GOD^S SILENCE AND HIS VOICES ALSO. 



DR. N. D. HILLIS. 



NATURE loves silence and mys- 

 tery. Reticent, she keeps herown 

 counsel. Unlike man, she never 

 wears her heart upon her sleeve. 

 The clouds that wrap the mountain 

 about with mystery interpret nature's 

 tendency to veil her face and hold off 

 all intruders. By force and ingenuity 

 alone does man part the veil or pull 

 back the heavy curtains. The weight 

 of honors heaped upon him who de- 

 ciphers her secret writmgs on the rock 

 or turns some poison into balm and 

 medicine, or makes a copper thread to 

 be a bridge for speech, proclaims how 

 difficult it is to solve one of nature's 

 simplest secrets. For ages man shiv- 

 ered with cold, but nature concealed the 

 anthracite under thick layers of soil. 

 For ages man burned with fever, but 

 nature secreted the balm under the 

 bark of the tree. For ages, unaided, 

 man bore his heavy burdens, yet nature 

 veiled the force of steam and concealed 

 the fact that both wind and river were 

 going man's way and might bear his 

 burdens. 



Though centuries have passed, nature 

 is so reticent that man is still 

 uncertain whether a diet of grain 

 or a diet of flesh makes the ruddier 

 countenance. Also it is a matter of 

 doubt whether some young Lincoln can 

 best be educated in the university of 

 rail-splitting or in a modern college and 

 library; whether poverty or wealth does 

 the more to foster the poetic spirit of 

 Burns or the philosophic temper of 

 Bach. In the beautiful temple of Jeru- 

 salem there was an outer wall, an inner 

 court, "a holy place," and afar-hidden 

 within, "a place most holy." Thus na- 

 ture conceals her secrets behind high 

 walls and doors, and God also hath 

 made thick the clouds that surround 

 the divine throne. 



CONCEALMENTS OF NATURE. 



Marvelous, indeed, the skill with 

 which nature conceals secrets number- 



less and great in caskets small and mean. 

 She hides a habitable world in a swirl- 

 ing fire-mist. A magician, she hides a 

 charter oak and acre-covering boughs 

 within an acorn's shell. She takes a lump 

 of mud to hold the outlines of a beau- 

 teous vase. Beneath the flesh-bands 

 of a little babe she secretes the strength 

 of a giant, the wisdom of a sage and 

 seer. A glorious statue slumbers in 

 every block of marble; divine eloquence 

 sleeps in every pair of human lips; lus- 

 trous beauty is for every brush and can- 

 vas; unseen tools and forces are all 

 about inventors, but they who wrest 

 these secrets from nature must "work 

 like slaves, fight like gladiators, die like 

 martyrs." 



For nature dwells behind adamantine 

 walls, and the inventor must capture 

 the fortress with naked fists. In the 

 physical realm burglars laugh at bolts 

 and bars behind which merchants hide 

 their gold and gems. Yet it took 

 Ptolemy and Newton 2,000 years to pick 

 the lock of the casket in which was 

 hidden the secret of the law of gravity. 

 Four centuries ago, skirting the edge 

 of this new continent, neither Colum- 

 bus nor Cabot knew what vast stretches 

 of valley, plain, and mountain lay be- 

 yond the horizon. 



If once a continent was the terra in- 

 cognita, now, under the microscope, a 

 drop of water takes on the dimensions 

 of a world, with horizons beyond which 

 man's intellect may not pass. Explor- 

 ing the raindrop with his magnifying- 

 glass, the scientist marvels at the myr- 

 iad beings moving through the watery 

 world. For the teardrop on the cheek 

 of the child, not less than the star rid- 

 ing through God's sky, is surrounded 

 with mystery, and has its unexplored 

 remainder. Expecting openness from 

 nature, man finds clouds and conceal- 

 ment. He hears a whisper where he 

 listens for the full thunder of God's 

 voice to roll along the horizon of time. 



■2sa 



