ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



the mother for her child, or even of the bird for its 

 young, but the love of the eye for the light, of the 

 flower for the sun, the love of the plants for the rain 

 and the dew, the love of man for his kind, and of the 

 dog for his kind. Attraction, affiliation, assimila' 

 tion — like unto like is the rule of life. 



The organism fits itself to its environment; the 

 Providence in Nature enables it to do so. The light 

 is not fitted to the eye; the light creates the eye; the 

 vibrations in the air create the ear. God, or the 

 Eternal, is love because He brooded man into being, 

 and all other forms of life that support man. He 

 made the heavens and the earth for man's good, by 

 making man a part of them and able to avail him- 

 self of their bounty. But when we look forth into 

 the universe, and expect to see something like hu- 

 man care and affection in the operation of the great 

 elemental laws and forces, we are bound to be 

 shocked. It is not there, and well that it is not. A 

 universe run on the principles of human economy, 

 human charity, and partiality would be a failure. 

 It is our human weakness that yearns for this. It 

 is our earthly father that has begotten in us our 

 conception of a heavenly father. But then this very 

 conception and desire is a part of nature — springs 

 from the Eternal, and is in that sense authen- 

 tic. We cannot separate ourselves from nature, or 

 from the Eternal, any more than we can jump off 

 the planet. It is only the conception of a human or 



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