Show the old settler my dear sa san n Jua ners our car was speeding across one of baren desert regions and the man sitting beside me turned from the monotony of weary stretch of earth as if to der demand that I 1 relieve relieve the situate situa situ atin tm you claim he be gain in tones of chaly to believe in all wise creator right I 1 affirmed uncompromisingly thell me then if he was really all wise and created everything ery thing for a wise purpose why he made these idle meaningless bases of wilderness what will they ever be good for if they are of no use and to be of no use why are they made bont dont you think it rather much for a finite man to presume to explain the works of infinite god I 1 countered yet even with my limited understanding I 1 see good reasons for these waste places hav having ng been made as well as the fertile regions our conversation of the next two hours cart can not be repeated here I 1 pointed out t ty him that the desert is first of all a arost splendid challenge to ane ingenuity and resource fullness of men something to develop them in a way vay thai they would gouid otherwise never develop the creator had made some places verdant and others bare as a plain suggestion that we make the bare places verdant I 1 told him how the jews of today are invading the old desert of sinai making it to bloom as their fathers thought it never could do I 1 called his its attention to thel the growth of big weeds along thel the side ot of our road here in m the desert plants which had grown by the ram rain water from the tarred surface who knows how much might be made to grow here if these slopes were terra ceda the many dry washes we crossed showed how much water had gone to waste which might have been held back on the land in the distance we saw stretches of bare rock from which the ram rain would run off a as from a shingle root that water could be to make bruit trees grow along the edge of the rock 1 had seen it done in arizona no mo end to the fascinating possibilities of what these deserts might be made to do finding or developing drouth resisting plants finding water under the deac desert r t land water that could be reservoir ed near it or brought to ill it on the escalante calante Ks desert in western utah they have made a wide country of farms from wells they have bored there are arc mountain tops with scarcely any soil but are covered with a forest of trees and brush and flowers because of the abundant rain or snow all these deserts would bloom with a gush if the rain were sent to them youve wanted to disassociate these deserts from the work of a wise creator I 1 told him the fertile areas are fertile only because the creator has supplied them with water what reasons have we to inter infer when it suits the of the creator lie ile will not send water to these regions which are now resting as it were yes I 1 say again I 1 believe firmly in a creator and that ile he has made nothing in in vain albert R larrian |