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Twilight And Dawn by Caroline Pridham

C >> Caroline Pridham >> Twilight And Dawn




We must never forget this. God, who said to the mighty ocean, "Hitherto
shalt thou come, and no farther: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed"
(Job xxxviii. II), has also set a bound beyond which man, however great his
powers may be, is not permitted to go. Life, in all its forms, from the
lowest to the highest, belongs to God.

But perhaps you are asking why I said that we do not in the Story of
Creation read anything about _life_ till we come to the work of God on the
Fifth Day. Are not the trees and plants alive? Do we not say of a blasted
tree or withered flower, It is dead?

It is quite true that plants have a life which shows itself as we have seen
in their growth, and even in some "sensitive" plants, by their shrinking
from the touch. In the wheat-fields the order of the unfolding of the life
of a plant "whose seed is in itself," may be seen, as we watch "first the
blade, then the ear, afterwards the full corn in the ear." But this life is
very different from that of the lowliest animal which has power to feel and
to give expression to its feelings, power to move from place to place, and
which shows in its own way of living an intelligence which is not seen in
the very highest forms of vegetable life. At the same time it is true that
in their lowest forms animal and vegetable life approach each other so
nearly that it is often difficult to say where the one ends and the other
begins.

But without the plants and their ceaseless work, as the "sleepless
universal providers of the earth," as they have been called, all animal
life would fail and die; for they are the means by which all the
nourishment which is contained in earth, air, and water can be made of use
both to themselves and to the animals.

And is it not very beautiful to see how God has made one part of His
creation dependent upon another, and all dependent upon Him? Does it not
show us His care for His creatures, and especially for that wonderful
creature--the last and best of all, who was created for the earth and the
earth for him--when we see, as we have seen so constantly, that before the
inhabitants of earth, air, and sea came into being, He had caused the earth
to bring forth that which should give to every living thing the means of
sustaining life?

I have called this chapter, which does not speak of the work of God on any
special Day of Creation, THE STONE BOOK. A wonderful book it is for those
who can read it; its leaves are the successive layers of the earth's crust;
its letters are not only the remains of plants, but the fossil-shells and
bones of animals imprisoned there, which tell us that creatures, all in
some way unlike any we now know, once lived and died, and are still to be
found, not in their ancient forms in rushy mere of tangled jungle, but in
"graves of stone and monuments of marble."

When we were speaking of the coal-mines I told you something about
the remains of giant ferns, sedges, reeds, and mare's-tails of far
larger growth than any now known, which have been found there. You are
familiar with fossil-plants, but I do not think we have spoken much
of fossil-animals, which are found in all except the oldest layers of
rock--the first pages of the "Stone Book."

The children had been with me to the Museum in the town in which we lived,
and had looked with wonder at the huge creatures whose skeletons have
been built up bone by bone, after being taken from their rocky tomb--for
this earth of ours which has seen so many changes has been rifled of her
treasures; not the gold and silver, coal and iron with which she is so
richly stored, but the wonderful specimens of God's work in bygone ages
which He has allowed us to see; so that we cannot doubt that such creatures
once existed, though we may know nothing with certainty as to the time of
their first appearance in the sea and on the dry land, and can only guess
at the kind of life they lived.

You remember that we spoke, in the chapter about the earth's crust, of the
"fire-made rocks," which were once in a liquid state from intense heat
(we could not expect to find any remains of plants or animals there, and
none _have_ been found), and of the "water-made rocks," which have been
gradually accumulated by the action of water in wearing down the land.
These rocks lie in layers, and fossil shells, plants, and bones of animals
have been found in them, as we have already seen.

But how did these fossils get into the rocks? And how is it that they have
been found in all countries and at all heights above the sea?

Before I try to answer these questions, I must tell you that when
geologists speak of "rock" they mean everything which has gone to form the
crust of the earth, whether clay, or loose sand and gravel, or the hard
heavy granite which some of us had seen crowning the Dartmoor tors.

It is thought that the huge creatures whose bones have been found at
different depths in the earth's _strata_ were buried there when the "rock"
which formed the layers was soft; perhaps in the mud of lakes, or in peat
or sand at the mouths of rivers. Then, as time went on, their softer parts
perished, but the harder turned to stone, thus forming the "letters" in the
stony pages from which those who study the earth try to read something of
its history. Then, as sea-shells are found inland, deeply buried in the
hills, it is thought that the land in which they were buried has been
raised by earthquakes, or thrown out by volcanoes: or was altered in
position at the time when the earth's foundations were overflowed with
a Flood, and "the waters stood above the mountains." As geologists read
the Stone Book, like the writing of Eastern lands, _backwards_--as they
search deeper and deeper into the crust of the earth, they speak of its
Old life, Middle life, and New life: but we must remember that they _do_
read backwards, calling the older life what is really the younger. And
we must also bear in mind that many of the words used in what is called
science--especially those relating to the study of the earth--betray our
ignorance rather than prove our knowledge. The marking off stages in the
life-history of the earth, and speaking of its Old, Middle, and New Age has
been done to help in the study of its crust. Nothing is known, however,
with certainty about these different periods or where one ends and another
begins, and no one knows whether the first, or oldest, layer has yet been
discovered. One geologist says, "I have found it," and presently another
penetrates a little deeper, goes a little farther back, and finds one lower
still. Nor can anyone say certainly where a fossil-fern or the mummy of
an old-world fish appeared for the first time, and though many plants and
animals which are found in a fossil state have long been extinct, yet
there are many more which appear at a very ancient date and have continued
unchanged to the present time.

There is a famous cliff in Dorsetshire upon which may be read, almost as
upon a map, the record of the changes which have passed over it during its
life-history.

On examining the strata, or layers which lie one above the other,
geologists find the first, or lowest of all, to be Portland stone, which
was formed by the accumulation of lime at the bottom of the sea.

The second layer shows that this sea-bed in time became dry land, and was
covered with soil--what had once been the seashore gradually giving place
to a forest.

But how do we know that such a wonderful change was wrought in process of
time?

We have clear proof that it was so from the vegetable soil still remaining,
and the numbers of trees the remains of which are embedded in the rock,
many of them standing upright as when growing.

The third layer seems to show, from the limestone and the fresh-water
shells embedded in it, that the level land where the forest grew sank lower
and lower until it formed a hollow which in time became a lake.

The fourth layer, which "ends this strange, eventful history," gives
evidence of the whole land having been again covered by the ocean, and
again raised above the waters!

If we were studying geology together, I should like to take you with me to
the Museum, and we would first look at the fossils which are believed to
belong to the most ancient time of life upon the earth; then we would pass
on to those belonging to the second or "middle" stage, and then to the
third, or "new" stage, letting these wonderful stones, taken from mountain
height or deep sea bottom, or from the depths of the earth itself, tell
their own eloquent story.

But what I should like you to remember is that geologists of our own time
tell us that the lowest layer of the earth's crust which has yet been
explored appears to be made of vegetable remains, so crushed and altered by
time and by the tremendous pressure of rocky layers lying above it,
that though it is probably of the same material as that which forms the
coal-measures, it resembles the blacklead of which pencils are made much
more than the coal which you know is what has been formed by the decay of
buried forests and jungles.

In this layer of "graphite," geologists with the help of their microscopes
have searched in vain for any trace of what once was living, but they think
it may have been formed from the "flowerless" plants, or even from those
still more lowly, too minute when living to be seen by the naked eye, and
consisting of one tiny bag or "cell."

They tell us that these "infant" plants were followed by those of larger
growth, specimens of which are found in layers of rock and clay nearer the
surface, and are followed by remains of the "herb yielding seed, and the
fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind"--for mummies of seed vessels and
fruits have been found in coal-fields in many parts of the world.

It is interesting, too, to see that as far as we can tell at present, in
the case of fossil-fish and other living creatures, the lowest forms are
found _first_ (that is, _farthest back_), and are followed by remains of
creatures higher in the scale of life; that is to say, not so simple in
structure. In using the words "higher" or "lower," we do not mean that
there is anything imperfect about the humbler creatures; they are exactly
suited to the life which has been given to them to live, but their form is
very simple compared with that of "higher" animals, just as a three-legged
stool is much more simple in its construction, and is made of fewer parts,
than a watch. I may tell you a little about these lowly creatures when we
speak of the FIFTH DAY of Creation, and then you will see that they were
all made according to a "perfect goodly pattern" or plan, and each "after
its kind"; for if we read the pages of the Stone Book aright, we shall see
plainly written there that from the first beginnings of life, as far as it
is given us to trace them, the goodness and wisdom and power of God are
shown in the way in which the smallest creature of His hand is suited to
the place appointed to it to fill, by Him who is "good to all," and whose
"tender mercies are over all His works."

But there is a great difference between what we may thus glean from the
study of the earth, and what is revealed to us by the clear teaching of the
Word of God, as He tells us what He did in His wonderful work of Creation,
and how He "saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good."

When God speaks, all is clear and simple and true; and is to be understood
by believing His word: when we come to the thoughts of men about what
happened in the far past, especially when they try to settle not only the
_when_ but the _how_ of His mighty working, much is dark uncertainty.

Should we then _not_ study the letters of the Stone Book? I did not say so;
"God has made everything beautiful in its time," and His handiwork in the
past as well as the present is indeed worthy of our attention. But in
reading books about geology, more perhaps than in any other study, you need
to ask God to teach you to hold fast by His Word.

Then, if you read that many geologists now believe that there has been no
special creation of fish or bird or beast of the earth, but that "all the
many forms of plant and animal life have been unfolded out of a few simple
forms, just as the stem, the leaf, and the flower are evolved out of a
simple seed"--you will say at once, "That cannot be; for God has plainly
told us of both plants and animals that they were made each 'after its
kind,' and therefore there can never have been such a thing as a fish
developing into a bird, or a bird into a lizard: nor, so far as I have
seen, is any such creature to be found in a fossil state."

I heard some time ago that a young man who was studying to become a doctor,
said to his father, "When I go to some of my lectures on biology" (that is
the study of life), "the only thing that I can do when I hear things said
that are quite contrary to the Bible, is to keep saying to myself, 'It's
not _true_, it's not _true_.'"

I think this young man was right: he had settled it in his heart that
whatever he might hear, he must think as God thinks. He was like one who
when just starting in life, wrote these words on the flyleaf of his little
Bible--"Man has faith in his compass, yet he cannot understand it. He takes
it as his guide across the trackless ocean. He relies implicitly upon it,
and well he may trust it. This Book is my compass. I have faith in it,
thanks to God: it explains itself; I take it for my guide across the ocean
of life--I rely upon it. Man may jeer at my faith, but my compass is vastly
more reliable than his--still better may I trust mine."


"HIDDEN TREASURES.

"The gems of earth are still within
Her silent unwrought mines;
There hide they, all unknown, unseen,
No sparkle upward shines.

"The stars of heaven, how few and wan
Are all we see below
Compared with what remain unseen
Beyond all vision now!

"Who knows the untold brilliance there,
The wealth, the beauty hid?
Like sparkle of a lustrous eye
Beneath its veiling lid.

"So with the heaven of better stars
Of which these are but signs:
So with the stores of wisdom hid
In everlasting mines."

H. BONAR.




THE FIFTH DAY.

"THE MOVING CREATURE THAT HATH LIFE."


"_This is the finger of God._"--EXODUS viii. 19.

"_The Lord ... in whose hand is the soul of every living thing._"--JOB xii.
10.

"_O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all:
the earth is full of Thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are
things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts._"--PSALM civ. 24,
25.


We now come to the time when the empty water, air, and land were filled.
The work of God on the FIFTH DAY is spoken of in verses 20 and 21 of our
chapter. In reading them we noticed that in respect of the "great whales,"
or sea monsters, the word "created" is again used, as it was in the first
verse; and then, as we read the twenty-third verse, we had a little talk
about the words now used for the first time in the story of Creation, "and
God blessed them."

How beautiful it is to see that as soon as God had caused the waters to
"swarm with swarms of living souls" (look at the margin of your Bible as
you read the twentieth verse)--as soon as we read of creatures to whom God
gave a life different from that of a tree or a flower, a life that could
enjoy itself in the home prepared for it--all these living things were
blessed, that is, made happy, by Him who called them into being!

God's world was a happy world for the humblest creature of His hand; and if
it is now a sad world, where the groan of many a suffering animal goes up
to Him who hears the ravens when they cry--whose fault is it?

Did you ever think how kind we ought to be to the creatures which, innocent
themselves, have shared the sorrow brought into the world by man's
disobedience? I heard someone say the other day, "It is terrible to see
animals suffer: to see cattle overdriven, and sheep dying for want of
water, and defenceless creatures cruelly used. But when I see any of these
things, I have to feel--_I_ am to blame for that."

When I asked my scholars, "What is the meaning of _abundantly_?" Sharley
said, "It means enough and over."

Do you like her answer?

As the sea everywhere, even down in those depths where the sun's light
cannot pierce through the masses of water, is peopled by millions of
creatures--every drop of water, as we might say, _alive_ with life--I
thought it a good one. A great poet has spoken of the "multitudinous seas,"
but whether this was in allusion to their wealth of life, or to their
myriad waves, I do not know. Certainly in his time very little was known
about the dwellers in the deep, deep sea, compared with what we may learn
in the present day, when the sounding-line has reached the bottom of
the Atlantic, and actually brought up some of the clay that forms its
floor--clay which is made up of the skeletons of myriads of creatures. It
was once thought that no life could exist in the ocean-depths, but we now
know that life is everywhere--in air and water, upon the earth and within
it, in the lowest depths of the sea, and on the highest mountain peaks, in
hot and cold climates, and in the bodies of animals: all around us--earth,
air, and water--teems with life.

Now let us read once more the simple words which tell us all we can really
know about what is so wonderful: "And God said, Let the waters bring
forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life" (or, as it may be
translated, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living souls").

We will not read farther to-day, as I want to tell you in this chapter
something about life in what are called its lower forms, and we shall
find that wherever we may look, every creature is perfect in itself, and
perfectly suited to the life appointed to it by its Creator, and the home
where He has placed it.

My children had learnt something about the two great divisions of animals,
those which belong to the great Backboned Family and those which have no
backbone. It is of the latter that we shall speak today. You know that a
fish has a backbone, and that it is beautifully formed, for you have often
seen it; but perhaps you have not noticed that a lobster, though called one
of the shell-fish, is quite unlike the true Fishes: its skeleton is not
inside, but outside; there are no bones within, but all the soft parts are
inside, and the hard parts outside; while the body of a fish is formed on
just the opposite plan. The fish is called a _Vertebrate_ animal, because
it has a backbone, made up of numbers of separate bones called vertebras.
Some of us know that this word comes from the Latin, and means _that which
turns_, because these many small bones are so beautifully jointed together
as to be all perfectly moveable, so that the long bone which they form is
very flexible. Some snakes have more than three hundred of these vertebrae,
and you know how they can coil and twist their glittering length.

The marks of a Vertebrate animal are very easy to remember.

It must have this wonderfully jointed backbone, and also what is called the
skeleton, which is a framework of bone.

A spinal cord (from which this division of animals is sometimes called the
"Chordate").

Four limbs, and red blood.

In these respects all the animals which belong to this division are alike,
though in general appearance they may be as unlike each other as a horse is
unlike a bird, or a crocodile unlike a herring.

Few things in nature are more wonderful than the way in which this
Vertebrate plan has been fitted to animals differing from each other in all
other respects.

Now let us look at the marks of an Invertebrate or Inchordate animal.

It has _no backbone_, and instead of a bony framework _within_, to support
the soft parts of its body, it generally has a hard shell, or thickened
skin _outside_, to protect the softer inner parts.

It has _no red blood_.

Now, just as plants have been arranged in different classes, so animals are
classified according to the various plans upon which they have been
formed. So, besides the two great divisions of the Vertebrates and the
Invertebrates, the latter have been classed as--

(a) _Radiata_, or Rayed Animals--those whose parts all radiate from a
common centre--such as the starfish, red-coral, sea-anemone.

(b) _Mollusca_, or Soft-bodied Animals, protected by shells--such as
snails, oysters, limpets. (The members of this family are numerous indeed).

(c) _Annulosa_, or Ringed Animals--those whose bodies are composed of many
parts, jointed together--such as crabs, spiders, bees, ants, centipedes,
shrimps, and many more; for this great family has relations among all the
insect tribes.

It is very beautiful to see that God has formed His creatures on such
different plans, and though we shall be able to say very little about them,
I hope you will by-and-by study Natural History, and learn more and more
of His care in fitting each for the life it has to live. But remember that
all these types of animals, the Radiates, Molluscs, Articulates (as the
members of the "ringed" family are sometimes sailed), existed in the most
ancient times: they lived side by side, as it were, and were not, as some
philosophers would have us believe, derived from each other. Each was
"after its kind," and each species remains; animals may alter from changes
in their way of life, but there is no passing from one _kind_ to another.

Now I think you will be interested to hear that in the Stone Book, some
of the most ancient "letters" are formed from creatures belonging to the
Invertebrate Group. We were speaking just now of the white clay brought up
from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean by the sounding line. The microscope
shows that it consists of the imperishable part of creatures, tinier than
any you can imagine, which had the power when living of extracting from the
sea-water--as I told you is the way of the corals--the lime which formed
their outer coat, or skeleton. These busy workers lived their little day,
and then as they died, the shell-like coverings sank to the bottom of the
sea, forming, as ages passed, thick beds of chalk, such as that of which
the white cliffs of Dover are built up.

Then, as the sounding-line searches still deeper ocean-depths, it brings up
a red clay, and this again is shown by the microscope to be composed partly
of very minute creatures of a reddish colour, which live near the surface
of the ocean, but when they die sink to the bottom.

Sponges, too, which form the home of great numbers of little radiates, grow
upon the ocean floor or near the bottom of the sea; their tiny tenants,
like minute cells, living upon still smaller creatures contained in the
water which is held by the sponge.

And we are told that in some places the bottom of the sea is strewn with
star-fishes and their relations, some of them very beautiful in form and
colour, but all formed on the same plan of a central plate, from which five
arms or fingers radiate.

Do we not better understand that the waters did indeed "swarm with swarms"
when we learn even a little about these living creatures, many of them
so small that we should not be aware of their existence if we had no
microscope to reveal to us their countless myriads?

The Mollusca form a very large group of Invertebrate animals; they live
on land as well as in the water, but the aquatic species are much more
numerous than the terrestrial, and the deep-sea dredgings are constantly
bringing to light new forms. Some of the shells which protect their soft
bodies, and are formed by the animals themselves, are marvels of beauty,
and many of them are secured from injury by a waterproof coating. A number
of extinct animals, such as Ammonites and Belemnites, belong to this
group--their shells may be seen in any good museum; those of the
Belemnites, as their name implies, are shaped like a dart; those of the
Ammonites, like that of the beautiful Nautilus of our times; but the
fisherfolk of Whitby, where they are found in numbers, say they are "snakes
turned to stone."

But as we have been speaking so much of sea-creatures, I think we will
now leave the oysters, cockles, mussels, and razor-fish, and choose the
familiar garden-snail as our specimen of the Mollusca, or Soft-bodied
Family. I fancy you need no introduction to that snug little householder.
Often, however, as you have touched his soft horns, you possibly do not
know that the very house in which you first made his acquaintance has been
his habitation ever since; for young snails come from the egg with the
shell upon their backs, and they never quit that first house for a larger
one, for as they grow, their shell-house grows too. Look at this empty
snail shell, and say whether God has not given a beautiful coat of mail to
protect a creature without a bone in its body, and so sensitive that

"Give but his horns the slightest touch,
His self-collecting power is such,
He shrinks into his house, with much
Displeasure."

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