MANIFOLD NATURE 



tokens of thy power" — does he make God more 

 lovable or desirable? Well may he say, "From these 

 sterner aspects of thy face, spare me and mine." 

 By way of contrast let me recall that when an earth- 

 quake shook California, John Muir cheered himself 

 and friends by saying it was only Mother Earth 

 trotting her children fondly upon her knee! If we 

 identify God with all of Nature, this wrathful He- 

 brew Jehovah of Bryant is a legitimate conception. 

 There are times when the aerial forces behave like 

 a raving maniac bent upon the destruction of the 

 world — the insensate powers run amuck upon all 

 living things. This is not the God we habitually love 

 and worship, but it is a God from whom there is no 

 escape. As the result of the inevitable action of the 

 natural irrational or unrational forces, tempests and 

 earthquakes and tidal waves do not disturb us; but 

 as the will and purpose of an Almighty Being, Crea- 

 tor of heaven and earth, they give all pious souls a 

 fearful shake-up. We take refuge in such phrases as 

 "the inscrutable ways of God," or "the mysteries 

 of Providence," a Providence whose ways are as- 

 suredly "past finding out." 



Our State Commissioner of Education, Dr. Fin- 

 ley, in an agricultural address on "Potatoes and 

 Boys," showed God cooperating with the farmer in 

 a way that amused me. "The Almighty," the Com- 

 missioner said, "can make, unaided of man, pota- 

 toes, but only small potatoes, and of acrid taste. He 



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