Among the Forces | Page 2

educated. And every one of these thoughts is related to
man's best prosperity and joy. He is a most regal king if he achieve the
designed dominion over a thousand powerful servitors.
It is well to see that God's present actual powers in full play about us
are vastly beyond all the dreams of Arabian imagination. It leads us to
expect greater things of him hereafter. That human imagination could
so dream is proof of the greatness of its Creator. But that he has
actually surpassed those dreams is prophecy of more greatness to come.
I desire that my readers of this generation shall be the great thinkers
and inventors of the next. There are amazing powers just waiting to be
revealed. Draw aside the curtain. We have not yet learned the A B C of
science. We have not yet grasped the scepters of provided dominion.
Those who are most in the image and likeness of the Cause of these
forces are most likely to do it.

THE MAN WHO NEEDED 452,696 BARRELS OF WATER

A man once had a large field of wheat. He had toiled hard to clear the
land, plow the soil, and sow the seed. The crop grew beautifully and
was his joy by day and by night. But when it was just ready to head out
it suddenly stopped growing for want of moisture. It looked as if all his
hard work would be in vain. The poor farmer thought of his wife and
children, who were likely to starve in the coming winter. He shed many
tears, but they could not moisten one little stalk.
Suddenly he said, "I will water it myself." The field was a mile square,
and it needed an inch of water over it all. He quickly figured out that
there were 27,878,400 square feet in a square mile. On every twelve
square feet a cubic foot of water was needed. A cubic foot of water
weighs sixty-two and a third pounds. Hence it would require 74,754
tons of water. To draw this amount 74,754 teams, each drawing a ton,
would be required. But they would tramp the wheat all down. Besides,
the nearest water in sufficient quantity was the ocean, one thousand
miles away over the mountains. It would take three months to make the
journey. And, worse than all else, the water of the ocean is so salt that it
would ruin the crop.
[Illustration: Breaking Waves.]
Alas! there were three impossibilities--so many teams, so many miles,
so long time--and two ruins if he could overcome the
impossibilities--trampling down the wheat and bringing so much salt.
Alas, alas! what could he do but see the poor wheat die of thirst and his
poor wife and children die of hunger?
Suddenly he determined to ask the sun to help him. And the sun said he
would. That was a very little thing for such a great body to do. So he
heated the air over the ocean till it became so thirsty that it drank plenty
of water, choosing only the sweet fresh water and leaving all the salt in
the ocean. Then the warm air rose, because the heat had expanded it
and made it lighter, and the other air rushed down the mountains all
over that side of the continent to take its place. Then the warm air went
landward in an upper current and carried its load of water in great piles
and mountains of clouds; it lifted them over the great ranges of
mountains and rained down its thousands of tons of sweet water a

thousand miles from the sea, so gently that not a stalk of wheat was
trampled down, nor was a single root made acrid by any taste of brine.
Besides the precious drink the sun brought the most delicate food for
the wheat. There was carbonic acid, that makes soda water so delicious,
besides oxygen, that is so stimulating, nitrogen, ammonia, and half a
dozen other things that are so nutritious to growing plants.
Thus the wheat grew up in beauty, headed out abundantly, and matured
perfectly. Then the farmer stopped weeping for laughter, and in his joy
he remembered to thank, not the sun, nor the wind, but the great One
who made them both.

THE SUN'S GREAT HORSES
There was once a man who had thousands of acres of mighty forests in
the distant mountains. They were valueless there, but would be
exceedingly valuable in the great cities hundreds of miles away, if he
could only find any power to transport them thither. So he looked for a
team that could haul whole counties of forests so many miles. He saw
that the sun drew the greatest loads, and he asked it to help him. And
the sun