ALL OF CREATION GROANS AND TRAVAILS
By L. A. R.
Nature Is Ever Hampered and Hindered—She Is Subject to Vanity, and Yet Ever Triumphant—The Complete Emancipation Is Coming
"We know," says inspiration, "that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." What a graphic representation of the work of nature! Wherever there is to come forth fruit, before the perfected harvest, before the reaping can crown the effort, there must have been much of labor, and even of groaning. This of itself shows that there are interferences, obstructions, difficulties, obstacles, that which would prevent life from bringing forth its perfect fruit; but life triumphs. Of course there is much of waste in energy and in results; but despite the labor and the groaning, nature triumphs — triumphs often enough and continuously enough to keep the earth supplied with bread, and death does not completely devour life. The cause of this labor is sin, whose wages is death; and this groaning and travailing shows that the seeds of death are within. They are opposing life and its destined production of perfected fruit. The tree is so feeble in its life current that it can not produce everywhere twigs and branches, and there result many thorns. But in spite of the thorns, the leaves put forth and the fruit ripens, though it may be against many obstacles. There are thorns upon the roses; but notwithstanding the thorns, the roses bloom, and we rejoice in them, and are refreshed by their odor and gladdened by their beauty. Codling-moths attack the apples, curculios seek to destroy the plums; in the vegetable garden there are cabbage-worms above the earth, and grubworms in the ground beneath. Nevertheless, as we toil and labor, the earth brings forth, and produces even bountiful harvests. Everywhere there are the evidences of death shown in decay and waste. It is a picture of the consequences of sin. It is permitted by the Creator as a reflection of man's rebellion against his Maker. If we supposed that it was because God could not do otherwise, it would be to dishonor His character, to limit His power, and to cloud His glory. In the crowning day that is coming, God will exert His power, will show that these things are foreign to His will, by banishing them entirely from His universe; but He will not banish them until He banishes the cause and the root of it all — sin in the heart of him He put here as ruler over the earth. MILLIONS OF CHANCES WITH FEW FRUITIONS
But everywhere there are tokens of waste and decay to show us the death that lingers in consequence of transgression. To meet the enormous waste, to overcome in the struggle of life, so-called, the cod, and the mullet, and the horsehair eel must produce eggs running up into the millions. If every egg of the cod hatched, the ocean would be one solid bank of fish; but it is impossible for them all to hatch. Thousands perish. Only a few survive. If bacteria were allowed to increase without hindrance, they would fill the oceans in a month. Think of the rate of increase of codfishes if they were allowed unhindered to propagate and grow without any waste or destruction whatever. A single codfish has been found to contain eleven million eggs, and a single mullet has been found to contain thirteen million eggs. Referring to the tremendous fecundity of flies, Linnæus has said, "Three flies will devour a dead horse as quick as a lion would." It is estimated that there are one hundred trillion flies in the world to-day. In three months one pair would produce as many. Should each fly have the most favorable environment, no one could escape the plague of flies. It is estimated that there are ten million birds in England. Yet fifty million birds and birds' eggs die every year. The horsehair eel is said to lay several million eggs. For the sake of illustration, let us say five million. Why is there this enormous fecundity? — It is because the chances of the eggs' coming to maturity as eels is so small; there are so many that will be wasted, will be destroyed. In order to keep the species in existence, two in five millions, if the sexes are of equal numbers, must succeed in escaping all the dangers that beset the eggs and the young in the brook, and then succeed in finding, near the brook, crickets or grasshoppers into which they may penetrate. These grasshoppers must escape their enemies and survive the depredation of the horsehair eels until the latter reach maturity, when they must escape near enough to a brook to find their way there and meet horsehair eels of the opposite sex. The chances are two in five millions, under these circumstances, and so the creature has been adapted to lay five million eggs. If it averaged but four millions, the race would in a few years become extinct. If it averaged six, the creatures would multiply in a few years beyond all bounds. But the species remains, and their permanency for so many years demonstrates the accuracy with which the Creator has proportioned fecundity to the slimness of its chances in this falsely called struggle for life. I have counted a thousand seeds in a single seed pod of the trumpet-creeper. I have found thousands of seeds on a single plant of the sow-thistle. But God has decreed that thorns and thistles should the earth bring forth; and because there are so many enemies, so many destructive agencies in the earth — the slimness of the chances for existence being so great — they are met by a corresponding measure of fecundity, of life potentialities. Yet thousands of these seeds will never germinate and grow. Some will find no suitable soil, some will be eaten by birds and other creatures, and the few, enough to keep up the existence of the plant, will spring forth into the perfection of its life. GROANS IN DECAY, AWAITING DELIVERANCE
Here is waste, decay, vanity, just what inspiration declares the creation is subjected to (Rom. 8: 20); and thus subjected to vanity, to waste, to unprofitableness, to corruption, it labors and groans in pain, waiting for the time when it "shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God." There is to be a perfect order in it all. First, Christ the first-fruits, the perfect Man, the glorious Son of God, will appear. Then all those who are His shall appear with Him, following in their order — first Christ, and then His children, and after that the whole creation shall spring forth anew, glorified and made splendid again, as in the days of old — a glorious Lord, a glorious people, and a glorified earth, each in its order. But until that day, we groan and labor, waiting in hope "for the manifestation of the sons of God." It is a blessed hope, and he "that hath this hope in him purifieth himself," even as Christ is pure. L. A. R.