Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/214

 *oS The Plan of the Ages.

assome imagine, but he is God's handiwork infused with life Recognizing the faft that only in the divine nature is life independent, unlimited, exhausdess, ever continuous and neither produced nor controlled by circumstances, we see that of necessity Jehovah is superior to those physical laws and supplies which he ordained for the sustenance of his creatures. It is this quality, which pertains only to the divine nature, that is described by the term immor- tality. As shown in the preceding chapter, immortal signifies death-proof, consequently disease and pain-proof. In fa& immortality may be used as a synonym for divinity From the divine, immortal fountain proceed all life and blessing, every good and perfect gift, as from the sun the earth receives her light and vigor.

The sun is the great fountain of light to the earth, illumi- nating all things, producing many varieties of color and shades of light, according to the nature of the object upon which it shines. The same sunlight shining upon a dia- mond upon a brick, and upon various kinds of glass, produces strikingly different effefls. The light is the same, but the objefis upon which it shines differ in their capacity to receive and to transmit it. So with life : it all flows from the one exhaustless fountain. The oyster has life, but its or* gnnism is such that it cannot make use of much life, just as the brick cannot reflect much of the light of the sun* So with each of the higher manifestations of life, in beast* fish and fowl. Like the various kinds of glass under sun* light, so these various creatures show forth differently the various organic powers they possess, when life animates their organisms.

The polished diamond is so adapted to the light that it appears as though it possessed it within itself, and were itself a miniature sun. So with, man, nc of the master-pieces of God's creation, made only " a little' lower than the an-

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