MASTERY BY INTELLIGENCE
The devil can always be beaten if we go about it seriously:
Morphy, the American chess-player, looking
at the picture of a youth playing chess
with Satan, and, apparently, doomed to inevitable
defeat, studied the position, called
for chessmen and board in reality, and by
one move won the hypothetical game.
(1985)
Mastery Necessary to Progress—See Conquest by Man.
MASTERY OF CIRCUMSTANCES
One of Mr. Ingersoll's most eloquent chapters
is on "Man as an Automaton," played
upon by the blind forces of nature. A clot
in the brain explains Benedict Arnold's
treason. A foul taint in the arteries that is
like a fungus luring a merchant ship on the
rocks. Penury and vicious environment fill
our jails and must fill them. But the argument
was born of a great man's beautiful
sympathy for his fellow sufferers. It did
not issue from logic or nature or events.
Indeed, all life and daily experience stood
up and shouted against his affirmation.
What! Man a puppet with whom nature
plays an endless game of battledore and
shuttlecock! Man a victim of heredity and
environment! Some years ago I met a successful
merchant, living in a beautiful house
on one of the best avenues in his great city.
His mother was an evil woman, his father
a river thief, he was kicked around the river
front until he was eight, slept in the loft of
a livery stable until he was nine, killed a man
when he was ten, taken home by one of the
participants in the trial, became the partner
of his benefactor and achieved universal
recognition and honor.—N. D. Hillis.
(1986)
See College or Experience.
MASTERY OF NATURE
Until a generation ago our great lakes of
the north were closed with the ice, which
stopt all navigation until the thaw of the
spring came. Now there are ice-boats, made
of steel with powerful engines, that not only
cut paths for themselves and the heavy
freight which they carry, but also make a
path for less powerful craft. They pound
their way through the ice-fields, and thus
make all-the-year-round navigation possible.
The ports of northern Europe used to be
locked with ice until these great ice-breaking
ships were brought into use. There is nothing
short of an iceberg which they can not
overcome. Our lakes do not have bergs, of
course, and hence these great ice-cutting
ships have a marvelous mastery over the
obstacles.
The mastery of the ice-fields by the
hardy men and powerful ships of the
north is another illustration of human
genius and sovereignty. (Text.)
(1987)
MATERIAL FOR A GREAT LIFE
Do not try to do a great thing; you may
waste all your life waiting for the opportunity
which may never come. To be content
to be a fountain in the midst of a wild
valley of stones, nourishing a few lichens and
wild flowers or now and again a thirsty
sheep; and to do this always and not for
the praise of man, but for the sake of God—this
makes a great life.—F. B. Meyer.
(1988)
Material, The, and the Spiritual—See Mystery in Religion.
MATERIALISM INADEQUATE
A machine can tell us something about its maker, but it can not produce another machine. The gospel of materialism is inadequate to explain the world.
"Give me matter," said Kant, "and I will
explain the formation of a world; but give
me matter only, and I can not explain the
formation of a caterpillar."
The glory of the Creator has not
descended to man and it will not. Matter,
in all its inertia and helplessness
but adds to the angelic refrain, "Worship
God."
(1989)
MATERNAL, GOD'S LOVE
The pagan Stoic poet, Cleanthes, who flourished B.C. 260, would seem to have caught a glimpse of the maternal quality of God. One of his prayers is:
Merciful mother! bestow favor upon me,
thy poor worshiper, whatever evil I may be
