THE NATURAL PROVIDENCE 



Mercury small; that Saturn has rings; that Jupiter 

 has seven moons; that the Earth has one; that other 

 planets have none; that some of the planets are in a 

 condition to sustain life as we know it, for example, 

 Venus, Earth, and probably Mars; that some re- 

 volve in more elliptical orbits than others; that 

 Mercury and Venus apparently always keep the 

 same side toward the sun — all these things are mat- 

 ters of chance. It is easy to say, as did our fathers, 

 that God designed it thus and so, but how are we 

 to think of an omnipotent and omniscient Being 

 as planning such wholesale destruction of his own 

 works as occurs in the cosmic catastrophes which 

 the astronomers now and then witness in the side- 

 real universe, or even as occur on the earth, when 

 earthquakes and volcanoes devastate fair lands or 

 engulf the islands of the sea? Why should such a 

 Being design a desert, or invent a tornado, or ordain 

 that some portion of the earth's surface should have 

 almost perpetual rain and another portion almost 

 perpetual drought? In Hawaii I saw islands that 

 were green and fertile on one end from daily show- 

 ers, while the other end, ten miles away, was a 

 rough barren rock, from the entire absence of 

 showers. Were the trade winds designed to bring 

 the vapors of the sea to the tropic lands? 



In following this line of thought we, of course, 

 soon get where no step can be taken. Is the universe 

 itself a chance happening? Such a proposition is un- 



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