r,
With perfume for each tiny thief,
And furnish it with sunshine and with shower,
Then chance would be creator, with the power
To build a world for unbelief."

But chance cannot fashion even a little flower; chance cannot create a
single thing that grows. Every living thing bears testimony to a living
God and, if there be a God, then every human life is a part of that
God's plan. And, if this be true, then the highest duty of man, as
it should be his greatest pleasure, is to try to find out God's will
concerning himself and to do it. When Job was asked, "Canst thou by
searching find out God?" a negative answer was implied, but we can see
manifestations of God's power everywhere; in the suns and planets that,
revolving, whirl through space, held in position by forces centripetal
and centrifugal; we see it in the mountains rent asunder and upturned
by a force not only superhuman but beyond the power of man to conceive.
Captain Crawford, the poet-scout, in describing the mountains of the
West has used a phrase which often comes into my mind: "Where the hand
of God is seen."

We see manifestation of God's power in the ebb and flow of the tides; in
the mighty "shoreless rivers of the ocean"; in the suspended water in
the clouds--billions of tons, seemingly defying the law of gravitation
while they await the command that sends them down in showers of
blessings. We behold it in the lightning's flash and the thunder's roar,
and in the invisible germ of life that contains within itself the power
to gather its nourishment from the earth and air, fulfill its mission
and propagate its kind.

We see all about us, also, conclusive proofs of the infinite
intelligence and fathomless love of the Heavenly Father. On lofty
mountain summits He builds His mighty reservoirs and piles high the
winter snows, which, melting, furnish the water for singing brooks, for
the hidden veins, and for the springs that pour out their refreshing
flood through the smitten rocks. At His touch the same element that
furnishes ice to cool the fevered brow furnishes also the steam to
move man's commerce on sea and land. He imprisons in roaring cataracts
exhaustless energy for the service of man: He stores away in the bowels
of the earth beds of coal and rivers of oil; He studs the canyon's
frowning walls with precious metals and priceless gems; He extends His
magic wand, and the soil becomes rich with fertility; the early and
the latter rains s