ALL MAN'S WANTS SATISFIED.

59

Every craving of man's animal nature is met and satisfied, every social craving also, in the relations of the family and of society, his craving for the beautiful, all, all, are satisfied; the whole earth and all it contains, with the starry heavens above, seem to be adapted to man's needs and to his happiIs all this the work of chance? The chances are millions to one against any such conclusion.

ness.

CHAPTER FIFTH.

"The undevout astronomer is mad."-YOUNG.

Fifth proof of the existence of a personal First Cause of the universe, from the order, plan and arrangement found in it.

Let us first look at some of the marks of order, plan and arrangement in our solar system. The distances of the several planets from the sun beginning from Mercury, bear very nearly a fixed relation, until we come to Neptune, which is more than seven hundred million miles nearer to the sun than it should be if it followed the analogy of the rest of the system.

Beginning with Mercury the distances of the planets, outwards from the sun bear about the relation of that given by the formula of 3+ the ascending powers of 2; thus,

Neptune should

=

3 + 28

3 + 25

3 + 26

67

131

=

=

3 + 27 =

259, which would give for the distance of Neptune from the sun about 3,467,000,000 miles, while its actual distance is only about 2,746,000,000 miles. Why this regular order until we come to Neptune and then this great discrepancy? Surely, if the forming universe followed this regular order of throwing off satellites until it came to Neptune, Neptune must have followed the same law. Who caused it to vary?

Again, we find the same orderly relation existing between the periodic times of revolution of the planets around the sun, beginning with Neptune, the outermost. The time of Uranus is that of Neptune,

61

PLAN IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

The time of Saturn is about

that of Uranus,
that of Saturn,

The time of Jupiter is about

The average time of the asteroids, or minor planets, about that of Jupiter,

13

The time of Mars is about that of Minor planets, The time of the Earth is about that of Mars, 21 The time of Venus is about that of Earth,

8

34

The time of Mercury is about that of Venus. Here we find these fractions are formed, after the first two, by adding the numerators of the two preceding fractions for the numerator and the denominators for the denominator of the next, successively, till we come to the earth; when, if we combine the Earth and Venus, taking the numerator of the Earth's fraction and the denominator of that of Venus, & 212 an orderly series is made. What caused this wonderful relation? and what caused the Earth and Venus to vary from it? If this law of movement was inherent in matter, why did the Earth and Venus vary from it? The materialist cannot say that all this comes by chance, it is too regular for that; and he cannot say that it is the result of some hidden law of matter, for we have these exceptions.

Again, as we look through all the relations of the planetary system, we find wonderful proofs of a plan and of an intelligent planner. The square of the times of the revolution of the several planets around the sun, is in direct proportion to the cube of the distance of each one from the sun. Again, the cube of the moon's diameter divided by the square of the time of its revolution around the earth, bears the same proportion to the cube of the earth's diameter divided by the square of the time of its revolution around the sun, that the earth's mass bears to the mass of the sun. These are but examples of the wonderful order which exists everywhere in the universe among the heavenly bodies, so far as man has been able to discover their relations. Whence do all these wonderful relations arise? Are they the result of chance?

The wonderful accuracy with which an eclipse of the sun, or of the moon, or a transit of Venus can be predicted, is an illustration of the order which reigns in the universe.

The transits of Venus across the disk of the sun take place in exactly the same recurring cycles from century to century; namely, in 8, 121, 8, and 105 years, respectively, and then, repeating the same order again.

This order, these laws, these wonderful relations are just such as would exist if the system were planned and con

62

PLAN IN THE VEGETABLE AND MINERAL KINGDOMS.

trolled by an infinite intelligence. As was said before, when speaking of evolution, so here again, an infinitely wise and all-powerful Being must work uniformly; he would know the best way from the beginning, and there would be no reason to change, and no chance to improve upon it afterwards.

In the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, we see the same evidence of planning; even when we study the sciences of botany and chemistry we are astonished at the proofs of order and system which we everywhere find. For instance, Prof. Cooke in his "Religion and Chemistry," has pointed out the fact that the differing arrangement of leaves upon the stems of the different plants and trees, follows the same law which we found to exist in the times of the revolutions of the planets around the sun. The simplest arrangement is that where, in making one circuit of the stem, two leaves occur, represented by the fraction,; the next is that where in making one circuit of the stem, three leaves occur, represented by the fraction; the next, in two circuits, five leaves occur;; the next, in three circuits eight leaves occur, and so on; thus, we get the very same series of fractions as in the case of the solar system, namely, ; ; ; ; 子; 13 and so on.

5 · 8

132

34 Even in the organic world, we find a multitude of adaptations, which upon the assumption of purpose, become luminous and intelligible, but which are wholly unaccounted for upon any other supposition. Without the law of chemical equivalents and proportion, nature would be an irredeemable chaos, with it, through all the myriad changes which force is constantly working, the same chemical compounds remain; if they are resolved into their elements, they return to the original combination, instead of forming new and strange compounds. For a statement of the wonderful perfection and nicety of these invariable proportions in which the elements combine to form compounds, see Prof. Cooke's "Religion and Chemistry," sect. ix.

The numerical relations between chemical elements are the expression of creative ideas. Some one has said that, "The world is a living arithmetic, in its development; a realised geometry, in its repose." The operation of this wonderful law in the chemical world moved Prof. Faraday, the great English chemist, to profound admiration; he says, "There are different elements with the most manifold powers, and the most opposed tendencies. Some are so lazy and inert, that a superficial observer would take them for nothing

NOT THE RESULT OF CHANCE.

63

in the grand resultant of powers; other elements, on the contrary, possess such violent properties that they seem to threaten the stability of the universe; but upon a deeper examination of them, and a consideration of the part which they play, one finds that they agree with one another in a great scheme of harmonic adaptation; the power of no single element could be changed without at once destroying the harmonic balance, and plunging the world into ruin.' Except this law had been imposed upon matter, chaos must have remained chaos forever. If we look upon all this as the result of intelligent purpose, the mind rests satisfied; if we do not, there is no answer, except what the atheists give us, "The law exists, and that is all we know about it." The fact that man has power to reason and classify, and that in the universe everything is all arranged so as to be classified, seems to prove a Creator of the universe with reason and intelligence. The whole of the sciences are but the readings of the order and arrangement in nature. How came they there? Is all this the result of chance?

One accidental coincidence of many circumstances may produce something which is conformable to an end in view, but what is the probability, or possibility, that all the unnumbered things which combine to produce the grand result, will happen to coincide just in the right time, place and manner? that they should all happen to do this not only once, but to continue to do it always and everywhere through unnumbered ages? The chances are so great against this that no arithmetic, no mathematical formula, can be invented to express them. Again, what has continually guided the advance from lower to higher through all the ages? Can this be the result of chance? Whence is all this harmony, order and symmetry which we find everywhere in the universe?

As another has well said, "The traveler looks upon the broken porticos of the Parthenon temple, among the ruins which still remain at Athens in Greece, and they show a beauty of outline and a faultless proportion which modern art has never excelled; and this results from the exact conformity of all the parts to the laws of symmetry, and to simple numerical ratios; the ruins of that temple are regarded as proof that the architect of the temple possessed the highest human intelligence; what then, shall we say in regard to the order and symmetry and adaptation of a far higher order which pervade the whole universe?

There is a force in this argument which the atheists, doubters, and agnostics themselves, cannot overcome or