EDITORIAL AND GENERAL 



209 



much interested in getting facts as in 

 proving a theory. Nature is of more ac- 

 count than one's own personality." 



A little later I again inquired, "Does 

 your work have in contemplation any 

 improvement or benefit to mankind?" 



"Brains, yes; stomach, no." 



"So yon regard brains as of some im- 

 portance?" 



"Yes, although most people do not. 

 They have reference only to pocketbook 

 or stomach when they inquire, 'What's 

 the use?' " 



Again for several minutes close atten- 

 tion was given by us to the work in 

 hand. Then he paused, as if to rest, 

 straightened up and said. "1 hope yon 

 sympathize with the scientist who at a 

 banquet gave this toast, 'Here's to pure 

 science! May it never benefit any- 

 body.'" 



( )f course he used the term benefit 

 in the sense of the physical anybody. 



Isn't an interest in nature, in this 

 madly utilitarian age, of greater value, 

 the less its "use?" 



GOD'S WOEKS. 



It is really true that "The heavens 

 declare the glory of God ; and the firma- 

 ment sheweth his handywork." To one 



Then, why does it not logically fol- 

 low in actual practice that one of the 

 principal equipments of a church should 

 be an astronomical observatory? Per- 

 haps it will be so in the Twenty-first 

 Century. The most important truths 

 to the human race come into actual 

 practice and full appreciation only after 

 long, long periods of time. Strange, 

 isn't it, that we flounder so long in pos- 

 itive error or in partial truth. 



Strange, too, isn't it, that the church 

 gives so little heed to that authoritative 

 and valuable command to "consider the 

 lilies of the field." 



The Great Naturalist Teacher drew 

 most of his lessons from birds, flowers, 

 wilderness, mountains, gardens and 

 farms. Perhaps His very best, at any 

 rate one that has done more to reclaim 

 sinful man than any other, was his 

 story of the farmer's wayward son who 

 looked after the corn and the pigs. And 

 yet such actually existent things, hal- 

 lowed and sanctified by divine authority, 

 are too often regarded as materialistic, 

 misleading or secular. 



It sometimes seems to the writer that 

 many of those who most insist on tak- 

 ing the Bihle literally, themselves accept 

 it figuratively or not at all. Perhaps the 

 most marked example is the fact that in 



"FOUND THE BOYS AND THE GIRLS AS HAPPY AS THEY COULD POSSIBLY BE, 

 AND REJOICING IN THE GREATEST OF ALL JOYS, THE JOY OF DOING." 



who appreciates this fact, it seems also 

 true that the "declaration" and the 

 "showing" are better by this method 

 than bv anv other. 



the very opening chapters of the Bible 

 the ideal existence of man and woman is 

 in a garden. Many of the best people of 

 the Bible were shepherds, farmers or 



