es, and
there are hundreds of thousands of them, would not be sufficient to haul
water from the rivers for any considerable distance to keep more than
ten miles square of earth watered. But you can also see that if all
these cars were to be run on a piece of ground only ten miles square,
that entire piece of ground would be almost completely covered with
railroad tracks, and we would scarcely be able to raise anything on it
in the way of grain or vegetables or food of any kind. But even if we
could successfully water ten miles square of land, what would that be
compared with the absolute necessity of watering the entire continent
and all the continents of the globe in order to make life possible upon
the earth. Now the question arises, how does God accomplish this great
result?

[Illustration: Train of Cars.]

I suppose you have all noticed the teakettle when it is upon the stove
and the steam is coming out of the spout, and around the lid. You have
there had a practical demonstration of how God can cause the water,
which is 800 times heavier than the atmosphere or the air, to rise and
float, for you know that any substance heavier than air will always fall
to the earth. In the instance of the teakettle you will see how heat
causes the water to become steam and thus to rise in the air and float
away, rising to the height of the clouds which float two, three and
four and sometimes more miles high above the earth.

Now, just in this same way God makes the heat from the rays of the sun
to cause that from every river and lake and all the expanse of the
ocean, as well as from the surface of the earth, there shall constantly
arise a very fine vapor, which, although it is somewhat like steam, is
still so much finer that you and I cannot see it with our unaided eyes.
It is by means of this vapor that God raises the moisture from the
oceans and all bodies of water and from the earth, to fall again in
gentle showers.

[Illustration: Steam Rising from Teakettle.]

But when this vapor has been lifted up from the ocean, you will see
readily that if it were to descend again in rain upon the very places
from which it had been lifted it would accomplish no good. It is
necessary that instead of falling back into the ocean and into the lakes
and rivers, it must be carried over the land. So you see that we might
aptly compare the vapor to a great pump, by means of which God lifts
millions of gallons of water every hour from the sea