But chance cannot fashion even a little flower; chance cannot create a single thing that grows.  Every living thing bears testimony to a living God and, if there be a God, then every human life is a part of that God’s plan.  And, if this be true, then the highest duty of man, as it should be his greatest pleasure, is to try to find out God’s will concerning himself and to do it.  When Job was asked, “Canst thou by searching find out God?” a negative answer was implied, but we can see manifestations of God’s power everywhere; in the suns and planets that, revolving, whirl through space, held in position by forces centripetal and centrifugal; we see it in the mountains rent asunder and upturned by a force not only superhuman but beyond the power of man to conceive.  Captain Crawford, the poet-scout, in describing the mountains of the West has used a phrase which often comes into my mind:  “Where the hand of God is seen.”

We see manifestation of God’s power in the ebb and flow of the tides; in the mighty “shoreless rivers of the ocean”; in the suspended water in the clouds—­billions of tons, seemingly defying the law of gravitation while they await the command that sends them down in showers of blessings.  We behold it in the lightning’s flash and the thunder’s roar, and in the invisible germ of life that contains within itself the power to gather its nourishment from the earth and air, fulfill its mission and propagate its kind.

We see all about us, also, conclusive proofs of the infinite intelligence and fathomless love of the Heavenly Father.  On lofty mountain summits He builds His mighty reservoirs and piles high the winter snows, which, melting, furnish the water for singing brooks, for the hidden veins, and for the springs that pour out their refreshing flood through the smitten rocks.  At His touch the same element that furnishes ice to cool the fevered brow furnishes also the steam to move man’s commerce on sea and land.  He imprisons in roaring cataracts exhaustless energy for the service of man:  He stores away in the bowels of the earth beds of coal and rivers of oil; He studs the canyon’s frowning walls with precious metals and priceless gems; He extends His magic wand, and the soil becomes rich with fertility; the early and the latter rains supply the needed moisture, and the sun, with its marvellous alchemy, transmutes base clay into golden grain.  He gives us in infinite variety the fruits of the orchard, the vegetables of the garden and the, berries of the woods.  He gives us the sturdy oak, the fruitful nut-tree and the graceful palm.