ordered it and ate it. I was so pleased with the melon that I asked the
waiter to dry some of the seeds that I might take them home and plant
them in my garden. That night a thought came into my mind--I would use
that watermelon as an illustration. So, the next morning when I reached
Chicago, I had enough seeds weighed to learn that it would take about
five thousand watermelon seeds to weigh a pound, and I estimated that
the watermelon weighed about forty pounds. Then I applied mathematics to
the watermelon. A few weeks before some one, I knew not who, had planted
a little watermelon seed in the ground. Under the influence of sunshine
and shower that little seed had taken off its coat and gone to work; it
had gathered from somewhere two hundred thousand times its own weight,
and forced that enormous weight through a tiny stem and built a
watermelon. On the outside it had put a covering of green, within that
a rind of white and within the white a core of red, and then it had
scattered through the red core little seeds, each one capable of doing
the same work over again. What architect drew the plan? Where did that
little watermelon seed get its tremendous strength? Where did it find
its flavouring extract and its colouring matter? How did it build a
watermelon? Until you can explain a watermelon, do not be too sure that
you can set limits to the power of the Almighty, or tell just what He
would do, or how He would do it. The most learned man in the world
cannot _explain_ a watermelon, but the most ignorant man can _eat_ a
watermelon, and enjoy it. God has given us the things that we need, and
He has given us the knowledge necessary to use those things: the truth
that He has revealed to us is infinitely more important for our welfare
than it would be to understand the mysteries that He has seen fit
to conceal from us. So it is with religion. If you ask me whether I
understand everything in the Bible, I frankly answer, No. I understand
some things to-day that I did not understand ten years ago and, if I
live ten years longer, I trust that some things will be clear that are