The Mighty Atom

It was whilst re-reading an old Victorian novel, published in the year 1896, penned by the very wise lady Marie Corelli, entitled “The Mighty Atom” that I came upon the word ‘chrysoprase’. On examining my dictionary, it revealed this to be a delicate shade of apple-green, gently highlighted by a golden hue. Apparently, any word beginning ‘chryso’ indicates gold, from the Greek ‘Khrusos’ and ‘prase’ is derived from the Greek for leek. In the same way that Cyprus alludes to copper – hence the Island of Cyprus being famed for the production of that metal. It is Cyprus where some have predicted, that the final conflict will commence.

The novel is basically a humorous critique of what was the fashionable trend of the time; evolutionary theory, promoted by the likes of Darwin, Freud and Marx, the three demons of that era. Her book is dedicated to: – “Those self-styled progressivists who by precept and example assist the infamous cause of Education without Religion and who by promoting the idea, borrowed from French atheism, of denying to the children in schools everywhere The Knowledge and Love of God as the true foundation of noble living; are guilty of a worse CRIME than MURDER”

Marie quotes in her book, from the words of Jesus in Matthew, chapter 18,”Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father.” Lionel, the little boy who cannot accept that the ‘atom’ is the creator of all, struggles against the diktats of his stern father who believes one hundred percent in the ‘Advance and Positivism of Pure Reason’ He has accordingly set Lionel a course of study based on the following edict – that only semi-barbarians believed nowadays in anything divine or supernatural and that the intellectual classes fully understood that there was no God, and that the first cause of the universe was merely an Atom, productive of other atoms which moved in circles of fortuitous regularity, shaping worlds indifferently, and without any Mind-force whatever behind the visible Matter. And that only the poor and feeble-minded still appealed to God as ‘our Father’, and that Jesus was merely a socialist workman.

Shades of exactly the same arrogant attitudes of those who support the European Union as the perfect soulless society.

We must remember just how prevalent and overpowering was this force of materialism in the latter half of the 19th Century. Despite all the blessings that Almighty God had brought to the British nation, they turned their back on Him and worshipped those other gods (of atheistic science). Is it any wonder that God allowed a Great War to utterly destroy the overarching and seditious complacency that wrought havoc in the high towers of British and European learning?

The works of the 19m century rebels have built a hardened edifice of cynicism in the minds and hearts of men and women. And encouraged immoral behaviour, for if there are no absolutes, it does not matter what we do or who we injure. But we are instructed to “look up for our Redemption draweth nigh”, and we may be assured that the more we trust the Lord God, the more we shall be free from fear, for fear is the product of human desire and the reward for submission to human desire. How many times have we been told that the Lord God is in control of everything, and that there is no end to His goodness and willingness to impart His Gifts to us. Were the children of Israel abandoned in Sinai. Of course not. And we are not abandoned now either.

Do not be caught up in the anxiety of this world, for the world loves to make us so. So many are employed to treat you to blood-curding scenarios, where all hope is lost. But even in the darkest moments this is never so. The crises of today will pass, must pass, and the end is in sight. We have been commanded to endure to the end, and to put our whole trust in God. The psalmist says in Psalm 46 – “God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. Selah.