“But how is it, Uncle Zed,” enquired Dorian, “that so many scientists have such little faith?”

“‘The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life,’ The Spirit has taught us Dorian, that this world is God’s world, and that the laws which govern here and now are the same eternal laws which have always been in operation; that we have come to this world of element to get in touch with earthly forms of matter, and become acquainted with the laws which govern them.  Drummond has attempted to prove that the laws which prevail in the temporal world about us also hold good in the spiritual world, and he has made out a very good case, I think; but neither Drummond nor anybody else not endowed by the gift of the Holy Ghost, can reach the simple ultimate truth.  That’s why I have been looking for some young man in the Church who could and would make it his life’s mission and work to learn the truths of science and harmonize them where necessary with the revealed truth—­in fact, to complete what Henry Drummond has so well begun.”  The old man paused, then looking steadily at Dorian, said:  “That’s what I expect you to do.”

“I?  Oh, do you think I could?”

“Yes; it would not be easy, but with your aptness and your trend of mind, and your ability to study long and hard, you could, with the assistance of the Spirit of God, accomplish wonders by the time you are as old as I.”

The young man mildly protested, although the vision of what might be thrilled his being.

“Don’t forget what I am telling you, Dorian.  Think and pray and dream about it for a time, and the Lord will open the way.  Now then, we are to discuss some of Drummond’s problems, were we not?”

“Yes; I shall be glad to.  Are you comfortable?  Shall I move your pillow?”

“I’m resting very easily, thank you.  Just hand me the book.  Drummond’s chapter on Biogenesis interests me very much.  I cannot talk very scientifically, Dorian, on these things, but I hope to talk intelligently and from the large viewpoint of the gospel.  Here is a paragraph from my book which I have marked and called ’The Wall Between.’  I’m sure you will remember it.  Let us read it again: 

“’Let us first place,” he read from the book, ’vividly in our imagination the picture of the two great Kingdoms of Nature, the inorganic and the organic, as these now stand in the light of the Law of Biogenesis.  What essentially is involved in saying that there is no Spontaneous Generation of Life?  It is meant that the passage from the mineral world is hermetically sealed on the mineral side.  This inorganic world is staked off from the living world by barriers which have never yet been crossed from within.  No change of substance, no modification of environment, no chemistry, no electricity, nor any form of energy, nor any evolution can endow any single atom of the mineral world with the attribute of life.  Only by bending down into this dead world of some living form can these dead atoms be gifted