In dwelling upon the laws of matter and
the laws of nature, many lose sight of, if they do not deny,
the continual and direct agency of God. They convey the idea
that nature acts independently of God, having in and of itself
its own limits and its own powers wherewith to work. In their
minds there is a marked distinction between the natural and the
supernatural. The natural is ascribed to ordinary causes, unconnected
with the power of God. Vital power is attributed to matter, and
nature is made a deity. It is supposed that matter is placed
in certain relations and left to act from fixed laws with which
God Himself cannot interfere; that nature is endowed with certain
properties and placed subject to laws, and is then left to itself
to obey these laws and perform the work originally commanded.
This is false science; there is nothing
in the word of God to sustain it. God does not annul His laws,
but He is continually working through them, using them as His
instruments. They are not self-working. God is perpetually at
work in nature. She is His servant, directed
as He pleases. Nature in her work testifies of the intelligent
presence and active agency of a being who moves in all His works
according to His will. It is not by an original power inherent
in nature that year by year the earth yields its bounties and
continues its march around the sun. The hand of infinite power
is perpetually at work guiding this planet. It is God's power
momentarily exercised that keeps it in position in its rotation.
The God of heaven is constantly at work.
It is by His power that vegetation is caused to flourish, that
every leaf appears and every flower blooms. Every drop of rain
or flake of snow, every spire of grass, every leaf and flower
and shrub, testifies of God. These little things so common around
us teach the lesson that nothing is beneath the notice of the
infinite God, nothing is too small for His attention.
The mechanism of the human body cannot
be fully understood; it presents mysteries that baffle the most
intelligent. It is not as the result of a mechanism, which, once
set in motion, continues its work, that the pulse beats and breath
follows breath. In God we live and move and have our being. Every
breath, every throb of the heart, is a continual evidence of
the power of an ever-present God.
It is God that causes the sun to rise in the
heavens. He opens the windows of heaven and gives rain. He causes
the grass to grow upon the mountains. "He giveth snow like
wool: He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes." "When
He uttereth His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the
heavens; . . . He maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth
the wind out of His treasures." Psalm 147:16; Jeremiah 10:13.
The Lord is constantly employed in upholding
and using as His servants the things
that He has made. Said Christ: "My Father worketh hitherto,
and I work." John 5:17.