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Show THE LIGHTS OF SCIENCE. The modern man has much more cause to be devout, much more cause for thankfulness than 'H had his ancient brother. For ages all the appeals lH to man in behalf, first, of the gods, or of the one God later, were through his fears, and the way to reach compassion or favors from the higher pow-ers pow-ers was through gifts to oracles or sacrifices. The universe was a mighty mystery; how the world came to exist had no explanation save the fables of priests; at first the earth, the sea and the heavens had each its duty, so the seasons had theirs; the woods, the mountains, the valleys, the jH rivers had their gods, and men's lives were sur- 'H rounded by unseen forms of evil or good as might jH be, even as the darkness is peopled with specters jH in the thoughts of the imaginative child. Armies were elated or cast down by the flight of birds, an eclipse was a sign of God's wrath; no comfort- jH ing hope was drawn around a death-bed the world was filled with superstition and fear. jH But science came at length and made clear the truth that satellites and suns are not wandering hH aimlessly through space; that this planet on 0 which we dwell is not the center of the universe, but merely one of the smallest of worlds; that HH f , H the mighty swinging masses are all held" in their spheres and given motion by inviolable laws. Then the study of this planet was begun and it was found that before man was given existence ' here, through infinite years the work of prepara- tion for his coming was carried on, that earth-1 earth-1 quakes rent its surface to bury forests and con- Hff vert them into coal, that glaciers were set in flow to grind the rocks into soil out of which was to Ht grow bread for man's use, for man who had no existence then save in the mind of Deity; that in H; the deep laboratories of the inner earth the Hi chemistry was set in motion to create the metals for man's use; that the soil was filled with seeds Bj to wait for men to come and cultivate them; that Hj when the pathways for the rivers were marked out by the finger of Omnipotence the springs to Hj feed them were established in the hills, to be sup- plied from the deep sea through the sublime phenomenon of pumping the waters from the Qcean by sunbeams, wafting them inland on the pinions of the wind and precipitating them by The more science was invoked the more won-derful won-derful grew its revelations, the more merciful seemed the power that planned the whole. Then the qualities of matter were studied; the micro-scope micro-scope was brought in to reveal the constituent fl features of the atoms out of which worlds grow; the spectroscope came to reveal that all worlds are made of the same materials; then invention followed invention until winged chariots traveled the land and winged ships compassed the sea and man began to realize that it was not on empty Hj promise made rhim in the long ago, that he should subdue and have domination over the earth and all its elements. Then science pointed out a way in which a mortal may be given a breath and then M. for a space be unconscious of pain; then came the H; magnetic telegraph, annihilating space, and later ft the wonders of the telephone. Then a way was found to imitate the sunlight, and the same H, sublime element was finally harnessed to do men's B work. As these glories have succeeded each other man has taken on new dignity, his fears and his fl superstitions arc melting away and as his fears retreat his reverence and thankfulness, for the place that has been given him, for the gifts that Hj, are his, for the mercies that caused him to spring into life from the dust, but in a brief time to be B able to measure the stars, increase, and as they in- B crease his heart is softened, his fellow man be- B comes his brother indeed, and with new wisdom B and with a solemn joy he repeats the sacred H: words: "Glory to God on high, to man Peace and l Good Will." |