Power. What does that word bring to your mind? I think of standing on the edge of an airfield and watching powerful little army jet planes streaking by so fast the eye can hardly follow them. Theirs is the power of speed. I think of the window-shaking roar of a huge plane, said to be the largest cargo plane yet built, as it thundered over our house. This is the power of capacity.

Yet there are other kinds of power. There is the destructive power of an explosive bomb. During World War II people were fascinated by the horrible power of the atomic bomb that destroyed thousands of lives in Hiroshima in a matter of seconds. Here was terrible, death-dealing power.

Yet the hydrogen bomb developed since then has much greater power, a power that mankind has not yet dared to use for destructive purposes, it is so great. It can be put to work, say the scientists, for practical purposes. In a test explosion on the Nevada desert an H-bomb was buried 635 feet down in the sand, then detonated. After the dust of the explosion had settled, a crater 320 feet deep and 1,280 feet wide was found. With such a force, such projects as the building of canals could be accomplished in much less time than by conventional methods. It took almost twenty years to construct the Panama Canal, and yet it is estimated that by the H-bomb method the job could now be done in five. Thus would destructive power be put to a good use.

The jet plane, the atom bomb, and the H-bomb are powerful machines created by man out of elements put here by God. All these things have been used to destroy, but now research is going on to find ways to use these powers that will be of benefit to mankind.

Our verse today says that "Power belongeth unto God." When that power is misused suffering is the consequence. But our memory verse reveals that in addition to His power God "also" has "mercy." Mankind has not always shown much mercy in his perverse use of God's good gifts. He has used them instead to shower death and destruction upon his so-called enemies; he has used them selfishly.

But the Bible shows us how God mixes mercy with His destructive power. When it became necessary to destroy the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness, God heard the plea of His faithful servant, Abraham, and He mercifully saved reluctant Lot and his family.

God used His power to destroy the antediluvian world, but He laid a plan whereby righteous Noah and his family might be preserved. And when the time comes that this earth will have to be completely destroyed because of man's sins, God will show His mercy in making a way of escape for His faithful people.