ONLY A PEBBLE. 



gathered together unto one place, that pebble was there. 

 Who can tell us the story of those first days, when the 

 earth was in sore travail, when her heaving bosom belched 

 forth torrents of fire, vast avalanches of hissing, seething 

 water, and volumes of deadly vapors? When glowing, 

 blazing streams of lava threw a bloody red glare on the 

 silent, lifeless earth, and amidst a trembling and thunder- 

 ing that shook the firmament, a thousand volcanoes at 

 once lifted up their fiery heads; when out of the foam- 

 ing waters there rose suddenly the rocky foundations of 

 firm land and greeted the light that God had created] 



That pebble was Life's first offspring on earth. The 

 Spirit of God moved on the waters, and life was breathed 

 into the very gases that were hid in the heart of the 

 vapory globe. They parted in love, they parted in hate; 

 they fled and they met. Atom joined atom; loving sis- 

 ters kissed each other, and this love, the great child of 

 that Spirit on earth, brought forth its first fruit, the peb- 

 ble ! Other stones also arose ; out of the dark chaos new 

 brothers were seen to appear, and countless friends stood 

 by the side of the first comer. Warmth spread through 

 thsir limbs, electric currents shaped and fashioned them 

 into ever new forms, and they were joined into families 

 and races each in his kind. 



And now the wild struggle subsided. The fierce spirits 

 of fire were banished far down to the dark caverns of the 

 earth ; but in angry passion they still rage and roar be- 

 low, rise in powerless fury until the earth trembles and 

 the heart of man is awed, or pour forth streams of burning 



lava through mighty volcanoes. Thus the flames bring us, 

 1* 



