ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD 



effect of the harmony. Earthquakes, vol- 

 canic eruptions, cyclones, and thunderstorms 

 would make chaos of an orderly world if 

 they came every day ; but, coming rarely and 

 with sublimity, the word "noise" is too mean 

 a word to be applied to them. Rather do 

 they seem like the majestic gavel thumps of 

 the Almighty to call the attention of a world 

 grown deaf and blind to the silent, everyday 

 miracles of creation. 



In the early dawn of chaos, when worlds 

 were making, there was undoubtedly a sea- 

 son when there were cosmic crashings not 

 meet for ears of flesh and blood. But that 

 did not matter, so long as there were no 

 human ears near to be deafened by them. 

 Before man was allowed to appear, the 

 divine fiat, "Let there be silence," had gone 

 forth. "The whole world is at rest and is 

 quiet," wrote the prophet Isaiah, but the 

 lesser world of man's creation is yet in a 

 semichaotic condition, and the law of silence, 

 though it has been passed in the upper house 

 of the elect, is yet a long way from enact- 

 ment. So there still ascends to heaven an 



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