88 SPECIES NOT 



upon thousands of descendants from the parent 

 stock. There is no struggle for existence. Each 

 bud, and leaf, and branch has its allotted period 

 of life, which, when passed, leaves behind it 

 successors to form fruit, and then be carried 

 to all parts of the world. 



But the oak is an oak still. Look at the 

 myriads of acorns, which stud every branchlet, 

 containing within them the undying and eternal 

 representative of the original stem, which rose 

 up from its acorn a thousand years ago. Cut 

 open your acorn, look at the embryo which is to 

 be the future oak! There it is as perfect and 

 as unchanged as when it first came from the 

 Creating Will of an All-omnipotent Being. No 

 secondary causes here. The stamp of the Creator's 

 hand is indelibly fixed upon that embryo, and 

 no time shall change, and no force shall divert 

 it from the design, which fixed its position in 

 the beautiful world of nature. Gather ten thou- 

 sand million of these acorns from every part of 

 the world, and you will find no evidence of change ! 

 The embryo will bud forth, and the radicle will 

 strike into the earth, and the plumule will raise 

 its fairy leaves to the morning sun, and it will 

 grow and grow, and another oak will descend to 

 ti distant posterity, and bear evidence then of 

 the permanence of species, of the unity of design, 

 and of the ineffable power and wisdom and 

 goodness of Him, who specially created it. For 

 what? I can imagine I hear some one say. For 

 the use of man, the highest of all specially created 



