imparted? This doctrine of the homogeneousness of matter is the
antithesis of materialism. It is consistent only with the doctrine of an
almighty and ever present God, and like many other facts which have been
developed by modern scientific discoveries, it confirms the other primal
doctrine of a literal Creation "_in the beginning_."

VI

The conclusion which our minds are forced to draw from the facts
presented in this chapter is not doubtful, nor is it difficult to state.
Matter is not now being brought into existence by any means that we call
"natural." _And yet the facts of radioactivity very positively forbid
the past eternity of matter_. Hence, the conclusion is syllogistic:
matter must have originated at some time in the past by methods or means
which are equivalent to a real Creation.

Thus far, at least, the record of Genesis is confirmed: "In the
beginning God created."

II

THE ORIGIN OF ENERGY

I

What has been regarded by many as the greatest scientific triumph of
modern times was worked out about the middle of the last century by
James Prescott Joule and others, in determining that a certain amount of
mechanical energy is exactly equivalent to a definite amount of heat.
With this mechanical equivalent of heat all the various other forms of
energy have also been correlated; until now we have the general law of
the Conservation of Energy, which says that energy can be neither
manufactured nor destroyed, but merely transformed and directed. And
this magnificent law, like that of the conservation of matter, is strong
evidence that there must have been a real Creation at some time in the
long ago, different not merely in degree but in kind from anything known
to modern science.

Joule worked out the mechanical equivalent of heat by means of his now
famous experiment of churning water. He reasoned that if the heat
produced by friction, etc., is really energy in another form, then the
same amount of heat must always be generated by the expenditure of a
given amount of motion or mechanical work. And this must be true, no
matter whether this work is expended in overcoming the friction between
wood on wood, iron on iron, or in any other conceivable way.
Accordingly, he devised an experiment in which paddle wheels were made
to rotate in a vessel of water by means of falling weights somewhat like
the weights of a clock. The amount of work represented by the falling of
the weights was easily calcula