MIRACLES, MARVELS, AND MYSTERIES. IV.
By William Samuel Sadler
The Miraculous Element of the Bible.
WE find, then, that life and energy are manifested in four distinct realms. Let us enumerate and briefly consider them. 1. The Realm of Matter.—In the mineral kingdom, we find the workings of that mysterious and universal power, gravitation. We are baffled in our study of the mysteries of chemical affinity, molecular attraction, light, heat, electricity, radio-activity, etc. These manifestations of energy, while diverse, are all found to have much in common, which fact bespeaks a common origin, a single source. For instance, light, heat, and electricity are regarded as practically the same, simply diverse manifestations of the same principles of molecular vibration. 2. The Realm of Botany.—The vegetable kingdom is another great channel of life proceeding from the throne of God. There is that wonderful intelligence, that mysterious selection shown by plant life, which can not be explained by any hypothesis that ignores the mystery of life. But it must not be forgotten that the vegetable life is limited to the vegetable channel. It operates in no sphere either above or below the botanical realm. True, it is life, but it is equally true that it is vegetable life. 3. The Realm of Zoology.—In the animal kingdom we find another life; we might rightly say a higher life, embracing all the wonderful and vital activities of the life7found in the vegetable kingdom, but, in addition, exhibiting the mysteries of mind. The animal can think and feel. It has a central nervous system, with branches to every part of its being. This is another distinct and separate channel of life proceeding from the great Life-giver. True, its source is common to all other forms of life and energy; and true, it is life in common with vegetable or cell life, but in differentiation from the vegetable, it is animal life,—thinking, willing, and acting. True, these lives and energy are one in source and origin. Their difference, so far as man knows, consists in two important features; namely, (a) The different and distinct channels thru which they are distributed; (b) The laws governing, and the conditions determining, life are distinct for each realm. 4. The Realm of Morals.—The kingdom of heaven presents to our view another channel, another stream of life, flowing from the great Fountainhead. While the life of a Christian man embraces all the marvels of botany and the mysteries of zoology, it likewise reveals the "mystery of Godliness,"—"Christ in you, the hope of glory." And this kingdom of heaven is a separate and distinct channel of life from animal life. The life of the animal is secured by natural birth; but the heavenly life, the spiritual life, is obtained by the supernatural, the "new birth." By right of natural birth, man is reckoned in the animal kingdom; but, said the Lord of heaven and earth, Ye must be born again, or ye can not see the kingdom of heaven. Matter, since its creation, has exhibited its energy in the form of gravitation, heat, light, electricity, etc., according to the laws ordained for its conduct. Plant life, likewise, has continued on, perpetuating itself by the law of life implanted in the seed. The animal world, also, has existed according to the laws governing that channel of life, while to obtain the spiritual life, mankind must be "born again,"—become subject to the higher laws of life and love, governing and controlling the abundant life of the Eternal. So, if we stand in the place of the world-scientist and the materialist, and look with the eye of the flesh from beneath up thru the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, and the animal kingdom, all will appear to be materialistic and physical; but if, with the eye of faith, having been translated out of darkness into light, we look from above, from the standpoint of an adopted child, in the realm of the heavenly life, looking down thru the animal kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, and the mineral kingdom, we see all from the standpoint of the spiritual; we see Christ holding all things together by the "word of His power," and God, the One who is "all, and in all," the Maker and Upholder, the Personal Guide and Protector of all the manifold and mysterious and infinite operations of the vast, created universe.