Life Supreme — Page 91
94. LIFE SUPREME attributing to them acts of drunkenness, adultery, and murder. It is utterly absurd to suppose that debauchers and criminals can inspire people to righteousness. Even an ordinary preacher would be ostracised by his community were he found engaged in less serious transgressions. Thank God for His Word, the Holy Quran, which has exculpated the prophets from the heinous charges heaped upon them in the Bible. . Each planet travels at a different speed according to the distance it is from the sun. The rule is that the nearer a planet is to the sun, the faster it travels. Similarly the nearer a person is to God, the faster he progresses spiritually. . METEORS. High up in space there are billions of meteors speeding around the sun. They have been described as the rubble and dust of the universe. The majority of them weigh no more than a grain of sand though some are considerably larger. Meteors are continually entering the earth's atmosphere from outer space; but no sooner do they enter than they burn up. The larger ones are often seen burning brilliantly as they fall towards the earth. What is generally called a shooting star is a meteor burning up as it flashes through the atmosphere. There is no such thing as a shooting star. It is a misnomer. Now and again large meteors reach the earth and they are distinguished as meteorites. Thousands of years ago a large meteor struck the Arizona desert leaving a crater 4,000 feet in diameter and several hundred feet in depth. The year of the Promised Messiah, 1908, was marked by the fall of a large meteor in Siberia: "A meteorite probably weighing hundreds of tons struck the earth in the wilderness of Siberia (1908). This area was examined by a scientific expedition in 1928. The scientists reported that the tremendous heat of the meteorite had scorched and killed trees and other plant life for 30 miles around it. " (World Book Encyclopedia). The billions of small meteors may be taken to symbolise the human race. Every time we see a falling meteor speeding across the heavens in its fiery death throes we are reminded how easily man may fall from divine Grace. Let it bring to mind the necessity of our being ever watchful over our condition so that we may not also fall. . None can afford to be complacent for even the mighty fall sometimes;