Order in Creation by M’Cosh

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 7, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 22.

Order in Creation

By M’Cosh

Take up the commonest plant,—the furze that grows on the common, the seaweed that clings to the rocks washed by the ocean, or the fern that springs up in the mountain glen,—and you may observe in its structure, in its leaves, or pendicles, a wonderful correspondence of side to side, and part to part. Let the eye travel over nature as we walk among the cultivated fields, or the grassy slopes and valleys of our upland countries, or among the thick woods where the winds have strewn the seeds, and bush and tree of every kind spring up, each eager to maintain its place, and to show its separate form and beauty, and we discover an order in every branch and blade and leaf and shade and color. Take up a leaf or flower, and examine with or without the aid which art can furnish, and observe how one edge has the same number of notches upon it as the other edge, and what nice balancings and counterpoises there are, and how nicely the lines and dots and shadings of color suit each other, and recur each at its proper place, as if all had been done by the most exact measurement, and under the most skilful and tasteful eye. Rising higher, we find all leading events in the earth and heavens to run in periods. Plants have their seasons for budding and growing, and bearing seed and fruit; and their whole existence is for an allotted time. The life of animals and of man himself is a period; and it has its periodic developments of infancy, youth, and manhood, and old age. The very diseases of the human frame have their periods. The events of history, in respect of politics, civilization, science, literature, and religion, can be arranged into cycles, and, as a whole, exhibit a regular, though somewhat complex progression. The tides of the ocean, and in many places the currents, flow in periods; and, in some countries, the winds blow and the rains fall at certain regular seasons. The variations of magnetism on the earth’s surface seem to be periodical. The changes in the condition of the earth have been arranged into geological epochs. The year is a period, and it has its seasons; and there are magni anni in the movements of the planets, and the revolutions of the binary and multiple stars, and probably also in the movements of the constellations and groups of the nebular heavens.—M’Cosh.