ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



by the green fields and by still waters, and in ten 

 thousand other aspects of its manifold works. It 

 is not friendly in the tropical jungles, nor amid the 

 snows and blizzards of the polar regions, but upor 

 four fifths of the surface of the globe it may bo 

 said to be friendly or neutral. Man is armed to face 

 its hostile aspects and to turn its very wrath to 

 account. If God maketh the wrath of man to praise 

 Him, so man maketh the wrath of God to serve 

 him, as when he subdues and controls Nature's de- 

 structive forces, tames the lightning and harnesses 

 Niagara. He has not bound the cyclone yet, nor 

 warmed himself by the volcano, nor moved moun- 

 tains from his path with the earthquake, but he 

 may do it yet. He is fast drawing the fangs of 

 contagious diseases, thus adding to his length of 

 days. 



The Nature Providence working in man and 

 through him has made the world more fit for man's 

 abode. 



Action and reaction are the steps by which life 

 ascends. Nature acts upon man and man reacts 

 upon nature. The labor the farmer puts into the soil 

 comes back to him with interest, and enables him to 

 labor more. The capital of life grows in that way; 

 action and reaction; up we go. 



"Are God and Nature then at strife?" asks Ten- 

 nyson, baffled and unsettled by what he sees about 

 him. There is strife in the living world, the struggle 



56 



