LIVING GOD OF LIVING NATURE FROM THE SCIENCE 3IDR. 269 



forces of non-living nature, but upon the Almighty ; that there 

 is not a particle of living matter of any kind which can be 

 explained, except on the view that it depends upon God. 



The matter of the body of everything that lives in this 

 world consists in part only of matter which is actually 

 alive ; the greater part being composed of matter which has 

 been alive, but whicli as structure has ceased to live — matter 

 which in fact has been formed from and hy matter which at the 

 time was alive ; this being the only way in which structure and 

 formed matters belonging to a living organism and endowed 

 with characteristic properties or structure, can be produced. 



The living matter consists of innumerable minute particles, 

 Bioplasts, to be seen in the tissues and organs of man and the 

 higlier animals, varying in size and proximity to one another in 

 different species, but present in all. At an early period of 

 development, in all classes and kinds of complex organisms, the 

 embryo consists almost entirely of particles of living matter, 

 indistinguishable from each other, each of which, as develop- 

 ment proceeds, may form on its surface a thin layer of delicate 

 tissue, and this may increase lai/er ivitliin layer, until each 

 particle appears separated from its neighbours by a considerable 

 thickness of tissue which, as it has been formed, has ceased 

 to live. As age advances, the proportion of this last increases, 

 and the living particle within diminishes in size. In old age 

 the living particles in the tissues become very small. 



Allow me to say that these observations depend entirely 

 upon what one is able to make out by using the microscope. 

 Nothing that I have just referred to can be seen without 

 comparatively high powers of the microscope. 



All the matter that is alive, and at every period of its 

 existence, contains a large proportion of water — water being 

 absolutely necessary to every kind of living matter or bioplasm, 

 that lives in this world as long as its life shall last. And there 

 is no doubt that water was present in every particle of matter 

 that lived in past time, even from the creation of life, when 

 " the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The 

 nature of life power is unknown, but there is no property of 

 matter, no force, no factor, with which it is comparable. 

 Distinct from all physical agencies, vital motion is not in the 

 slightest degree aft'ected by gravitation. 



The division and sub-division of many particles of living 

 matter, all through living nature, into very minute, separate, 

 and growing living particles, is a fact of the highest importance 

 as regards the question of the nature of life. Seen in the micro- 



