens, to convert his nights into artificial arti-ficial day by a mimic sunlight; to warm men's houses, to propel their chariots, to ring their bells to be their obedient servant. We suspect that the first man who invented a fl pump for drawing water lived on the sea-shore and H that he watched day after day, as all the genera- B tions of men before him had watched, the pumps B of the sunbeams drawing water from the surface B of the deep sea, loading it on the clouds and call B ing up the winds to waft the clouds shoreward, fl their contents to be precipitated on the earth, B that the springs in the hills might be fed and H life given the soil that it might produce another H harvest, and caught the idea of a method to lift fl water from the work of the sunbeams. fl Nature has been performing those miracles fl from the beginning. Man has been able to fathom H a few of them, to make clear their workings and fl to grasp the splendor and the beneficence of the fl design behind hem. The plan was that our planet fl was to be the abode of men, so all his wants were H anticipated and provided for and he was placed fl here a mere groper at first, but with the promise fl that dominion should be given when he called up H his latent faculties and acquired the intelligence H to assume the sovereignty which was his. H But to return to the original theme. If God's H sunbeams will stoop to fill with sweetness a com- H mon plant in the ground, it is reasonable to be- H lieve that He will be less considerate of the crea- D ture to whom He gave dominion over the earth and H all its elements? If there is a soul in clay and in H the sugar beet, is there no place in man for a soul? H Neither the clay nor the beet has high thoughts, H or lofty aspirations nor the capacity to compre- H hend the glories of the Universe, or to enjoy the H delights of life. If when the baser elements of the fl beet are removd a dainty product is left; if, after fl the baser elements of the clay are eliminated a fl shining and indestructible metal remains, is it not fl reasonable to believe that when what of the earth fl is earthly within us is removed, man will stand H forth in the very image of the God that created fl him? fl Men talk about revealed religion. It is revealed fl all around us every day of our lives: in the sun- fl beams that come to cheer us, in the clay beneath H our feet; in the plants that grow in the soil; in fl the everlasting order and harmony that guides and fl controls the planets in their orbits, of the suns in fl their august spheres; in the grave of the sunset, in fl the resurrection of the dawn. O, ye of little faith, fl look around you, and have your faith rekindled, for I when the scales of Justice were first poised to fl weigh men's lives, the finger of Mercy was placed I on Man's side of the awful balances, and heaven H grew bright under the promise that all would he fl well. fl |
