MAN'S WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 20 May 1913, Page 6

MAN'S WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENTS.

THE MAKYKLS OK THIO CAXA'L—intkllkct at work—stfa 11. KLI'X r ra ICJTY, MACII]NKLIY, TMB SLA V I'iS OK THIO XIOW (kll)KU —:»L\X, THK KING OF I'iAiiTll, TO »K RKIiXSTVCKD— HiS HICOOYBKY FROM SIX AXI) DKATIi •GIiAH.AX'i'KKi) AT ('ALVA KY.

(Published by Arrangement.)

l':vt'.ani.ii-( olon, February 23rd. — Pji :>;«)• hussfll •nanilYvsted a keen interest in tiiio g;ivat Pan :tna ('•anal work which is speeding to completion. ,H» Look for bis text Psalm viii., -I, "What ifc Alan?" He rehearsed human engineering of the past—ilu'i Tower ol' Haluil, the great city of Babylon, tli'. 1 Great, Pyramid of Egypt, I'tiii of scientific accuracy and symbolic signs of Heavenly things. Sojos Temple and Herod's, the Ca-iiiio-dnil of St. Peter ao Koine, and other great cathedrals, each 'wonderfni .in i;t.s way.' were referred to as (samples of man's skill in the past. All. he dechred, glorify -nan's intellectual power, intelligence, and acumen, ii.>t Irs.s tihnn do some of the •. legal statutes of tlie past—the Mosaic Law, the Laws of Lycnrgus, etc. All of these achievements of the past refute' the thought that our forefathers were monkeys or only a step or two in advance of tint condition. Within the last half-eiMiturv, human intelligence seems to have hounded forward in a most remarkable manner. Everyone is amazed ! The telegraph, illie telephone, the wireless, steam power, electric power and light have given talents a wider scope than ever before was known. At the same time, they have forwarded tho .art of printing, wihich, in turn, has stimulated! the education of the masses. And these, in turn, have carried intfilligenco and intellectual competition into every corner of the world. Intelligence has -increased the demand, 'Utilised inventions, and lis making the world fabulously rich. Million's everywhere are on the alert to assoi'Sftie them,selves with the new things'-and with the financial prosperity Which they are .wringing.

THE CAiXiA L n,T/I"STI{ATI'S ALL THIS. Our modern* cities, with their multiplied conveiiiV.fJC'e.s, partial structures, #nd office buildings' more than forty storeys liiigh are fret'Ti reminders of our tcxi. is M.an. Ouj- tunru-l', otfi- si'bways, under cities, and all the vonicwe* they stand for are well IcuJatccf to amaze u>s.«* As we look ab- n l'6 lls realise that these things e<»n»? suddenly- within fifty years, wtf re " peat, ."What is Man " How wonderful is the intelligence w'hich has been a-ble to grapple with nature, its minerals, iits laws, etc., and to master tluem! Is not man a great king dn all the earth? Nowhere in the world is this power of man to deal with earthly conditions more strikingly manifest tha.n hero on this Canal one. We have llxore an ulluirt,ration of mountain-moving faith. Six tons of Trojan powder exploded at one instant, crumbling an entire pile, is certainly a wonderful record. Those great steam shovels whidh with so gruit rapidity move those enormous masses of loosened earth are marvellous.

If only a few yeairs ago someone had itiold lis that a man, by moving a lever, could lift six tons of earth, transport it an eiigjhth of an miila, and load i|t upon cars, all in three minutes or fess, we would have thought him insane. Less tlhan a century ago we thought our system of State canals wonderful, the solution of the traffic problem; but ilOVf they are as. toys an comparison with this immense canal and .its tremendous gates. .Who would have believed fi short time ago, tihat an eighty-foot gate weighing 600 tons would have been practicable or possible ?

TELLS OF .MESSIAH'S DAYS. Present achievements outrank those of the past, tyot so rrmcfy in skiM as in opportunity Ancient masonry found to the south of us herelike that in the Great Pyramid of "Egypt, tells of a skill wiith whicl? we cannot yet complete, in that great stones were so truly squared and so acoui*)tp;lv laid as to make it difficult to 'find the orevices between them. We credit our great progress to God. His time has come for lifting the ven'J of ignorance .and sunerstition. He lias been gradually favouring 'the increase of knowledge along every line. We to-day are merely taking advantage of this more extended knowledge, carried into all

tho homos and offices by means of steam printing-p. e.sse.s, railways, steamships, post;! service, etc.. Instead, thorefoKc, of trying to belitlie our ancestors, let us confess thai we Iwivo drawn and uxo still drawing from them deep inspiration along various lines, not only through i:!Bible -and Shakespeare, bat ibi other writings. Let lis accredit our progress, not to evolution, but to tiho more retsonable proj)osition that God's time '.has wrae to give us the blessings promised in the Scriptures—the ble.-:sin.g whioh are heralding IMessiah'-s Kingdom of peace on earth, "good-will towa.rd mem." We have waited, for it. prayet) lor it, and sung a limit it for cenuiiries. And mnv that it is >ijxh+ at the door, now that we are beginning to enjoy its blessings, now that the dawning of tlr: 1 Xe.v Day is visible on every hand, let us make no mistake. While .learning from ea.-h oth.'M*. let us not forget to be taught of God, reading .in the signs of the times the fulfilment of tho predictions of forty centuries.

WHAT WILL MAX BKCOMS'Vr Our tejit asks, "Wihat is mm that God is mindful of him?" intimating what wo all acknowledge—that man is poor, weak, imperfect, fallen, unworthy of his Creator's favour and blessing. Ho is ,not deser, ii.g of eternal torment, but deserving of tho Divine sentence, "Dying, thou shalt die," because of degradation through the fall. I

Hut -the selection of the Elect to bo associates with Messiah in bis glorious Kingdom is only -the beginning of God's favour towards -nankind. Tho Fleet will -soon be completed. Then i.ha-t Kingdom will be established by , Divine Power in authority and dominion, not to crush mankind, but for human iiplift out of sin and degradation, ignorance and superstition, back to the full image and likeness to God. It is this great work that we see beginning. We are living in what the Bible terms, "The day of God's preparation." While finishing the gathering of tho Elect, His Providence has begun to prepare the world of mankind for the Kingdom. Humanity will bo fully ready for tho Kingdom at the identical moment w'lien it shall be established : and the "desire of all nations shall come" (Haggai ii. 7). If fallen man, imbued -with sin and ■selfishness, can be influenced by knowledge and ambit-ion to accomplish wonders of our day. what will not be possible to the restored man, as .gradually ho re-attains the image and likeness of his Creator? The eyes of our understanding open widely, as we consider human possibilities, under those favourable conditions which God declares will obtain during t'he thousand years of Messiah's Kingdom, for which we pray, "Thy Kingdom come; Thy will Jbe clone on earth, <\4 it is 4o#e) in Heaven 1"