Editorial July 17, 1948 Issue

"UNTIRED WORSHIPPERS"

Robert Ellis Key

On page 220 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes: "The violet lifts her blue eye to greet the early spring. The leaves clap their hands as nature's untired worshippers." This beautiful simile could be multiplied.

When the nightingale returns to her summer home from southern climes, she does not inquire the way or consult a timetable. When the touch of early spring wakens woodland and meadow, nature needs no alarm. When salmon move up from the sea to their spawning grounds in the headwaters of great rivers, they do so instinctively. Year by year they find their way up the same tributaries as if by unerring direction. In the stellar universe the planets move in their allotted spheres. The vast uncharted fields of nebulae leave the human mind astounded at the majesty of space. Its grandeur baffles description. From the infinitesimal to the infinite can be discerned the reflected intelligence of God, Spirit, Mind. Nature is an eloquent preacher, an untired worshiper, heard in deeds more than in speech. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, "None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing."

But what of nature's destructive forces? Are they a part of the reflected intelligence of divine Mind? How can the doctrine of tooth and claw be reconciled with the beneficent influences of divine Love? Why does one animal relentlessly pursue another? Why do the so-called forces of nature rain havoc and destruction on mankind?

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