stence and their embodiment in the highest and noblest creature, why
should man be at variance and in conflict with man? Is it fitting and
justifiable that he should be at war, when harmony and interdependence
characterize the kingdoms of phenomenal life below him? The elements and
lower organisms are synchronized in the great plan of life. Shall man,
infinitely above them in degree, be antagonistic and a destroyer of that
perfection? God forbid such a condition!

From the fellowship and commingling of the elemental atoms life results.
In their harmony and blending there is ever newness of existence. It is
radiance, completeness; it is consummation; it is life itself. Just now
the physical energies and natural forces which come under our immediate
observation are all at peace. The sun is at peace with the earth upon
which it shines. The soft breathing winds are at peace with the trees. All
the elements are in harmony and equilibrium. A slight disturbance and
discord among them might bring another San Francisco earthquake and fire.
A physical clash, a little quarreling among the elements as it were, and a
violent cataclysm of nature results. This happens in the mineral kingdom.
Consider, then, the effect of discord and conflict in the kingdom of man,
so superior to the realm of inanimate existence. How great the attendant
catastrophe, especially when we realize that man is endowed by God with
mind and intellect. Verily, mind is the supreme gift of God. Verily,
intellect is the effulgence of God. This is manifest and self-evident.

For all created things except man are subjects or captives of nature; they
cannot deviate in the slightest degree from nature's law and control. The
colossal sun, center of our planetary system, is nature's captive,
incapable of the least variation from the law of command. All the orbs and
luminaries in this illimitable universe are, likewise, obedient to
nature's regulation. Our planet, the earth, acknowledges nature's
omnipresent sovereignty. The kingdoms of the mineral, vegetable and animal
respond to nature's will and fiat of control. The great bulky elephant
with its massive strength has no power to disobey the restrictions nature
has laid upon him; but man, weak and diminutive in comparison, empowered
by mind which is an effulgence of Divinity itself, can resist nature's
control and apply natural laws to his own uses.

According to the limitations of his physical powers man was intended b