S'lRUCTURE ADAPTED TO WANTS. 75 



think, one example amongst countless others, how 

 God, in His power, wisdom, and goodness, marvellously 

 provides for all His creatures, and their wants. 



To see this clearer, let me remind you, first of all, 

 of one or two familiar examples. Such examples are 

 on all sides. The very colouH of animals is full of 

 meaning. What, for instance, is more suitable than 

 the brown colour of the partridge to hide it from 

 view as it sits on the open field ? On the other hand, 

 what could give greater concealment than the white 

 winter plumage of the ptarmigan on the snowy 

 hills ? The stoat, again, like the ptarmigan, is dark in 

 summer-time, but often, in hard snowy winter, changes 

 to white. Or, amongst fishes, what better to hide it 

 from its enemies than the colour of the sole? Its 

 under side is white, for this is not much seen, but its 

 upper side is almost the exact colour of the sand on 

 which it lies. 



But, after all, nothing can better illustrate the 

 great truth than the human body, and no part of it 

 more so, perhaps, than your arm with its hand, fingers, 

 and thumb, which is ever ready to obey your wishes, 

 and with which you can' do such different things as 

 strike a heavy blow with a blacksmith's hammer, or 

 pick up a little pin. Nothing can be more perfect 

 than the arrangement of bone and joints and muscles 

 and nerves. By no other possible arrangement could 

 every part be so exactly fitted for its purpose. 



We see it still more if we look at what answers to 

 the arm and hand in many animals. They have 

 bones, in some respects, similar to ours of the arm and 

 hand, but then, in each case, they are just so altered 



