THE CREATION OF PLANTS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Aug 23, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 34.

THE CREATION OF PLANTS.

CONCERNING the creation of plants, and all allied subjects, two distinct ideas are advanced: viz, the theory of evolution, and the Bible account as given in the first and second chapters of Genesis.

In examining a theory or idea, three things at least should be considered: first, its source; second, the principles upon which and for which it stands; and third, and most important of all, the effect of these principles upon the lives and characters of those who accept them.

Evolution is a human invention "reasoned out" by scientists for the purpose of supporting their own infidelity. But the thing has been made to appear so plausible that most of the churches of to-day accept it as the truth. They find it convenient to explain that the days of the creation week recorded in Genesis 1, were long periods of time, during which all of these things developed, admitting at the same time that God had a hand in it all, but denying the fact that He spoke them into existence. But God has guarded us from this deception by the use of such simple expressions as, "And the evening and the morning were the first day," "the second day," etc.

The pith of this phase of the evolutionary theory is that all organic life has been evolved or developed from one original living cell. Just how this original cell "happened," has never been satisfactorily explained; but be that as it may, evolution teaches that all life, both animal and vegetable, has developed from it.

One thing which, from a standpoint of human reasoning, might seem to support this idea, is the fact that the lowest form of vegetable and animal life can scarcely be distinguished as belonging definitely either to the vegetable or animal kingdom.

Again, Geology claims to prove, from fossil remains found in the different layers of the earth's crust, that the earth has supported life of some sort for probably billions of years, whereas Bible chronology extends back only about six thousand years.

The influence of the views advocated by geologists upon those who accept them can not be otherwise than toward infidelity. For whatever encroaches upon God's character as the Creator, strikes at the very root of the Christian religion. It is by His creative power that we hope to have eternal life created within us. God's name as Creator is in His seal.

On the other hand, the Biblical account of the creation of plants was inspired by the Spirit of God. It states the matter plainly in the following words:

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind; and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day."

It is interesting to notice that in this account the order of creation is observed. The lower forms of vegetation, represented by the grass, were first called into existence; then followed plants of a more complex organization, represented by the herbs; and finally the trees, the plants of the plant kingdom. But all were created during the same literal day, the third day of the week. The Scriptures, after describing the creation of plants, says: "And the evening and the morning were the third day."

The following quotation concerning the development hypothesis is taken from "Footprints of the Creator," by Hugh Miller:

But what does experience say regarding the transmutative conversion of a marine into a terrestrial vegetation—that experience on which the skeptic founds so much? As I walked along the green edge of the Lake of Stennis,

salvaged by the line of detached weeds with which a recent gale had strewed its shores, and marked that for the first few miles the accumulation consisted of marine algae, here and there mixed with tufts of stunted reeds or rushes, and that as I receded from the sea it was the algae that became stunted and dwarfish, and that the reeds, aquatic grasses, and rushes, grown greatly more bulky in the mass, were also more fully developed individually, till at length the marine vegetation altogether disappeared, and the vegetable debris of the shore became purely lacustrine—I asked myself whether here, if anywhere, a transition flora between lake and sea ought not to be found. . . . And yet not a vestige of such an intermediate vegetation could I find among the up-piled debris of the mixed floras, marine and lacustrine. The lake possesses no such intermediate vegetation. . . . Many thousands of years have failed to originate a single intermediate plant. And such, tested by a singularly extensive experience, is the general evidence.

Quoting from the same author:

But while there is thus a vegetation intermediate in place between the land and the sea, we find, as if it had been selected purposely to confound the transmutation theory, that it is in no degree intermediate in character. For while it is chiefly marine weeds of the lower division of the coniferæ that creep upwards from the sea to meet the vegetation of the land, it is chiefly terrestrial plants of the higher division of the dicotyledons that creep downwards from the land to meet the vegetation of the sea. . . . Nature draws a deeply-marked line of division where the requirements of the transmutative hypothesis would demand the nicely-graduated softness of a shaded one.

The same writer says:

It is a curious fact, to which, in the passing, I must be permitted to call the attention of the reader, that all the leading assertors of the development hypothesis have been bad geologists. . . . Its more prominent assertors are exactly the men who know least of geological fact.

God's Plan—Unity in Diversity.

Before plants were brought into existence there was in the mind of the Creator a great plan for all plant life. In all his works, God has chosen the small things and the weak to build up the great and the strong. In the creation of plants He has seen fit to make use of the vegetable cell as the unit of structure.

A typical vegetable cell consists of a minute rounded mass of jelly-like substance called protoplasm, enclosed in a delicate wall of cellulose. Where the cells are crowded close together, as they are in most plant tissues, they are of various shapes—rounded, oval, polygonal, star-shaped, tubular, and other forms.

All vegetable tissues are made up of these cells variously modified in shape, size, and structure, according to the work which they have to do in the plant economy. These cells may be likened to the brick and stones and lumber of which a building is constructed.

When first formed they are all alike or nearly so; but through various changes in their shape, size, composition, and arrangement, give rise to the endless diversity of form, color, and other physical and chemical characteristics exhibited by the plant kingdom.

In all plants some provision has been made for self-propagation. This may be by means of seeds, spores, offshoots from the parent body, or otherwise; but no two species of plants have seeds, spores, or reproductive offshoots that are exactly alike, and a reproductive body from one species of plant never develops into a plant of another kind. As stated in the divine record, each plant yields seed after its own kind.

When we examine the leaves of plants, we find that they are all fashioned after the same general plan, altho no two are exactly alike; and each kind of plant has leaves which are, in one or more particulars, different from those of any other kind, so that an experienced botanist can determine the kind of plant by the leaves alone.

The endless variety of beautiful forms exhibited by flowers are the result of modifications in form, color, texture, and function, of a single type of structure, and that type is the leaf.

In the cellular structure of plants, in the provisions which have been made for self-propagation, and in the infinite variety of form, structure, and color of leaves and flowers, are seen excellent examples of unity in diversity. This principle is likewise manifested in the relation of minerals, plants, and animals to each other, the same elements which enter into the composition of plant and animal tissues, occurring as the most abundant inorganic or mineral substances.

Function of Plants.

Plants serve many useful purposes, but their most important function is to manufacture food for man and other animals.

"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat."

Plants might live indefinitely without animals, as they draw their food from inorganic sources,—earth, water, and air. But with animals it is an altogether different matter. They can not take their food directly from inorganic sources, but it must be prepared for them by the vegetable world.

Ordinarily plants can not develop without sunlight, either direct or diffused. Light is essential for the formation of chlorophyll, the green coloring matter of leaves and other green parts of plants; and it is through the agency of chlorophyll that organic substances are manufactured from the inorganic. Plants take their food from earth, water, and air, the latter substance furnishing most of the carbon, which is taken in through the minute pores or stomata into the leaves, combined with oxygen in the form of carbon dioxide.

The stomata communicate with irregular spaces between the green cells which form the body of the leaf tissue, thus permitting the carbon dioxide gas to come in close contact with the leaf cells. During daylight these cells decompose the carbon dioxide, which is continually being given off by animals in the process of respiration, retaining the carbon and setting the oxygen free to be used again by animals.

Plants also carry on a process of respiration similar to that of animals, in which oxygen is taken in and carbon dioxide given off, and this process continues both in daylight and in darkness. However, this latter process is carried on much more slowly than the former, so that it does not counterbalance the good work done by plants in purifying the atmosphere during the daytime.

Thus animals owe their lives to the wonderful processes which the Creator has set to work in the vegetable world, not only in the manufacture of food; but in the purification of the atmosphere as well. Plants on the other hand, might live and prosper independently of animals. For in addition to the large amount of carbon dioxide produced by animal respiration, it is being continually formed by the burning of wood, coal, and other substances, and by the decay of organic matter; and, as stated above, it is produced in small quantities at all times by the plants themselves.

Here is one of the finest examples we have of the wonderful providence of God in the economy of nature. If there were no carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, plants could not exist with their present constitution; and if there were a little more, animals would perish. But "God is wisdom, God is love."