FIELD AND STUDY 



§ 



When one sees the great cosmic processes and the 

 terrestrial forces going on so irrespective of man, 

 so indifferent to him, so hostile to him if for a mo- 

 ment he places himself in wrong relations to them, — 

 ready to grind him to powder, or engulf him in 

 the deep, — so infinitely slow in providing a place 

 for him, and so indifferent to him when all is 

 done, careering on through countless ages before he 

 comes, and, we may safely say, careering on through 

 countless ages after he has gone, the earth given up 

 to low bestial life for untold aeons before man ap- 

 peared, — when one considers all this, one marvels 

 why he is here at all. Was his advent a mere acci- 

 dent, or is it all for him? In our pride we say it is all 

 for him, and all our theology has been for centuries 

 trying to explain away this apparent hostility or 

 indifference of the natural forces, and to reconcile 

 man's career of pain and suffering with the idea of 

 a benevolent God. 



When we consider what infinite pains ajid time 

 Nature seems to have taken to crown her work with 

 man, it is staggering to see her apparent indifference 

 to each individual of us. Not one smallest force in 

 the universe will make one exception for any of us. 

 We are borne along by this stream of tendency, or 

 creative power, and the stream cannot turn back 

 or be interrupted. Every effect must have its cause, 

 which refers to another cause, and so on. Men are 

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