THE FAITH OF A NATURALIST 



Guided by appearances alone, how surely we 

 should come to look upon the sun as a mere append- 

 age of the earth! — as much so as is the moon. How 

 near it seems at sunrise and sunset, and as if these 

 phenomena directly involved the sun, extending to 

 it and modifying its light and heat! We do not real- 

 ize that these are merely terrestrial phenomena, 

 and that the sun, so to speak, knows them not. 



Viewed from the sun the earth is a mere speck in 

 the sky, and the amount of the total light and heat 

 from the sun that is received on the earth is so 

 small that the mind can hardly grasp it. Yet for all 

 practical purposes the sun shines for us alone. Our 

 relation to it could not be any more direct and sus- 

 taining if it were created for that purpose. It is im- 

 manent in the life of the globe. It is the source of all 

 our energy and therefore of our life. Its bounties are 

 universal. The other planets find it is their sun also. 

 It is as special and private to them as to us. We 

 think the sun paints the bow on the cloud, but the 

 bow follows from the laws of optics. The sun knows 

 it not. 



It is the same with what we call God. His bounty 

 is of the same universal, impersonal kind, and yet 

 for all practical purposes it exists especially for us, 

 it is immanent every moment in our lives. There is 

 no special Providence. Nature sends the rain upon 

 the just and the unjust, upon the sea as upon the 

 land. We are here and find life good because Provi- 



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